Are Apple becoming a good ‘value for money’ option?

Apple have always had a reputation for being an expensive option, when considering a new computer or smartphone, but in recent months some analysts and journalists have commented on pricing – we wonder are they becoming a good ‘value for money' supplier of tech goodies?

When we look at the latest MacBook Air for example, the price point in the United Kingdom is actually better than some of the PC based counterparts such as Sony. Take for instance one of the PC based competitors, the Sony ‘Z' Series – the pricing in the UK starts at £1,434 and can rise to well over £2,500 depending on how you customise it. The Macbook Air starts at £849 inc vat.

Journalist Nick Wingfield over at the New York Times says that part of this is down to their growing manufacturing scale and “logistics prowess to deliver Apple products at far more aggressive prices, which in turn gave it more power to influence pricing industrywide.”

When we look at the latest version of the iMac, it seems pretty good value to us with the bigger version weighing in at £1,399 inc vat with free delivery. Sure there are cheaper computers on the market, but how many of them come with a 27 inch screen and a 2560×1440 resolution?

In the US, the iPhone 4S was offered on sale if people were willing to wait in line, spend $199 and commit to a two year wireless contract. In the UK however pricing starts at £499, which doesn't seem much of a deal to us.

Stewart Alsop, a venture capitalist in San Franciso said “They’re not cheap, but I don’t think they’re viewed as high-priced anymore”. When we spoke to a manager in a well known retailer in the UK he told Kitguru “Apple have a reputation for being expensive, but when you look at what they offer on a hardware level now, they generally come out near the top of the group. They are never going to want to be seen as a ‘budget' builder, but in recent years they offer a lot more for reasonable prices.”

Kitguru says: There are always going to be cheaper alternatives, but it certainly seems as if some of their products are being offered to target PC based competitors on price.

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