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MacBook Shipments Have Begun?

rezonat0r said:
Anyone else think the "future product transition" is actually the elimination of the "Pro" moniker?

With aluminum, LED, and (presumably) multitouch on the 13" Macbook there is very little difference between the 15" and 17" MBP except for a GPU. And the next iteration of Intel's integrated graphics are pretty good.

I predict there will just be a 13", 15" and 17" Macbook. That simplifies things and makes room for a whole new line, say "Touch", for the new Macbook tablets.
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No. I can't see how that would have a downward effect on earnings.
 
Ok, with 10.5.5 out I guess there is a liiiiitle hope for MacBook tomorrow. Plz Steve, make it true! :apple:
 
motulist said:
Matte screen?

Is there a chance of that? My 1 GHz G4 powerbook is still chugging along reasonably well, and I've been thinking about upgrading for at least a couple of years, but until I can get a matte screen on a sub $1300 laptop then Apple won't be getting any of my money. Why doesn't Apple want my money?

The cost of manufacturing a matte screen is basically the same as making a glossy screen. I know that Apple wants to reserve certain features for the powerbook to make it seem like it's worth the extra money so that hopefully more people will buy a MBPro instead of a MB, but come on, the screen coating is a fricken little piece of plastic, not a blu-ray burner. And anecdotally I know of a bunch of other people in the same boat as me. So there's at least a significant portion of us out there.

I know there are matte screen coatings you can buy, but they don't look good enough in the pictures I've seen.

MacBook with a matte screen or bust!


p.s. Please don't turn this into a discussion about whether matte or glossy is better or why it shouldn't make a difference. That has been discussed ad nauseam and the definite consensus answer is that it comes down to personal preference. Some people greatly prefer glossy, some people greatly prefer matte, and some people think it makes little difference. Some people greatly prefer chocolate, some greatly prefer vanilla, and some people have little preference.
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I think Apple decided to use GLOSSY for consumers while MATTE (and GLOSSY) for PRO. That's why iMac no longer have MATTE b/c Apple is "pushing" graphic designers to macpro or macbook pro instead of iMac. They gotta make money though but that's me. I personally can't use GLOSSY for my work so instead I buy MBP or MP for MATTE. Kinda sucks, does it?
 
bigmc6000 said:
Well if it's container ships we need to move our guess back to November ;)
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Yes, but it did say "already" shipped.

bigmc6000 said:
No fair comparing the Touch! ... I'm just saying that most people don't spend most of their time on the "fringe".
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You and I both know that I totally just wanted to use "Pringles Cantenna" in a sentence. :) That being said, lots of people have a Touch, which in turn is turning lots of normal people into Wifi Pirates. Yaaar!

Even my wife, who will knock on your door to give you hell if she detects unprotected wifi coming from your house, has softened on the topic since she needed to use my iPT to get her email while on vacation. Avast!

SkippyThorson said:
:p That got a Lol. I want to buy in on this technology! Judging on the amount of Cheeseburger Pringles I buy, I can provide a single point broadcast of Wifi service to the North America Holiday Inn chain. Let's do this!

That is right up there with one of the greatest posts of all time.
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Well, thanks!

To be honest, though, I'm a little unsure how to connect the Pringles Cantenna to the Touch, to say nothing of the problem of carrying it around downtown without getting arrested for "carrying mysterious looking things that the Police can't identify but seems mighty suspicious."
 
derryquinn said:
Of course not!

I like this guy, i'm gonna need your number, address and social security number :D (im assuming you're american)
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Sure, why not? Announcing my personal ID info on a public forum couldn't cause any problems, right? I'll start by giving you the combination to my luggage, the combination number is 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5.
 
To those saying a tiny $100 price drop is "aggressive pricing", let's go over to HP, one of Apple's biggest competitors.

We'll compare the current Macbook, but the new processors clearly are going to be more powerful. However, that will most likely be the only difference in specs. And, as most people want a cheap laptop, we'll go with the bottom-model Macbook. And as people seem to value the thin and light part of the Macbook (although it is, unfortunately, impossible to buy a laptop that is NOT thin and light, and therefore cheaper), I'll go for HP models that are thin and light.

Macbook: $1099 (http://store.apple.com)
2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x512MB
120GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
Intel integrated graphics.
5.0 Pounds, 1.08 inches thick.
Wireless N, Bluetooth
1280x800 13" display

HP dv4z series: $810 (www.shopping.hp.com)
AMD Turion(TM) X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor ZM-80 (2.1 GHz)
2GB DDR2 System Memory (an extra 1 GB was free)
160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive (free upgrade)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
ATI Radeon(TM) HD 3200 Graphics (WAY better graphics than the Macbook)
4.82 lbs, 1.34 inches thick. (less weight, slightly thicker)
Wireless N, Bluetooth
1280x800 12" display
This notebook is better than the Macbook in specs, and yet is almost $300 cheaper.

