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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.
does it blend?
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From the apple site...
.8-1.2 inches, 11 or 12" display, miniature keyboard, and slower processor.
Hard Drive
Your MacBook Air comes standard with a Parallel ATA (PATA) 4200-rpm hard drive. Or you can choose a solid-state drive that delivers faster performance and greater durability.
arrow_open.gif arrow_closed.gif Learn more Loading...
80GB Parallel ATA Drive @ 4200 rpm
64GB Solid State Drive [Add $999]
Wow. Just Wow. Transcript from http://www.macrumorslive.com/
10:26 am New Ad for MacBook Air. Plays off of the ability to fit in an envelope.
10:25 am Pre-orders today, shipping in two weeks
10:24 am $1799
10:24 am 2 GB Memory standard
10:23 am 5 hours of Battery Life
10:23 am No optical drive, but a Superdrive accessory is available for $99. Also, software comes with the MacBook Air that allows you to "borrow" a Mac or PCs optical drive.
10:21 am 802.11n + Bluetooth 2.1/EDR
10:20 am Other features: 45 Watt MagSafe, 1 USB 2.0 port, Micro-DVI, Audio Out
10:19 am Steve retaking stage
10:19 am Otellini: The processor is as thick as a nickle and as wide as a dime.
10:18 am Apple asked Intel to shrink the Core 2 Duo. Intel shrunk the processor by 60%. Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel is taking the stage
10:17 am 1.6 GHz Standard, 1.8 GHz Option -- Intel Core 2 Duo
10:16 am 80 GB hard disk standard, 64 GB SSD as an option. "they're pricy, but they're fast"
10:15 am 1.8" Hard Drive
10:15 am How did we fit a Mac in here?
10:15 am Move a window by double-tap and move. Rotate a photo by pivoting your index finger around your thumb. Of course, pinch-zoom.
10:14 am Multi-touch trackpad
10:13 am display is LED backlit. iSight is built-in. MacBook-like keyboard, but with an ambient light sensor
10:12 am Magnetic latch, 13.3" widescreen display
10:12 am MacBook Air is 0.16" to 0.76". The thickest part of the MacBook Air is thinner than the thinnest part of the Sony. It fits inside a envelope
10:10 am We thought 3 lbs is a good target weight, but there was too much compromise with the other features
10:10 am Most people think of Sony TZ series when they think of thin notebooks. Competition specs: 3 lbs,
10:08 am "The World's Thinnest Notebook"
10:08 am As you know, Apple makes the best notebooks in the industry. Today, we are introducing a third kind of notebook. It's called the MacBook Air
10:08 am 4th thing: There's something in the air
10:07 am Steve has re-taken the stage
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
But how am I going to watch movies?
What's that? I can rent them from Apple, you say? What a coincidence!
Remember, kids, it's not lock-in, it's Steve Jobs holding you nice and safe in his loving arms...
(from tech specs page on apple.com)
"Integrated 37-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery"
Are they serious? No way to swap out a battery halfway through a 10 hour flight? No way to take it out at security check points (or if it catches fire)?
Please tell me I'm misinterpreting that phrase. Want to buy one now, but that's a deal breaker. Argh!!!
-Chris
I thought this was a pretty big part of todays Keynote:
Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, Lionsgate, Newline, FOX, WB, Disney, Paramount, Universal, Sony all on board.
Library titles: $2.99,
New Releases: $3.99,
HD rentals are $4.99.
Rules: 30 days to start watching. 24 hours to finish
Watch anywhere (Macs, PCs, all current iPods and iPhone
Thanks MacRumors.
I'm not willing to sacrifice processor speed, memory, disk drive space, and optical capability so that I can fit my laptop into an interoffice envelope.
I feel the same way about the iPhone -- with 16GB storage, it is in no way a replacement for my current iPod. But I suspect if he'd been willing to accept 1/16 of an inch increased thickness, we could be looking at 32GB or 64GB, and then you've got me as a customer.
Subscribers can see articles in the future? So what? Everyone gets to see them in the future.
I wonder how durable that thing is.... put that in a bag and drop it, see how it compares to the macbooks and thinkpads.
Also why nobody mentioned the EEE pc yet? though the similarity seems to end at portability....
No optical drive. Smaller hard drive than a VAIO. Lame.
So, somebody's going to buy one, and when they foobar their OS and drop it off at the helpdesk, how do we fix it?
Yes, there is USB, so we'lll need to keep a few USB CD-Rom drives around for these things. >p>ah well, it looks real nice.
Never ask for directions from a two-headed tourist! -Big Bird
Good things cost money. Deal with it ;-)
(+3 Funny anyone?)
"People are stupid. Persons are smart" -- Agent K, MiB.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
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.
Just a USB2. FireWire target mode has saved my butt so many times, I would really hate to give it up, especially on a portable machine.
Although, you probably don't need it as much if you have that $1000 solid state disk...
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
BTW, I think Time Capsule is as important as the Air announcement. Can't get anyone to back up. But since it's also a wireless hub, and Time Machine autoconnects, people will actually start backing up while barely meaning to.
Lies about crimes
That's not the half of it. If you decide to go with the flash disc (SSD), you'll have pony up over 3000 smackers.
