As an entrepreneur using a Mac I, like anyone else, tries to control costs of my business. One of the factors in my business is the cost of my Mac. Most PC users point out that they can get cheaper PCs than Macs and therefore Macs are more expensive. While there is some truth to that matter, let’s find out where the costs lie in their argument.
There is a term called Total Cost of Ownership that tries to quantify the total cost of owning and running something, whether it be a car, truck, SUV, or even a computer. So what goes into owning a computer for a business? From strictly the computer perspective there are four areas that part of using a computer:
- Cost of hardware – The computer itself, peripherals, cables, etc.
- Cost of software – Licensing.
- Cost of installation and configuration – How long does it take to install and configure your computer to where you are being productive.
- Cost of training, use, and maintenance for three to five years of use – Here is where most people get lost in quantifying their costs because they don’t measure this affect on a user or users.
In my book, “How to Start a Business: Mac Version” I go into more detail in Chapter 2 about these above issues and show additional ones that most businesses need to know and understand that affect the costs of using a computer as a business owner: The Total Cost of Ownership.
To be accurate, the PC users do win the argument “out of the gate” that they are cheaper than a Mac. I grant that to them. But, and this is a big but, what else are PC users not telling you?
So how does a PC stand up to a Mac in Total Cost of Ownership? First, read my friend Mitch Rushing’s OpenSurge blog post “In Mac vs PC cost comparison – Downtime Statistics Key” about how these numbers figure out for Windows vs Windows and then Windows vs Mac.
I’ll let you read the results, but Macs win!
What are your thoughts?
