Over the years many people have said to me that they would love a Mac but could never justify the price tag…
“too expensive for something that looks pretty and has a nice user interface, but is essentially just a posh PC”
Only last week a friend mentioned if he had lots of money he could maybe justify the purchase. This got me thinking… is the cost of a Mac overly expensive – have I wasted my money over the years?
I originally purchased my iMac back in November 2007 for £1183. That makes it approximately 46 months old and still going strong. I’m not sure of the current market value but Apple offer a recycling scheme whereby they buy back old computers. Going by their current price my iMac is worth £230. I’m pretty sure I could get more from this via Ebay, social networks or standing on the street corner waving a sign but for the sake of this example I’ll take the rock bottom price.
So What has it cost me?
£1183 (original cost) – £230 (resale price) = £953/ 46 months = £20.71 per month
Not bad! £20.71 a month to own an iMac which has provided more than enough computing power for the last four years – and that figure will drop for every month it continues to last. Is £20.71 a month a lot of money? I emailed my friend with the figures and asked him to put it in context with how much he spent on his mobile phone contract, his satellite channels or gym membership he doesn’t use.
Is it worth it?
I’m not suggesting Apple computers are cheap – they aren’t. I’m not suggesting you should go out and buy one – don’t. This is just a simple calculation to see what owning a Mac has cost me. If you factor in re-sale value and keep it for four years it suddenly doesn’t look such an expensive purchase as some people would lead you to believe.
I spend a lot of time on my computer, it’s pretty much always on streaming iTunes content, running inDesign, Photoshop, Skype, iOS Simulator etc so for me £20 a month is an excellent price for a brilliant piece of technology.
Good points well made [and I would agree that computers are inexpensive] but for completeness I think you also need to factor in any other expense you’ve incurred during your ownership: any OS upgrades? any CS Suite software? These have presumably all been necessary to allow you to use your Mac the way that you have over the last four years. I know the article isn’t focussed on Apple v PC but once these additionals are factored in then I think the differential will actually be even less.
Hi Peter. You are right the article isn’t focused on Mac vs PC otherwise it would have opened up the ‘usual debate’ which is always a dangerous topic
With regards to the cost of OS upgrades, this is where the Mac does very well. I have had two major upgrades costing me a total of £55.00. The cost of Pages, Keynote and Numbers (the equivalent to the Office Suite) is currently about £42.00. The CS Suite is the only expensive purchase – but the same on both Mac and PC.
Therefore if you were comparing the same specced PC equivalent machine and factored in the software they would be very similar in total cost.