I have owned a mac for 3 Years and 1 Day. I got into the Mac world by buying a small 13″ white macbook as I entered college. I stand before you today to proclaim that it was the best investment I have ever made. I could not be more happy. I love using my mac, and will never go back to using windows, at least for my personal computers (where i still have a choice). I could go on about why I am so happy with switching to mac, but the greatest reason I am so happy is that I am currently writing this post on that same mac, and it still runs and functions like the day I bought it.

I have made many, many upgrades to my mac over these past 3 years and 1 day. I have upgraded from Tiger to Leopard, and now to Snow Leopard. I have upgraded from iLife ’06 to iLife ’08 and to iLife ’09. I have done the same with iWork ’06, ’08 and ’09. I have ordered countless other programs to run on my mac and increase its’ functionality. I have been running Adobe Design Premium CS3 on it for nearly 3 years now, and now I even run Aperture 2.0. My mac has been my sidekick, as I attempted to start a business (which only ended because of personal life circumstances). All of these are wonderful upgrades that have added a ton of value to my mac, but none of those compare to the upgrade I am most satisfied with, Applecare.

Applecare has received a lot of bad press, and I am not sure why. I was told that it was a waste of money when I first looked at purchasing it and so, I initially didn’t.  I was told that it was overpriced, and didn’t cover anything that made it worth investing in. Every new mac already comes with a 1 year warranty. This warranty covers virtually all problems that happen with your computer, except probably accidents (although i have no experience to say). When I was reaching the end of my 1 year anniversary of my mac, and thus the end of my warranty, I had just encountered one of my first problems with my mac. The edge of the plastic covering, where your hands often rest while typing, had come off. It was chipped away, and looked very ugly. I was surprised when I took in the computer that they replaced it without a question asked. Something I honestly considered wear and tear, which I assumed wouldn’t be covered by a warranty, especially a warranty that came with the computer. Recently after that, my friend took in his computer for a hardware malfunction. Again, the genius bar was rather helpful in solving the problem and in the end, fixed it with no further questions. Only weeks after that, my hard drive failed. It simply gave up the ghost and died. With only days left in my warranty I quickly took it in to get it fixed under the warranty. Of course, no problems, it was fixed.

I started questioning the mac genius at this point to see if it would be worth investing in the Applecare at this point, or even if it was still a possibility. I found out that it was still doable up to a year into your first warranty. I also discovered that it was only $149 for a student discount (this is back when apple actually gave students decent discounts). I thought about it overnight and ended up purchasing applecare on my last possible day, thus extending my warranty by another 2 years.

I went home that day with a nice square little box that said applecare on the box. Having just paid such a large some of money, I guess I was excited to have something tangible that came from my investment. In fact, I was excited to open the box, like I was getting the chance to unpack my warranty. Sadly, there wasn’t much inside that little box except some booklets, and a CD. The CD actually had a nice utility for running diagnostics. So I felt pretty good about my purchase, but I was still afraid that nothing would happen to my computer and then all that money was essentially a waste.

Well, in addition to my own purchase, I was also close to 2 other people that bought macbooks at the same time as me, who didn’t buy the warranties. During the two years that followed I watched as thier laptops had serious, expensive problems, from LCD replacements, battery replacements, power cord replacements, keyboard replacements, superdrive deaths and more. Plus my friend’s macbook had the same problem as mine did where the corner of the housing chipped off where you rest your hands while typing, but he couldn’t fix it like I could, so he ended up taping it closed. My macbook has had that happen again, has struggled with power issues, required a new battery, and also received a whole new logic board. I haven’t paid a single penny in repair or hardware upkeep in a whole 3 years, and now my computer is as good as new. It has a new trackpad, keyboard, casing, hard drive, logic board, battery, and charger. I haven’t had to stress a single day because of it. I could never be more happy with my Applecare. What is the price that you can put on peace of mind? I have had enough repairs that would have cost the price of a whole new macbook, plus some. But I haven’t paid a thing.

I love the genius bar (the place where you go to get repairs). I take it in, they diagnose the problem with all their gadgets, give you some cool tips every time, and then fix your computer and send you out with a new computer. What more could you ask for. I have even gone in without an appointment many times, and they have always fit me in. The time I went in to get a new battery they were packed until the end of the night, but some of the salespeople there, gave me a completely new macbook battery off the shelf ($129.00) and gave it to me for free. (I didn’t even expect batteries to be covered in the warranty). I have sat at the genius bar and seen many people come and go in my time as a mac customer and I have never seen them turn down a customer with their warranty. I am a happily satisfied customer.

This brings up the next issue, are the macbooks built with good enough quality control if they need all these replacements. Initially I would probably say no. However, if you look at other laptops, you will notice the same thing. It seems like all computers today (mac or windows) just don’t hold up as much as we would hope. I haven’t ran any conclusive studies, but I have to say that in my experience, I have seen more PC laptops with patches and limps than my comparable mac buddies. Yeah, they have their problems, but I am satisfied with the knowledge that no matter what happens, I can get my computer fixed FAST, if it has a problem. That is more than most computer users can say.

Applecare will be a standard upgrade on all future mac computers that I buy. I cannot encourage someone enough, that the seemingly steep price for Applecare is well worth it. Imagine using your computer for 3 years no worries. Insuring your investment will last three full years, at which point I would recommend upgrading your computer.

My macbook is 3 years and 1 day old. My warrenty expired yesterday. 4 days ago I got my top casing replaced one last time and received a new logic board. My invoice for the repair came to $897.00. Of which, I was required to pay, $0.00. It was fixed in an hour and a half, and now my computer is posting this post. The days until I upgrade to a new macbook are few, but one thing is certain, my upgrade will include Applecare.