Apple thrashes Dell on Mac Pro pricing

Here's one for Tommy Lame:

Dual Core Intel Xeon 2.66GHz x 2 (4MB shared L2 cache) Dell: $2,866.00 (with a $200 discount for small business) Apple: $2,424.00 Dual Core Intel Xeon 3GHz x 2 (4MB shared L2 cache) Dell: $3,686.00 (with a $200 discount for small business) Apple: $3,224.00

You can see Dell pips Apple by a tiny $38 for the 2GHz option, but then is whipped into shape by Apple with a $442 saving on the 2.66GHz option and a similarly large margin with the 3ghz processors - $462 per system. It must be noted that the machine from Dell does have a three year on-site warranty whereas the Apple has only the one year, but this is less important to small businesses who have their own IT support, and consumers who wish to get the cheapest deal - something Dell usually wins hands down.

This is quite incredible. Any major OEM has trouble matching pricing with Dell, considering the mbuttive volume discount Dell gets from Intel. But Apple aren't only matching them on the lower specs, they're thrashing them on the higher specced systems - relatively huge margins of pricing difference.

You have to wonder what sort of discounts Apple are getting from Intel, and if this is why Dell is now holding hands with AMD.