The New AppleCare

Dan Knight - 1999.10.27

Low End Mac Reader Specials

Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com

LA Computer Company: LA Computer Company: Specials on AppleCare, Apple Displays, MacBooks, iMac's, MacBook Pros, Laptop and iPod accessories and more. Apple A/C Adapters for laptops starting at $25.00 Call 1-800-941-7654 or Click Here.

OWC: Burn DVDs, DVD-DL, CDs, DVD-Ram - FAST! Superdrive upgrades from OWC starting from $31.99 with options for nearly every Mac. Models with Lightscribe, Blu-Ray too!

Mac users can finally play Party Poker for Mac. Not only that, they can also learn how to play PokerStars for Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, laptops, and LCD TVs side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for a new cell phone GPS products or MP3 players. The Ciao network makes searching products easy for you.

MacPro Memory 667Mhz With Apple Spec Heat Sink 2GB $90 / 4GB $134 / 8GB $264. Click to Maximize your Macs...

The Old AppleCare

At Baker Book House, were I work days as an information systems manager, we used AppleCare for years, generally until Apple stopped offering coverage for a particular model.

We stopped that earlier this year. I did a cost analysis and discovered that with over 70 Macs, we could toss broken ones in the trash and replace them with brand new units for less than AppleCare was costing us. Of course, most of the time we repair them, sometimes we replace them with newer used machines, and once in a while we do buy a new replacement unit.

But due to Apple's overall reliability, we're far ahead paying for repairs as we go instead of paying for AppleCare.

The New AppleCare

But Apple's changed AppleCare. Under the old program, we might pay $13 per month to cover a Quadra 650, then another $10 per month for the attached monitor. At $276 per year while the Quadra's value dropped below $200 on the used market, it just didn't make sense.

PowerBooks were pretty costly. The b&w PowerBook 540 was $25 per month, or $300 per year. The color 540c was significantly more expensive.

Today you can add two years coverage to Apple's one year warranty, get a copy of TechTool, and have three years of technical support for $149 to $299.

AppleCare for the iMac is only $149. One year of Quadra 650 coverage used to be more than that.

The iBook can be covered for just $229, a good deal less than a single year of the old AppleCare coverage on a b&w PowerBook 540. In fact, the PowerBook G3, at $299 for the additional two years, is half as expensive to cover as that old PowerBook 540.

And on the desktop side, a Power Mac G3 or G4 plus any Apple display purchased with it can have three full years of protection for just $249. That's less than it cost to cover a Quadra 650 and Apple monitor for one year in the old days.

AppleCare Value

The question: is the new AppleCare a good value?

If you buy refurbished equipment, which usually comes with a 90 day warranty and a significant price discount, you can buy a computer with three years of protection for about the same as a non-refurbished unit with one year of coverage. Considering that the unit has already been refurbished once and the typical price of refurbished Apple hardware, I'd say it's a no brainer - go for AppleCare when buying a refurb.

With factory new hardware, it's harder to say. Electronics tend to be robust. If they last the first 24 hours of use without a failure, they will probably keep running for years and years without a problem. That's the argument against AppleCare.

The argument for AppleCare is different. Hard drives are remarkable, but also the part most likely to fail. To buy a replacement drive and pay a technician to install it may be as costly as an AppleCare contract.

From another perspective, repair is automatic for three years. The dealer doesn't have to diagnose the problem, provide an estimate, get your blessing to spend the money, order the part(s), etc. They find the problem, get the part, and fix it with no need for delay.

Further, AppleCare has traditionally been very profitable for the dealer, so there was always a tendency to treat AppleCare customers as priority customers. If that's still true with the new AppleCare, it's another argument in favor of spending the $149 to $299 for the additional two years of coverage.

Will I recommend AppleCare at work? Probably not for the desktops, since there are so many and failure is relatively unlikely. There we can play the odds and fix them as we go along.

But I will probably recommend AppleCare for the iBook and PowerBook G3. We only have a few, so we can't play the odds. They receive rougher handling than desktops, simply because they are portable, and when a laptop does need repair, it's costly.

For home use, I'd probably buy AppleCare. Although I have a nice collection of older Macs at home, they're mostly so old that it's cheaper to replace them than repair them. That would not be true for a new iMac, iBook, Power Mac, or PowerBook.

Further, because these would be productivity tools, not just game machines or fun web surfing toys, I wouldn't want to be without them any longer than necessary should they need repair.

The Details

You can buy an AppleCare Protection Plan with any new Apple computer, or any time during the one-year warranty period. If you buy a Power Mac G3 or G4 with an Apple display, the display will automatically be covered. If the display is purchased separately, it will not be covered by the Power Mac AppleCare plan, but you should be able to purchase AppleCare coverage for the monitor.

