I haven't checked since this mornings refresh, but at least here in AU, there are some arguably cheaper options to the Air. Where the Air excels is giving you a nice machine that is also really well made + all the little niceties of Mac hardware like Magsafe, backlit keyboard, ambient light sensors.
Also Apple is actually making a nice profit on their machines.
You only named 3 devices. All of which have only been on the market less than 5 years. It won't take the industry long to surpass those. Intel chips are the brain of the computer. Therefore the rest of the device benefits from it. And you can't argue that Apple didn't benefit greatly from the switch. Or else they wouldn't have rewritten their entire OS for them.
So maybe 1/3 of my points are invalid.and I'm not anti apple I happen to own the latest macbook. And used to work there.
I don't need to name more than 3 devices. You said the ENTIRE LINE was overpriced. You were wrong about that.
You're also wrong about "the industry" not taking long to surpass the devices in question; they have had 4-5 years to surpass all the devices I named. Ultrabooks still haven't surpassed the Air or beaten its price point, and Android phone hardware hasn't surpassed the iPhone or beaten its price point, etc.
You're just wrong. Own it. I own the latest MacBook Pro and used to work there, too, btw. :) I didn't accuse you of being anti-Apple. I said you posted an inaccurate, anti-Apple rant. Which you did. Peace.
I don't think the "overpriced" myth would ever be dispelled. Apple produces premium products, and premium products are typically associated with higher costs. Until Apple decides to become the walmart of laptops, people will always think they're selling overpriced goods.
It would be interesting to run an experiment where someone is shown 2 completely identical products, but one is marked as premium. Would that someone think the premium product is made with inferior materials to justify the identical pricing?
I don't think they had to rewrite the entire OS when they switched to intel. It only took 1 person over a span of 6 months to do the "conversion", and that 1 person was just doing it for fun. It wasn't until he finished that Apple decided to use his secret project as part of something bigger. I believe the wife briefly talked about this story on Quora. You can probably find the story if you google "marklar"
And they aren't reaping the benefits of using PC hardware, either; other than Intel CPUs, Apple is custom-building all its motherboards and parts.
So basically, you have no valid points at all and are just posting an anti-Apple rant.