I love Macs and have been trying to get all my family onto them but what puts a couple of them off is the fact that they cannot buy a cheap brand-new Mac.

So, rather than buy the cheapest MacBook for £699 ($1,400) they have decided to buy a cheap PC laptop for £200 ($400).

What can I say to that? Yes, the re-sale value of Macs is good and they would probably be able to get back a good proportion of the £699 spent on a MacBook but they cannot afford £699.

Although I can put forward the argument that for £200 what they’ll get is crappy Vista Home Basic and a relatively poor processor this falls on deaf ears because they can argue:

1. They cannot afford £699 (yes, I get the message!)

2. If they are doing basic web surfing, email and word processing, why do they need to spend £699?

Yes, they know they can go on eBay or another website and buy a second-hand Mac but they want a new machine that hasn’t been touched by another person. I can’t blame them for that.

So, what do you think? Should Apple remain a premium-brand with its high gross margins or should it offer a cheap £200 - £300 laptop to tempt people to try the Mac and then, when they are hooked, upgrade to a more powe MacBooks or MacBook Pros?

written by Mike Bradbrook \\ tags: Affordable Macs, Mac Laptops