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Apple sure is pushing the MacBook Air...

LarryC

LarryC

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 19, 2002
419
33
North America
But if you look at their best sellers on the U.S. online Apple store you see that the Air doesn't even make the top 5. I think that this is another case of Steve Jobs and his gigantic ego wanting one thing while the market clearly wants something else. Steve Jobs is going to ignore what the buying public wants and is going to attempt to force feed his ideas down peoples throats. Maybe when Jobs is gone, Apple can finally get a CEO whose ego is not bigger than the company and also one who might actually care what its customers actually want.


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"New to the store" is ordered chronologically.

Edit: It's late and by 'pushing the mba' I assumed you were referring to the top of the "New to the store" list.

Macbook Air sales are doing just fine.
 
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Ljohnson72 said:
"New to the store" is ordered chronologically.
Click to expand...

Look further down.


miles01110 said:
The new MBA's have been out for what... a week? Everything else has been out for months. It's not rocket science to figure out why it's not a top seller compared with hardware that has been out for months.
Click to expand...

It did not make it to the top five before the new model was released either. The MacBook was though. And we can clearly see what he did with that.
 
The new 11" Macbook Air is the #2 selling laptop of any brand on Amazon. 3 out of the top 10 selling laptops are Macbook Airs.

Sorry to burst your bubble.
 
admanimal said:
The new 11" Macbook Air is the #2 selling laptop of any brand on Amazon. 3 out of the top 10 selling laptops are Macbook Airs.

Sorry to burst your bubble.
Click to expand...

My bubble hasn't burst. Two weeks ago, the MacBook was something like #8 on that same list and the Air didn't make the top 20. And the old MacBook was in the top 100 for more than 420 days. Steve Jobs doesn't care what sells and/or what people want. He only cares about what he wants. I saw an interview once where some top Apple executives were being interviewed and he was asked something about asking customers what they want and Jobs was very proud to say that Apple never asks customers what they want. "I tell them what they want." That was his reply. I think that Steve's ego is bigger than Apple and although they might be on top right now... that can change very quickly---Look at Microsoft, that is where Apple is headed. Maybe not this week or this month, but with Jobs' giant ego leading the way, that is where they are going to go eventually.
 
LarryC said:
Steve Jobs doesn't care what sells and/or what people want. He only cares about what he wants.
Click to expand...

If you think Jobs doesn't care about what sells, you are an idiot. Apple's entire lineup of computers, and especially their notebooks, have been crushing the competition in terms of year-over-year sales growth for quite a while now.

Steve Jobs single handedly turned a bankrupt company into one of the world's most valuable and cash-loaded. You don't have to like his attitude but to question his ability as a CEO is ludicrous.

Could you please enlighten us with what you would like to see in the Macbook Air that Steve is so stubbornly omitting?
 
LarryC said:
But if you look at their best sellers on the U.S. online Apple store you see that the Air doesn't even make the top 5. I think that this is another case of Steve Jobs and his gigantic ego wanting one thing while the market clearly wants something else. Steve Jobs is going to ignore what the buying public wants and is going to attempt to force feed his ideas down peoples throats. Maybe when Jobs is gone, Apple can finally get a CEO whose ego is not bigger than the company and also one who might actually care what its customers actually want.
Click to expand...

Wrong.

"With last year's update the MacBook Air did so well that it actually started outselling the base MacBook." - Source

Making the Air the base Macbook offering made very good business sense. But you wouldn't understand that because you're bent on bashing Steve Jobs, someone who has built a company with $70B+ in cash reserves. I guess you think he did that without any business sense.

The Air sells INCREDIBLY WELL.
 
I f your a company and one of your products is not selling does itnt make sence to advertise more for that product??
 
I know a lot of people who want the air and are currently saving for it.
 
I think you just liked the MacBook WAY too much... Steve Jobs does not single handedly make every decision in the company anyway.

The new Macbook Air is way more powerful than the last model. Plus, Apple is a company.. They push new products.

