Analyst Predicts MacBook Air Sales of 700,000 Units This Quarter

[MacRumors]

DigiTimes reports on an article from the Chinese-language newspaper Commercial Times citing Concord Securities analyst Mingchi Kuo as predicting MacBook Air sales of approximately 700,000 for the quarter.

Apple's MacBook Air shipments in fourth quarter of 2010 are expected to reach about 700,000 units, accounting for more than 17% share of the company's 4.1 million Mac shipments, while the 11.6-inch model will account for 60% of the total MacBook Air sales due to its low price, according a Chinese-language Commercial Times report citing vice president of Concord Securities research department, Mingchi Kuo.

Kuo reports that the release of Mac OS X Lion next year should increase the attractiveness of the MacBook Air as a second machine for users, although it is unclear what specific features of Lion Kuo expects to boost that draw. In addition, Lion's projected release date of "summer" 2011 means that any such effects would occur in the relatively distant future.

Kuo was previously an analyst with DigiTimes' own research arm and was the first to reveal Apple's plans for an 11.6-inch MacBook Air back in mid-July.

Article Link: Analyst Predicts MacBook Air Sales of 700,000 Units This Quarter

 

[AdeFowler]

Like all predictions I'll take it with a huge pinch of salt.

 

[alakazzam]

I'll believe it when I see it. Personally I'm not all that blown away by the MBA.

 

[RobBookPro]

If it wasnt for my tax bill I would be buying one! My ageing MBP needs to be retired and this thing has the horse power for the limited amount of work I use it for. Golden age of computing.

 

[Žalgiris]

11.6" is looking great. Maybe i will finally replace my old MacBook (still works great).

 

[Lesser Evets]

I predict the analysts will be wrong.

I WIN. They always lose.

 

[toddybody]

? Still Dont get it

Folks...yeah its compact, yeah its beautiful, yeah it has Solid State Storage
But an introductory price of 999.99 for a pretty piece of aluminum with 2.5+ year old hardware? This is silliness people. If it had "VAIO" on the shell, everyone would be laughing...Dont drink the juice this time.

 

[andiwm2003]

how many iPad 64GB G3 are sold per quarter?

I wonder how many people will consider a $999 MBA over a $829 iPad. Although you would have to add the cost of a USB G3 connection to the MBA.

 

[AAPLaday]

The 11" will be the big seller id imagine for 2 big reasons.

1. The size of it. It really is small and if you don't have any heavy usage i can imagine lots of people wandering into an Apple store and preferring the small size and great build quality over the standard MacBook

2. Price. Don't underestimate the price. It is cheap. Obviously the processor isn't top of the range but for web usage, iTunes etc it should be fine. A lot of people thought that a smaller machine would be more costly, because its more of an ultra portable. However Apple have managed to position it at the bottom end of their price structure for laptops.

For a second macine, someone new to a mac or a road user who has to have OS X it will be should hit the right note.

 

[raybo]

Folks...yeah its compact, yeah its beautiful, yeah it has Solid State Storage
But an introductory price of 999.99 for a pretty piece of aluminum with 2.5+ year old hardware? This is silliness people. If it had "VAIO" on the shell, everyone would be laughing...Dont drink the juice this time.

It is also a pretty convenient piece of aluminum, and it has enough power for 90% of users.

 

[cohibadad]

Folks...yeah its compact, yeah its beautiful, yeah it has Solid State Storage
But an introductory price of 999.99 for a pretty piece of aluminum with 2.5+ year old hardware? This is silliness people. If it had "VAIO" on the shell, everyone would be laughing...Dont drink the juice this time.

Hardware isn't evolving at the rate it did in the past. I think that is a big part of Apple's strategy. A deemphasis on hardware specs and reemphasis on hardware/software capabilities. The battery life is exceptional on the new MBA. The SSD makes it as close to iPad in terms of responsiveness/startup as a notebook can get. For short trips I just take my iPad with me. I would take this new MBA to do video/photo editing during flights. I can comfortably carry either with one hand through an airport without need of a backpack. I can't say the same for a MBP. To each his own. I think Steve is right though. All notebooks will be like the MBA in the future.

 

[hamlin]

For the specs...they seem kind of expensive. Why wouldn't you just buy a macbook for $999? Better specs and very portable...No one really neeeds that thin of a computer, other than image.

 

[feflower]

Folks...yeah its compact, yeah its beautiful, yeah it has Solid State Storage
But an introductory price of 999.99 for a pretty piece of aluminum with 2.5+ year old hardware? This is silliness people. If it had "VAIO" on the shell, everyone would be laughing...Dont drink the juice this time.

MBA is not 'apple' juice; it is like 'champagne' .

Don't people realize that the MBA is a boutique item? For those who need a well-constructed luxury item, that is appropriate for their computing needs? Thus the 'high' price.

In fact I don't think the price is that high? Where else would you get something built out of aluminum unibody for this price?

