Is Apple hardware cheaper in the long run?

[WatchTower]

Ok the first Mac you buy is expensive but when you look on auction sites you see people getting almost all their money back when they sell it on. I'm not joking I'd say people almost get 80% of their money back. This is why I thought for what money I'd save on a year or two old MBP I may as well buy a new one. (Which I did. Left me skint for ages but I'm glad I have it now.)

Which means if I upgrade say every couple of years and new Mac will only cost me a couple of hundred quid. With this in mind when people say Macs are too expensive I think they're not looking at the bigger picture. Now getting a new Mac every couple of years for the price of a netbook seems like a good deal to me.

Am I right. I don't mind being called an idiot if I'm wrong. lol

 

[Darryn]

Im sure switching to Mac saved me money also, I bought a 1st gen Intel Macpro (2x Dual 2.66) at release (my first Mac) after years of Windows PC permanent upgrades... Im still running the Machine and it can handle everything i throw at it perfectly well. Im sure if i hadnt switched id have bought a Windows PC and changed pretty much every single part, bar the case, several times over by now.

Also, iirc i paid ~£2000 for the machine and there is one on Ebay right now for £1655, so less than £100 depreciation, pretty cheap imo.

 

[craptakular]

I bought off the MM a second hand imac in marhc. It's a 2.4 dual core 4gb ram 24". Does everything I need very easily.

Only cost me £525.

You can pay as much as you want for apple

 

[Dr House]

I found that when I used normal laptops I felt the need to get a new one every year however I seem to only want to change the apple every 3 years.

Also the apple seems to have a good resale value but my old IBMs are worth nothing so overall since moving to the air I think I may have saved money

 

[iraiguana]

I would say you will get more back, but you are spending more to begin with. You only get top money back if you manage to maintain very good condition of the macine, which can be tricky if you are actually using your laptop out and about all the time.

My three year old MBP is starting to show a few signs of wear and tear now, but nothing which affects its performance and I will probably be using it for another year still!

I used to upgrade my PC every 6-9 months and so from that stand point I probably saved twice what this thing cost easily from no longer trying to keep it on the cutting edge.

 

[Scythe]

I bought off the MM a second hand imac in marhc. It's a 2.4 dual core 4gb ram 24". Does everything I need very easily.

Only cost me £525.

You can pay as much as you want for apple

That's a cracking price! Wouldn't mind paying that at all really.

 

[mikeyp123]

I can see already that I will be able to use this MBP for at least another 2 years, depending on when I get the technology upgrade itch. But other than that, it seems solid and beautiful.

 

[8t10]

Just seen my Mac for £649 for auction. I bought it for £850 in 2009. And mine is in better condition

Thinking about it, I wouldn't mind an upgrade for £200 but I really don't need one.

 

[J1234]

I sold my first ever Mac for a loss of £40 after owning it for over a year.

They keep their value very well.

 

[Nocky24]

Have to disagree to an extent here. I bought my 2010 mbp through HE for £1500 odd last year, however the resale is now around £1000 from what I've seen on eBay the past few months, which is quite a loss in my opinion. Having said that, I haven't taken into account the 3 year hardware cover, which may add a few pounds.

 

[IronWarrior]

If you upgrading every year or every 6 or so months, then you are buying the wrong parts all the damn time and doing it wrong.

 

[DELETED_83755]

Macs are in much higher demand than equivalent PC's. There are consistently better built and have a good warranty attached to them so improves buyer confidence in the second hand market.

Saying that, a decent windows computer should last a good while and as as long as apple hardware. Due to the abundance and the variability as the frequency of updates as well as saturation of the market, people much rather buy new.

 

[Faustus]

If you upgrading every year or every 6 or so months, then you are buying the wrong parts all the damn time and doing it wrong.

Absolutely correct. I was going to write something very similar. What difference does it make whether it's a Mac or Windows as to the length of time one keeps it - totally baffled. Our Dell Laptop is now around seven years old running Windows 7. There is a world of difference in the words "want" and "need".

 

[ironman]

I tend to find they work out cheaper because they last a lot longer. For example the common parts that fail for most pc laptops are the charger/adapters etc. The support and reliability you get with Macs are certainly worth the price.

 

[Mr Spew]

Bought a Pro via HE, resold it for the same price I paid £1250. Guy even came to collect it which was handy! Used it for about a year.

 

[bigredshark]

I think it'll vary with your habits and usage, certainly I find that my macbook pro's have lasted 50% or more longer on average than my windows laptops. When I say lasted longer I mean 'before I chose to replace it' rather than 'before they broke'. I just didn't really feel the need to replace the Mac's as much, possibly because my software didn't change much on OSX.

I think it's saved me money to be honest, although the upfront costs are big, my computing has become a utility in between those purchases. I don't upgrade parts, I don't buy accessories much like I did when I had a PC.

 

[keogh]

I bought a Mac Pro 8-core in 2009 (I think) for £1750, chucked the RAM up from 2GB to 6GB (third party ram so cheap as chips) and I sold the Mac Pro over a year later for £1800 on ebay. So not incl the RAM, I made money on it after a years use (every day use I might add as well).

NEVER got anything close to that with the many PC's I have sold!

 

[Da[]San]

Just purchased my first MacBook in the last month. Got a 2010 Core i5 for £750 via a work collegue who was upgrading to a new model. I figure if i sold it now i could probably make some profit on it via ebay, especially as it came with 3 year Applecare.Will deffo keep for a good few years, depending on what happens with osX certainlly looking fwd to using Lion.

 

[peter_hutson]

You also need to factor in the cost of your time. I'm very out of date with regards to windows, so this may not apply quite so much if at all anymore. My last PC ran XP, generally this worked okay, but still required a fair bit of maintenance. The often quoted "it just works" is very true of macs, the time saved not having to mess around getting things done, is worth a considerable premium to me. I just don't have the time anymore to tinker with my computer, when I want to do something I want it to work instantly.

 

[danielanthony]

Unfortunately Mac's don't have the flexibility of PC's, think USB3 and Blu-ray as examples