After you purchase AppleCare, you will receive a bootable TechTool diagnostic CD, have technical support on the phone for the entire period of the contract, and have access to a special web site for AppleCare customers.

If you're buying an Apple computer, AppleCare merits consideration.

Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986, sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, and has been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Mac Musings

More air: Expectations for future MacBook and MacBook Pro models, 07.08. Next generation 'Books are expected to include Intel's next generation Montevino processor, but wireless power and wireless USB could give Apple a leg up on the competition.
PowerPC's last chance: The Mac's history with the G5 CPU, 06.24. The introduction of the G5 Power Mac in June 2003 promised a bright 3 GHz future, and failure to achieve that paved the way to today's Intel Macs.
16:9 computer displays: Let's not go there, 06.17. "...there's no reason our computer displays should match the proportions of our television displays."
More in the Mac Musings index.

Recent Content on Low End Mac

Time Machine can now backup to a shard hard drive, Alan Zisman, Zis Mac, 07.08. Earlier versions of Leopard didn't seem to allow backup to a shared drive on another Mac, but the 10.5.4 update allows it.
Safari 3.1 Is the best browser for Macs and for Windows, Carl Nygren, Classic Macs in the Intel Age, 07.08. Apple's Safari browser is fast, lightweight, and compatible with pretty much any website that doesn't require users to run Windows and Internet Explorer 5.5 or later.
Best iBook G3 deals, Low End Mac Deals, 07.08. Used clamshell, $100; 500 MHz CD, $169; 700, $279; 600 CD-RW, $240; 900 Combo, $299; 14" 700, $300; 900, $449.
Best Power Mac G4 deals, Low End Mac Deals, 07.08. Used 450 MHz ACP, $79; 533 DA, $100; 867 QS, $200; 1.25 GHz MDD Combo, $375; 867 dual, $325; 1 GHz, $395; 1.25, $529; 1.42, $619.
Best classic iPod deals, Low End Mac Deals, 07.08. Used 20 GB, $100; 30, $120; 40, $150; 60 color, $175; 30 video, $160; 80, $200; refurb 80 classic, $209; new, $229; refurb 160, $299; new, $319.
Mac of the Day: 'Lombard' PowerBook G3, June 1999 - 'bronze keyboard' model is first PowerBook with USB, reaches 400 MHz, trims almost 2 lb.
List of the Day: PowerList for those using Power Computing Mac clones.
July 8 in LEM history: 02: Banned by Macworld - Window XS - OS X: More than just another Unix variant - 03: Hooked by the iBook - Panther and the beige G3 - 05: Future 'Book to use iPod as trackpad?
Macintosh reliability improving since the shift to Intel, Kev Kitchens, Kitchens Sync, 07.07. For a while in the G3 and G4 era, Apple was plagued with logic board failures and analog board problems, but they seem to be a thing of the past.
1.8 GHz, SSD MacBook Air price cuts; Samsung vs. Hitachi notebook drives; Centrino 2 preorders; and more, The 'Book Review, 07.07. Also MacBook shipments up 61% over Q1 2007, Apple notebook redesign rumored, Santa Rosa MacBook Pro video failure, Mopar in-vehicle wireless Internet, bargain 'Books from $150 to $2,749, and m
iPhone 3G service more costly in States, outrageous in Canada, and more, iNews Review, 07.07. Also long fingernails and the iPhone, future iPhone may include keyboard and Intel Atom CPU, voice control for iPods, Ringtons Studio for the iPhone, and more.
Best MacBook deals, Low End Mac Deals, 07.07. Used 1.83 GHz Combo, $819; 2.0 SD, $975; refurb 2.1 GHz Combo, $949; 2.4 SD, $1,099; black, $1,299; new 2.1 Combo, $1,005 a/r; 2.2 SD, $1,205 a/r; more.
Best eMac deals, Low End Mac Deals, 07.07. Used 700 MHz CD, $140; CD-RW, $150; Combo, $170; 1 GHz, $200; 1.25 GHz SD, $230; 1.42 GHz Combo, $300; SuperDrive, $439.
Best Mac OS X 10.0-10.3 deals, Low End Mac Deals, 07.07. Mac OS X 10.0.3, $40; 10.1, $49; 10.2, $60; 10.3 DVD, $80; CD, $160; 10.1 Server, unlimited users, $80; 10.3 Server, unlimited, $130.
More links in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2008 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, PowerBook, MacBook, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.