This week with heard about the Apple Tax from the mouth of Microsoft head master Steve Ballmer in a vague attempt to derail Apple’s notebook event, something that immediately the media echoed and started to refrain it like parrots, but does really exist an Apple Tax?, the short and truthful answer is yes.

We all (mac users), fed up about the poor quality of our PCs and the software we run on them, prefer to pay the Apple Tax, a Tax that will guarantee you a product with the higher standards, a tax that will give you peace of mind because all the quality controls were taken into consideration, a tax that will place you in the front of the technology innovation.

We can find a lot of cheaper PCs, sometimes with even better features, but you will end up paying more than twice fixing them, buying antivirus, removing malwares or spywares that crop your internet browsing experience. There is not guarantee in satisfaction, PC makers are just assemblers, none of them put the heart on their products or are proud about it, what kind of respect can you get buying a $300 laptop? or what is the margin in profit for PC makers to extend their guarantee to a higher level of personal satisfaction.

At least mac users know that there’s a Premium or Tax in Apple products, when you buy X product you make a personal investment and you would like this X product to work properly or at least how it should, you don’t expect to have any frustration or a constant visit to a repair shop or even fight for your right to support, but with any PC you could expend more time and money trying to make it work for you, here is a personal calculation on how much any pc user could pay for repair service:

You buy a $500 PC, in 1 year period you could face 2 hardware problems and at least 3 virus related problems, I’m assuming you are Peter Parker (Spiderman), you only know about jumping from building to building, you know nothing about computers, Nada. In this case you will have to call your PC vendor for support, expect 5 hours on the phone, take your PC to a repair shop, pay between $50-$80 for hardware related problems ($50 x 2); then virus, spywares, malware and F**wares invade your PC through the internet, you need to buy a AntiVirus, $60 more and nobody guarantee you that tomorrow this AntiVirus works, then your $500 PC is now almost $700, add the time you lose, the information that could has been destroyed by the virus, the time installing Windows if your malwares have taken over your PC, priceless.

But there is a good explanation in why we don’t get the same level of satisfaction from our pcs, it is profit, check how Dell earning for last quarter:

Dell last Earning Report, August 28, 2008:
• Dell reported fiscal second quarter revenue of $16.4 billion
• Earnings per share were $0.31 and cash flow from operations was $1.1 billion
• Revenue: 11 percent year-over-year

Apple last Earning Report, July 21, 2008:
• The Company posted revenue of $7.46 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion
• Earnings per share were $1.19 per diluted share
• Revenue: Up 38 Percent Year-Over-Year

See the numbers: It took Dell sells $16.4 billion in PCs and Services to get $1.1 billion in earning, but Apple, a smaller and modest company only sold $7.46 billion in Macs, iPhone-iPods to get $1.07 billion in earning, so Apple is more than double of the Dell efficiency in selling products, but how could this is translated to the end user? Easy, as Apple keeps innovating, adding better features, pricing comparatively their products more and more new users buy their products. It is a loop.

Another important thing to consider when buying or investing money in anything, it is the depreciation and as you make know PCs are depreciated automatically when you open the box, there is too much price competency in the PC market that when you buy the latest $500 PC it is almost impossible to get $300 for it a year later, with $300 you can even buy a new Dell or HP desktop PC without monitor. In the mac is totally different, when you buy the latest $1099 iMac in a year and half you could easily sell it for about $800 and depending on your personal care with the iMac, you can even ask for more.

The Apple Tax is too small and sometimes invisible that mac users in generals don’t take it in consideration when buying or upgrading to the next mac, you won’t get the same level of personal satisfaction when you open your $300 PC nor respect when ask for support. The Apple Tax is really worth, every penny.