I was visiting the Penang Picom PC Fair during lunch today and was delighted to see an apple booth. In the past years, they did not make their presence felt, and this year they made an effort with the Switch campaign. I took the effort to do some price comparison for the Macbook range and found some price traps. I will explain what are those in detail later. In summary, my recommendation is to purchase your machine from Singapore or US, and then purchase your Apple Care in Malaysia. I have found that the Apple Care package have been priced rather competitive where it is cheaper in Malaysia by RM218 and RM156 comparing against US and Singapore.

The machines are best to buy in the US where you can have savings from RM382 to RM502. These savings can contribute significantly to your Apple Care package. Purchasing in Singapore will bring you savings from RM167 to RM241, almost half of what you can save from buying in the US. Again, these savings are rather significant.

The price trap I mention is by purchasing the machine and the apple care package on the respective countries. For example, if you purchase the basic machine and apple care from the US, you are only saving RM164 comparing to purchasing the machine in the US and then purchase the apple care package in Malaysia. Worst is purchasing both machine and apple care package in Singapore, where it gives you a mere RM11 savings.

So, if you are looking to purchase a macbook in Malaysia, I would recommend to get it from the US, if possible, and then purchase the apple care here in Malaysia. If not, you can try to get it from Singapore, and in all cases, purchase the apple care in Malaysia, its the cheapest among the 3 countries.

Note: All prices above are converted from USD and Singapore Dollar to Ringgit Malaysia based on Google Conversion rate on Apr 18, 2008.