Apple Announces MacBook Air

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TatsuTerror said:
And I believe the Macbook Air is building on the already successful Macbook. The majority of people with them don't need all the memory and HD space, just like most people with iPods don't fill them up. But, one thing is for sure, I've heard an overwhelming response as far as design goes, and the average buyer who can afford to pay the extra cash and loves the design might go for it.
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I agree. But it's also going in some completely new directions. If I had that kind of cash, I love the design and I'd certainly go for it.
 
Design then

Oh, all right, I get it.

Actually, on second thoughts, I don't.

Comparisons with the iPod don't really make sense to me as the iPod was the first music player Apple had ever released, whereas I don't see how anyone can sat that the Air is a wholly new type of product. It's a laptop. Apple have made those for years. I have two.

Perhaps the point to be made is that the iPod did something which was not new but did it better. But I don't think that the iPod would have been the success it was without iTunes being launched on Windows. Feel free to disagree.

The Ferrari - SUV argument doesn't fit either, unless you are looking at the value of marque. I don't think there would be much sport in betting on the outcome of a road race between a Ferrari and an SUV. Of course, people buy Ferrari's for the marque ("My other car is a Ferrari"), but I'm not sure that Apple's marque value is quite as high as Ferrari's (which is kept high by the fact that they don't produce vehicles which mere mortals can afford).

The consensus seems to be that the Air is pretty. Okay. Is that what Apple has become? The company that produces pretty stuff? I thought they made stuff better than other people. Like the iPod.

I'm sure that execs will buy them and install XP or Vista on them so that they can use Outlook. I've seen from the posts here that others will buy them so that they can surf the web and type letters on them because it's so thin, and we all know that thin is pretty. (?)

Me, I'll keep using my 5 year old iBook G3 for those things. If it could do them five years ago...

I guess I'm not the sort of person Apple wants as a customer.


Btw, I read some references to wireless USB. To me, wireless operation defeats one of the selling points of USB - bus power. I like not having to replace batteries. Am I alone?
 
I expected Steve Jobs to announce a computer product this time as he knew the world's attention was on him, expecting a new iphone type product. So big opportunity to get one up on MS.

Personally speaking althought its a lovely little thing, in the end it's JUST another laptop. The multitouch track pad is surprisingly so so and not really that revolutionary. I would have loved it to have been full touch screen say with an optional wireless keyboard.

I was hoping (but not expecting) the communicator (slightly bigger iphone PDA thing)

I do think the air won't do that well. Even the macpolls vote of die hard mac fanboys says 70% won't get one at all and over at T3 a similar poll currently says 96% won't get one! Its too pricey for JUST another laptop.
http://www.t3.com/


People are bored with laptops as they are just generic white good type non events and its a pity something more revolutionary wasn't announced to capture our imagination like iphone.

I love apples stuff I really do but I (and most of the world now) can't get excited about computers, even apple ones.
 
Benwiles said:
Oh, all right, I get it.

Actually, on second thoughts, I don't.

Comparisons with the iPod don't really make sense to me as the iPod was the first music player Apple had ever released, whereas I don't see how anyone can sat that the Air is a wholly new type of product. It's a laptop. Apple have made those for years. I have two.

Perhaps the point to be made is that the iPod did something which was not new but did it better. But I don't think that the iPod would have been the success it was without iTunes being launched on Windows. Feel free to disagree.

The Ferrari - SUV argument doesn't fit either, unless you are looking at the value of marque. I don't think there would be much sport in betting on the outcome of a road race between a Ferrari and an SUV. Of course, people buy Ferrari's for the marque ("My other car is a Ferrari"), but I'm not sure that Apple's marque value is quite as high as Ferrari's (which is kept high by the fact that they don't produce vehicles which mere mortals can afford).

The consensus seems to be that the Air is pretty. Okay. Is that what Apple has become? The company that produces pretty stuff? I thought they made stuff better than other people. Like the iPod.

I'm sure that execs will buy them and install XP or Vista on them so that they can use Outlook. I've seen from the posts here that others will buy them so that they can surf the web and type letters on them because it's so thin, and we all know that thin is pretty. (?)

Me, I'll keep using my 5 year old iBook G3 for those things. If it could do them five years ago...

I guess I'm not the sort of person Apple wants as a customer.


Btw, I read some references to wireless USB. To me, wireless operation defeats one of the selling points of USB - bus power. I like not having to replace batteries. Am I alone?
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Great post.

The Ferarri analysis doesn't really hold up either, as the "SUV" (the MacBook) is faster and more fully featured (Front-row) than the Ferarri!
 
jnc said:
Well I am sure. No remote/IR function, but the keyboards have media controls.
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I think what he meant was that Leopard comes with the Front Row software that you can access with Cmd - Escape, but like you say, no IR for Mac Pro's
 
Benwiles said:
The Ferrari - SUV argument doesn't fit either, unless you are looking at the value of marque. I don't think there would be much sport in betting on the outcome of a road race between a Ferrari and an SUV.
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It depends on what you have to do. If you plan to go camping on a mountain road the SUV would beat the ferrari hands on. By the way, I don't think that Ferrari is all about brand.. I think it is a lot about STYLE.

Benwiles said:
Me, I'll keep using my 5 year old iBook G3 for those things. If it could do them five years ago...

I guess I'm not the sort of person Apple wants as a customer.
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I'm sure that to go downtown also a 1950's ford would work... with city street speed limits and traffic I bet that the times are pretty the same...

Nonetheless I think that a lot of people would prefer a ferrari for the same task, although I should admit that not all would afform buying one.

