Why the MBP/iMac price discrepancies?

jgbx

I know the title sounds a little stupid, but hear me out a second. I just bought a MacBook Pro 2.2 last week. The price difference between the 2.2 and the 2.4 15" models is a whopping $500. For that $500, you get 200Mhz of processor speed, 128Mb of VRAM and 40Gb of HDD space.



Now compare that to the new iMac models, particularly the 20" versions, where the difference between the 2.0 and the 2.4 is $300. For that you get 400Mhz of processor speed, 70Gb or HDD space (albeit the 3.5" drive as opposed to the 2.5" notebook drive), a whole upgrade in video cards in addition to the extra 128Mb in VRAM.



I know this is nitpicking, but was bored and noticed the difference. It's not that huge of a deal but I thought someone might have some insight as to why it would appear you get less computer for more money in the notebooks in comparison to the iMacs. Is it that difficult to bump up processor speeds?

kman7607

possibly the technology involved in "bumping up" the specs on a notebook is more costly. The smaller(in physical size) the part becomes the more expensive it generally is. I really have no other way of justifying it. Thats just my 2 cents.

mr. h

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kman7607


possibly the technology involved in "bumping up" the specs on a notebook is more costly. The smaller(in physical size) the part becomes the more expensive it generally is.

This is not the case. The MacBook Pro and iMac use mostly the same components (the iMac uses desktop GPU and HDD, all other parts are laptop parts).



The reason for the discrepancy is simple: the margins on the MacBook Pro are much higher than the iMac.



Since the margins in the industry in general are higher on laptops, Apple can "get away" with the high margins on the MacBook Pro and still be price-competitive with other laptops. However, they can't have the same margins on the iMac. Even as it is, the iMac is not price-competitive with rival desktops.