Vista Computers Half the Cost of Macs on Average

Status
Not open for further replies.
gxsaurav

gxsaurav

You gave been GXified
Source

Amid the rush to the ultra-low end bargain PC market, its amazing how cheap a fuller functional Vista machine is

Many people are eying the ultra-portable bargain notebook market thanks to up-and-comers like Lenovo's IdeaPad S10 and the MSI Wind. Chipmakers like Intel and VIA are struggling to keep up with demand for the bargain machines. However, lost amid the ruckus is an equally significant trend in slightly higher-end model pricing.
Going to Best Buy, Circuit City, or even Target; a plethora of machines from manufacturers like Dell and HP assault the eyes. Many of these Vista machines have impressive muscle for modest prices. Take HP -- the average sale price (ASP) of a notebook with 14.1-inch display, 2GHz processor, 4GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive is $699. That kind of machine can not only replace a desktop, but also meet most users’ multimedia needs and even handle some less graphically intensive gaming.

Interestingly, prices seem to have hit a sweet spot and are quite low, though not moving up or down. Stephen Baker, NPD's vice president of industry analysis, who yielded the HP ASP information had this to say of the trend, "We aren't seeing any particularly substantive moves down in price on the Windows side, either in desktops or notebooks."

While obviously it’s comparing apples and oranges, and the products appeal to different markets, it’s interesting to look at how Mac prices have changed versus PC prices. Macs have gone from an average price of $1,432 and $1,574, for desktops and laptops respectively in June '06 to $1,543 and $1,515 respectively in June '08. While much lower to start, PCs are now even lower in average sale price. The average PC notebook went from $877 to $700, while the average desktop dipped just barely from $559 to $550.

Vista PCs have reached a sweet point with pricing that is appealing not just to the high end crowd, but to the masses. And while prices are staying constant, hardware features are increasing, which is good for the consumer. As Mr. Baker puts it, "Of course there is feature creep—there always is."
Another trend along these lines is the push to support 64-bit Vista. While numbers are still small, HP is leading the way, and its strong sales are certainly making an impact in spreading 64-bit. DailyTech went into this trend in more detail. Mr. Baker alludes to this stating, "Forty-eight percent of June Windows notebooks are 3GB systems. But 4GB RAM Windows notebook systems are 11.6 percent of sales in June, up from nothing [at the] beginning of [the] year."

So what exactly do the latest NPD figures on Windows PCs show? It can be interpreted in many ways, but one major observation is that Windows PCs are clearly the champion at lower prices. It also shows that a full featured machine can be found for a very reasonable price. This is good news for many -- and even better news when you consider holiday sales may momentarily sink prices even further.
Click to expand...
 
MetalheadGautham

MetalheadGautham

AFK
self built computers with self customised distro half the cost of vista computers and double the performance. :D

But yes, the lowering of Vista Home Premium OEM license cost has had a HUGE impact on the cost of PCs. Formerly, its predecessor Windows XP MCE cost a bomb. But this time its the opposite. Its Vista Business which costs a bomb (when formerly XP Pro was mid range).

@gx_saurav: What was the cost of Vista Basic OEM ? And correct me if I am wrong, but I heard it can't play DirectX 10 games ???
 
OP
gxsaurav

gxsaurav

You gave been GXified
self built computers with self customised distro half the cost of vista computers and double the performance.
Click to expand...

Yup, but you have to do everything yourself. Not everyone wants to do things themselves.

@gx_saurav: What was the cost of Vista Basic OEM ? And correct me if I am wrong, but I heard it can't play DirectX 10 games ???
Click to expand...

Don't know, but it can play DX 10 games fine.
 
OP
gxsaurav

gxsaurav

You gave been GXified
MetalheadGautham said:
SURE ? But... I heard vista basic does not HAVE directX 10
Click to expand...

U got wrong information. DirectX 10 is included in all versions of Vista. Home basic only lacks Aero (DWM) & Media Center. (& some other things which should not matter on a low end hardware anyway)

So all those plans by my friend to assemble a cheap gaming rig went kaboom. ;-)
Click to expand...

Yeah, was it U who advised him to go for home basic & told him it lacks DX 10?
 
din

din

Tribal Boy
Prefer to stay away form these threads, but this sounds really funny :D

Comparing the PCs to Macs LOL.

Price of PC always goes down. That is a fact. And not everyone buy a mac. But why the part 'Vista Computer' ? ?

Another one - Linux computers at least 3500 Rupees less than Vista computers ;)
 
MetalheadGautham

MetalheadGautham

AFK
din said:
Prefer to stay away form these threads, but this sounds really funny :D

Comparing the PCs to Macs LOL.