I don't think that the phrase "I'm not the sort of person Apple wants as a customer" is correct either. I think it should reformulad as "Im not the sort of person Apple intended as a customer when Apple designed the MBA".

But I'm sure there are plenty of Apple products that suits your needs perfectly...
 
I'll bet the lust factor kicks in when people actually see the Airbook in person, next to conventional products.

The specs? Fine for a vast percentage of people. "It is terrible. I am making important films and plotting the manned mission to Mars and...". Posers, mostly.

Price? Too much in the designer range. Living the complete Apple lifestyle is not possible for the majority of people.
 
ruutiveijari said:
Now THIS is what the specs of an ultralight 13.3" are supposed to be like:

http://gizmodo.com/346797/ultralight-lenovo-x300-series-thinkpad-leaked
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I'm confused. The processor is very slightly faster, has the option of more RAM, the same hard drive space, less battery life, and--as mentioned before--it's ugly as sin. Unless it's cheap as hell, which is unlikely for any ultralight, I have no idea how it's any better than a MacBook Air. I'd take the Air over that thing any day.

As for comparisons to things like the iPod.... no, the Air isn't a whole new product. It's still a laptop, yes. But it's pushing laptops in a new direction. By getting rid of the optical drive and increasing its wireless functionality, it's big step away from what we've been so used to for so long. It's a new way of doing things, and I think that's part of why people are so apprehensive about it.

And how come so many people are ignoring one of the most important things that makes the MacBook Air so much more attractive to other ultraportables. It has OS X on it! Try getting that on a Vaio.
 
kuwisdelu said:
Unless it's cheap as hell, which is unlikely for any ultralight, I have no idea how it's any better than a MacBook Air.
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Well then please actually read the article.
The Lenovo has a much better display (1440x900 vs 1280x800), an internal optical drive, HSDPA, WiMAX, GPS. It has 3 USB2 ports and 2 MiniPCI-slots.
 
ruutiveijari said:
Well the please actually read the article.
The Lenovo has a much better display (1440x900 vs 1280x800), an internal optical drive, HSDPA, WiMAX, GPS. It has 3 USB2 ports and 2 MiniPCI-slots.
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Well I read the linked page with the short description. After that, there were just a lot of comments. I saw no "read more," so if there was more of an article, I didn't see it. Excuse me if I'm being obtuse. Perhaps you could provide a link to the actual article.

Well, then there's no denying it has a few more features, then. Personally, I would still prefer a MacBook Air. I don't normally use any of those features except the optical drive, but then I realize that the lack of it on the MacBook Air is kind of the point of the model.
 
kuwisdelu said:
Well I read the linked page with the short description. After that, there were just a lot of comments. I saw no "read more," so if there was more of an article, I didn't see it. Excuse me if I'm being obtuse. Perhaps you could provide a link to the actual article.

Well, then there's no denying it has a few more features, then. Personally, I would still prefer a MacBook Air. I don't normally use any of those features except the optical drive, but then I realize that the lack of it on the MacBook Air is kind of the point of the model.
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Well, it does have all features that Air doesn't. The ones that 95% of people do use and expected Air to have, like Ethernet port, 3 usb ports, much better screen, etc. As I read the article, it appeared to me that they also squeezed in the DVD burner into 2,5 pond laptop 0.8 inch thin. It's too bad that Lenovo can't get better designers to redesign their case.
 
kuwisdelu said:
And how come so many people are ignoring one of the most important things that makes the MacBook Air so much more attractive to other ultraportables. It has OS X on it! Try getting that on a Vaio.
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Apple would do well to keep other manufacturers frozen out of the OS. They can attempt to innovate all they like with hardware, but Apple's real talent is its legacy of software. The only other issue with the new rumored Lenovo x300 subnotebook is price. It will come "standard" with a solid-state drive. I'm guessing most Air buyers won't be upping the price to over $3,000 on that decision (however scrumptious).
http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/01/19/lenovo.x300.leak/

I'm in the camp that still thinks Apple makes a huge margin on the Macbook Air... and that I wish against all reasonable product positioning sense that they sold it at $999-$1200. Maybe it would totally misrepresent their line-up and be SUPER-cheap considering the rest of the market... and leave money on the table... but how many would LOVE to buy it as a companion to their iMac without a second thought at that price?

~ CB
 
Selenolycus said:
What are you on about?

Adding this new laptop only confuzzles things. MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air. They should've just made a true sub notebook on either the mb or mbp line instead of going for the WOW factor from thinness. That's what I hear people wanting from Apple. Not a sheet-thin computer.
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What you hear.. ? Are you an apple market researcher? I doubt you have the knowledge of the market that apple has.. they have billions in the bank for a very good reason.
 
^ that's why its disturbing when they miss the mark. Start failing a couple times and not understanding what customers want, and all the good things you did in the past are for nothing. Look at American car companies.

The problem is there are people like you who will lust after anything Apple does without critical thought. You're the equivalent of the "buy American" types who will always buy American cars no matter how lousy they are.
 
I like the Air, I really do. And I'd buy it in a second, with all its compromises bar one: Battery life. If you're going to call something 'Air', with all the images of untethered 'go anywhere' freedom that implies, I'd appreciate being away from my power source at least a full working day. Ok, Ok, so that means it's a bit thicker, and you lose the cachet of 'thinnest laptop in the world', but so what? In return you have a product that will really revolutionize the portable experience.

And, with the battery life posted by Ars and Anandtech...... jeez!

Maybe the next iteration.
 
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