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'Brick' Refers to the MacBook Manufacturing Process
- Thread starter imapfsr
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The point Apple creating their own plants is to increase quality. This way they have a process designed specifically for Macbooks and Macbooks only, instead of anything the boss gives them. This will dramatically lower prices, while dramatically increasing quality.
I have 30 days to return it anyways I got it at a good price too so I had to buy it, $12.00 for a $35.00 sleeve.
The patents would not necessarily be assigned to Apple. They could have licensed it from the patent owner, if the processes are even patentable. I remember water jet and laser trimming of automobile dashboards in the 80's. Not aluminum, but it suggests that some aspects of this technology are pretty old. Accordingly, there MAY not be patents that are still in force on this technology.
Still, I agree with you. Patents and published patent applications might lead to some new clues to this new MB/MBP structure. Any patent hunters out there with time on their hands?
I'm looking forward to October 14th ('08 right?) LOL, just kidding. Maybe I'll buy something for the holidays...
I've been living in China since 2006 and I can tell you that many people are impressed when they see me wearing Levis Jeans. Chinese people have told me they're really expensive here and are of great quality, so many people want them. So I'd wager to say that Levis is a good product. There used to be a Levis factory in my hometown in Texas (near the Mexican border lol) but it closed down awhile ago. A few Google searches showed they were made in the USA, but beyond that I didn't do anymore research to prove otherwise, so maybe they're not.
Also Intel appears to make it's chips in the USA - I'd say those are of good quality too.
For your argument that the Chinese are "good" at making things, I'd have to disagree. They sacrifice quality (and safety) to try to keep the price down, mostly because the people in China (not all, but a lot) are pretty poor or picky when it comes to spending. I once saw a girl with an ipod shuffle when asked how much it was she said 300RMB and all the other people around her were like OOOooo that's so expensive. At today's exchange rate that's only about $44 give or take. So manufacturing must be cheap and because of this you have quality issues, little to no warranty, and people that often die while manufacturing. I bought a Chinese brand video card here and it died w/ very little use not even in a year. When I took it back to get it exchanged I was told it only had a 6 month warranty and I had to buy a new one.
Also, if you buy any of the game consoles here, they're sold to you pre-modded. I bought a psp and before I left the store it was modded w/ custom firmware and they have computers in the back of the shop that have games on them that anyone can go to hook up their psp (or NDS) and copy games over for free. Buying Xbox/Playstation/Wii games here are like 5RMB for a fake copy. DVDs of movies are also like 6RMB.
So the Chinese do things because their people aren't going to spend a lot of money on "novelty" things. They still use brooms made of hay, and barrels to cook food in w/ soot covered ceramics for heat.
[/rant]
This also sounds as if it would be:
A. Highly inefficient in that the scraps left over would have to be melted down again to be reused if the parts are being removed from a "block".
B. Depending on how they do it I could see this being a PITA for upgrades. We KNOW that Jobs since the days of the first Mac is not a fan of user replaceable parts/upgrade. (Its documented. Look it up.) there is a good possibility if this is one solid peice that the board slides into the form somehow and would be a massive PITA to remove. Love em or hate em all of Dell's current lineups allow the RAM, HD, and CPU to be accessible for upgrades. I wish Apple would return to the days of the Pismo. It may have been thick, but dear god. No laptop could match the upgrades that sucker could have done to it. But that would make too much sense, and would eat into their bottom line. God forbid customer over profits.
Seems like for every pro you have there is a con. My money is on this is just to make it thinner. No additional functionality. Just their continuing fetish for thin.
A. Highly inefficient in that the scraps left over would have to be melted down again to be reused if the parts are being removed from a "block".
B. Depending on how they do it I could see this being a PITA for upgrades. We KNOW that Jobs since the days of the first Mac is not a fan of user replaceable parts/upgrade. (Its documented. Look it up.) there is a good possibility if this is one solid peice that the board slides into the form somehow and would be a massive PITA to remove. Love em or hate em all of Dell's current lineups allow the RAM, HD, and CPU to be accessible for upgrades. I wish Apple would return to the days of the Pismo. It may have been thick, but dear god. No laptop could match the upgrades that sucker could have done to it. But that would make too much sense, and would eat into their bottom line. God forbid customer over profits.
Seems like for every pro you have there is a con. My money is on this is just to make it thinner. No additional functionality. Just their continuing fetish for thin.
This does not mean they are going entirely screw-less just less screws and metal in the case will be necessary making it much lighter and possibly reducing cost. The machine is guarantied to have screws in the sub-components even if none are used to attach them to the case. Unless they start making their own style of CPUs, GPUs, boards, etc.
