Microsoft talks up cost of the ‘Apple Tax’
Apple products are expensive. This is a fact of life that we all know and those who buy Apple products accept for some strange reason. Microsoft has seemingly had enough of kowtowing round the issue and has come out and said it loud and proud. Its latest effort to get people listening of talk of a so-called ‘Apple Tax’.
Microsoft has gone from having an official policy of never mentioning its competitors by name to not only naming them but continually shaming them too. It all started last month when Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke about people having “to pay $500 more for a logo” when they buy an Apple product. And then it got a lot more bitter and intense.
We’ve already had the first two in a series of new ‘Laptop Hunters’ adverts which sees Microsoft offering to buy people the computer of their choice. The ads are really just an excuse to talk up Windows-based computers and kick Apple in the head. But they work, and make it clear how much of a gap there is between the two in terms of consumer costs.
The stakes have now been raised once again, this time in the form of a Microsoft-sponsored white paper (PDF link) written by analyst Roger Kay. He has dedicated ten pages of research findings to conclude that people who choose a Mac are paying what amounts to an ‘Apple Tax’. For a family who chooses to buy two Apple computers, this sum comes to $3,367 over five years.
There is an obvious Microsoft bias in the report and the point that buying a Mac is more for reasons of being cool is labored rather too often. There are also a few misplaced product comparisons, submissions, and additions which all add up to make the Apple Tax figure higher than it should be. CNET has a fine rundown of the arguable points.
But these don’t really matter at the end of the day. Even erring on the side of caution and giving Apple the benefit of the doubt, there is still a huge difference between what the fictional family would have to pay to be Mac users over Windows users. Maybe Microsoft is pushing a point it doesn’t really need to push.
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April 10th, 2009
I can agree this one is moronic. No doubt you pay more for Apple hardware. Doesn’t mean it can’t be worth it depending on the purpose. After that, anybody who thinks something like this is useful has no business using a computer. What if I use the MS kickback to get cheaper hardware and put Linux on it, which is exactly what I do anyway?
I forget, Microsoft makes computers so it’s a clear win for them. My bad.