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Analyst Predicts MacBook Air Sales of 700,000 Units This Quarter
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I would have liked to see Apple offer a higher specced option but i guess the 13" will take up that mantle in the next few updates
It depends entirely on what is valuable to you. The iPad has a form factor that I'm looking for, but lacks a "real" OS and I'm not the biggest fan of a touch screen for my work. Let's face, it's a computer but it's not a COMPUTER.
The 27" iMac isn't really portable. It's not like I can hook it up while on an airplane.
Apple has other notebooks. There's the bigger Air, the MacBook and the MacBook Pro. At that point it's a matter of deciding what you want most. The form factor is what I care about. I can't say it bothers me to cram 128GB of SSD in the more expensive model. The machine (I believe, I still have to play with one in person) is what *I* am looking for.
I can see why a lot of people don't see the value in the Air. Just because it doesn't appeal to you though doesn't mean anything except that YOU shouldn't buy one. That's it.
I hear a lot about people drinking the Apple kool-aid, what about the intel kool-aid? You can generally spot the PC trolls, by their belief that the latest and greatest from intel really matters. I have seen no real world evidence that the i3 offers anything over the equivalent C2D except bringing along the intel graphics which makes it a negative in my book. i5 and i7, yes (for some applications), but the i3 doesn't seem to be a big deal.
I made my first iPad only trip without my trusty MBP17 last week and it went well.
I made my first iPad only trip without my trusty MBP17 last week and it went well.
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 thejuice this time.
It's advice like yours that lead me down the wrong road in the past. I was a spec whore...
Then I got wiser and realized that's only part of the 'user experience'. In the real world it's a very small part of the user experience. - It's reported often that 90% of computer users don't use anywhere near the computers processing capabilities in today's computers.
The most important part is "how will you enjoy using the computer everywhere and everyday".
Operating system plays a big role, OSX is simpler and more intuitive to use, screen, keyboard, trackpad, weight, how it fits in your bag and sits on your lap. <<< That is what's truly important when selecting a notebook.
When you look at the WHOLE picture then you may realize both the 11 and 13" MB Air are stunning machines.
I ordered both
In perfect agreement with you on this. The 13 inch Air was just a little big for me, and I longed for the old 12 inch MBP. Now I have a replacement. My only wish were that the battery life on the 11 were closer to 7 hours. But this thing is another beautiful show of Apple engineering.The 11.6 Air will be a huge hit for Apple as opposed to the old Air or even the new 13". The 11" is a true successor to the 12" Powerbook.
Are you saying that you don't care so much about the thickness and the weight, but the footprint is most important. The 12 inch PB was 3cm thick and weighted 5 lbs. If that was a common pattern of thought Apple could have been in the money some years ago.
The problem is Intel integrated graphics. I don't foresee Apple making the jump to the i3/i5/i7 until they have a solution to that problem. Personally, I've never bought a computer with integrated graphics because Intel's integrated graphics have always been terrible. I would buy a computer with Nvidia's integrated graphics, but sadly Intel has blocked them from their latest platforms.
Unless Apple finds a way to fit a discreet graphics card into the 13" form factor, or they switch to AMD processors for their computers with integrated graphics, I don't see Apple moving away from the core2 duo anytime soon. At this point, I think a switch to AMD is the more likely of the two.
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
I thought the £849 price tag for the base model was quite a significant drop in price for what I see as a very capable laptop. My late 2007 MacBook cost more than the MacBook Air does now and the latter is better for countless reasons. I would imagine they'd go down well with university students, for their mix of good performance and value.
Putting this into perspective, they seem ridiculously expensive compared to Windows PCs, but I personally think they're worth the hefty price-tag and if they have been selling up until this point, I don't see why people would stop forking out for them now. After-all, treated well, they generally out-live their Windows counterparts.
Pricing them as amongst the cheapest MacBooks is probably a step in the right direction if they want them to sell.
If you think back to the Black Macbooks a couple years back, the MBA totally blows it away with performance, battery life, and not to mention, design.
Even i5 and i7. Seriously. I have been asking this one for months and none of the people screaming for Core iX processors at all costs have even answered me. Why is it so important ? What instruction does the C2D choke on that a i3 doesn't ? What software uses this absolutely required instruction ?
The plain fact is, C2D, Phenom X2, Athlon X2, Core i3, they're all the same at the end of the day. Your desktop shows up on screen, your apps launch and you use them. Who cares about specs ? Real world benchmarks don't show much improvement in Core i3 systems and these same benchmarks do show a big degradation when using Intel graphics instead of the 320M Apple uses.
