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Size preference/weight tolerance is pretty subjective. So the logical thing for a company to do is to just try to cater to the most popular preferences with as few SKUs as possible. I don't think there's a way to know if 14" and 16" screens covers the MBA user preference spread better than 13" and 15" just from intuition, nor can I assume that my personal preference is the same as that of the average person. Best we could do is take a very small and not-so-random sample survey.
The market research is complex (not just low end MBAs but also high end MBPs) but I am certain Apple is doing it. Small unscientific surveys/polls are a waste of bandwidth, but we see them here every week or two.
 
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Size preference/weight tolerance is pretty subjective. So the logical thing for a company to do is to just try to cater to the most popular preferences with as few SKUs as possible. I don't think there's a way to know if 14" and 16" screens covers the MBA user preference spread better than 13" and 15" just from intuition, nor can I assume that my personal preference is the same as that of the average person. Best we could do is take a very small and not-so-random sample survey.

If you look at Lenovo, the world's largest PC manufacturer, they don't make a 13-inch consumer notebook. They offer a few specialty 13-inch business models, but the vast majority of their lineup is 14-inch. Ditto for the #2 and #3 players, Dell and HP.

It's clear 14-inch is the sweet spot between portability and productivity. PC manufacturers realized this years ago and I doubt Apple is unaware.

Apple being Apple, they're not going to offer what most consumers want at a low price, otherwise who will pay for the MacBook Pro? We see this same strategy with cameras in the iPhone lineup.
 
Any modern Mac laptop will easily go all day on battery.

Yeah, I brought my iPad though because it's like half the weight with keyboard combo trackpad than the MacBook Pro, and I could take notes/sketch on it AND run through the training material :)

Doing that sort of thing the 14" Pro actually gets better battery life than the M1 iPad Air does, but I wanted to travel really light.
 
If you look at Lenovo, the world's largest PC manufacturer, they don't make a 13-inch consumer notebook. They offer a few specialty 13-inch business models, but the vast majority of their lineup is 14-inch. Ditto for the #2 and #3 players, Dell and HP.

It's clear 14-inch is the sweet spot between portability and productivity. PC manufacturers realized this years ago and I doubt Apple is unaware.

Apple being Apple, they're not going to offer what most consumers want at a low price, otherwise who will pay for the MacBook Pro? We see this same strategy with cameras in the iPhone lineup.
14" may be a popular size, but those PC manufacturers make a ton of models, so they can make a bunch of variations of 14" laptops, and less 15", 16", 13", etc. and they can try to make everyone happy. But Apple is more focused with only four laptop models--two sizes of pro and two sizes of consumer. If they drop the 13" to make two 14" laptops, half their lineup will be 14" and they'll have nothing for people who want anything smaller/lighter. It seems reasonable that they should want to compete at the smaller end of the laptop market as it's not insignificant.

With only four models, their size choices could very well be trying to cover the spread as thoroughly but efficiently as possible, as opposed to only being explained as a devious cash grab.
 
I'd much prefer a 16 inch Air. I do love the pro's and nearly bought one but it's just overkill for me and would just be a waste. I'm always surprised they did 14 inch. I would of just kept things at the 13 and 16...

do you remember the 17 inch! those were beasts
 
do you remember the 17 inch! those were beasts
Yes, I happen to have one! It's the 1.33ghz from 2003. I bought it this year when I became more interested in old Macs. Here it is two months ago still able to somewhat browse the web!

Yes, it's heavy and bulky, but it did actually sway me from my M1 MacBook Air to wanting a 16" Pro.

IMG_5842.jpeg
 
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Yes, I happen to have one! It's the 1.33ghz from 2003. I bought it this year when I became more interested in old Macs. Here it is two months ago still able to somewhat browse the web!

Yes, it's heavy and bulky, but it did actually sway me from my M1 MacBook Air to wanting a 16" Pro.

View attachment 2544497
Looks good... it's one of the downsides to older Macs and thats trying to get online is very limited. I have a 2008 iMac on snow leopard which I like for nostalgia but hardly any websites work. I want to get a a copy of iPhoto next as well to try it.
 
Looks good... it's one of the downsides to older Macs and thats trying to get online is very limited. I have a 2008 iMac on snow leopard which I like for nostalgia but hardly any websites work. I want to get a a copy of iPhoto next as well to try it.
Safari hardly worked so I had to install the last version of TenFourFox. Even then it was preventing me from going to websites because of security errors in which I turned off some security settings.

Believe it or not the YouTube links embedded into the website actually work, although it takes a long time to load and the quality averages around 144p.

I want to install iPhoto on mine too, so plan on downloading a copy from Internet Archive and burning it to a DVD. Great to hear about the iMac!
 
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