As part of Microsoft’s ongoing campaign against Apple on the basis of cost Redmond has sponsored a white paper looking at how much ore a Mac will cost.
The paper, entitled “What price cool?” by president of Endpoint Technologies Associates Roger L. Kay, asserts that not only are Macs more expensive to purchase initially but come with higher running costs that means Apple users pay $3,367 (€2,532) more than PC users over the five year timeframe.
“The biggest tax is, of course, the hardware, but the software re-buy, which is less evident, is pretty important,” wrote Kay.
“It’s zero on the windows side, because most XP programs work in Vista and will continue to work in Windows 7. The Mac side, however, is pretty pricy because the Bancrofts have to buy a lot of expensive software – more than $1,000 worth – just to do the things they’re used to doing. But also, upgrades and service fees widen the gap between the two worlds over time.”
By fortuitous coincidence the report ties in with Microsoft’s current advertising campaign, where two buyers examine what laptops they can get on a $1,000 and $1,500 budget.
However, the figures have been called into question as being biased by some in the industry, for making overly onerous use of Apple upgrades.
For example, he includes a $99 upgrade of iLife after three years, which are not mandatory, and the full costs for Apple’s MobileMe option when savvy users could be using other, free services that give the same functionality.
The costing chart also omits the lack of malware written that targets Apple computers, meaning PC users have to pay more for security and cleanup of infected machines.
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