Is Apple Care worth it for me?

If your not going to keep the computer for more than a year then its worthless. the only thing i have found that i wish i had it is for phone support.

Nah, I plan to use it for a while actually.

I'm not the type to frequently buy computers, but then again I don't use them until they're dinosaurs either.

So apple care will cover any defects for 3 years as long as they're not like accidental or from neglect?

when a product first comes out, or is a new thing, I think it is worth getting the applecare, especially since you don't know if the product is stable or not. In this case, the macbook and macbook pro both have problems, and boy are they bad. If you happen to get a lemon, you may keep it long enough till a new, stabler one comes out, then apple will replace it free. Much like how my iBook 900 G3 was so much of a lemon it went in 14x on various stuff. When the 1.2GHz iBook 12" came out, apple just took my old one off of me, and gave me a brand new G4. Worked right out of the box!.

I can testify after buying a lot of products from apple (mainly being computers) it IS worth getting it. The thing is there if you need it, or when you need it. In the case of a new start of a product, much like the macbook and macbook pro, i say it is worth it. I doubt we have touched the tip of the iceberg on these thing's problems

Buy AppleCare if you fall under one of these categories:

1. Buy an iPod
2. Buy a laptop
3. Have money to burn

Since iPods and laptops use miniaturized circuitry and are jostled around, they're more susceptible to failure, even if it's not abuse. Desktop hardware is definitely more robust, so the failure rate is much lower.

My rule is basically an extension of Dr. Webster's rule. Applecare is a MUST if you own an iPod or a laptop. Having had Applecare save my bacon on a fair number of occasions, I can't recommend it enough. I'm also going to extend it to iMacs as well. LCD panel reliability isn't exactly something I'd consider to be at it's peak. Having seen a fair number of iMac G5 lcd panels go bad after 15 months of use, I would buy applecare on one. Also, factor in the fact that repairs on iSight equipped iMacs are rather labor intensive (even for things as simple as a hard drive replacement), so Applecare is worthwhile on those as well.

Don't buy Applecare if you have a mac mini, iPod Nano or Shuffle (the economics don't make sense), or a pro grade machine (though do buy it if your business depends on this machine and you don't intend on working on it).

My former employer bought a DP 1.8 G5 2 years ago after using a beige G3 MT for years. One of their larger clients started sending us Quark6 files and we were still on Q4.1! I believe the comment to the owner was "If you can't open our files maybe we need to find another printer". Bought the G5 2 hours later ;-)

They decided not to purchase AppleCare then or when it expired. At 18 months it died because of the fluxuating power in the building (yes I had a Surge protector on it but it wasn't enough) which killed off one of the processors/power supply and HD. Cost was almost $1,500 and 2 weeks worth of lost production. If they would have spent $249 it would have been covered completely. Last week they called me and said they just spent another $1,000 to replace the other processor in it. That too would have been covered by AppleCare.

Whether you have a Mac Mini or a Mac Pro or anything in-between... get the AppleCare! If you can get the EDU discount for it, you have no excuse for NOT buying it. Here the cost for my wife's Mac Mini AppleCare was only $99 since she works at a local University. Peace of mind was never so cheap.

I do agree with the Shuffle/AppleCare thought but the Nano has me on the fence.

Dave

From what iantm said about iMac G5's w/ iSight, I think I'm going to go ahead and buy applecare, before the warranty runs out...