Can you link to something cheaper with a competitive hardware spec? Please do not link to anything physically larger, as size is the primary discriminator in its class. I went looking for a Vaio to price against it but couldn't find anything in its class. HP, Dell, and Lenovo all fell short as well. Before saying it's more expensive than its competition, please actually tell us what its competition IS, keeping in mind that to compete, you have to compete on form factor first.
This laptop is too small and feature-limited to make a reasonable primary computer for many people, I think. Consider:
1.) No wired ethernet. I don't know if I've seen a recent laptop without wired ethernet. Apple is pushing bluetooth and 802.11* hard. That brings me to
2.) 1 USB port. Seriously? You can have wired ethernet OR a superdrive OR any of a huge number of wired devices, until you end up getting one of those tiny and somewhat annoying USB hubs which don't seem to be as reliable as having multiple USB ports.
3.) 1.8" 80G hard drive. This is the hard drive they use in iPod classics. It's 4200RPM, and it's small by modern laptop standards. The only upgrade option is $1000 for the solid state drive. Why aren't they offering the 160G iPod drive?
4.) Micro-DVI: Unlike the Macbooks, they actually stick a few of these adapters in the package.
It just seems like they tried too hard to go all out for thinness (and with the case design, it's still 3lb like a lot of subnotebooks). One option I thought would make it a lot more attractive would be built-in ripping of DVDs into iTunes. That way it could still function as a useful movie player on the road. Instead, we get an announcement that some distributors (like Fox) will be including iTunes files on new DVDs. No thanks.
There's probably a market niche for this product, but I don't think it's as big as the one for the 12" Powerbook G4. I'm still waiting for a suitable replacement in that category.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
Seriously, they have no moving parts - which do you think will fail first? The manufacturers have been working on the limited write capacity for years such that they believe it's no longer an issue. Modern flash memory can already silently correct for any parts that can no longer be written.
Now all we need is for production to ramp up and the cost to come down.
You serious? Have you priced out its competition? The closest is probably the Vaio, and it is more expensive. The Dell XPS is cheaper, but is bigger and heavier.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
You can get 4 eee PCs for the price of this thing, in fact you can probably get 3 into its footprint. I was hoping they would properly challenge Sony and Dell's subnotebooks with a 10-inch screen device. Thinness is less important than width to me
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
It better include a iHandjob!
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
apple why the lack of updates for you other hardware?
like the lack of a macbook pro update, macbook, imca, adc, and mini updates?
The mini is 161 days old and that was just a core 2 cpu drop in update it still has the real old gma 950 video and only 1gb of ram at the same price point.
The imacs are 161 days old as well and they have a weaker video card then the older a bigger imac before them.
The macbook pro is 224 days old.
also where is the xmac?
the mac pro starts at $2700 now but you can cut $500 by going down to 1 cpu.
$2200 for 1 quad core with 2gb of ram and ati 2600xt is better then the older mac pro but what about people who need a good desktop at $600+ and $1000 - $2000?
The Imac screen is not good for pro work and the mini is over priced and underpowered for it as well.
are you waiting for 10.5.2 with amd chipset drivers?
http://www.mac4ever.com/news/34085/amd_dans_leopard_10_5_2/
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.mac4ever.com/news/34085/amd_dans_leopard_10_5_2/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3D10.5.2%2Bapple%2Bamd%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26hs%3DzNW%26sa%3DN
I'm a tad annoyed by this. iPhone users get the new software update for free, new iPod Touch users get them for free, yet the early adopter iPod Touch people have to stump up $20?
I know I'll end up buying them, but it's the principle of it all...
Compared to Vaios that have a DVD drive or 200GB second drive built in?
Really thin is only so useful. The Vaio TZ (along with some Japanese laptops that we don't get here in the states) allows you to change the way that you live. You can stuff those notebooks into a man-purse (Tumi makes some that fit rather well) and go. You can use them in the coach section of an airplane without fear of screen-crunch.
I'm not saying that the Macbook Air is a bad thing. Thin notebooks are nice, but thickness is the dimension that I find least annoying in a notebook (keeping in mind that my thickest notebook is a comparably enormous Vaio FZ, and my favorite notebook is my Thinkpad T42). I wouldn't want my sub-notebook to be as thick as the old Thinkpads were (think DSM-IV hardcover) size, but the footprint matters as well.
If only someone would bring back the old butterfly keyboard of the Thinkpad 701...
I agree the XPS is bigger and heavier (not that much anyway) but to gain 0.4kg, you loss the DVD, the CPU speed, the storage size and speed, and you paid much more for it. I don't pay 700$ more to have less.
Insightful!
At first I was psyched about the MacBook Air. I've been wanting a small MacBookPro for... well, since the MBP came out. I was goign to ask whether this thing has a glossy screen.
But really, a non-replaceable battery in a LAPTOP? Especially when Apple says that the batteries are rated for 18 months with "ideal usage"? That seems... a bit off to me. Also I'm betting the harddrives aren't that easy to replace/upgrade.
Come on, Apple! I'll take the same form-factor as a MacBook! Heck I'll take the same specs, just put a real keyboard on it and get rid of the glossy screen! I'll still pay $1,799!
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
Apple removed many of the parts from a normal laptop computer and are now going to charge more for it. Genius I tell you!
Wait, we ARE talking about Macs, right?
