how imp it is to buy a 2 year extended warranty ?

IMO, it is a gamble. Extended warranties for any product are a huge revenue stream for companies. If you can afford to self-insure, that is, if you can pay for repairs needed after the normal warranty then don't buy the extended warranty. If you will be hurting finacially if you have to pay for repairs after the normal warranty expires, buy the extended warranty.

Extended warranties, based on many articles from the industry, benefit the sellers of the warranties more than they benefit the buyers of the warranties. Of course there are many examples of people who benefited, just as there are many examples of lottery winners.

So, personally I do not buy extended warranties for any products, nor do I buy lottery tickets, and so far this strategy has worked for me. I'm ahead. So you should make your own decision based on how well you can afford to pay for a repair.

The way I look at extended warranties is that if you buy one you are betting that your product will fail and need repairs within the extended warranty period. If you are so confident that your product will fail that you are willing to spend significant dollars for the warranty, why not buy a better product in which you have more confidence that it won't fail?

It's one of the best accessories you can get for your Mac. AppleCare extends the warranty by 2 years, so you get a total of 3 years warranty coverage. AppleCare is reasonably priced. I get it with all my Macs, and believe it's especially important for laptops. "Don't leave home without it."

Just to clarify, AppleCare provides more than mere warranty coverage for the Mac itself. It also provides coverage for Apple hardware associated with your Mac (for example, memory, Airports, Time Capsule, display; also for your software (Apple software); and general call-in support for system questions and problems.

I purchase AppleCare because it is reasonably priced for the value and gives me significant peace of mind, not because I have worries the product will fail. And I have had the pleasure of receiving outstanding support from Apple ... their reps are courteous, they know their stuff, they know when to escalate to the engineers, and they will stay with you until the problem is solved. Four examples:

- AppleCare replaced the 20" screen on my original iMac G5 at 3 years and 11 months. One phone call followed by taking my iMac to the local Apple Store; after a brief checkout by the Apple Genius they wrote up a form and 3 days later I picked up my repaired iMac. It would have cost over $900 to replace that screen. Cost me $0. So my investment in the $169 AppleCare was more than worth it.

- Apple spent over 3 hours plus engaged their engineers when I couldn't get a third-party font to install properly, and it appeared to be a system problem.

- They supported me when I started getting driver warning messages in a remote location; and diagnosed that it was a problem with the local wireless access point and how to correct for the problem

- Helped diagnose a faulty eMac Airport card purchased after the fact ... a refurbished Airport card at that ... and they replaced it with a new Airport card.

All covered by AppleCare. Worth it? You bet.

For some perspective, I have never purchased AppleCare for any of the 14 Macs I have personally owned over the past 27 years, or for the numerous iPads, iPods, AirPorts and other Apple gear. This is "self-insurance". The money I did not spend on AppleCare would easily buy two or three high end iMacs plus a fully configured Mac Pro today.

AppleCare is a very worthwhile program that I highly recommend, but I am quite Apple does not lose money on it.

I remember with the older MacBook Pro models that used CFL backlight for the LCD, the CFL would dim with time, and by the end of the extended warranty with AppleCare, you could have some "banding" on the screen, or a dim screen. With the AppleCare you could get the LCD replaced for free as long as it was before the AppleCare expired. That alone is generally worth more than the cost of the AppleCare. I remember that I took my late 2007 MBP in to the Genius Bar about a month before the Apple Care expired. They replaced the DVD writer, the LCD panel, and the logic board all for free. If I would have had to pay for that, it would have probably been almost as cheap to buy a new MBP, but since I didn't have to pay, I got another 1.5 years out oif it before I bought it's replacement, my current late 2011 MBP.

AppleCare is sort of a necessary evil because of how Apple prices the repairs so expensively. Just getting AppleCare is an admission that there is not enough faith that Macs can go 3 years without some kind of problem.

I get AppleCare because I use Macs for a business. In that context, you should get AppleCare because you depend on it for your living and because you can write off the cost on your taxes. A no-brainer.

If you aren't using your Mac for your business, you need to decide whether you want to assume that every Mac you buy costs $X00 more because you have to get the warranty. Sometimes you can do it a different way, if for example your credit card doubles the manufacturer warranty on stuff you buy with it, then at least you have a 2-year warranty. Or maybe you're more concerned about accidents than repairs. In that case you don't want AppleCare because it won't cover accidents; you want to get insurance instead.

Some people like to trade up their Macs after 12 to 18 months. Those people don't worry about AppleCare because they're not going to keep the Mac long enough to make AppleCare worth it.

On a portable you use in real world conditions, AppleCare is indispensable. Just like you wouldn't dare drive in the wild city streets in a new Mercedes or BMW without insurance. On a desktop, or a portable left to languish as a pseudo-desktop, it may not be so important.

Note that the terms state AC needs to be activated within the base warranty period. Means you don't have to purchase up front and can wait until the last month or so of the base warranty (one year in most of the world, two years in the EU).

Very important.

Without extended warranty coverage any repair service needed will be very expensive.

AppleCare telephone tech support is extended to an additional 2 years.

Best.