By the looks of it, Microsoft will only stop advertising the price advantage of Windows PCs over Apple Macs when it will be preaching in vain to the “choir” of consumers that have assimilated the fact as an ubiquitous reality. The bottom line is that Windows PCs are, indeed, cheaper than Macs, and Microsoft is simply striving effortlessly to drive home a point already evident to consumers with basic comparative capabilities.

Still, while continuing to push the concept of an Apple tax, the Redmond company is inherently tying Apple to higher costs, a move that will undoubtedly hurt the Cupertino-based hardware company, especially in the context of the economic downturn. A Microsoft-sponsored whitepaper from Roger Kay of Endpoint Technologies Associates indicates that buying two PCs over two Macs could save a hypothetical family of four no less than $3,367.

The “paper shows the ‘Apple tax’ is the combination of what people pay up front when purchasing a Mac and what people pay over the life of their computer – the hidden tax,” Brandon LeBlanc, Windows communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team, revealed. “Roger looked into both aspects in his whitepaper, and has discovered some interesting findings around the ‘hidden tax’ of owning a Mac – using the scenario of a hypothetical family of 4 and their costs over a five-year period.”

Just by buying a Dell Inspiron 15 and a HP d5100t over a MacBook and a Mac Pro, consumers could save $1,751. But at the same time, both the PCs and the Mac computers need additional software, services and support and upgrades. Here is where Microsoft is stretching it a tad, and critics have been fast to slap the Redmond company on the wrist for this, arguing that users don't really need MobileMe, which, in the end, is optional. But still, the Apple tax whitepaper is nothing more than a marketing move, and although it may offer a perspective that some consumers do not share, it is not like Apple stuck perfectly to reality when it did its marketing campaigns attacking Windows. Microsoft feels that it's simply the right time to return the favor.

“It is human nature to focus on the up-front price. The coverage around our Laptop Hunters ads jumps right to that (‘PCs are cheaper’). The harder thing to capture is the overall cost and the VALUE. Roger’s paper does a great job illustrating this. Cost is getting something cheaper. Value is a function of getting more of what you want, regardless of what you spend. And you’re a lot more likely to find that with a Windows PC,” LeBlanc added.