Price of PC always goes down. That is a fact. And not everyone buy a mac. But why the part 'Vista Computer' ? ?

Another one - Linux computers at least 3500 Rupees less than Vista computers ;)
Click to expand...
Well, the fact always remains that PC+HorriblisedFreeBSD = Mac :p
Therefore, PC+Vista = Vista Computer :lol:
And, as far as I am concerned, PC+Linux = 1337 Workstation :D

But then again, this thread IS a bit wrong. Compare the MacBook basic to a similar performing Vista Premium notebook to see what I mean. Vista itself takes up lots of resources from the notebook, while mac uses minimal resources compared to vista on a macbook since apple has optimised their OS for their x86_64 environment. The difference in cost is still there, but definitely not as high as 50%, thanks to vista's own bloat. Perhaps the author compared the hardware configurations. If thats the case, he is terribly wrong.
 
Faun

Faun

Wahahaha~!
Staff member
gx_saurav said:
Lolz...really??? Workstation to run what??? GIMP, Blender, Eclipse IDE (damn slow). Do they even compare to Photoshop, 3ds Max & .net 2008
Click to expand...
*s269.photobucket.com/albums/jj44/visio159/Unismilies/55.png
Your posts are funny.

It takes a person's skill to do things. I haven't touched blender but for GIMP and Eclipse I can say that they are just awesome *s269.photobucket.com/albums/jj44/visio159/Unismilies/83.png
 
Last edited:
din

din

Tribal Boy
gx_saurav said:
GIMP, Blender, Eclipse IDE (damn slow). Do they even compare to Photoshop, 3ds Max & .net 2008
Click to expand...

You should apologize publicly (may be calling all the people in Delhi / Pune in a big parade ground :D) after watching this movie.

Being in the UI field, you are soooooo ignorant ? Sad, really sad.
 
chesss

chesss

mera kutch nahi ho sakta
But then again, this thread IS a bit wrong. Compare the MacBook basic to a similar performing Vista Premium notebook to see what I mean. Vista itself takes up lots of resources from the notebook, while mac uses minimal resources compared to vista on a macbook since apple has optimised their OS for their x86_64 environment. The difference in cost is still there, but definitely not as high as 50%, thanks to vista's own bloat. Perhaps the author compared the hardware configurations. If thats the case, he is terribly wrong.
Click to expand...

My Pc built on a budget of 7000 is fully capable of running vista premium . The minimum mac ( mini) costs 25000. Not to forget that my 7000 machine is a better performer than the low-end mac mini (in all probably) .
U may be right in the notebook department though..
 
C

chandru.in

In the zone
gx_saurav said:
Lolz...really??? Workstation to run what??? GIMP, Blender, Eclipse IDE (damn slow). Do they even compare to Photoshop, 3ds Max & .net 2008
Click to expand...
Eclipse is damn slow on Vista because it has its own libs which need to be loaded and it has little space left Vista hogs the remaining. VS will use libs from Vista itself so it is faster.

VS 2008 takes at least 10-13 seconds to start in my friends XP system at office (sorry our mgmt has not yet been brain-washed to move to Vista) which has Intel C2D and 2 GB RAM. If that is the case on a light OS like XP think of Vista. But Eclipse takes 4-5 seconds to start on my Ubuntu rig at home with AMD dual core and 2 GB RAM.

Take ur MVP hat for sometime and think beyond what MS wants the world to believe. :evil:
 
OP
gxsaurav

gxsaurav

You gave been GXified
Take ur MVP hat for sometime and think beyond what MS wants the world to believe. :evil:
Click to expand...

What does my MVP status has to do with anything here??. I just wrote an article about Vista PCs being half the cost of Mac & look where have u taken the discussion. Is this relevant to this thread....
 
Psychosocial

Psychosocial

Violent serenity.
stop warring :D:D

it takes only a PERSONAL OPINION to choose an OS, wether bad or good .........so stop fighting and let everyone do what they want :D

security and e-peace my frndz :)
 
VD17

VD17

Journeyman
The fact remains that the AVERAGE user will not be running 3ds Max on their computers (or the linux/mac equivalents). In which case, Gx's article makes quite a good point.

It can always be debated whether the cheaper Vista PC's are worth sacrificing one's peace of mind as opposed to using Mac's (this is just what I've heard; havent tried out mac myself but the typical windows flaws can get to people at times). But generally, the AVERAGE user wouldn't find the flaws a bigger factor than the huge difference in price.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom