Relatively speaking, how much does a Mac Mini cost?

[Micky Do]

Apple has been at the forefront of many ideas. Uniform pricing in all markets is one. Anywhere in the world it costs about the same to buy Apple products. I guess that is true for servicing too, but don't know for sure.

However pay across the world is far from uniform...... And I doubt that Apple will be leading the way to initiate parity in remuneration across all labour markets for staff employed by the company and its subsidiaries.

How much does a Mac Mini cost (with software and ready ready to use, but not including other hardware) where you live at present in comparison to what you earn?

As a teacher in a state owned university in a partially developed country, my bottom of the range model Mac Mini loaded with iWork set me back about a month's pay.

One of the joys of the Mini is that I could use the keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, UPS and other bits that I already had. To have had to cough up for them would have set me back another couple or three weeks pay.

 

[blanka]

I would say, a MacMini costs 2 hours of paid labour to use it a whole year. No other computer is such an amazing deal.
I bough a 2011 one last year at 750€. I will sell it in 2013 for 500€ probably. That is 125€/year.
It still might be expensive in some countries around the globe, but computer pricing is going down year after year.
Grab a new Raspberry Pi. It is 35$, and you have a decent computer with all the basic capabilities (playing HD video, browsing the web, publishing etc.).
In 2015, you can get a very capable machine for 50$ matching todays Mini.

UPS..... Weird to see that there are people needing this stuff. It makes you realize how well our electricity supply is here.

 

[Micky Do]

UPS..... Weird to see that there are people needing this stuff. It makes you realize how well our electricity supply is here.

No one runs a desktop here in Thailand without UPS, partly because power cuts are relatively frequent, but also because they stabilise voltage and provide surge protection.

The power supply of my first Mini had a hard life. It was struggling within a couple of years, and by the end of four years I dared not turn the computer off because it took days before it could crank it up again.

That UPS eventually got cooked by a surge that left half of Phuket Island without power. I replaced it with one that has AVR (Auto Voltage Regulation) and installed an earth system, so everything is properly grounded now. In anticipation of more building they installed a better mains supply to the area. The power supply for the Mini I bought in 2009 is doing fine.

Where I lived for my first two years in Thailand (1981/82) we didn't even have electricity. The nearest phone was 15 km away.

 

[iamsen47]

131 Big Mac meals, not upsized.

 

[throAU]

Less than a week's pay.... before the mortgage comes out, etc


It's all relative. I'm quite sure in Thailand you aren't paying $5 australian (i.e., $5.50 us or so) for a cup of coffee either....

 

[borostef]

Apple has been at the forefront of many ideas. Uniform pricing in all markets is one. Anywhere in the world it costs about the same to buy Apple products. I guess that is true for servicing too, but don't know for sure.
.

I will include some screenshots of the prices we have to pay for Macs in Croatia,
we don't have Apple stores, just "Premium resellers"... The prices are in Kuna, our national currency, and if someone wants to do the math, one dollar is six Kunas... To get you started, the price of the Mid 2011 Mini is 1,133 $, give or take few dollars... And that is for cash only, if you want to buy it with your credit card it will cost you 1,176 $...

 

[Micky Do]

I will include some screenshots of the prices we have to pay for Macs in Croatia,
we don't have Apple stores, just "Premium resellers"... The prices are in Kuna, our national currency, and if someone wants to do the math, one dollar is six Kunas... To get you started, the price of the Mid 2011 Mini is 1,133 $, give or take few dollars... And that is for cash only, if you want to buy it with your credit card it will cost you 1,176 $...

Obviously I was wrong in my idea that people pay about the same for Apple products all around the world.

Perhaps I should say I should say that in other countries Apple products cost at least as much as in the USA. I would be happy to be found wrong on this assertion too.

Having done a bit more research, here in Thailand the base model Mac Mini ($599 in the USA) at present costs 19,990 baht, (about $US650). In NZ (my home country) it is $NZ945 (about $US780).

Less than a week's pay.... before the mortgage comes out, etc


It's all relative. I'm quite sure in Thailand you aren't paying $5 australian (i.e., $5.50 us or so) for a cup of coffee either....

Yes it is all relative, which is why I made the poll "relatively speaking" in relation to how much people are paid. For some a Mac Mini is a significant investment. For others it is not much more than pocket money.

You can pay more than $US5.50 for a cup of coffee here in Thailand. I stopped by at a flash resort resort with a friend who wanted to check it out. We had a cup of coffee each and shared a piece of cake. The bill was an amazing (to me) 550 baht / $US18.00!

At the recently opened Phuket cricket ground (ACG) they are charging 80 baht / $US2.60 for a cup of coffee. There is a woman in town who makes a nice cup of espresso for half that. At the stand down the road they charge 15 baht for a glass, brewed from grounds in a cloth bag.

I generally drink tea at home. I get through a couple of packets of loose leaves a month @ 45 baht each.

I don't own a home and would not be considered for a mortgage. I rent, and have paid cash for everything I own.

 

[charlieegan3]

put me about £600 overdrawn and I could never pay it back, I'm a student with no income.

 

[Micky Do]

put me about £600 overdrawn and I could never pay it back, I'm a student with no income.

Well that shows commitment, or maybe need.

When I was a student the first time the PC hadn't even been invented. I did a trial which was put on to a computer for analysis. I had to full out a form which was sent to a data entry lady, who made up a pile of punch cards to feed into the computer. I think I still have the punch cards and the results stashed away somewhere.

When I was a student for the second time the Mac had just been released. My university had a lab full of them, and a lab full of pre-windows PC's. I rattled through Computing 101 pretty quick on the Macs (and got my only ever A), so had plenty of allotted time left to use the spreadsheet to help me do budgets and such to land a decent grade in a couple of other courses.

It was nearly a couple of decades before I needed a computer again, and I bought my first, a Mac Mini in 2005.


When I first started teaching in a university 10 years ago very few, if any students there had a computer. Now most do have one in addition to smartphones and tech stuff.

It is interesting to see that for the majority of respondents the Mac Mini represents a relative pittance; less than a weeks pay for over 60% at this stage. For less than 15% it is a substantial investment, representing at least a month or two or more worth of income.

And then we have a student with no income, for whom it represents an overdraft.

When I was a student I seldom had no income. I worked all summer and most other breaks, in addition to having weekend jobs. I was lucky to be able to graduate free of debt.

 

[charlieegan3]

...

It's interesting you got your 1st mac in 2005, so did I, an ibook g4.

I have a student loan coming in and a job in the holidays to help with costs, but i'm not generating money and a £600 hit isn't in my financial plan

It is interesting that the mac mini is seen as a super cheap computer here, it's still a fair bit more than the cheapest pcs.

 

[Micky Do]

No one runs a desktop here in Thailand without UPS, partly because power cuts are relatively frequent, but also because they stabilise voltage and provide surge protection.

That UPS eventually got cooked by a surge that left half of Phuket Island without power. I replaced it with one that has AVR (Auto Voltage Regulation) and installed an earth system, so everything is properly grounded now. In anticipation of more building they installed a better mains supply to the area. The power supply for the Mini I bought in 2009 is doing fine.

There was a surge yesterday evening that tripped the electricity supply for a for moments. I had just started cooking dinner, and it cooked my rice cooker. I toddled off to the supermaket and picked up a new one (cost about $US8.00).

Properly surge protected and earthed, my computer system, including the UPS was appearantly unscathed.

 

[Micky Do]

For a few a Mac Mini costs a lot, relatively speaking.

For many it is not much more than pocket money, it seems.

The poll closes tomorrow.