I just ordered a new 15-inch Powerbook (my current specimen is not what once was), the high-end model (DVD writer, backlit keys, 1.25Ghz) with the memory pumped up to a gig. Interestingly, it ended up costing almost exactly the same as Lauren paid for hers a couple of months ago. The Mac is a bit more heavily configured, so I was kind of surprised, since Apples have a reputation for a premium price. The explanation has three parts: first, IBM is not the cheapest vendor of Wintel boxes. Second, she got the thin-and-light model, and laptops have a weight function that looks something like $-1,000/lb. Finally, the Canadian dollar keeps drifting up, so imports get cheaper. Another way to look at it is, Macintoshes are generally price-competitive.