Whether or not there is some sort of god, I'm not supposed to say/god is a word and the argument ends there-Smog
Underwelming displays are not exclusive to the Air. Look at the 15in MBP for example. Any other manufacturer offers wuxga upgrades for their 15in laptops. Leopard apparently even has resolution independant control rendering.
How sweet would it be to both see most of your photo and check if it is in focus without zooming in and out? Ahh... one day someone will see the light... Until them, I guess I am getting a dell, dude.
Last I checked you can't squeeze 5 hours out of a MacBook. With some extreme power saving measures you might be able to top 4.5h, but at that point you'd be afraid to even squint at the dimly lit screen.
Apple is using the lingerie model : pay more for a lot less, but it looks sexier.
No ethernet port, only ONE usb2 port, no microphone jack? Honestly, how are you supposed to use this thing? What if you need to use Ethernet and a flash drive at the same time? Are you supposed to carry around a USB-to-ethernet dongle and a hub... possibly a POWERED hub?
I love how people rave about Apple's "all-in-one" designs, yet in practice every all-in-one computer is a mess of external devices and cables. My grandma, for example, has an all-in-one iMac... with an external modem, an external floppy disk drive, and a hub... since the stupid computer doesn't have any convenient front ports for a USB flash drive.
Oh, and no user-replaceable battery? Thanks but no thanks... there are lots of other ultra-portables that I'd choose over this one.
My bicyles
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...")
One of the most irritating pet peeves of mine from the days of working retail is what you stated. There's nothing more annoying than a customer complaining to you that something is "too expensive" because it costs more. What I would do to help them understand is to tell them "A Mercedes costs more than a Honda, but people still buy them. You pay more and you get more. The same applies to this product."
The reason a USB hub isn't as reliable is that it can't supply full power to each port because you don't plug in its external power supply. The hub then divides up 2.5 watts among all its ports. Devices have to get by with a fraction of full power, and some of them can't.
The summary missed one of the new products, called "time capsule." It is basically an 802.11n wireless hub/Gb ethernet hub, with a built in hard drive for use with Time Machine to auto-backup all your macs. It's going for $500 for a terabyte, or $300 for a half terabyte. It is, of course, a small form factor without room for more drives. It will probably be the only backup solution that will really be easy enough for most of the home market, but not really all that cool for Slashdot types.
Not to sound condescending, but, I'm guessing that you just are not in the demographic they are targeting this towards. Apple pretty much seems to be marketing towards the upscale client, with a decent bit of disposable income to spare and that likes fun 'toys'.
I'm not one of them, but, there are TONS of people out there, that make a lot of money...and to them, a couple grand for a toy is chump change. These are the same people that bought iPhones while others complained that they were too expensive too.
If they don't sell well at that price point, then they did price it too expensively, but, I'm willing to bet, that they will sell quite a lot of these.
Apple is not marketing really much towards the middle or low end of the computer market, they are targeting the upscale market with some sleek looking, and functionally 'nifty' products, and there IS a market for that out there obviously....just look at Apple's recent year sales figures.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
This argument is often trotted out for the iPod, etc. It's specious. First, it's not expensive to install a new one -- it's free as part of your AppleCare.
Bullshit. The warranty specifically excludes reduced battery consumption as a result of use/age, both under the standard warranty and the Applecare extended warranty. At least they're (more) upfront about it now than they used to be...they now mention that Lithium Ion batteries degrade with time and use, etc.
Please help metamoderate.
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?
To be fair, the real feature is the seamless integration with Time Machine - not the fact that it's a NAS/WiFi base. If this makes it easy for my wife to back her data up from her desktop and her laptop without having to figure it out, it's a win. With a 1TB version, all four computers in our house can be automatically backed up with Time Machine by simply hitting the 'on' switch. I think that's pretty cool. To boot, it's reasonably priced for the features - which is odd for Apple peripheral gear.
Everything else you said I agree with for the most part, however.
Culture is more than commerce
Not specifically saying it applies in the case of this Apple kit, but sometimes paying more just gets you your desired brand name/image rather than anything more.
A rather left-of-field example from me today: I benchmarked an Adaptec 1210SA PCI SATA controller against a 'generic' (Newlink) equivalent in a Linux box I was building. Both cards are based on the humble SiL 3112 chip. The performance difference was negligible, but the Adaptec controller was £48, the 'generic' was £12.
Sony and Apple, in particular, strike me as examples of manufacturers that demand/expect a price premium for the brand name. Sure, there are elements of 'first to post' development costs built into their pricing, but in general you can usually buy better kit with more features for less.
AT&ROFLMAO
The original Mac keyboards had only the Command symbol; adding the Open Apple to the key didn't come about until the advent of ADB, used on both the Apple IIGS and Macs from the Mac SE and Mac II until the iMac came along. I had assumed that a major reason that the Open Apple was added was since the Apple II family used it, it was needed to make things easier for users who wanted to use the same ADB keyboards on an Apple IIGS and on Macs. Though that doesn't explain why the Open Apple was kept on the keyboard once the Apple II line was no longer relevant; the OS never switched the keyboard shortcut graphic in menus from the Command symbol to the Open Apple.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Apple_512k.jpg shows an early Mac keyboard with no Open Apple.
End of Line.
