1) The Nehalem chip (Core i7) will be out next year which will add significant power to the MBs. It is a QUAD-core chip and will be a major revision.
And you know for certain it will be out in the summer? And that it will be in the MacBook? If Nehalem makes it into the MB, I'd wager it won't be until this time next year - after the iPod promo. I highly doubt Apple is going to release two major revisions in a six month period.
And even if it is out this summer, your average college student is not going to notice or need the difference. I'm getting by just fine with my CoreDuo MacBook, and as others have said, they're surviving Grad school just fine with iBooks.
That kind of processing power will not be necessary for the vast majority of university users. You don't need four cores to write an essay or to check your email.
2) You are all assuming the kid will only use word processing and Internet, etc. I am assuming she hasn't figured out her major yet and that this will be her "one shot" computer and neither parent nor child wants to be burdened having to put out more cash in future years to upgrade. I know I had better things to spend my money on.
Can you name one major that a MacBook will not be able to cope with
and that
requires students to have their own computers? Something like film, which I admit the MacBook would not be ideal for, will have an editing house. It will not require students to buy their own editing station and software. Applied Science? CAD will run on a MacBook, but once again, they're not going to make students buy it - more likely there's a lab on campus with the programs installed. My program requires the use of high-end professional statistical software, but we're certainly not made to buy it ourselves - we have computers on campus so equipped.
But let's say you're right, and that she hasn't decided yet. Waiting six months to buy a MacBook isn't going to make a shred of difference. If she winds up in a program where the MacBook doesn't cut it, then a slight revision next summer will not make any difference. If she's in a position where she needs to upgrade, she's going to be thinking "damn, I should have got the MacBook Pro", not "damn, I should have waited for that 0.1 Ghz speed bump".
Given that the father is looking at MBs and not MBPs, I think it's a safe assumption the daughter is not considering film or multimedia, either. If she were seriously considered going into those programs, I'll wager the family would be considering a MBP, and instead of this thread it would probably be another "new MBP vs. Refurb" thread...
3) Do you have any scientific statistical data to back up your claims of "most college students"? Anecdotal stories are nice, but not proof of anything other than your own personal experience. You certainly cannot claim the needs of "most college students" based on your own experience. A student's experience at MIT is far different than an English Lit major at BC whose experience is different than a biz major at UGA.
I call this "reducto ad statisterum". No, I can't speak for every student in the world. But given that every student I know uses their computers for essays, research, internet, and email, and little else, it's a perfectly safe extrapolation to apply that to all students. The alternative is that my school is just some kind of weird anomaly, and in reality students at other schools are constantly editing High Def videos on their laptops.
Use common sense for one moment. Aside from some small, very specialized faculties, most students are writing essays and lab reports, crunching numbers in Excel, and giving Keynote presentations. I have never met a student who required a brand new, super-powerful computer for their school work. I do know one that have bought one as a choice, but in that case the school provided computers for her use, she simply elected to buy her own.
What real gains does she get by waiting? A slightly faster system that, statistically, she is unlikely to notice the difference with. Nothing more.