 

[TMay]

Folks...yeah its compact, yeah its beautiful, yeah it has Solid State Storage
But an introductory price of 999.99 for a pretty piece of aluminum with 2.5+ year old hardware? This is silliness people. If it had "VAIO" on the shell, everyone would be laughing...Dont drink the juice this time.

This will be the killer machine in its niche once it has some Sandy Bridge in it. Until then, it's a good machine for people that value the size and weight over performance.

Blame Intel for their crappy integrated graphics and their license agreement with nvidia that disallows nvidia to make the chipset to interface with the core i series, hence requiring a substantial workaround to add graphics.

Probably a good compromise on Apple's part overall, but about a year from now, I would expect the MBA to really hit its stride.

 

[sbrhwkp3]

I would buy an 11.6" model if larger storage was offered.

I'm going to milk my original macbook pro for all its worth. Those notebooks are the future of notebooks... they just aren't quite up to the specs of where I'd want them as my main machine.

 

[toddybody]

It is also a pretty convenient piece of aluminum, and it has enough power for 90% of users.

No argument about the "power for 90% of users"...I never bitch about not being able to code HD video on a mobile platform...point is, that 90% pretty much want a machine to web browse, maybe work on Office Docs, and keep their music library on...that can be achieved on a POS netbook (which I would never recommend). Its ridiculous how they tout the "friendly price entry" of this machine. Its nowhere near the cost value of the base 27inch iMac or iPad...

 

[Mochi Hana]

I haven't seen a single person with a Macbook Air yet. Most Mac users I see have Macbook Pros, with the occasional regular Macbook among them. I guess this doesn't mean much since I live in a small area, but I don't think this analyst's numbers are accurate at all.

 

[toddybody]

MBA is not 'apple' juice; it is like 'champagne' .

Don't people realize that the MBA is a boutique item? For those who need a well-constructed luxury item, that is appropriate for their computing needs? Thus the 'high' price.

In fact I don't think the price is that high? Where else would you get something built out of aluminum unibody for this price?

This is Apple selling us cheap beer in expensive bottles, and telling us its champagne.


@ cohibadad
Totally right about the shift in computing paradigms (lighter and better battery life...not focused on the silly Mhz battle)...I really appreciate that. The iPad exemplefied this...and succeeded because of its VERY REASONABLE price point. The new MBA is still overpriced to merit such an analogy.

 

[I WAS the one]

I don't know but everybody I know love the new MBA but doesn't want to buy one. Crazy?

 

[ctdonath]

FIf it had "VAIO" on the shell, everyone would be laughing...

I've been buying sub-11" sub-1"-tapered VAIOs for a lot more than $999 for nigh unto 10 years now - each worth every penny. Ultraportable is worth the reduced power and higher cost. If not for the iPad, I'd have the new MBA already.

Form factor has its value.

 

[carmenodie]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

Those Airs are going to blow out the door. Especially the baby air. please. They will be given as gifts in the corporate sector. Hell I'm going to get the baseline baby air as a collectors item.

 

[rhb]

The analyst is right - for once.

This will be a big hit. You watch.

Three of my friends -- all females, interestingly enough -- are getting the Air this week. Why?

1. It's crazy light. That matters to a lot of people.

2. It's more capable than the iPad, which is the only hyper-light OSX/iOS alternative at the moment. No, the MacBook isn't.

3. It handles their entire work load. Editing docs, doing email, wrassling spreadsheets, giving presentations, web research, blah blah blah. And running Photoshop Elements, in one case. They're not graphics pros or code jockeys, and they don't need more horsepower.

4. The build quality is very high.

5. They live in the Apple ecosystem, and rely on various aspects of OSX to do their work. These are all former Windows users, as it happens, and I don't hear any desire to revert back to that adventure.

6. They can afford it.

Sound like anyone you know?

Case closed.

 

[ctdonath]

This is Apple selling us cheap beer in expensive bottles, and telling us its champagne.

What's cheap about it?
And no, the standard "you can get more for less" argument doesn't fly; I can get you an equivalent desktop powered by a car battery for a lot less, but the form factor is an obvious problem.

Totally right about the shift in computing paradigms (lighter and better battery life...not focused on the silly Mhz battle)...I really appreciate that. The iPad exemplefied this...and succeeded because of its VERY REASONABLE price point. The new MBA is still overpriced to merit such an analogy.

So what's the difference? MBA2 is little more than an iPad with a keyboard, touchpad instead of touchscreen, better CPU, 4x RAM, better graphics, OS X, and USB ports - additions which cost about $300 more.

Kinda hard to laud the iPad and dis the MBA2. Both are clearly "paradigm shift" cloud-oriented devices., with the latter being everything the naysayers insisted the iPad should be but wasn't.

 

[kelving525]

I'll probably get the new 13" MBA when Lion comes out along with the back-to-school deal on iPods and my student discount. Sounds like a deal.

 

[Kenrik]

The processor alone in the new 11 inch cost more than an i7 Desktop processor... Stop bitching... I checked and every other ultra portable that uses that processor costs more than the new Air.