Get over it.
 
I'm not certain how the 2011 MBAs are selling, but Amazon has run out of the 2011 MBA 11" ("requires 2 to 5 weeks...").

Also, if you look at a recent poll/thread on the MBA forum, you'll see that about 57% of the 2011 MBA buyers bought their MBA as their very first Mac.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1196654/

Whether or not the MBA is a bestselling Mac or not, it's pretty impressive that it's drawing so many people who have never bought a Mac before.

Getting new buyers without cannibalizing existing Mac sales would seem like an impressive accomplishment for the MBAs.
 
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The MacBook air is now 50% of their biggest selling form factor. You bet they're pushing it hard.
 
VMMan said:
I'm not certain how the 2011 MBAs are selling, but Amazon has run out of the 2011 MBA 11" ("requires 2 to 5 weeks...").

Also, if you look at a recent poll/thread on the MBA forum, you'll see that about 57% of the 2011 MBA buyers bought their MBA as their very first Mac.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1196654/

Whether or not the MBA is a bestselling Mac or not, it's pretty impressive that it's drawing so many people who have never bought a Mac before.

Getting new buyers without cannibalizing existing Mac sales would seem like an impressive accomplishment for the MBAs.
Click to expand...

1) Seeing that Amazon doesn't have an unlimited or abnormally large amount of them, they're bound to sell out. Unless you have figures, them selling out means nothing.

2) Seeing that that post has under 200 people, this point is moot. If you're going to make a statement like this, make it on statistics that cover a very large number of people.

3) "Whether or not the MBA..." that statement doesn't make any sense.

4) New buyers of... MBAs? if so, MBA = Macs..... so that statement is also moot. You should really read what you're posting before you post.

Now if by Macs you mean desktops (in which you should specify because they are all Macintosh computers = Macs), if someone wants a desktop, they aren't going to get a MBA instead of that. Larger screen, mouse and keyboard, power; these are all things that people want out of their desktops that they would have to buy extra for a laptop. It wouldn't make sense. Not to mention a Superdrive if it's a Mac Mini.
 
ProwlingTiger said:
Wrong.

"With last year's update the MacBook Air did so well that it actually started outselling the base MacBook." - Source

Making the Air the base Macbook offering made very good business sense. But you wouldn't understand that because you're bent on bashing Steve Jobs, someone who has built a company with $70B+ in cash reserves. I guess you think he did that without any business sense.

The Air sells INCREDIBLY WELL.
Click to expand...

Dear Mr. "Prowling Tiger,"

You start out by saying that I am simply wrong, did you even bother to read what I copied and pasted from Apple's own website? Perhaps it did make good business sense... I don't have any kind of business management degree and I don't own my own company, so you might be right there, I just happen to disagree. And nobody can argue that Apple has been amazingly successful lately and that they do have a huge pile of cash. I never meant to imply that he isn't a smart guy. My whole point is that I disagree with the direction that he is taking the company. I disagree with the whole post pc era thing and I believe that he has a particular vision/direction that he is taking apple and I think that it is a mistake. Jobs is a visionary, there is no doubt in that... or maybe he was a visionary and has lost that. People here at Mac Rumors tend to be huge Steve Jobs fans, that certainly isn't a surprise. I have never liked the whole idea that the air is the direction that all apple laptops are heading towards. That is why I purchased a 2011 MacBook Pro that runs Snow Leopard. I don't want a laptop without an optical drive, if that makes me some kind of dinosaur then so be it. I also don't want and computer that puts form before function. I believe that you can have both. I see no reason why the MacMini has to be "so" small that it has to use laptop components which cost more and perform less than desktop components. I think the MacMini is a great computer and I might buy one some day, but I think the design is intentionally hobbled by being too small. It is a desktop computer. Why does it have to be so tiny? The iMac is an amazing desktop computer, of that, there is no doubt. But why does it have to be so thin that it has to use laptop components and again, it costs more for less performance than if it were just one or two inches thicker, it could actually be a desktop computer that uses real desktop components. I've read many posts here at MR where people have said that if apple were to remove the optical drive it could make the iMac half as thin as it is now! They already have overheating issues, but who cares? It is so thin and we want it thinner. More Form over Function. I also disagree with this thing where you have to get your software from the App Store. I feel that if I bought it then I own it and I should be able to buy my software from whomever I choose to buy it from. Apple used to be about more freedom for the user who was tired of Microsoft's control and it seems to me that is the exact same direction Steve Jobs is taking Apple. And to borrow a phrase from SJ, oh yeah, there is just one more thing. I think that it is just fine to be a fan of a company or a CEO or a sports team, etc. but when people start worshipping somebody like he is a God, then that is going just a wee bit too far. I think that Steve Jobs has an ego the size of a god and he actually brags that he never asks mac users what they want, instead, he tells them what they want. That is a real turn-off for me when somebody is that arrogant and that egotistical. I think that OS X is a really great OS, but I firmly disagree with the direction that OS X is taking. Os X is being turned into iOS. I think that is a mistake. You guys can rant and rave if you want to, but these are my opinions and I have a right to them. Just as you have a right to tell me that I am some kind of fool and that I am a troll because I do not worship at the same alter that you do. I can take it, can you?
 
