Oh good, slimmer. Everyone keeps asking for slimmer and not more power/battery...
That. Even losing the ODD wouldn't be so bad if a similar-thickness MacBook Pro were released with day-long battery (not the current 6 hours).
A 12" iPad seems too big, and a touch screen mac goes against my don't-ever-touch-the-screen habits.
Just like a 5"+ screen is too big on a cell phone, yet released it.
And Matte Screens option for designers/photographers
4G Sim card option for coffee shop bloggers
Yeah. All of that would be sweet.
Matte screens make much more sense when the machine is used on the go in uncontrolled lighting conditions.
My 15" non-Mac PC has a SIM card slot, just lacks a 3G modem and decent plans. Just to say it's far from impossible, as Apple already accidentally released a prototype MBP back in the day with just that capability.
Double now that Microsoft has tried the same basic idea and it has been a total failure to a lukewarm meh
Are you referring to the so-called Tablet PCs? They were delivered as heavy boxes, unoptimized OS and apps, and crappy touchscreens with unremarkable battery life, all at triple the price of a similar PC. That's why they failed, not because the idea was bad. That said, it's also true that touchscreen laptops tend to get incredibly dirty after a very short while.
The MBA sells. The 17 really didn't. Not even to business customers.
I know this is Apple, but I think the 17" broke a psychological price barrier in most people's minds: more than $3k. There was simply not enough value-added components and functions in the 17" over the 15" to justify such a large price increase between them.
But isn't the Safari, email, word processing, Facebook group the majority of users?
These users should just shut up and get an iPad or iPhone 6 Plus. For the rest of us who still need to get real work done, leave us with decent MacBook Pros. /crappy elitist
How about an ultra slim 15 17 inch apple? Some of us would like a bigger screen laptop that doesn't feel like we are lugging a baby elephant around.
Physics law being what they are, a 15" as thin as a MBA would be prone to bending, wouldn't it?
These things add up, for god's sake! I just bought a new bag that's 700g lighter. Last year I bought a mirrorless camera that saved me around the same. Now, if Apple gets the 12" Air under 1kg, I'll have saved at least 350g compared to my current 13" Air. That's *2kg* gone from my back just by changing *three* products.
Somehow not many users would be ready to shave 2kgs off their backs spending $2k+.
Seems wrong to me trashing perfectly capable products just because they're not the latest and lightest.
If what you want is performance, just get the Macbook Pro. It's almost as slim as the current Air at this point. Why whine about the Air trying to be what it exists for?
Personally I don't blame the Air trying to be thin. What I blame Apple for is the increasing lack of differentiation between the Pro and the Air. First they removed useful accessories from the box. No more -to-HDMI, -to-VGA, remote included. Not everyone used these, but "Pros" (as in the moniker) would probably have.
Then did away with discrete graphics, replacing it by a capable, Intel chip, but nevertheless with shared memory.
Then off with the ODD. Again, not used that much, but as the Mac is the most compatible laptop there is IMHO, it needs to do things for other machines: standard non-Macs are usually troubleshooted using, you guessed it, a bootable CD. This would have kept the MBP as a IT-guy standard.