Vista Computers Half the Cost of Macs on Average

[gxsaurav]

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.

[MetalheadGautham]

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

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 ???

[gxsaurav]

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

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 ???

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

[MetalheadGautham]

Originally Posted by gx_saurav

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

SURE ? But... I heard vista basic does not HAVE directX 10
So all those plans by my friend to assemble a cheap gaming rig went kaboom.

[gxsaurav]

Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

SURE ? But... I heard vista basic does not HAVE directX 10

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.

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

[din]

Prefer to stay away form these threads, but this sounds really funny

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

[amitava82]

So, whats new?

[IronManForever]

^^ Rofl :d

[MetalheadGautham]

Originally Posted by din

Prefer to stay away form these threads, but this sounds really funny

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

Well, the fact always remains that PC+HorriblisedFreeBSD = Mac
Therefore, PC+Vista = Vista Computer
And, as far as I am concerned, PC+Linux = 1337 Workstation

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.

[gxsaurav]

Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

And, as far as I am concerned, PC+Linux = 1337 Workstation

Lolz...really??? Workstation to run what??? GIMP, Blender, Eclipse IDE (damn slow). Do they even compare to Photoshop, 3ds Max & .net 2008

[MetalheadGautham]

Originally Posted by gx_saurav

Lolz...really??? Workstation to run what??? GIMP, Blender, Eclipse IDE (damn slow). Do they even compare to Photoshop, 3ds Max & .net 2008

Being ignorant always helps you doesn't it ? Your posts look less dumb that way.

[Faun]

Originally Posted by gx_saurav

Lolz...really??? Workstation to run what??? GIMP, Blender, Eclipse IDE (damn slow). Do they even compare to Photoshop, 3ds Max & .net 2008

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

[MetalheadGautham]

^^+1

PS: Can you please stop showing off your oversized smilies ? They are hurting my eyes dude...

[din]

Originally Posted by gx_saurav

GIMP, Blender, Eclipse IDE (damn slow). Do they even compare to Photoshop, 3ds Max & .net 2008

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

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

[chesss]

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.

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..

[chandru.in]

Originally Posted by gx_saurav

Lolz...really??? Workstation to run what??? GIMP, Blender, Eclipse IDE (damn slow). Do they even compare to Photoshop, 3ds Max & .net 2008

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.

[gxsaurav]

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

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]

stop warring

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

security and e-peace my frndz

[VD17]

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.

[Psychosocial]

^+123456789

well said

Macs are xpensive

[chandru.in]

Originally Posted by gx_saurav

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....

I never argued about the article you posted itself. Please read what I have quoted when I said that. It is not your article post it is your false claims.

[NikhilVerma]

I might sound dumb but I am surprised to see that people still argue about such things. It used to be fun before but it's lost it's charm now.

How Sad

[Charan]

Originally Posted by chandru.in

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.

I am a bit skeptic about this. VS 2008 takes less than 5 seconds to load. and another 8-10 sec for creating a new project, this includes my delay in clicking the new project icon and selecting a project type. On the other hand VS 2005 took abt 30 sec for the whole process.

My system config. P4 2.8 Ghz & 768 MB RAM. XP SP3

[ravi_9793]

I have also used trail version of VS 2008, and its fast. Didn't measured the time.

[tarey_g]

Yeah, eclipse on my PC takes longer than VS 2005. I was impressed with Eclipse IDE for the little time i had to work on JAVA, now a happier .net guy.

[Maverick340]

Macs are expensive..

[desiibond]

Originally Posted by MetalheadGautham

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

Builing a house yourself is much cheaper and much more flexible than letting the housing developers build the house for you.

but........

[chandru.in]

Originally Posted by desiibond

Builing a house yourself is much cheaper and much more flexible than letting the housing developers build the house for you.

but........

Not really. Unlike a house there are people ready to assemble the system for you free of cost.

For example in Bangalore go to SP road and enter any shop selling computer components. Pick the components you need and they assemble it for you free of cost. Take it home and install any distro like Ubuntu (not necessarily self-cutomized), it would be half the cost or may be even less than half of branded Vista PCs.

Definitely not as difficult as building a house.

[chesss]

Builing a house yourself is much cheaper and much more flexible than letting the housing developers build the house for you.

which is why people do prefer/dream of building their own homes.