Not to mention the nVidia card is supported under many frameworks Apple ships for hardware video acceleration or GPGPU work, which the Intel graphics do not support. Overall, the C2D vs Core i3 debate is wrongly framed. It's an Intel Graphics vs nVidia Graphics debate.
I agree, it's better than my 2006 MBP, although my MBP doesn't get enough mobile use to justify replacing it with a laptop. It's connected to my TV right now, so I'm waiting for a USB 3 equipped mini to replace it. If I do get another laptop at some point, it will probably be an Air.
It actually isn't if you compare it to similar ultraportables running windows.
Yes, this is exactly why they will sell well.
I would think OS-X would make good use of multiple threads/cores since they sell a computer with 12 of them. Are you saying 2 extra threads isn't noticeable? Even in single threaded applications the i3 outshines the core2duo, but take any multi threaded application and you would see a huge improvement.
Viao X is thinner than the MBA over all. Comes with an Extra extended batter bringing the overall battery life better than that of the 11.6 MB AIR. It is also lighter 1.6lb vs 2.3
Viao Z i5 alone is worth the 400 dollar premium over MBA 13 in. ALso Viao Z has a 1600x900 LED screen.
Where do YOU get your facts from?
The MBA looks cool. The idea of having SSD speeds without the expense of the enclosure is nice. If I got one of these machines as a gift I would be jumping up and down with excitement.
However, I can't say that if I was spending my money I could bring myself to purchase the MBA over the MBP-13. Given the choice I would opt to spend my money on 8GB ram on the MBP-13 over its SSD option and still get much more (albeit slower) storage than an MBA.
MBA looks really nice and has a lot of "wow" factor, but I don't predict record sales here when folks look at the trade-off. However, the prediction that the low-end model will sell better seems dead-on.
For the price, the small MBA offers a whole lot of cool features that are hard to stack against the MacBook or MBP-13 (its a comparison of apples to oranges -- no pun intended). The MBA-11 is quite a bit smaller and has fast startup using solid state storage. The MBA-11 will target those who might want an iPad but intend to do alot of typing (like writers).
If you are essentially looking for a Mac "netbook" without the 3G, the small MBA differentiates itself well from the rest of the Apple product lineup.
The higher-end MBA's in my opinion start to lose that differentiation and are going to be contending more with the MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup.
At least that is my opinion based on my day-to-day needs. I use my iPad for ultra-portability, so if I was going to get a macbook I would likely sacrifice some portability for things like FireWire, 8GB RAM, backlit keyboard, and a faster processor.
If you don't own an iPad, I think you are more likely to prefer the MBA's portability.
However, I can't say that if I was spending my money I could bring myself to purchase the MBA over the MBP-13. Given the choice I would opt to spend my money on 8GB ram on the MBP-13 over its SSD option and still get much more (albeit slower) storage than an MBA.
MBA looks really nice and has a lot of "wow" factor, but I don't predict record sales here when folks look at the trade-off. However, the prediction that the low-end model will sell better seems dead-on.
For the price, the small MBA offers a whole lot of cool features that are hard to stack against the MacBook or MBP-13 (its a comparison of apples to oranges -- no pun intended). The MBA-11 is quite a bit smaller and has fast startup using solid state storage. The MBA-11 will target those who might want an iPad but intend to do alot of typing (like writers).
If you are essentially looking for a Mac "netbook" without the 3G, the small MBA differentiates itself well from the rest of the Apple product lineup.
The higher-end MBA's in my opinion start to lose that differentiation and are going to be contending more with the MacBook and MacBook Pro lineup.
At least that is my opinion based on my day-to-day needs. I use my iPad for ultra-portability, so if I was going to get a macbook I would likely sacrifice some portability for things like FireWire, 8GB RAM, backlit keyboard, and a faster processor.
If you don't own an iPad, I think you are more likely to prefer the MBA's portability.
Cannot compare, as the MBA is a wedge and the Sony is a box. The Apple is thicker on one end and thinner on the other.
No, its 1366 x 768, as per Sony
sonystyle.com
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs...0151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644667494
I really want the 11.6 one to replace my unibody MacBook. No chance of affording that right now though.
Yes the Sony x has a 1366 x 768
The Sony z, which is what I was talking about there has 1600 x 900
entatlrg What are you going to do with your Sony Z?
A half dozen of my employee's are wanting it bad. I'm not parting with it until my 11 and 13" arrive and I've spent a week with them.
I LOVE my Z, adjusted to everything well, win7 was doable, extra ports where nice, (trackpad not so sure, but 'logitec anywhere mouse' made up for it).
But all my other machines run OSX so I'd rather keep everything under one roof if I could.
Um...that's not far off. Apple's market capitalization is about a quarter-trillion dollars - and growing.