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THE ONLINE TRAVEL agency Orbitz has begun offering Apple Mac users more expensive travel packages, because it has found that Mac users tend to spend more.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal Orbitz found that those with Macs are 40 per cent more likely to book a four or five star hotel and to spend between $20 and $30 more a night on rooms.
While hotel rooms are still being shown at the same prices, Mac users are shown the more expensive deals first, but Orbitz says that users can still sort the offers by price.
The Wall Street Journal states that the use of browsing data to target users is likely to become more common. Orbitz also examines details such as how you arrive at their site, return visits, and location when sorting the results offered to users.
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Well if you’re dumb enough to spend two or three times as much for the same computer I’m sure you’re dumb enough to pay two or three times the price for the same holiday.
I spent €1600 on my iMac in 2008. It still works perfectly with no issues. What you call ‘dumb’, I call an investment.
I spent 1500 on a Dell XPS laptop which overheats constantly and died this year after less than 3 years, had parts replaced twice by Dell. Id never touch a Dell again. nMy bro’s Mac is the same age same price and travelled through New Zealand and Asia and still works fine. nnApples?
I spent 400 euros on a lenovo that’s 2 times more powerful than the iMac (2008) I can buy 3 more top of the range apple topping pc’s upgrading as and when I wish and still not have spent as much as you spent on a 4 year old out dated iMac. If I lose my pc somewhere, |I dont care, its only 400 quids worth and I can replace it without feeling like I just lost my wedding ring!
Lies, would be the most popular computer on earth if it was that powerful at that price. Put up a link to this 6ghz, 12gb ram, 768mb gpu, high res screened laptop please?
I really don’t believe your disposable is twice as powerful.
The cost of an Apple product, or anything you can sell on, is the cost of depreciation. Macs depreciate less, so buying something for £1,200 and selling for £900 is a cost of £300, If your dell was bought for 800 and sold for 300 it cost more. Word.
There is also the maintenance costs, of course but that is harder to estimate.
I spent 630 quid on a Samsung. To buy the equivalent hardware from Apple costs 1200. And Aidan, Dell are shite. You can’t use Dell as the basis for all non-Apple products. Shop around and you’ll get a good deal elsewhere.
And Patrick, 1600 quid for a computer is an insane amount of money.
Once again Sean, the cost was the depreciation. Thats the actual cost, this isn’t a gimmick form of economics. If he decided to live without a computer and sold for £1K, the cost of lifetime ownership of the mac is six hundred. Of course.
Nevertheless there is no “insane” price for a computer, no more than there is for a house, or a car, or a toaster- all of whom have widely diverging prices. People tend not to get mad with the purchase of a 100K car, which couldn’t be 10 times better than a 10K car. But top end cars depreciate more – that, once again is the real cost.
Anybody who would pay 1000 for a 4 year old mac is just as dumb. I could have bought a top of the range samsung every 18 months over the 4 years with 1600 euro. And there’s no way the hardware from a 4 year old mac can compare to what’s currently on the market anyway.
@ Eoin – is there a market for second hand macs at a price of €900?
From an accounting point of view, yes, your theory is correct. From a realistic point of view, you’re not going to get a buyer for a second hand mac @ €900.
Arch. The actual costs I gave are examples. The fact remains that macs depreciate less than other PCs. At the risk of getting red thumbed once again by innumerates I will say again that. depreciation is the *only* cost of ownership of anything. If you can’t sell something after use the depreciation is 100% of the cost, otherwise the cost of something is its depreciation. n
Top of the range Samsung laptops are up to 1800 from the ones I’ve seen.
They’re not the same… macs are simply better . no virus’s and no soul destroying 5 minute waits to start up…
That’s pretty clever.
Read: People with money to spare more likely to part with an extra e1000 for a prettier box with a prettier OS and similar or poorer hardware specs. So why not pull an Apple trick with hotels?
I suppose it’s ok if the hotels don’t slow down after 2 years and the staff don’t end up sick with viruses often.
@Stadler, maybe Windows users are prone to the odd virus, but at least we’re not prone to brown rot, canker, scab and worst of all, rubbery wood!
It’s pretty easy to keep your pc quick and virus free. AVG and SearchandDestroy bot keep my pc clean. And a regular cleaning out of unnecessary programs keeps it quick. And my computer cost e250 brand new!
I spend money on a better computer that works and doesn’t cause me problems. I spend money on a better hotel so I don’t have drunk idiots, with no respect for anyone else, screaming at all hours of day and night. You get what you pay for!
@Martin – the hotels are offering the exact same package, just a different price for mac users.
I think it makes sense – Mac users are already bent over, might as well take your turn.
Read the article Arch! Same packages, same prices, just different order! Showing the packages more likely to be purchased by a certain demographic first, instead of showing cheap sh**holes! nnn
So Martin, you think that being charged more because you booked from a mac means you are getting a better quality hotel?
Again Sean, read the article!n
Please read the article before you comment. Mac users are not getting charged more for the same product. The list of hotels are displayed in such a way that the most expensive hotels (5 star/ 4 star) are displayed first whereas browsing from a Windows device gives you the list randomly generated.
We just like better things!
No just more expensive.
Difference between expensive and overpriced. Underpowered laptops with a €2000+ price tag are overpriced, and Orbitz are smart to try to sell them other similarly shit value products.
Macs were never virus free, it’s just not worth anyones while doing virus for Apple. Now though, more stopped people are buying Apple, so are more subject to hackers than ever before. Nice to see them bring taken advantage of by other means though
guess I’ll be masquerading as a Windows user on e-commerce sites from now on. Ughh the thought of it …
Well the issue is that if they detect that the user is using a Mac OS when visiting their website are they presenting higher prices to those users?
TIP – you should always clear your browser cache when shopping around for flights. They no where you have been and how many times you’ve checked a page (and prices).
Or use TOR
It’s trivially easy to tell if a user is using a mac, linux or windows machine.
Every browser on the planet has an identifying string that it sends to every. single. server you access.
Every. Single. Time. you request a web page.
I’m pretty sure it’s been proven that airlines don’t use browser cookies/cache to determine pricing models – other signals, yes, but browser cookies are not one of them
For anyone interested in the details: http://blog.getinvisiblehand.com/2011/04/08/ryanair-manipulating-prices-with-cookies-it%E2%80%99s-an-urban-myth/
Was Aardvark Computers taken?
Smart plan.
if you can afford to shell out the extra amount to buy overpriced apple products in the first place. then yes, you may have that extra in your travel budget.
you pay for quality… id argue that inferior quality products cost more in the long run.
have your say