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The Poor Man's MacMicrosoft wants you to buy PCs because they're cheaper than Apple products, not because they're better machines.

By Farhad ManjooPosted Thursday, April 2, 2009, at 4:21 PM ET

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Indeed, this is essentially the argument that Mac fans offer when confronted with the idea that Apple's machines are too expensive. Sure, they say, Macs might sometimes induce sticker shock, but that doesn't mean they're inherently much more expensive. It's just that they include a lot of high-quality components as standard features, making for much more powerful machines.

Technologizer's Harry McCracken, a nonpartisan in this fight, runs a regular series that factors this in when comparing Apples with PCs. He picks a sample Mac system, then prices out what rival computers would cost if outfitted with the same features. In October, he found that Apple's new 13-inch aluminum MacBook—which sells for $1,299—was right around the same price as similarly equipped machines by Lenovo and Sony, though more expensive than a machine made by Dell. This week, he did the same comparison for the 17-inch MacBook Pro that Lauren found too expensive. Apple's machine comes with a superfast 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, two graphics chips, a screen with an LED backlight, and a battery that lasts for eight hours—lots of top-of-the-line features of the sort that someone like Lauren probably doesn't need. When you rig up other laptops similarly, Apple's computer comes out as slightly less expensive than ones from Dell and HP, a bit more than one from Lenovo, and a lot more than a Sony—in the middle of the pack, pricewise. And this analysis neglects the many Apple features that you simply can't get on PCs—the malware-free Mac OS, Apple's stellar reliability and customer service ratings, and the fact that Mac machines seem to live longer (or at least hang on to their resale value better).

Of course, when you've got only $1,000 to spend on a laptop, none of this matters much. Apple's problem isn't that its prices are too high, it's that they're too inflexible. There are certain specs below which it seems reluctant to go, meaning that its entry-level prices are higher compared with those for PCs. You can get a $400 PC notebook, but Steve Jobs has nixed the idea of a cheap Apple portable: "We don't know how to make a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk, and our DNA will not let us ship that," he once said. Still, Apple's pricing scheme could prove difficult to stick to in a prolonged downturn, and it will likely reduce prices slightly if sales slag. At the very least, it could sell that 13-inch white MacBook for $800 instead of $1,000.

At a conference the other day, Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, argued that the economy had clarified people's views about what they wanted out of their computers, and as a result, Apple's recent gains in market share would be reversed. "I think the tide has really turned in the other direction," he said. "Paying an extra $500 for a computer in this environment—same piece of hardware—paying $500 more to get a logo on it? I think that's a more challenging proposition for the average person than it used to be."

Of course, he's right; selling a logo is tougher these days. What Ballmer forgets, though, is that he, too, is selling a logo. In fact, that's all he's selling. Microsoft doesn't make hardware; it makes Windows, the symbolic face of our machines. And in pushing low prices, Ballmer's newest ads don't tell you any of the great features that the Windows logo might stand for. Does it keep you safe from viruses? Is there an easy way to fix it if it breaks down? Is it environmentally responsible? Does it offer an easy way to make movies? Does it look awesome?

People want that stuff from their computers. When they've got money, they're willing to pay extra for it; that's why Apple dominated the notebook market last year. By focusing only on price, Microsoft is telling us only one thing about the Windows logo: It's what you look for when you're settling.

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Farhad Manjoo is Slate's technology columnist and the author of True Enough: Learning To Live in a Post-Fact Society. You can e-mail him at and follow him on Twitter.

Illustration by Robert Neubecker.

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