Depending on the application either way has advantages if you make a product like Air then reducing the space and complicity for user ease of component change can reduce weight and size. For something like the Macbook Pro it is likely to be kept so as reduce customization costs and time for when buyers purchase at Apple's retail stores.
Also, their has been a lot of comments about "Made in the USA"; Their is excellent, average and poor quality that comes out of every country that produces anything. And one person talked about american cars then goes on about a rentals in europe; that is a joke, most rental cars are the most striped down models, are not taken care of well, and often not interesting models. And the kind of cars that are "american" in europe are often not even the same models in the US.
That would be awesome for a company to bring manufacturing of laptops back to the US, but I doubt it.....
Its not going to be that solid. You won't notice the seams in the case. Macbook Air is an example.
Carving billet aluminum is not a new thing in of itself. But applying it to computer cases is definitely new.
I don't see how this won't mean a significant price increase, though. Billet aluminum is expensive stuff.
I don't see how this won't mean a significant price increase, though. Billet aluminum is expensive stuff.
This is pretty awesome. Makes a load of sense.....Plus its a clue towards a full range refresh including iMac's and Mac Pro's plus Cinema Displays, certainly worth waiting out a while before buying a mac.
ShadoW
ShadoW
Excuse the lack of sleep. I had read it as it was a seamless case, hence no screws.
It just didn't make sense to me. I do hope they keep the HDD/RAM/etc user accessible in the new lineup. Would hate if it went like the Air. Totally different needs.
The iMac just got refreshed 4 or so months ago, and a redesign a year and a half ago. It's mid-cycle, don't expect anything except maybe spec updates at or before MWSF.
The Mac Pro is definitely going to move to the Core i7 soon, hopefully. Going to DDR3 from FB-DIMMs should lower the cost a bit, too.
Besides the quality reasons for USA manufacturing, I'd say it would be a huge PR boost for Apple. I bought my first computer in 05 - a Dell. Solely because it was made in the USA. I couldn't find anything this time around and I really wanted a Mac, so I got a Mac and felt a little guilty.
A computer is a big purchase. It boost the economy along with giving my fellow countrymen a job. That's why I will never buy a car that isn't made in the USA, unless I have to.
Besides, it says that there will only need to be 100 workers. At that number, Apple can base the plant here and still save money. Plus - I'd bet most of the sales are in the USA. That would save on shipping costs.
These are just my thoughts and I really haven't looked into what Apple pays their overseas workers. (Although I doubt it'll be high.) :-/
Look folks, unless you are making only one or two of something, you don't take a block and mill it. Those of you saying its too inefficient and that Apple would never do that, you are correct -- except:
I don't think Apple will use a rectangular block.
They will cast molten aluminum into molds that look like the final shape. The lasers and water jets will likely clean up the design and bring everything into final spec.
Why?
You don't have a block of aluminum sitting in the manufacturing line for several minutes getting cut into rough form, its a lot quicker
Two, a lot less Aluminum scrap when you aren't eliminating 90% of the block, but rather 1%.
This is how a lot of manufacturing processes work, for example, precision engineered engine blocks.
And they will likely recycle on site, since they will be melting ingets for their molds.
Also, I see this as huge. Apple has been moving away from Plastic; this will centralize ALL of their case designs.... macs, notebooks, iPods, even keyboards.
It is very likely they could assemble their entire machines in the United States. For the nay sayers: Have you seen electronics assembly? Pick and place machines have been automated for years, assembling circuit boards is an EASY TASK and there are hundreds if not thousands of companies in the US that do it; I've contracted work out to several. The automation equipment (same that they use in China) is readily available, in fact Apple has already had that equipment in their prototyping offices (I had a picture in a Time magazine article I believe a while back)
I don't think Apple will use a rectangular block.
They will cast molten aluminum into molds that look like the final shape. The lasers and water jets will likely clean up the design and bring everything into final spec.
Why?
You don't have a block of aluminum sitting in the manufacturing line for several minutes getting cut into rough form, its a lot quicker
Two, a lot less Aluminum scrap when you aren't eliminating 90% of the block, but rather 1%.
This is how a lot of manufacturing processes work, for example, precision engineered engine blocks.
And they will likely recycle on site, since they will be melting ingets for their molds.
Also, I see this as huge. Apple has been moving away from Plastic; this will centralize ALL of their case designs.... macs, notebooks, iPods, even keyboards.
It is very likely they could assemble their entire machines in the United States. For the nay sayers: Have you seen electronics assembly? Pick and place machines have been automated for years, assembling circuit boards is an EASY TASK and there are hundreds if not thousands of companies in the US that do it; I've contracted work out to several. The automation equipment (same that they use in China) is readily available, in fact Apple has already had that equipment in their prototyping offices (I had a picture in a Time magazine article I believe a while back)