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Apple Ramping Up Production of 12-Inch MacBook Air for Q1 2015 Delivery
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Crippled is the new Apple. Most of their new products on the Mac side of the house are crippled to provide a perception of coolness (thinness). Apple use to be where power users bought their systems. NO more unless you want to spend $5K.
Didn't got back and read the entire thread, but, if Apple is going with a single USB port, and this USB port will also be the charging port for the laptop, what's to stop them from making the charger a USB/TB hub of sorts? That would solve the multiple usb devices issue as well as solving the need to purchase an additional hub.
My apple 24" display uses 3 ports on my 13" air. MagSafe, USB, and TB. It's my main work machine running VM along with countless other work related software.
The current MBA is a great machine for countless purposes, and is certainly not a nightstand chrome book.
Problem: MBA sales are cannibalizing the rMBP.
Solution: Strip basic features out of the MBA to force more people into rMBP.
Profit!
Solution: Strip basic features out of the MBA to force more people into rMBP.
Profit!
Exactly. People are prejudging a device that hasn't been released, purely based on rumors. And then treating it as if this is replacing every other Mac in the lineup. If you add retina to the current MBA how would you distinguish it from the 13" rMBP? For those who need a bunch of I/O ports buy a rMBP.
Add a retina screen to the MBA and you basically have a rMBP. What sense does that make?
Totally agree. This is the same issue when Apple instead of adding a blue ray drive to the iMac, they took out all external devices out. The world did not end. Apple was just ahead of the curve in realizing that we were moving to digital downloads. And the same with this. Why do we need ports for dongles when we have Bluetooth? Why do we need ports for external drives on a mobile device that has everything stored in cloud drive? We need to stop holding on to the past. There are better ways to do things now.
Apple is not in the business of solving the "need to purchase an additional..." They are in the business of removing functionality and then charging the same and giving you the option to buy back the functionality through dongles, etc.
This is going to catch up to them...
But are your willing to spend nearly the double amount of money for such a device? Apple is caught in problematic iPad prizing scheme, so they can't offer it relatively cheap without cannibalizing the already dropping iPad sales. I bet that an rMB Air will cost at least 699$ (or 799$), which is way more than 300$ for the iPad mini 2 and the 500$ for the iPad Air 2. And with that prize tag I don't think that this group is very big anymore. Chromebooks even start to get 1080p screens for 329$.
What happens when I need to copy across some files to/from a USB thumb drive in order to give a presentation...
There is a popular (mis)conception around here that 99% of people aren't "power users". I'm exhausted defending the need for computers that aren't razor thin and where you can change out (upgrade) basic components instead of throwing it away in a couple years. Everyone thinks no one wants or needs that.
I agree, though, that Apple's focus has become one of thinness across their product line.
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Borrow someone's Windows notebook.
Seems like a convoluted way to get people to buy something (anything) because you couldn't figure out how to sell them your current line of products that does exactly that, but somehow isn't deemed attractive enough.
The consumers you're talking about just don't spend $1k+ on a laptop, they buy the $400 Walmart crap machines, Chromebooks and other neo-netbooks that have been coming out around the $200 price point.
IMO, the target audience for this devices is not the person working on HD movies and thousands of photos. The SSD is incredibly limited if you tons of photos and movies on the device. The target is for those who need a slim laptop, with OS X, and use the internet, email, Word, office connectivity, etc. Better than a tablet in many regards. I have a 2008 MBP collecting dust...I use a 13 MBA for leisure and work-related activities...when I need to use Lightroom to edit my 70,000 plus photo library, I sit at my Mac desktop with a 27-inch screen properly calibrated so that my prints match the screen.
Of course, if they came out with an MBA footprint with the storage and power of an MBP....well, that would be something.
Of course, if they came out with an MBA footprint with the storage and power of an MBP....well, that would be something.
"anti-tablet crowd"? I've never known or heard of a person that was "anti-tablet" for the sake of just not wanting a tablet, let alone enough of them to be a "crowd". You're perception of the use for this new device is so 5 years ago. While I agree you wouldn't use it for CAD or movie editing (too small a screen and bad examples on your part), there is a big difference between what you do with a tablet and what you do with a laptop. Despite people trying otherwise, a tablet is for consumption, and a laptop is for productivity. A 2-in-1 tries to be both, but the fact is, for the most part, people play with tablets and work with laptops.
Make all the excuses you want, but people want ports. I should not be limited by one port and be told that I don't need more than one. I should tell YOU I need more than one and not have to justify it. My Surface Pro 3 only has one and I have to use it to plug in a multi-function USB 3.0 hub and gigabit ethernet adapter. Thumb drives, external hard drives, ethernet, input devices, I need them all. But, I don't use my iPad for those purposes and don't need to.
So, strip the future MBA from a bunch of features it currently has, resulting to an extremely underpowered MBA, compared to the current model. What sense does that make ?
I mean, it all simply boils down to this: We currently have an MBA with a number of features. The future model might has most of them gone. How are users benefit from this ?
At least USB is a far better standard for third party accessories than Thunderbolt.
Well it's better for them if we download everything via their store and save everything in their cloud. If you give people too many choices they might just choose to spend their money elsewhere finding other solutions that suit them better than the Apple plan.
I would buy a MBA if they were cheaper. Right now the cost doesn't justify my usage case which is surfing the net. This would be a great way for me to replace both my iPad 2 and 2009 Mac Mini.
Granted I have to see if the cost is worth it but if sacrificing ports lowers the price point then I'm in. If not then I'll have to reconsider my options.