I am just curious - we have always had PCs with Windows - XP & 7 and have always been Microsoft users because that is what the schools/work in our area have used. Now, more people are starting to use Macs. In fact, I just saw a friend today with a brand new Macbook Pro. My question is, what makes Apple laptops so expensive?? How could I ever justify spending $2,100 instead of $700? Also, is it true that they do not get viruses?

Thanks!

Ok lets answer these in order.

1. the price.
They are expensive because of the "apple experience." that and most first time computer buyers buy for style as opposed to stats because they like the look, dont understand the difference, etc. Alot of word of mouth makes the computers more expensive through good advertising, customer service, and the fact that they rarely break in anyway. (Hold on anti-apple people)
2. Justification
If you want reliability and will never bother trying to use any advanced functions on the computer or will use it just for school, then an Apple notebook is probably a good choice. HOWEVER, i would never buy one, as Mac OS X is too dumbed down, lacks good structure for their options, and supports very little software compared to Windows. Not to mention if you planning on doing any kind of gaming, a good plain windows desktop would be better.
3. Viruses.
That is both true and false. As i just said, most software is make for the windows OS systems. And Mac OS X gets left out alot. Same thing for viruses. Most hackers will make a virus for windows, because it is more likely to work. No that does not mean that Apple PC's are immune, they just have a much better chance of not getting it. As more Apples get sold more hackers will make more viruses for the apple OS

Parts and the desire to get as much money out of you as possible. You could spend a lot more to get what you get from an Apple laptop if you want to justify it that way, better video card, better hard drive, better CPU. Then again, you could also say, i got an iPhone therefore my mac will probably work the same. Its why you've seen lots of people get iEverything. And they do get viruses, but they only get like 1 out of a million of them, which makes them relatively safe to go online, since most viruses are designed for Windows because they hate windows.

Because Apple has successfully established an almost divine presence. When we think Apple Macintosh, we think "t3h epic pwnz0r computer of total epicness. and its shiny!!!!1"

In reality, Linux also uses a stable *nix kernel, and some Linux releases (Ubuntu) have interfaces that are becoming more and more Mac-ish. And most Linux distributions (including Ubuntu) are real and can be installed on your Windows computer.

Because Apple has successfully established an almost divine presence. When we think Apple Macintosh, we think "t3h epic pwnz0r computer of total epicness. and its shiny!!!!1"

In reality, Linux also uses a stable *nix kernel, and some Linux releases (Ubuntu) have interfaces that are becoming more and more Mac-ish. And most Linux distributions (including Ubuntu) are real and can be installed on your Windows computer.

Because they look purdy! No, they do not use the best parts. The graphics card in the $3000 17 inch only scores what a $50 GPU costs, they make a KILLING on components and they have fan boys who know jack **** do their advertising.

They just use the best parts for a computer. That's all there is to it. Maybe your right about the parts, but i gotta say they got some huge LCD screens

the Apple laptops quality is good and reliable... long-lasting usage if you wisely...... that why it is expensive... besides, it has its own/specific software.......