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
I don't think your last paragraph is right. I dont think there's a laptop out there that even comes close to the Macbook Pro (or even the Macbook) in terms of "quality" even if you ignore OSX: and how long has the Macbook been out now (and before it the Al Powerbook)? You get what you pay for.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
You didn't happen to notice that the damn thing's approximately the size of a postage stamp, did you? The point of the air is that's it's incredibly thin. This isn't designed to be the most powerful, feature-laden notebook out there, it's designed to be portable. For instance, Intel re-designed the processor to make it significantly smaller. Things like that don't come cheap; hence, Apple charges more for the device. Yes, it isn't as powerful as the Pro, but it's designed to complement Apple's other notebooks, not replace them. Buy the Pro if you want more power/features, buy the Air if you need an eensy notebook. It doesn't make sense for Apple to sell 3 different notebook models that are all essentially the same thing. One's cheaper, one's more powerful, and one's small. Pick one. Personally, I'm impressed that the Air's still cheaper than the competition, considering that: A) it's a Mac B) It's smaller (thinner) than comparable notebooks C) it's decently powerful and has good battery life. I wouldn't buy one for video/audio editing, but for web-browsing, e-mail, and text editing it's perfect. And, let's face it, that's all that most consumers use a computer for.
I am inclined to disagree with that analogy. I look at it more like, some people like red cars, some people like blue cars. If for some reason the blue car is more expensive than the red car, but you really really don't like red, and you have to have a car, is it worth it to pay more for the blue car? They are fundamentally the same, but you just can't stand walking out to your driveway every morning and staring at that hideous red car. That's why I pay more for a Mac. I could use Windows, it would get me where I want to go, but man is it ugly.
"IMHO I don't fully understand the hype that's behind the Air. It's not nearly as revolutionary as people are suggesting."
Maybe Apple should have named it the Macbook HotAir?
"But this one goes to 11!"
Applecare is the extra warranty,
Last week Apple gave me a brand new battery for an intel MacBook that is nearly 2 years old, even though it was out of warranty, and I never purchased applecare, they were simply not happy with the performance of their batteries. My had the vague symptoms of not lasting as long as it used to. There was no wining needed, I simply made an appointment at the Apple Store "Genius Bar" (for the next day), brought in my MacBook (forgot the receipt) and 10 minutes later I had my brand new battery.
Nope, the closest is the Thinkpad X61 from Lenovo. Same Processor, Same HD, only 1GB memory standard but starts at $1020. Thats 70% cheaper then the Apple.
The SSD is a $999 upgrade. Have you looked at the prices for 64GB SSDs recently? They tend to run in the $1500 range. I know it's hard to believe, but the SSD from Apple is actually *cheaper* than retail at the moment. It's not something you usually see in BTO upgrades for a Mac.
Frag 'em all...
That Dell is about the size of the MacBook, which costs less and is more powerful. It is lighter, but then it also has a smaller screen. It is far bigger than the MBA.
A more apt comparison is the one Jobs did, with the Sony slim notebook, and the Sony's more expensive.
You're more right than you know.
The difference in price between the 'middle' MacBook and it is $500. I put together a WHOLE PAGE of stuff that is on the cheaper MacBook but not on the Air. And for less money, seriously, look at the specs, it's freaking hilarious. I'm a huge Apple fan boy but I can't say I'm enthusiastic about something that is so blatantly only sold for the 'cool' factor (insert your 'isn't that all Apple products' line here).
Apple really missed the mark with this one here. At $1000-1200, it's reasonable but at %50 more it becomes laughable. I was really hoping for something in that range so I could replace my girlfriend's aging iBook but now it looks like I'll wait for an LED-backlit refresh of a MacBook, you know, that laptop that actually does something for $1200.
I just wasted your mod points! HA!
There's size, and then there are the dimensions that really matter.
The Macbook is 13.3". The Macbook Air is 13.3". Where they've cut down is on thickness (and not much on that) and weight (from 5 pounds on the Macbook to 3 pounds on the Macbook Air.) The weight is nice, if you don't mind a non-replaceable battery, no optical drive, and extremely limited expandability (one USB and one DVI.) The advertised battery life is actually lower than on the Macbook!
Talking generically, you're right. People might spend more money on a smaller, lighter notebook. In this case, though, they're spending more money on a thinner, lighter notebook which eliminates a lot of the features that notebook users probably take for granted right now. I simply can't believe that there is a huge market for the feature set of the Macbook Air compared to the featureset of the Macbook. I can completely believe that the trendy nature of "the new Mac laptop" has a large market.
You have a few points that need to be corrected, I shall volunteer...
#1 - The Time Capsule. Haven't we had wireless NAS's since 802.11 became a standard? I've got a USB-2 external drive that does my backups now. This announcement does absolutely nothing for me.
Yes, the hardware is nothing new, but the excellent software and the sheer ease of use is going to be the key selling points with Time Capsule. So instead of farting around trying to get your back up software to work with your NAS, John Generic opens the box plugs it in and he/she is done. That's exciting for most people.
#2 - The iPhone/iPod touch updates.
I'll give you this one. Well done!
#3 - The AppleTV/Movie Rental Service. Exciting, if the XBox360 hasn't been serving this capacity for over TWO YEARS. Wow, all the major labels, eh? Are they suddenly going to cut ties with all their other distribution partners? I didn't think so. And the price cut on the AppleTV was okay, but they *really* couldn't go just a bit further to put it below the $200 mark? Really, they must want this device to fail.
