Apple may soon have the premium-priced PC market all to itself, if reports by an NPD analyst are correct.

Although research firm NPD Group hasn't issued an official release documenting its findings, an article from Betanews reports that NPD says that over 90 percent of every dollar spent on a PC listing for over $1,000 goes to Cupertino.

According to NPD, in June, average selling prices [ASPs] for all PCs sold at US retail was $701, or $690 for desktops and $703 for notebooks. But the ASPs get more interesting when comparing Macs to Windows PCs. For all Windows PCs, ASP was $515 in June. For Macs: $1,400. Desktop Windows PC ASP: $489. Mac desktops: $1,398. Windows notebook ASP was $520, or $569 when removing all those nasty, margin-sucking netbooks. Mac laptops: $1,400.

The debate has raged for years over whether Macs are worth their premium price, peppered with epithets such as "Mactard," "Windoze," and the like.

Mac supporters cite the bulletproof Mac OS X, wealth of Apple-developed bundled software, freedom from malware, long product life, and overall elegance of the Mac experience.

Windows PC supporters cite affordability, the vast choice of hardware and software, broad choice of games, clarity of product roadmaps, and the benefits of being a corporate standard.

But it all comes down to personal choice. Mac buyers are willing to spend more to get what they want. PC buyers prefer to pay less. And both Apple and the Windows PC producing ecosystem are perfectly happy to accomodate both groups.

It's just that Apple is making far more money off its fans than the Windows PC producers are off theirs. ®

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