[mpancha]

Many will disagree, but after owning a few (and varied) Mac products... every one of them breaks and when they break, break in an expensive way. When this happens outside of the first year, you have to pay out of pocket unless you have Apple Care. Apple care gives you full coverage on you Apple product for 3 years.

For example, my current MacBook Pro within owning it for a few months, had a keyboard issue, they replaced my keyboard for me. A few months later, the LCD had around 2 dozen dead pixels, and the bottom right was washed out, as if the pixels were malfunctioning. THey replaced my screen. 2 months ago, the battery stopped holding a charge, and I am very keen on properly charging it... they replaced the battery.

With Apple Care, after the first year, all of the repairs are covered, at no cost to you. Otherwise, you pay parts and labor which is expensive on any product, but seemingly more expensive on Apple products.

That said, not every apple product breaks so easily, but in my experience, I"ve had to make use of Apple care with my iBooks, Mac Book Pro, keyboard and even mighty mouse. AppleCare isn't very cheap, but its a fraction of the cost of parts and labor if you don't have it.