Two problems. One, the XBox 360 costs more than the AppleTV and doesn't have the best (read: sad) compatibility with streaming video and other media in from Macs. Yeah you can play games with it also justifying the cost, blah blah blah, we're not talking games.
Two, there WAS a price cut, so hush. Apple would have been justified in leaving the price point the same just as it tends to do with all it's systems, upgrade the hardware, leave the price point the same. Yes, loosing that last $30 to bring the price under 200 would have been nice, but not doing so is NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, wanting the device to fail.
#4 - The MacBook Air. It's really just a masturbation toy for the rich gadget hound -- it does nothing new besides be smaller, and it does it slower and more expensively to boot.
You're not the target audience. Stop talking.
It's a laptop for people who want something more portable, lighter and smaller than the MacBook, of which there are plenty. For most people you can't make a laptop small or light enough and as a bonus it does make an excellent status symbol. Guess what? ALL of Apples products are considered status symbols. Outstanding style, design and functionality at a premium price, thats what a large part of Apple's market demands, so Apple delivers. It doen't HAVE to be the end-all be-all of portable computing, there are two other perfectly capable models in the line up to do that.
Regarding the price, small cost money to MAKE so small costs money to BUY because people WANT small!!
As for the wireless CD sharing, I've been doing the same thing via Apples file sharing since '92, it's nothing new, they're just gonna make doing it easier and slicker so that John and Jane Generic can do it in their sleep.
What WOULD have been impressive:
- A new headless Mac Desktop that fits between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro.
No arguements here, been practically begging Apple for this for years.
- An iPhone Nano, about the size of the old iPod Nano with 1-2gb of memory for $99-$149.
You want a blow job from Steve with that too? Not happening. The iPhone is extremly sucessful at it's current size and price point. In 5 years maybe we'll see a Nano iPhone for around $200, until then go buy a Centro
- A Mac tablet running full Leopard with multitouch. Bonus points if it's under $1500.
The market is not demanding a tablet Mac, only frothing geeks that want a "masturbation toy" I believe you said.
- An iMac with a curved monitor like what's been shown at CES.
Shut up.
- Price drops on the iPhone, iPod Touch, or Mac Mini.
It took 4 or 5 years of CONSTANT UNRIVALED SUCESS for Apple to drop the price on the iPod... Ask again in a few years for
This signature is lame.
Its also twice as thick, weights 25% more, has a smaller screen and as you say comes with half the ram. Also, in order to get a similar battery time you need the extra big battery. Still a fairly good deal if the Thinkpad has everything you need but for some people the lighter computer with the larger screen might be worth the money.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
I'll summarize another post I made along the same lines.
First, I wholeheartedly agree that there is a market for sub-notebooks. I've been wanting to pick one up myself. I consider the Macbook to be on the larger side of the sub-notebook class of computers. What I was talking about was specifically the Macbook Air, specifically compared to Apple's next smallest notebook.
Here's what you get going from the stock Macbook to the Macbook Air:
2 pounds lighter.
0.25 inches thinner, at its thickest.
Spiffy new touchpad.
OLED screen, meaning that the LCD should last longer (this is a marginal improvement)
1 extra gb of RAM, base (costs $150 to add to the Macbook on Apple's website, $50 to add after-market)
Trendy new computer that few other people have.
Here's what you give up:
1 optical drive
1 USB port
1 Firewire port (probably not a big deal to travelers)
1 replaceable battery (meaning that your travelers won't be able to carry a spare)
1 hour of battery life (even worse considering the lack of a replaceable battery)
1 ethernet jack (probably not a big deal, since wireless is slowly becoming ubiquitous)
400mhz on the low end, 200mhz on the high end.
Replaceable RAM (RAM starts going bad? Your Mac is going in for service. Hope it doesn't go bad after the warranty is up.)
Stereo speakers
Optical audio out
$600
I simply can't believe that the things you get are highly sought after.
I'm on a 1.5 year old MacBook Pro, on my fourth battery. The first one was recalled, and the next two started performing poorly and both times I called AppleCare and had a new battery on my doorstep the next day without paying a dime.
Removing unnecessary stuff from a computer - I mean really removing it, not just taking half away and ignoring the half that's left - is difficult when the cheap option is to leave crap hidden inside, and to tell the suits "no, really, people will pay MORE to have LESS!" Sounds goofy, but true. Ever consider building a really really small computer? even with the "micro" and "nano" sized motherboards, there's always a whole bunch of useless ports on it; want to get rid of the unused stuff? go build yer own motherboard is the answer.
... instead, it's within arm's reach or a short walk all the time. The one thing holding me back from Apple was the absence of an ultraportable (and now my only hesitation is no 1024-line display).
Crossing the 3lb barrier has huge physical and psychological changes. Getting a Vaio ultraportable has (dare I say) changed my life: having a computer so light it's harder to not have it around than to drag it everywhere. Never do I have to go home to get email, or look stuff up, or run handy tools, or decide whether to lug the durn heavy thing around
Part of the genius of Apple IS the gumption to say "no, you're not going to have it that way". They compel people to think forward to better ways of solving a long-running problem, rather than hanging back to old solutions. No optical drive? yeesh, they're so 20th Century, get with the download/bittorrent/thumbdrive/802.11n future already. Limited hard drive? wireless shared drive, man. No Ethernet port? get a USB adapter for those rare no-Wi-Fi times.
