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Apple Announces MacBook Air
Apple made four announcements at MacWorld Expo: the new MacBook Air, new features for the iPhone and iPod Touch, and movie rentals via iTunes from a TV without a computer involved. The new portable gets most of the attention. It is 0.76" thick at the thickest part, tapering to 0.16". It weighs 3 pounds and has a 13.3" screen and full-size, backlit keyboard. Its Intel chip is the diameter of a dime and the thickness of a nickel. The MacBook Air will cost $1799 and up. Its storage is either 80 GB disk or 64 GB solid-state drive. 2 GB of memory. It has no optical drive (an external one is available for $99) and features a way to wirelessly use the optical drive of any nearby Mac or PC with the proper software installed.
Just because it costs a lot doesn't mean it's overpriced. It's a deal compared to comparable Sony models with less power and aren't as thin.
Then get a MacBook. Sorry but you are not going to fit it into that form factor.
"Wah Wah Wah, I want a replaceable battery in the iPod."
Get a Nomad. Some companies even have players which take AAs.
"But they're not tiny like an iPod".
Compare a AA to an iPod... there's no way you're going to get it into that form factor.
Go take the battery out of your laptop. Notice all the extra plastic around the battery. And then the laptop has to have plastic where the battery sits. So you're already essentially doubling the case thickness.
Do you want a laptop that is 0.16" to 0.76" thick? Go grab a ruler and put that in perspective. There is no way in hell you're going to do that with a standard external battery.
If you are not willing to accept those tradeoffs then you are not the target market for the MacBook Air. Might I suggest a MacBook or a MacBook Pro?
Integrate Keynote and LaTeX
Compared to Vaios that have a DVD drive or 200GB second drive built in?
Really thin is only so useful. The Vaio TZ (along with some Japanese laptops that we don't get here in the states) allows you to change the way that you live. You can stuff those notebooks into a man-purse (Tumi makes some that fit rather well) and go. You can use them in the coach section of an airplane without fear of screen-crunch.
I'm not saying that the Macbook Air is a bad thing. Thin notebooks are nice, but thickness is the dimension that I find least annoying in a notebook (keeping in mind that my thickest notebook is a comparably enormous Vaio FZ, and my favorite notebook is my Thinkpad T42). I wouldn't want my sub-notebook to be as thick as the old Thinkpads were (think DSM-IV hardcover) size, but the footprint matters as well.
If only someone would bring back the old butterfly keyboard of the Thinkpad 701...
Target audience? When was the last time you were in an Apple store? The place was flooded with teens and parents. Right before fall semester starts its flooded with college freshmen. I was in there after christmas. A guy was in there with his daughter, she was going to get an iPhone. She was 14. There is a large population that falls under "rich" but above $100,000 a year. People that probably have insane amount of debt but have the latest and greatest.
Could you imagine this in a college setting? 90% of these kids just use AIM, Mail, & Word. And before you go off ranting about how expensive it is for some college kid. Imagine those kids who drive new cars to college. The ones whose parents live in 500,000 houses and drive the latest from Mercedes. $5k is a drop in the bucket, I'm sure they can find another credit card to put it on.
But you know what, they keep Apple in business. And as long as they do that I'm happy with the other toys Apple gives me (ZFS, Unix, Stuff that just works(tm)).
The same reason I don't have a problem with BMW selling their 3 and 5 series to any yuppie that wants to buy it. People that won't even touch the performance of what it's capable of. Because those people give BMW money to make nice toys for me like the M3 which I can take out to the track.
Huh? Who made you the official spokesperson for the needs of business users everywhere?
I imagine this will see excellent sales among business users, regardless of the "integrated battery". A Core 2 Duo at 1.8Ghz isn't exactly "poor performing". My Macbook Pro is the first generation model with the original Core Duo (not Core 2) CPU in it. It still performs quite well for me, so I'd expect to see similar overall performance from the Macbook Air.
Furthermore, as Apple pointed out, the thickest portion of this notebook is THINNER than the thinnest part of Sony's Vaio slim notebook line. The battery life is rated as high as 5 hours. The keyboard isn't some "compact" model with keys too closely spaced together, and the display is a full 13.3" instead of some 11" or 12" compromise.
Considering the fact that notebooks are largely non user-serviceable to begin with, the need to mail this off for battery replacement shouldn't be a huge change for most laptop users. (When's the last time your full-size HP, Toshiba or Gateway laptop malfunctioned, and you were able to swap out the defective motherboard or video or display with parts picked up at your local retailer, huh?)
Judging by how many notebooks I see in service with totally non-functional, worn out batteries in them - I think for many people, it's not even a priority..... They don't like the price of new li-ion batteries anyway, so they do without when the original wears out. If you have you car and airline charger/adapter, along with your AC power adapter, the ability to plug it in wherever you go still makes your portable computer pretty darn portable.
The MacBook Air is NOT designed to be a "primary computer."
In fact, the brilliance on Apple's part here is the recognition (FINALLY) that there are lots of people with big honkin desktop machines who also need a portable computer for going out to meetings, travel or just reading the web (on something bigger then a 3" screen) at the local coffee shop. For us, the Air is perfect - a minimalist extension of our main work computer.
The only two complaints I have about the Air are the hard drive (you get to choose slow or obscenely expensive) and the fact that Apple hasn't really taken the concept of a satellite laptop as far as they could in OS X. It would be cool if my MacPro and my laptop used WiFi to sync up documents, preferences, media files and such. This problem is especially acute in iTunes where I have hundreds of GB of media on my main machine, but have to manually manage those things on my laptop. I wish Apple recognized this problem and solved it elegantly.
