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PC VS. MAC ROUND 2,824,000

Computers are an integral part of today's world. When it comes to computers there are two competitors, PC and MAC. The debate over which is better has been raging for well over a decade. There is three topics to look at when comparing the PC and the Mac, hardware, operating system, and cost.
Starting with hardware seems to be the logical choice. The hardware options for the PC are numerous. There is a large amount of manufacturers producing PC's as well as having the option to build your own. This creates a very competitive market that drives the retail price down drastically. In a drastic contrast to the PC, Mac only has one manufacturer and no option to build your own machine. This creates a market that is almost a monopoly, as their only competition would require the user to switch to a drastically different operating system. This clearly shows that PC maintains a greater versatility and lower market price when looking at hardware.

This now brings us to the primary software, the operating system. The PC also has a large variety in this area as well. There are mainly two types of operating systems available to use on PC's, windows brand and free open source operating systems I.e. Linux and Ubuntu. The Mac hardware is also able run said operating systems, but this has only come about recently. The Mac is only recently able to run these same operating systems as the PC because they switched to a more mainstream processor. In looking at the Mac OSX operating system, it is restricted to only being compatible with the Mac Machines (Apple Corporation, 2007). Therefore, surprisingly Mac has made their machines more versatile than the PC in the arena of operating systems.
Last of all we are coming to the topic that is near and dear to us all, cost. The two major cost factors with computers are main hardware components and software. When looking at the hardware aspect, the PC cost is very low. You could purchase a good PC that is fully capable for a standard user at a mere $399.99(Hewlet packard, 2008). The Mac runs at a much higher price, in finding a computer with slightly lower computing power the Mac priced $799.99(Apple, 2008) which is double the PC price. Software cost is a completely different story. Software for the PC tend to run high due to licensing fees that force the price up. Contrasting this the Mac actually comes with a great deal of software for free as well as having a very large freeware community. The prices on Mac software also tends to be cheaper when you do have to pay. To sum up the cost factor, even though Mac has the cheapest software options, it still cannot beat out the drastically reduced prices of the PC hardware.
In the realm of hardware, PC seems to beat out Mac with it's versatility. Then we come to the software and Mac comes in with a surprising win in software versatility. Last but not least we come to cost which seems to favor the PC, despite Mac's low software prices. After comparing the aspects of hardware, software, and cost, it seems that PC wins out over the Mac. Unless you would like to pay extra for the fahionably designed computer.

Bibliography
Apple Corporation. (2007, December 05). APPLE. Retrieved January 19, 2008, from Support: http://docs.info.apple.com/art icle.html?artnum=301341
Apple. (2008). Mac Store. Retrieved 01 26, 2008, from Apple: http://store.apple.com/1-800-M Y-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore. woa/91264003/wo/ER62XgwXpe8w3u 2BSOr1ybHIcgI/2.?p=0
Hewlet packard. (2008). Hewlet Packard Store. Retrieved 01 26, 2008, from Hewlet Packard: http://www.shopping.hp.com/web app/shopping/computer_can_seri es.do?storeName=computer_store &category=desktops&a1=Usage&v1 =Everyday+computing&series_nam e=s3300z_series

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