Time to switch. Apple is hitting the tipping point: just a hair (or 224 lines of video) away from "PC? Vista? why bother what that old stuff?"
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
History shows AAPL always slumps after major announcements. It's probably indicative of people buying stock as it rises towards the keynote and then selling quickly after that peak.
Even if you have the disposable income, the Air might not appeal. It's essentially a Macbook with a bunch of stuff stripped out, a slower processor, and a redesigned case. The remote cd-rom application is not all that amazing -- I imagine it's just some rehash of Appletalk. It's sort of like an extreme version of the Macbook "black" penalty -- except now it's an extra $800.
And mods note -- I'm not an Apple hater. I spring for $2k powerbooks, well, now it'll be macbook pros, for my office (replace at 3 year intervals) and I have a Macbook which I use as my personal kick around machine, and before that, a 12 inch iBook.
Another problem with the Air is the same problem the Macbook has -- it's WIDE. The 12in iBook made a great travel computer. The macbook is on the wide side and feels a little more delicate than the iBook. If the Air had a smaller footprint, it would make sense in the product line. As it is, it looks like an expensive wide wafer -- fewer features than a Macbook at nearly twice the price. Even for people with money to burn, it doesn't seem the best place to burn it.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Well, I dunno what macs you bought, but, I seem to think they hold up pretty well, and hold their value amazingly well for resale.
I've only got one mac computer right now...an iBook G3 800Mhz. I think it was built around 2000 or 2001 maybe. I bought it used for $800 with all original cd's, a nice travel case and full accesories in about 2003-20004. I originally bought it to turn into a Gentoo Linux laptop. I kept a very small partition for OSX on it...just to play with. Over time...I redid the box, and put all OSX on it. (Don't worry, I have plenty of gentoo on other boxes). This is 2008 and still my only laptop I work with. It is just now getting a bit long in the tooth for me and slow. I'm about to buy a new macbook pro....and then, I'll relegate this old iBook to the kitchen...as my kitchen computer for emailing while cooking...or looking up recipes..or playing a dvd on.
I don't know of many other laptops out there that stay useful for so long. The OS upgrades seemed to help it keep its usefulness over the years...and it was a solidly built machine.
I don't find that fashionable obsolescence was something built into this product. And, aside from only being USB 1.1....it has served my needs for quite awhile, and I do use it for more than email and surfing. I'm often sshed in from it to my other boxes in the house doing jobs or developing on it....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Yeah, but the £48 one probably had one of the following in addition to the part:
All in all, no matter which, well worth the extra £36 IMO
Je me fous du passé
"Tanks"? "OUCH"? Alarmist much?
It's a down day. AAPL's down 5.4% The Nasdaq is down 2.5%.
More to the point, the stock always runs up in the month before macworld, and dips immediately afterward. That's because everyone buys beforehand and sells immediately afterward to take advantage of this cycle, not because of anything related to whatever gets announced.
Notice the exact same dip immediately after the beginning of every year.
The difference in price between the 'middle' MacBook and it is $500. I put together a WHOLE PAGE of stuff that is on the cheaper MacBook but not on the Air. And for less money, seriously, look at the specs, it's freaking hilarious. I'm a huge Apple fan boy but I can't say I'm enthusiastic about something that is so blatantly only sold for the 'cool' factor (insert your 'isn't that all Apple products' line here). What amazes me is the gist of the comments, here:
"There's no optical drive!"
"You can pay Apple more money to solve that!"
"There's only one USB port!"
"You can pay Apple more money to solve that!"
"There's no user replacable battery!"
"You can pay Apple to solve that!"
I'm sorry guys, I just don't get this one.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
As it was explained to me when I worked there, the Legal team at Apple feels that they'd be vulnerable to shareholder lawsuits if they gave away something that customers would be willing to pay for. This is traditionally attributed to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, but I think the intent of the policy is more general than that.
In general, updates to existing products are not allowed to be free if they add new features, only if they fix bugs. There are a bunch of exceptions, including for products that are given away, like iTunes. I expect that the iPhone is actually being "sold" a bit at a time over the course of the mandatory 2-year contract, and so since customers are still technically paying for them, it's okay to add new features in a software update.
I didn't much like this explanation the first time I heard it, but given the number of shareholder lawsuits Apple already gets every year, they definitely have reason to be cautious. As long as the prices for feature upgrades remain relatively low, it probably won't anger the customer base too much, and it'll hopefully keep the class-action lawyers at bay.
I don't consider features like a backlit keyboard or a FireWire 800 port to be necessities, so I have no problem comparing the MBP to competing models that have the same size screen, same CPU, same hard drive and optical drive, same networking features, etc. but a much lower price tag. For example, a configured HP dv6700t with the same basic specs as the low-end MacBook Pro costs $958.99 - less than half as much as the MBP.
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
#1 - The Time Capsule. Haven't we had wireless NAS's since 802.11 became a standard? I've got a USB-2 external drive that does my backups now. This announcement does absolutely nothing for me.
