I can already see the internet reaction to this assessment by NPD. they of the statistic that Apple has 91% of the over $1000 computer notebook market.
“Is this true? How is it possible? NPD vice president of industry analysis Stephen Baker says it’s simple: “The average price of a non-netbook Windows PC is under $600. It’s hard to see what functionality you could add to a Windows notebook to make it worth $1,200 to $1,500 to someone.”
So what is Apple giving people for an extra thousand or two thousand dollars? “Apple is giving them Apple,” Baker said. “They’re the only ones willing to sell computers at that price level. They’re like Mercedes that way. In tech, we tend to think performance is most important, but most people want functionality. Yet there are lots of people who want to say, ‘I want to be cool and drive around in a fancy car.’ An Apple computer makes you cool, it makes other people jealous.”
I know people like that -- who compare OS X to Rolexes or fine wines or Lexuses or Mercedes. They drive me up the wall, and do more to prove the perception that Macs are the brand-name machine for the Williamsburg dicks who shop at Abercrombie. Now, is this true for the majority of their consumers? I doubt it, but in much the same way as the highly vocal racists and birthers and protest Galts are making the Republican party look bad to us outsiders, the outspoken Mac zealots make it difficult to comfortably use any brand of computer without defensiveness. And in the same way that shameless GOP pandering to its crazy base is an abject abdication of its responsibility, the same goes for Apple's pandering to its base -- though both has been doing it so long, they do not know how to ease off.
