In Defense of the Apple Tax
The truth will set you free. Or not. It’s entirely up to you
I broke my rule again. I knew before I wrote it that a story about how expensive Macs are compared to PCs was going to generate negative responses. I didn’t write it for that reason. If anything, that fact almost kept me from writing the story (I actively try to avoid conflict). But I was genuinely shocked when a bought a highly capable Linux workstation for $795.43 a few weeks after buying an M2 Pro Mac mini for $2,344.68. So I wrote about it.
As much as I don’t like quarreling, responding to the comments from that prior story gives me a chance to clarify any points I did a poor job of explaining (and cover some new ground as well). So here we go.
The Price Difference
You bought an open-box computer? And it was cheaper than a new Mac?
Okay then.
Great snark that obliterates my point. Except for the fact that my point wasn’t that I was surprised that buying an open-box Dell from MicroCenter was less expensive than buying a Mac mini from Apple. I was surprised that it was $1,549.25 less expensive.
Let’s take Apple out of the equation. The asking price range for a new Lexus ES 350 is $43,140 — $55,507. If you told me I could get a…
