Lets face it. Apple products are more cult driven that based in logic and reason. There are some advantage to them in some ways where PCs have advantages in other ways. But for the average person either one will do everything that they need and are just as easy to use. However Apple users are willing to pay a lot more and have far fewer choices than PC users and companies like Orbitz are are taking advantage of that difference as you can see in this article.

Imagine walking into a retail outlet and asking how much a certain item costs and instead of an answer you get a question: How much do you have?

Online merchants however don’t have to engage in such an overt shakedown, because they already have a pretty good idea how much you have, thanks to data surrendered to online tracking techniques.

The latest example of this comes from travel website Orbitz, which has been presenting Mac users with more expensive travel options than Windows users. According to the Wall Street Journal, Orbitz has found that Mac users are willing to pay as much 30% more than Windows users on hotels and has begun presenting them with different and sometimes pricier options through its website.



  1. The Monster's Lawyer says:

    Yes, but those motels have fewer viruses than regular motels.

  2. Marc Perkel says:

    You mean fewer bugs too?

  3. Dallas says:

    Poor way of looking at that targeted marketing but I understand the need to juice it with some rhetoric.

    I’d say Apple users are generally willing to pay more for a hassle free solution and/or good experience. In contrast, PC users (I’m PC ) prefer multiple vendor, DIY or just comfortable dealing with the issues of the Windows open platform). It’s where the buyer places value, not your hairball conclusion above.

    Good example is not the PC/Mac but rather tablets. It’s clear that the IPad is better but even at the same price, find users just want that USB connector on it to plug some USB fan, shitty camera or floppy fisk drive. iPad users just wants it to work great out of the box.

    • dusanmal says:

      “I’d say Apple users are generally willing to pay more for a hassle free solution and/or good experience” – no. Simple example – Apple users are willing to pay more for an electronic device to which they can’t connect any industry standard device though it is obvious that all functions needed for connection CAN be satisfied by a standard connection… The only benefactor of that setup is Apple. Customer gets less and is restricted, add-on manufacturers can earn less and are limited,… only the Apple gets more and control. Identical situation as with Orbitz. Apple users are simply more gullible, that’s all. Hidden in a guise of “good experience” but how in the world is good experience if you can’t put SD card from your camera in your portable device or attach something through USB to it,… Who’d buy a car that must tow an adapter for a standard gas pump nozzle but is sleek looking? Gullible person.

      • Dallas says:

        Sorry but you’re wrong. A closed system will always have optimizations, device and application plug and play benefits that an open system (MS or Linux) offers.
        I happen to prefer the open environment of the PC (at lower cost to a Mac) but take the closed environment of a smartphone and at this point, a tablet and TV as well.
        It remains to be seen how good Windows 8 straddles those multiple use cases.
        My bet is Steve Jobs is right that a great experience with many options is the predominant buy factor versus a crummy experience with a product that promises to aceept every single piece of shit software or hardware from high school shop.

  4. Sheila says:

    Back in the early 80s I decided to get a computer,

    called IBM and Apple

    The first question from the apple sales rep was how much money did I have to spend, the first question the IBM sales rep asked was ” what can we do for you”. guess who I went with?

    Sheila
    survivingsurvivalism.com

  5. tio lorenzo says:

    a few weeks ago, Limbaugh was describing Democrats as elitist, slovenly SOB’s. hmmh, that’s his exact description of an Apple user (including Limbaugh).

  6. AdmFubar says:

    apple inc’s new slogan…. “you owe us, pay up dammit!”

    used to be ibm’s slogan, then m$ and intel’s.. thankfully that is all falling by the wayside.

    yeah freedom!

  7. WmDE says:

    Some sheep are easier to shear than others.

  8. Cap'nKangaroo says:

    As Orbitz pointed out, if you click the button to list by price, Mac and PC users will get the same list.

    Two individuals pull into a Lawn and Garden store. The first is driving an old Nissan pickup while the second is driving a new shiny BMW. The salesman start off showing the Nissan driver their economy line of lawn mowers and waves at the high-end mowers. The same salesman starts the BMW driver at the high-end mowers and waves to the economy line.

