Oppenheimer: New iMac a better deal than Dell, HP
March 3, 2009: 3:23 PM ET
In reviewing Apple's (AAPL) new desktops Tuesday, some analysts chided the company for not setting "more aggressive price points," as Kaufman Bros.'s Shaw Wu put it, given today's "tough macroeconomic environment."
But not Oppenheimer's Yair Reiner. He did a spec-by-spec comparisons with comparable Dell (DEL) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) machines. His surprising conclusion, given Apple's reputation for premium pricing: he found the new iMacs to be "a better value than competing Windows-based products." Specifically...
"A side-by-side comparison suggests the new iMacs match up favorably against Dell and HP's All-in-One's on a price-to-performance basis. For example, the $1,499 model has a faster CPU and RAM with better or comparable graphics, and is still $100-$250 cheaper (though it lacks a TV Tuner, ~$60-$100 upgrade)."
To get a feel for what he's seeing, I've pasted one of his charts below:
