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Porsche Designs a Laptop
An anonymous reader writes "Cnet is reporting that BestBuy is selling a porsche designed widescreen ultra thin laptop the looks almost exactly like a Tibook. Sadly, it runs windows so no one will actually want to use one for real work, but it looks pretty cool for minesweeper. Ah, I guess that the TiBook is no longer a status symbol if you can run Windows on it. It has all the trimmings, like those "made for windows 2k stickers" that get the screen all nasty when you close it."
Retailer Best Buy is aiming to take a bite out of Apple Computer with the release of a new, wide-screen notebook designed by Porsche.
Considering that Best Buy was/is the first retailer to sell iPods (Target having been recently announced as the second), I'd think they'd not want to risk slighting Apple with something like this. Even without the CNet article saying so, this laptop is clearly and squarely aimed at what is probably Apple's highest-margin computer.
The notebook was designed by Porsche Design GmbH
More accurately, it was re-designed by them.
Porsche Design is in the same family as Porsche, but you're correct -- it's technically not being done by the famous car manufacturer. Also, Porsche Design does a lot of things, from sunglasses to pocket knives to bicycles to tobacco pipes. Everything they have is well-crafted and premium quality, but expect to pay a premium for it. Also, many of their items are simply re-brands, like the bicycles (not available in the US) are actually Kleins, just with the Porsche name (Kleins are still expensive, but you might save $1000 if you buy a Klein rather than a Porsche).
Even so, for the Porsche fanatic that loves anything Porsche, Porsche Design fills a niche.
So now that the Windows World has put out something comparable to the TiBook, where are all the rabid "Macs are too pricey compared to PCs people..."
Oh wait. Maybe the $2399 price tag shut them up.
I guess the $100 dollars more for TiBook nets you firewire and gigE.
I'll try not to gloat. honest.
* We dance where angels fear to tread *
...have you even looked at the Porsche laptop? The only thing reminiscent of the Titanium Powerbook design is that both are rectangular.
I strongly disagree, A.P. Much of the design is strikingly similar, though shoddy by comparison, IMHO.
* Same unusual dimensions.
* Same widescreen format.
* Same keyboard placement relatively to the body shape.
* Same rectangular, curve-free format.
* Same silvery body.
* Same slot-loading CD drive
It's not in any way nuts to say that this design is highly derivative.
>> What business is Porche in, anyhow?
This is a joke, right?
Of course not. It was a legitimate question. I was under the impression that they were in the car-manufacturing business. Fortunately, others have replied and pointed out that Porsche Design GmbH, is more or less unrelated to the auto manufacturer, and is actually in the business of designing things other than cars for third parties. No joke, just a question, one to which I got a satisfactory response.
-Waldo Jaquith
i've been a geek and around geeks for long enough to know that we can be terrible assholes, mostly due to our insecurities. often times it's confused with "elitism" or "zealotry" when all we're trying to do is build defensive barrriers against being judged.
...". we swap confidence with materialism, hoping we'll be judged by what we own instead of who we are.
this also manifests itself with a love for material objects, e.g. "Ah, I guess that the TiBook is no longer a status symbol
seriously, slashdot posters tend to be the most materialistic around. i'd point out examples, but they're easy to pick out; people mention what they bought, what they own, and often times including full part numbers.
we're shallow, scared, insecure brats.
I don't know if I'd call OSX "crunchy" after the recently revealed mach core that's optimized for the wrong endian-ness.
11*43+456^2
The keyboards. Instead of adding keys to widen the keyboard, you've got nearly an inch of plastic on both sides of the keys.
It makes the keyboard feel like it 'sinks in'. Very uncomfortable.
They should be spending more time making laptops thinner and lighter, and sticking with a 14.1 screen, and increasing battery life.
Just my 2 cents
A.P., you're right -- none of these features are unique to Apple's PowerBook, and many of them have been incorporated for good cause. The difference is that, unlike with any other laptop that I'm aware of, they're all in place on Porsche's system. It is this group of features that makes their system highly derivative of Apple's PowerBook.
:)
Not that popular opinion is a substitute for sound logic, but I'll warrant that if Slashdot put up a poll, the majority of people would agree that the laptop that this system most strongly resembles is Apple's TiBook. The reason that this is notable, at least to me, is because I'd like to imagine that Porsche would be developing something more interesting than this. I don't imagine that Best Buy has the biggest budget out there allocated to laptop design, but surely somebody at Porsche was looking at this design before it went out the door and saying "heeeyyyy...this looks familiar..." The fact that it didn't happen makes me wonder if this was more or less intentional, or if Porsche is inclined to agree with you, and say that the design is somehow the only logical one available, in which case it's amazing that nobody thought of it before Apple.
-Waldo Jaquith