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From: toby@apple.UUCP (Toby Farrand)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Mac prices
Message-ID: <6488@apple.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 16-Oct-87 16:02:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: apple.6488
Posted: Fri Oct 16 16:02:47 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 18-Oct-87 02:12:02 EDT
References: <457@aucs.UUCP>
Reply-To: toby@apple.UUCP (Toby Farrand)
Distribution: na
Organization: Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, USA
Lines: 48

In article <457@aucs.UUCP> paul@aucs.UUCP (Paul Steele) writes:
>I have a beef with Apple (although I doubt that they'll really care). I
>work in a university computer center and support the various microcomputers
>on campus.  We have both PC's and Mac's on campus, but certainly a lot more
>PC's in total.  One of the main reasons for the approximate 5 to 1 quantity
>difference between PC's and Mac's is the ridiculously high price of Apple
>products, in particular the Mac SE.
>
>When people ask me for recommendations on what type of computer they want
>to buy, I usually say it depends on how much they want to spend.  I like
>recommending systems with 1 floppy and 20 Megs of hard disk storage mainly
>because software these days just doesn't work well in dual floppy environments
>(on both PC's and Mac's).
>
>The typical price of a 640K, 20Meg PC-compatible here in Canada is around
>$1500 (and this often includes a cheap dot-matrix printer).  Both Tandy
>and Epson have had such offers over the summer.  For most students, $1500
>is quite affordable.  Then I tell them how much an equivalent Macintosh
>system would cost.  A Mac SE with 20Meg hard disk lists at $6150.  Of
>course, they'll need a printer as well:  another $1045.  And they'll need
>a printer cable: another $50.  After adding tax, the final results are:
>
>           PC-clone:   $1650.
>           MAC SE:     $7970.
>           MAC Plus:   $7518.  (Inlude's Apple's HD20SC)
>
>Admittedly, the Mac SE/Plus might be slightly better quality.  And because 
>of a good selection of software, the Mac might be able to do a few things
>the PC can't without adding extras.  But is it really worth 5 times as
>much as a typical PC-clone?  I don't think anybody on this net, except
>perhaps Apple, would think so.   If you were a student, which system would
>you most likely end up with?
>
>Some people will probably complain that I'm comparing apples to oranges,
>and to a certain extent I probably am. But what I'm looking at here are
>two systems which will both do a similar job.  I'd like to hear people's
>comments on this matter.  Just for the record, I think a Mac SE should cost
>about $1800, with the hard disk version going for around $2500.  The printer
>is worth about $500.  If Apple would adopt such a pricing policy, I think
>they would see a significant increase of Mac sales to end-users, not just
>educators and researchers who can get significant discounts.  But maybe
>Apple isn't interested in us end-users?  Comments?
>
>
>Paul H. Steele      USENET: {uunet|watmath|utai|garfield}!dalcs!aucs!Paul
>Acadia University   BITNET: Paul@Acadia
>Wolfville, NS
>CANADA  B0P 1X0     (902) 542-2201x587