Iomega vs. Time Capsule
See any differences? Price, size? Not revolutionary, but a fine product.
I have an AE with a USB harddrive, it does almost nothing for me either.
So what?
Wow, that is really interesting, thanks mods.
#2 - The iPhone/iPod touch updates. I was really hoping to hear an announcement regarding the hardware. More memory. Smaller form factor. Lower price. Open network. Instead we see a few lousy software upgrades (woo, quasi-GPS that's been in the system for a week now). And, a nice F-U to the early adopters in a 20$ upgrade for the Touch. Glad noone bought me one of those for xmas. Anyone who did get one in the last 30 days should immediately return it and get one of the "new" ones with the additional features for free. And take a crap in the box, before they do.
Why the F-U? You knew the touch didn't have those functions originally, now it's a measly $20 add-on. So?
Sure, free is better, but it's not like you got a raw deal. Care to explain?
Thanks again mods.
#3 - The AppleTV/Movie Rental Service. Exciting, if the XBox360 hasn't been serving this capacity for over TWO YEARS. Wow, all the major labels, eh? Are they suddenly going to cut ties with all their other distribution partners? I didn't think so. And the price cut on the AppleTV was okay, but they *really* couldn't go just a bit further to put it below the $200 mark? Really, they must want this device to fail.
Apple is poised to leapfrog Microsoft's rental attempts in the blink of an eye. It's not INSIGNIFICANT that they've managed to get every major studio on board! Does Microsoft?
The Apple TV is now cheaper than the cheapest XBox 360. It also looks, sounds, and fits good next to a TV. There's also the additional incentives to rent videos through iTunes due to the transferability to iPod/iPhone/computer. There will still be an appeal for 360's, but that doesn't mean this device will fail.
Interesting? Please mods...
#4 - The MacBook Air. It's really just a masturbation toy for the rich gadget hound -- it does nothing new besides be smaller, and it does it slower and more expensively to boot. Wow, it fits in an envelope. Unless you're mailing me one, I'm not interested. Multitouch pad? Give it a month, they'll be on all the MacBooks. The size factor will very quickly be copied by Sony/Dell/et al, so Windows fanbois can rest easy. What would have made it revolutionary? If it were JUST a screen, no Keyboard, no fancy touchpad. Or, if it were under a thousand dollars. THAT would have been impressive. Made of Aluminum? And you thought the last generation MacBooks broke easily! Remote Disk? I've been sharing my CD-ROM drive via windows networking since 1996. It even works over wireless!
We get it, you're not in the market for a sub-notebook, and/or poor. Waaaaaaah! Move on, others are in the market.
"The size factor will very quickly be copied by" Well, which is it? It's a flying piece of shit on one hand, but Sony and Dell will attempt to quickly copy it on the other. Well? You sound more like the "Windows fanboi that wants to rest easy" yourself.
Poop on multitouch, poop on form factor, poop on Apple, poop on price, poop on aluminum (seriously?), poop on MacBooks, poop on EFI-level wireless Remote Disc (excellent display of ignorance). Poop on us all because you wont buy one.
Very interesting indeed mods.
Since you were so kind, I'm going to poop AL
It's 0.1 inches thick, can be folded up to fit in a standard envelope, sports a 2 terabyte SSD and 8 cores, all while sipping only 3.5 Watts of juice. As a nod to Greenpeace, it is not only biodegradable, it is also edible. Early beta testers describe it as having a "cool mint" flavor, and there are reports of a "zesty orange" version in the works.
To enhance morale, at Apple there are gigantic posters of Steve Jobs fixing employees with what can only be described as a "level stare".
If I have seen further it is by stealing the Intellectual Property of giants.
I've never encountered RAM going bad. I've encountered a lot of RAM being bad to begin with, however. ... 95% of users don't swap them around, the only exceptions being those who need extra long battery life. So we have established that the Air isn't going to compete in the rugged industrial laptop category ... that's quite the bummer, buddy!
Sure, it could happen. Congratulations, a high-tech laptop is less serviceable than a whitebox PC. Whoddathunk it?
As for the optical drive, I use mine every other month, why should I carry it around every day?
The battery
Optical audio out? Completely useless. Stream over wifi or Bluetooth (has Apple implement hifi audio on their bluetooth stack in Leopard?). Apple sells a device for that.
You're missing the point. The Air is not replacing the MacBook, it's a new product. So yeah, it's expensive. Too expensive for me, I'm keeping my MacBook and will buy an EEE to carry around, but this is a nice product and will sell like hotcakes, no doubt about it.
People say that Apple missed the mark with everything they release. Sometimes they do, but lately it hasn't been very often. One thing Apple knows is their customers. Apple Marketing is truly superb. When you say that Apple "missed the mark," what you really mean is they missed the mark for you, but most likely you weren't in their target market for this device in the first place.
That said, you may be right. Maybe nobody will buy it, but I don't think so.
This author takes full ownership and responsibility for the unpopular opinions outlined above.
I'm not going to buy this Air either (at least not at this price), but I heard your argument a thousand times about the iPhone. People are NOT rational actors, economically speaking. I WANT this computer. Many people will want this computer. If you think that the "wow" factor doesn't sell, then I advise you to look in your phonebook for the porsche, BMW, and mercedes dealers in your area.
