I'm sure selling them at Best Buy has helped them quite a bit as well. I just bought a macbook and my friend just bought one as well. then his parents went and bought an imac. and this guy in my math class just bought a pro. It definately seems like a "trend" with young consumers. BTW...macs aren't cheap. esp. when you buy warranty...ouch on my wallet. ^__^

well od bet because a its not profitable, that dell you bought is what is killing the company (dell) and why dell is trying to reuild in a new image, 2 blame intel for the lack of discreet cards, all macs used to come with them, but part of apples contract with intel calles for intel to make low end fx cards, as for apples price policy, the prices are best when they first come out sometimes even cheaper than others, as was the case with the last of the powermac g4 line. the downside is they dont lower prices unless it is being fazed out or for a refresh. (very rarely you will see what happened with the air and the drop component pricing. ) I find many of their programs to be fantasitc some like final cut studio are industry standards now.

hah on unbuntu if you want something that actually supports less fx cards than the mac platform. yes you could build one cheaper, but your not in the market they are after now are you. and yes i run linux, i triple boot my MBP i find linux fun to tinker in much like the mac os (disabling vm if you have a good quantity of ram makes for a very fast computer experiance) 

so yes they do not want your money, they would rather have the money from someone who wants apples build quality, and CS reputation

out of curiosity how long have you had your laptop and how long do you plan to keep it? also your desktop  if you have one

You have some good points.  I suppose you're right about them not wanting my money.  The buying demographic I belong to is very picky and hard to cater to.  I wouldn't go as far as to say "they want people who want to pay more for their build quality" though.  Mac parts last just as long as retail pc parts - because they get them from the same sources.

I plan on keeping my lappy for as long as it stays alive! (I've had it since around the beginning of '08, no problems so far)

I have a desktop that I built myself that every once in a while gets an out-of-date part replaced.

the first part - i have no problem with that. I just argue with people that try to force the mac brand down my throat touting how great it is, when they dont realize its not for me. I also have a problem when the same person that tries to do this then calls me stupid for not wanting said mac brand.

the 2nd - my older laptop is atleast 3 years old - at 1.4ghz (some celeron processor, nothing special) with 1gb ram. as for how long i plan to keep it? for as long as i find use in it. it can still run most programs decently, but it stays at home (17" screen with outdated power...yeah). I see no reason to resell it, since id rather keep it for myself or give it to someone who can use it properly.

question - why do you ask?

I don't understand people who buy macs and then put XP on them... isn't it cheaper to by a system that is speced the same that runs XP?

Hmm, I'm not sure why so many people seem to detest Macs and OS.

I'm one of those students who bought a Macbook.

No, it has nothing to do with Apple style, I don't own an iPod, don't use iTunes. For fifteen years, I was a loyal PC laptop user. But over the years, it was getting harder and harder to justify buying Windows. Microsoft continues to produce dreadful bloatware, I had to buy X Y and Z utilities, antivirus software, you name it. The money I was saving on hardware was being drained away in software fixes.

Vista was the last straw. After seeing my friends' systems freeze up, I decided to get a midrange Macbook.

I was hoping for basic functionality. To my surprise, the machine is a delight. Fast, furious, friendly, it has all my media options, it's as powerful or intuitive as I want it to be. I downloaded NeoOffice, got VLC working -- everything, and I mean everything, was easier.

Given the dreadful economic situation of the US, Apple has me thinking that maybe, just maybe, this country can actually produce world-class products again.

You still need anti virus software on macs. It used to be that such a small number of people used them that you needed worry about viruses but now that isn't the case and you can get viruses that are every bit as messed up as their pc cousins. Same with adware and spyware.

To me this sounds like a late night infomercial for macs...in any case if you dont like windows use linux...you may not like widnows but PC's are still much better value for the money.

^ It's what they call "word of mouth" advertising.

oh a long time ago, over 6 years now i read an artical claiming the average mac userer kept their hardware longer than the average pc user (the mac user at 5.5 years, the pc user at slightly over 3)  (my older primary mac turns six this month, i plan on replacing it in 2010)

in reply to your first part, there are still a great number of old mac fans that remember days when it was hard to come by macs, and get stores to keep them, outside of compusas, which seemed to get better care from customers than actual reps, and they do love their macs, they are family to them, so when you attack, or disprove of the mac you are attacking the family its actually a well research phenomena, there are very few brand that get this reaction, coke, and hershey are among them.