    It is just good salesmanship. It is only wrong if the salesman refuses to show one line of mowers to the customer.

  9. JimD, Boston, MA says:

    Jobs just taught them to PAY MORE – FOR EVERYTHING !!!

  10. The Dude says:

    So why does Leo and his gang of super geeks sit behind Apple computers? hmmm! As far as cost goes, you know what they say about anything of quality. Buy once, cry once. People who are “cheap” haven’t yet learned.

    It seems Perkel’s perception is once again.. skewed.

    • Dallas says:

      Agreed. Thd problem is they don’t factor in the cost of the time spent fucking with some device driver, file not found, blue screen, error 49 and other ‘fun’ pursuits written off as ‘tinkering’.

  11. Daniel says:

    After seeing the title and premise of what Orbitz was doing, I was a little upset since I am a Mac user and don’t want to be expected to pay more for the same thing just because I choose to use a particular computer. But after reading about the research that went into it, it makes good business sense without ripping off their consumers. They aren’t charging more for the same room, they are just recommending the pricier options a little higher up for those who historically are more likely looking for those pricier options that offer a better experience.

    That being said, I’m an Expedia man myself.

  12. BigBoyBC says:

    I spent the last 17-years providing IT for a large urban school district. I know first hand that Apples are no more fool-proof than any other platform. They are nightmares from a repair tech perspective, the new ones are not even repairable.

    Apple is a premium product, that’s real. But, Apple markets an ideal image of a “lifestyle” just like Jim Jones and other cultists, and the fanboys drink the koolaide and dream their dreamy dreams.

    Fanboys brag about their Apples, until something goes wrong (and they do), and then they come running to me (with me on my pc) begging for me to fix it. Yeah, it just works (until it doesn’t)

  13. Uncle Patso says:

    What about BSD/Linux/**IX users?

  14. Anonymous says:

    THANK YOU!

    I’ve been saying for years that Apple users are more stupid! And now there’s proof. (Not that hip-hopping in public and blowing one’s ear drums out wasn’t a clue.)

    Don’t misunderstand either. A lot of Windows users are stupid too! But Windows users do seem to be less stupid than Apple users. That’s probably because Windows users have had to think! Not that they ever wanted to. It’s just that Windows users have had to always think about what they were doing and why rather than let the mother ship in Cupertino do it for them.

    • Cap'nKangaroo says:

      Jerry Pournelle said something like you have five ways to do something on a PC. On a Mac, it can be done one way or it just cannot be done.

  15. deowll says:

    The post is inaccurate. What happened was that they did a study and found out that Mac users are big spenders. They buy higher priced/fancier computers and they want 4 and 5 star accommodations. By default the rooms offered to them start on the high end but you can flip the list or scroll till you hit the economy class rooms if you wish however most Mac users don’t wish to go economy class.

    • WTF_OMGBBQ says:

      You didn’t really expect people like pedro and his like to actually READ the article did you? No pictures = no understandy.

  16. MikeN says:

    You have to give your credit card just to use ITunes, even if it’s to download a free product.

    • WTFCHUCK says:

      WRONG!! Thanks for playing though. Try again.

      Gasp!!! I thought Windows users knew EVERYTHING!!! Yoose is so smert>

    • WTF_OMGBBQ says:

      WRONG!! Thanks for playing though. Try again.

      Gasp!!! I thought Windows users knew EVERYTHING!!! Yoose is so smert>

  17. TThor says:

    There goes Orbitz into the dustbin of commercial stupidity.

  18. Professor says:

    Well,… Giligan would have never got off the Island, if it had not been for the Mac.. Wait, He never did get off that Island. Just sayin..

  19. farmits says:

    No doubt about it, just look at the dipshit on the right.

  20. President Amabo (I see the comment system is still designed for retards.) says:

    I happen to know a Mac user that I also know is quite intelligent. I do believe he’s an outlier though.


1

Bad Behavior has blocked 9375 access attempts in the last 7 days.