Apple Tax
A couple weeks ago I posted a photo on Flickr of my less than modest iPod collection, which prompted a question from my French
I didn’t want to know, but that’s usually a good sign that I probably should. So, here goes:
I started buying music from iTunes in late 2005, and since then have spent $820.38. I started buying TV shows about a year ago and have since dropped $205.74 on 5 series season passes, a set of 15 Daily Show episodes, and other odd shows here and there. That brings my iTunes total to $1,026.12.
Now, devices. I bought my first iPod in the summer of 2003 (when I was interning at Microsoft – hey, the Zune wasn’t out yet!). Otherwise, the rest of the following were bought in the last 24 months. I’ve listed them in order of purchase.
15GB 3rd Gen iPod = $400
Power PC iMac = $1200
512MB 1st Gen iShuffle = $99
1GB 2nd Gen iShuffle =$99(it was a gift, so it doesn’t count)
8GB 2nd Gen iPod Nano = $250
Apple TV = $300
8GB iPhone =$600(paid for by my company, so again, doesn’t count)
And while it’s obviously not a device, but since I don’t really buy much Apple software, let’s throw OSX Leopard on the devices/product list.
OSX Leopard = $140 - $100 = $40 (I used my $100 iPhone rebate!)
That brings my devices total to $2,289. Add my iTunes bills and my grand Apple expenses total comes to $3,315.13
Now, if we divide that by the 3 years that I’ve been a customer, I on average send Apple $92.08 every month. This might seem like a lot, but my Apple “investment” really started growing when I cut off my Adelphia (now TimeWarner) cable TV. My cable bill, including $45 for internet, started off just shy of $100 a month but steadily increased to around $130 before I killed it. If I add my monthly Apple charge of $92.08 to my internet bill, I spend $137.08 monthly for my entire web & media content and players system.
A more fair comparison would really be to contrast just my iTunes TV content bills ($165.75 / 24 months = $8.57 per month!) to my old cable TV costs, but the players infrastructure I’ve bought to host the content isn’t insignificant. Even so, at worst, being an "early adopter" costs me extra $7.08 a month.
