It’s common knowledge that Macs carry a premium over their Windows-based competition. Anyone who has ever peeked at a Sunday newspaper circular knows that Mac buyers ante up more, but crunching the numbers on just how much churns up quite an impressive statistic: they cost double on average.
Eweek’s own Mac advocate Joe Wilcox consulted the marketing research firm NPD Group in his quest for numbers and found that on average, PC notebooks sell for $700 while Mac notebooks sell for $1,515, 2.1 times as much. If that sounds like old news, it’s not: The gap has actually widened significantly in just two years as PC prices plunge lower and Macs hover around the same. Back in June 2006, for instance, the average PC notebook ran for $877, while Macs were still at $1,574, putting them at 1.8 times as much.
