Apple, I'm begging you.

I never thought I'd find myself pleading to Apple. They're a company that I have long-disliked for their inflated prices, snobbish fanbase, and of course, the fact that they don't allow their operating system to be installed on a vanilla box.

But I will give credit to one area of Apple's. Their Final Cut Studio is a wonderful software suite, and the main part of it, Final Cut Pro, is my favorite editing tool (though I haven't had much practice with Avid to be honest). It's truly a powerful set of tools, and I cannot wait to try out Color, the digital color correction program new to FCS2.

So why am I pleading? Well, like I said, I can't stand Apple's prices, and while my student discount helps, it's still not a huge dent in the price. Hell, the stock Mac Book Pro is $1999 without discount, and with discount, is $1799. Sounds nice, but tax brings it back to almost the original price (if memory serves correct, $1945, but it's somewhere near there), meaning it'll be a while before myself, or my parents can afford it. My school actually happens to use Avid for editing, and the Adobe lines of products for compositing and effects, which is interesting, because I can run all those programs on a PC (or Windows-based laptop). The desire to buy a far cheaper Windows-laptop is growing, even though I WANT to get a Mac simply because I can run OSX, Windows, AND FCS (within OSX obviously).

Sorry Apple, you've lost a customer for now. I haven't bought anything yet, but I suggest you reconsider your prices if you want to take a larger chunk of market share. Also, I know you love your hardware dominance and profit from only allowing OSX to install on Apple hardware, but I wonder what would happen if you allowed other people to simply buy OSX off the shelf (already possible), and install it on their PC. Maybe one day, you'd be looking at a much larger install base, eh?

In protest of Apple's high prices, I'm suggesting this method to buying a Mac Book Pro:

Go to Amazon.com; if possible, find a refurbished MBP for around $1699 (yeah, it's lower than the student discount...), and buy it. You'll get charged a few bucks shipping, but you'll still be saving nearly $300. Enjoy your somewhat cheaper, but still overpriced Mac Book Pro.