Adding up the Apple tax
Through the graces of an anonymous benefactor, I have a recent-vintage white MacBook to use for the next few months. As a newbie Mac user, I paid special attention to Apple’s announcements of new MacBooks last week. And Microsoft paid special attention, too, as I received multiple e-mails from folks in Redmond, who wanted to make sure I know what a great value the PC platform is compared to Apple’s products. Microsoft is peddling a line about an “Apple tax,” but most of those analyses are based on the hardware cost. I’ve been paying close enough attention to know that the differences in price extend over multiple dimensions, far beyond just the initial outlay. So how much is the Apple tax, all told? In my case, it's around $500. Watch me do the math.