This computer is sexy as hell. Recession or not, people will buy it.
-b
No offense, but I've stopped responding to AC's.
The Air costs a lot more. My X61 came in at about $1400, whereas the air starts out at $1800! That's $400 for a brand identity on slightly inferior hardware.
You can get a Lenovo Thinkpad comparable (pretty much chip for chip) to the $1200 Macbook for under $900. The Mac mini is under $400 worth of hardware for $600. This is the "Mac Tax", it's what you pay for the ability to run OS X. Mac fanatics will come up with a fantasy price comparison that will make the difference go away, or claim that the Wintel boxes aren't as reliable, but the difference is real. But the difference is also worth it - it's not "brand identity" that we're getting, it's the ability to run applications that don't suck on an OS that doesn't suck.
Oh, by the way: "GMA X3100 (which is the best *embedded* card on the market)"? It may be better than the execrable GMA 950, but if I was getting a Thinkpad I'd still pay the extra $200 to get an nVidia or ATI GPU... even if it was embedded. Intel GPUs have been SO bad for SO long that there's no way I'll trust them to get it right until they've established a solid track record.
1. The air is a lot thinner and less sturdy than the X61 for the same weight. This may be a stylistic plus, but it also makes the hardware a lot less breakable, and I think they made the wrong choice here. Maybe, maybe not. It does have a metal shell, unlike the x61, and MagSafe, so you're less likely to pull it off a desk. Though I wonder what the metal shell will do to wireless reception. Also, I hate to say it, but the x61 shell is kind of shoddy for a ThinkPad. Mine is already cracked around the CPU fan vent, and I've been pretty nice to it. 2. The Air is only 1.6 Ghz for a core 2 duo. My X61 came in at 2.2 Ghz. It uses a low-voltage processor, like the x61s. It gets more battery life than the x61 (even the s), at least in the 3lb configuration, unless Apple is lying more than Lenovo. Anyway, many ultraportables use 1.2GHz ULV processors, so Apple is taking the middle of the road here. 3. The Air costs a lot more. My X61 came in at about $1400, whereas the air starts out at $1800! That's $400 for a brand identity on slightly inferior hardware. Expensive, yes, but inferior isn't clear yet. It has a lot of features that the X61 doesn't. 802.11n, keyboard backlight (that LED on the ThinkPad is not a substitute), 13.3" higher-res display, magsafe, magnetic latch, multitouch trackpad (conspicuously missing from the x), camera, microphone. Also, let's admit it, ThinkPads are ugly. Not as bad as Dells, but nothing compared to the shiny of a high-end Mac.
Also, it ships with Leopard instead of Vista. 4. The Air has a tiny by current standards harddrive (80 gigs) probably to make the solid state version not look so bad. It has a 1.8" HDD. Smaller and uses less power, but more expensive and less capacity. 5. The Air's one strong point is that it has DVI out, whereas the X61 only has VGA out. Since there are DVI to s-video adapters, this means the Air can play movies on the tv, whereas the X61 cannot. Yup. And you can connect it to a nicer LCD. On the other hand, the other ports are pretty limited. No ethernet (not "airy" enough?), no mic-in (of course, it has an internal mic), no firewire (oh, the irony), no sd reader, no express slot. And only one USB port. This isn't as bad as it sounds, because you probably have a hub on your desk anyway, and you're not going to need more than one port on the road. Probably.
Still, it seems silly not to include Ethernet. I suppose there's an adapter, but blah. 6. The air has an optional (it's in the $3000 dollar model) solid state drive. I'm not sure what real benefits you get by paying for this. Faster (especially for random reads), lower power consumption, lighter weight, no moving parts, more rugged, geek cred.
I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
That's an upgrade from a 32GB SSD to a 64GB SSD. The Air is an upgrade from a normal HDD to an SSD. Completely different starting points in terms of price. Apple's price is still perfectly fair.
Frag 'em all...
Fuck you, my insecure little cupcake.
If you don't like it don't buy it. But get off your sanctimonious high-horse, your false belief that your purchasing decisions are the One True Way and that anyone who differs is a fucking idiot. What you chose to buy does not make you better than other people.
"No nothing"? Except for... a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 2 gig of RAM, 802.11n wireless, USB2, backlit keyboard, built-in iSight, LED display, 5 hour battery life. Not to mention the software.
Yeah, I guess other than that nothing. If I were a business traveler I'd want one of these. I'm not, so I don't. But I'm not such a child as to think that I'm better than anyone who might.
The problem is more related to revenue recognition with a hardware + software bundle, and is similar to why they charged $2 for the 802.11n enabler.
Basically, software is tied to hardware as a "bundle", but if you provide "extra features" at a later date, then you technically did not deliver full bundle, and should not have recognized the revenue from the original sale. This is because accounting rules try to remove "shenanigans" that have happened in the systems integrators of the past where software was promised but was still being built after the deal had closed & revenue recognized!
So, if Apple were to give away the iPod Touch update for free, they'd have to restate their earnings from back when it was first released, because they didn't technically "sell" the Touch back then, they completed delivery now.
If, however, they charge for the update, at a nominal price, it's considered a set of extras and isn't tied to the original bundle.
The iPhone doesn't have to deal with this because they accrue the revenue over several years.
-Stu