In the end the MARKET will tell every company (even Apple) what to do. If the Airs don't sell well they will eventually go away. I think you will see the Airs grow and replace (yes even the 17" MBP) as the technology gets smaller and faster. Look for a 17" MacBook Air that is as powerful as todays 17" MBP in 3 years.
 
LarryC said:
Maybe when Jobs is gone, Apple can finally get a CEO whose ego is not bigger than the company and also one who might actually care what its customers actually want.
Click to expand...
Ha! Name a CEO of a major profitable company whose ego isn't bigger than the company.

I may not like Jobs' vision for the computing future, but as a CEO he is "insanely great".
 
after5cst said:
Ha! Name a CEO of a major profitable company whose ego isn't bigger than the company.

I may not like Jobs' vision for the computing future, but as a CEO he is "insanely great".
Click to expand...

Apart from the fact he should also IMO be resting a lot more and spending time with his family as he never knows......... he's not the healthiest of peeps :(

Apart from that, he starts a tiny company, grows, gets fired! comes back and then saves his company from virtual bankruptcy into one hell of a successful and profitable one. I mean, just how recognisable is the Apple logo around the globe now?
 
apolloa said:
Apart from that, he starts a tiny company, grows, gets fired! comes back and then saves his company from virtual bankruptcy into one hell of a successful and profitable one. I mean, just how recognisable is the Apple logo around the globe now?
Click to expand...

And all he did in between jobs at Apple was build the world's most successful animation company and the software that eventually helped rescue Apple.
 
@Larry.

Paragraphs are your friends. Please use them.

Madly hammering at your keyboard to get your point across NEVER gets the job done. You have to sit back, think about what you're gong to say, and write that. In some form of order.

If you don't, it just looks like that ^.
 
The only thing that list tells you is what is selling on Apple's online store. It has no bearing on what is selling in the physical Apple retail stores or any of the other retailers and e-tailers out there.

Not surprisingly, the Macbook Pro--Apple's power user laptop--is the best seller there. Most MBP buyers are long(er) time computer users with a pretty particular idea about what they want. Some of them are exercising the build-to-order option, and Apple's online store is the only place to do that.

Meanwhile, most people I know will not buy an entire computer online. Instant gratification aside, a computer is a rather expensive and personal purchase, and most of them are casual users who haven't owned a dozen different computers over the years; not only do they not know, understand, or care about the various technicalities and specifications drawn on the box or website (they're much more drawn to look and "feel"), but many of them haven't even developed a standing preference for what they actually want out of the machine. So these people go into the store and browse the offerings for an hour or two, pick out what they like, and take it home. These are the people buying Macbook Airs...and, if any of the reports are to be believed, they're doing so in substantial numbers.
 
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