HP dv4z series: $949 (www.shopping.hp.com)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P7350 (2.0GHz)
3GB DDR2 System Memory (an extra 2GB was free)
250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive (free upgrade)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator X4500 (or, $50 more for 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9200M GS)
5.18lbs, 1.34 inches thick. (teeny bit more weight, slightly thicker)
Wireless N, Bluetooth
1280x800 14" display
This notebook is approaching the Macbook's price, but is WAY better in specs.

Apparently Apple needs to lower their prices on Macbooks $300-$400 to be competitive.

Please, no arguments on how OSX is better and there worth spending more money for. That's not what we're talking about here. We're simply comparing specs to specs. If a notebook is "price-competitive", that means it has comparable specs to its competitor at a comparable price. The OS does NOT matter in this comparison. Please note I didn't even go into the dell laptops, which tend to be sightly cheaper than HP's. And yet the HP's are SO much cheaper than the Macbooks, and yet have much better specs.
 
A $999 entry-level MacBook sounds about right. Margins are expected to drop around 5% and Intel recently lowered their prices on a number of CPUs. So Apple could cut prices with existing specs or offer more powerful specs at current prices.
 
supremedesigner said:
I think Apple decided to use GLOSSY for consumers while MATTE (and GLOSSY) for PRO. That's why iMac no longer have MATTE b/c Apple is "pushing" graphic designers to macpro or macbook pro instead of iMac. They gotta make money though but that's me. I personally can't use GLOSSY for my work so instead I buy MBP or MP for MATTE. Kinda sucks, does it?
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I'm the same way, except I use a different solution because I'm not a super power user. When I get a new laptop if Apple doesn't have a sub $1300 laptop with a glossy screen then I'm gonna buy a used MBP that's a couple of generations old (and not an Apple refurbed MBP because that's still over $1300). And I bought a laptop for my mom recently, but instead of giving Apple $800 for a new MacBook, I bought a maxed out last gen powerbook G4 1.5 GHz with high res screen for $650.

So Apple lost about $800 on my mom's laptop purchase and they might lose as much as $1300 on my next laptop purchase. I guess Apple hasn't wanted my money over the past few years. I guess they think they make more money by abandoning my purchasing dollars.
 
Beric said:
To those saying a tiny $100 price drop is "aggressive pricing", let's go over to HP, one of Apple's biggest competitors.
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HP makes 5% profit on their PC sales. Apple makes 30% profit.

And you can't just look at the price of components in a vacuum, otherwise all Wintel PCs would cost the same with the same spec and while they are close, they don't.

There is a reason a great many people pay a great deal more for an Apple-branded computer and it is not because they are fabulously wealthy or because they are stupid.

Maybe if HP makes their own OS and it's great, they can instill in the marketplace the idea that it's worth paying more for. Or maybe HP just needs to be more aggressive at lowering their production costs, since Dell makes close to 15% profit on their machines.
 
I'm going to keep my fingers crossed for tomorrow but I bet it will be by the end of September if they are already shipping. Or perhaps they will be in the Apple online store tomorrow and we will have to wait 2-3 weeks?
 
robotica said:
you could house the antenna for wifi in the plastic apple logo on the back and in the screen housing plastic bezel :cool:
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This would be very smart move and might explain the extra holes in the logo we saw in de leaked mb case.
I hope you're right about this!
 
With *Allllll* the leaks lately, wouldn't we have heard/seen more of a MB / MBP refresh then we have? The only things we've seen on a new MB are the top and bottom shell of an aluminum case. We've seen nothing on the MBP except fan photoshops.

Apple's leak control has been awful lately, do we think they could have slipped this one through?

Also, why is there no media event scheduled if they are shipping so quickly? Could this be a silent refresh with the current case designs and a 'real' refresh happening in January/March?
 
akm3 said:
With *Allllll* the leaks lately, wouldn't we have heard/seen more of a MB / MBP refresh then we have? The only things we've seen on a new MB are the top and bottom shell of an aluminum case. We've seen nothing on the MBP except fan photoshops.

Apple's leak control has been awful lately, do we think they could have slipped this one through?

Also, why is there no media event scheduled if they are shipping so quickly? Could this be a silent refresh with the current case designs and a 'real' refresh happening in January/March?
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Did you read the news post at all? The next models wont use plastic, thats pretty much guaranteed.
 
CWallace said:
A $999 entry-level MacBook sounds about right. Margins are expected to drop around 5% and Intel recently lowered their prices on a number of CPUs. So Apple could cut prices with existing specs or offer more powerful specs at current prices.
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I'm going with $999 as the MacBook starting point as well.

Think it'll still have a Combo Drive? :rolleyes:
 
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