Other then that, I already pre-ordered my MB Air with the SSD. I can't wait!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820609244 Looks pretty decent to me. Newegg 64GB SSD for 1533, 64GB SSD from Apple for 999. This may be the first Apple upgrade ever to be cheaper from the factory than DIY.
omg you're not genuinely unaware of the fact that for electronics, smaller is generally more advanced and hence more expensive are you?
if not, why do you constantly talk about its price in terms of its size? ("For a little tiny thing like that...", "the cost of these small machines...")
Note: Women are getting more education, and filling more elite/management positions than men.
Note: The CEO of Avon cosmetics joined Apple's board.
Apple got a Gap board member to help with retail design and strategy. Apple got a Google board member to have a strong ally in networks and data distribution.
Apple is not looking in to selling cosmetics, I can guarantee that. What Ms. Jung brings to the table is a huge amount of experience in marketing to women. Women who, per the first note, are going to be earning more, spending more, and who are an expanding market for techno-doo-dads which have been traditionally marketed to men.
Oxygen network vs. Macbook Air? I don't know if that's what's going on here, but I think it's likely to think that Apple will be pushing their products--naming, ad campaigns and more, possibly even specific designs--in ways that will be more and more appealing to women. Making a laptop that's 3 lbs instead of 5 is not something that should be ignored by anyone who has ever noted the difference between the average man's hand/wrist strength and that of the average woman.
Sony has done something similar, but half-a$$ed, with their "Bravia - A TV both Men and Women can Love" campaign. I think Apple will go down this road, and they will do it right.
The CB App. What's your 20?
Wanna bet the touchpad shows up on the other Apple notebooks as they are refreshed?
People DO pay for size. A friend of mine paid almost as much for a Lenovo x61s (IIRC) a few months back. He loves it - it weighs half what his old laptop did, gets about 3-4x the battery life, and takes up so little room that he doesn't need a separate bag for it anymore. That's worth a few hundred bucks for a lot of people, and isn't simply a matter of "being trendy".
I wouldn't want it as my primary computer, but it would certainly do the trick as a second computer (as my iBook does now...).
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I have a Toshiba Portege R500. It's 2.4lbs, .77" thick, includes an optical drive, and has a replaceable battery (usually runs me a full 6hrs on one charge with average usage). Granted it's not as powerful as the mac (it has a 1.2ghz Core 2 Duo) doesn't have all the cute features of the mac (my favorite is the backlit keyboard), but it's lighter and has some essential practical benefits over the mac. IMHO I don't fully understand the hype that's behind the Air. It's not nearly as revolutionary as people are suggesting.
The only consistency in life is the lack thereof
> what are the advantages over a normal laptop?
There are three consistently important things about portable devices - size, weight and battery life. Many people who can afford it are willing to pay for smaller, lighter and longer. It's that simple. If this perspective does not make sense to you - simply write yourself out of the target audience and get on with that which is important to you.
Many users do not need a removable battery, optical drive or additional connectors. It's that simple. If you do, simply write yourself out of the target audience and get on with that which is important to you.
There's a lot to be said about being able to understand another person's perspective and requirements. On a geek site, an engineering achievement such as an incredibly small laptop that (for instance) required Intel to produce a new, smaller chip design is worthy of respect rather than puerile comments about shiny toys. Reducing height by 25% and weight by 40% is a tough design goal. But if you can't understand the user, or appreciate the engineering - just get on with other things.
The perfect example of one who is not the target market, and who does not get it.
Me? I'm not the target market, either but I used to be. The target for the Macbook Air is the road-warrior, the person who racks up enough frequent flyer miles in a year to fly to Paris for Christmas. I know, I used to be that guy and I would've killed for this device. As it was, I had a Toshiba Portege that was awesome, though underpowered even when it was state of the art. It did me perfectly, and fit like a champ in a briefcase that I could carry into the cabin of the flight. The 5 hour battery life was also more than enough for 99% of the flights I took in the mainland US, and the flights I took within Europe. The only time I would have used the laptop more would've been on an international flight... and most of them either have rather good in flight entertainment options these days, power sockets in the seats or I had my iPod.
I have a Macbook Pro which I love to death, but I have no need of a laptop like the Air in my current job or my life. I like the expandable, heavy and reliable Pro which has run like a champ for me for two years and has given me very little trouble. If I were back in the road-warrior business, I'd be all over the Air as a primary laptop for business, using home networking for the majority of my big file storage and just keeping the necessities on the Air.
This isn't an audio studio laptop... Apple has one for that; it's the Pro. It's also not a consumer laptop... Apple has one of those; the Macbook. This is one aimed at a very specific market segment; those who need an ultra-portable computer but are less than impressed with the options available elsewhere. And at 3lbs with a 13" screen, this is just an incredible piece of technology. Hell, I'd consider one of these for the geek value if I had $2K to drop on it right now. The price point and the name say it's not for the average consumer... the lack of optical, CPU speed, expandability and so forth say it's not for the A/V pro. Like every Apple product except the iPod, it's aimed at a very specific market segment... and one that's been screaming out for exactly this for a long time.
Oh, and if you want to bring issue with the lack of an optical drive... well, I have one in my Pro which I rarely use except when I'm at "home base". And if I'm at home base, what's wrong with me hooking up a USB drive to do the same? Oh, and there's a $99 external drive available as an option if it's really important.
...Isn't Remote Disk just mounting a network shared media?