The MacBook is out

[jarinteractive]

http://www.apple.com/macbook/

[Satcomer]

Oh yes! I am getting one as soon as I save the money up!

[Yogi Bear]

Is it just me or on the US site is there a $150 premium for a black macbook?? What a rort. They'll be charging more for black iPods soon.

I would rather have a white one anyway - thats what made iBooks unique, they werent dull black boxes like everyone else!! Although the black MacBooks do look shiney.

[timswim78]

Originally Posted by Yogi Bear

Is it just me or on the US site is there a $150 premium for a black macbook?? What a rort. They'll be charging more for black iPods soon.

I would rather have a white one anyway - thats what made iBooks unique, they werent dull black boxes like everyone else!! Although the black MacBooks do look shiney.

I agree with Yogi Bear! How crazy is it to charge (or pay) $150 more for the same laptop, in a different color?

FYI: The black MacBook is $1499, and the comparable white MacBook is $1299. However, there is a difference in the hdd size. When you account for this difference by upgrading the drive of the white MacBook, then the difference becomes $150.

Overall, I think that the white models are pretty competitively priced, considering all of the features. However, some people, like me, would prefer to pay less and not have a built-in camera.

[mi5moav]

It's a lot cheaper then sending it into colorware and having them charge $400 bucks to paint your ibook/macbook black and have it send back to you. My friend had his ipod done for like $100 bucks and it's already flaking. Plus with Apple you get a bump in the HD. Love the new keyboard hope its not like my atari 400. I wish the magsafe plug would also be black, cause that would just be stupid with a slick black ibook and this white tail hanging out.

http://www.colorwarepc.com/products/apple_services.aspx

[timswim78]

Originally Posted by mi5moav

It's a lot cheaper then sending it into colorware and having them charge $400 bucks to paint your ibook/macbook black and have it send back to you. My friend had his ipod done for like $100 bucks and it's already flaking. Plus with Apple you get a bump in the HD. Love the new keyboard hope its not like my atari 400. I wish the magsafe plug would also be black, cause that would just be stupid with a slick black ibook and this white tail hanging out.

http://www.colorwarepc.com/products/apple_services.aspx

Yes, the black MacBook does come with an extra 20GB of hdd space; however, the white ibook can be upgraded to the same hdd space for $50, making the price difference between the two $150, or 11%.

If you buy a car that comes in Black and White, you shouldn't expect to have to pay 11% extra to get it in Black.

I mean, if you want to pay $150 extra for a black notebook, feel free to. I plan on ordering mine in white.

[lurk]

I can tell you never bought a car new. The different colors do have different prices. Metallic and pearl costs more, sometimes glossy of matte costs more. (And it usually is in the $500 dollar range for the difference.)

[timswim78]

Originally Posted by lurk

I can tell you never bought a car new. The different colors do have different prices. Metallic and pearl costs more, sometimes glossy of matte costs more. (And it usually is in the $500 dollar range for the difference.)

I bought a new car in 2002. All of the colors were the same price, except for the metallics, which were a few hundred more. I can tell you that the black, green, blue, red, and white models all cost the same amount of money. Only the silver cost more, because it was metallic.

The average price for a new car in the U.S. is somewhere around $28,000. $500 for a paint upgrade is less than 2% of the cost of the car.

Like, I said, its up to the buyer if they want to spend the extra money for a black laptop. Personally, I do not like the look of a black laptop, and I'm not sure that I would spend an extra $150 for a purely cosmetic feature, even if I did prefer black. I'd rather keep the extra $150 or spend it on something that is useful, such as: external hdd, external DVD burner, protective case, or apply it towards Apple Care.