Couldn't the MacBook Air be better than the iPad?

[Scottsdale]

I think this debate is being played out internally at Apple; hence the next round of updates is NOT going to include the MBA (Apple doesn't want anything to cannibalize the Book of Jobs).

For all of you just using the MBA to surf the web for only non-flash based sites: SHAME ON YOU!!!!

The MBA does a hell of a lot more and not using it properly is like having a beautiful wife that you never get to see--its a tragedy

I use my MBA for its full CS3 suite (yeah, remember those days when Apple used to allow Adobe products to work on their systems?), Word, Excel, and Powerpoint (which is awesome on the MBA for presentations). I use video conferencing on it, download songs/movies, stream Hulu with my friends (which brings me to a major complaint about the MBA--the speaker sucks!), and take notes in lectures (being able to write on pdfs is a wonderful thing).

Would I give up my MBA for the iPad, even a 3G one? Hell no!!!
If you need internet just BT-DUN through the iPhone. The MBA has allowed me to be so much more productive that I used to (even with a 12 inch Apple). I travel constantly and now I can bring my air EVERYWHERE. For short trips I'm now down to 1 messenger bag and that is purely amazing.

I'm curious to hear other MBA owners who use theirs similar to me: what has the iPad contributed that the Air didn't. I am rarely at home, but when I am I use the iMac for everything (BT mice/keyboards are great from bed FYI). What function will the iPad serve?

Do you honestly believe Apple wouldn't prefer selling a $1799 MBA rather than a $699 iPad? I think that logic is completely backwards. Apple makes half its revenue from the Macs, and it's not going to drop them to sell iPads at less than half the price.

I don't know that not introducing the MBA now is a bad thing. I don't want this decision on graphics to be taken lightly. If we don't get it now, it would certainly come at WWDC in June/July.

There is speculation that even the 13" MBP isn't going to be released yet. It might be that Apple is still working around the Nvidia GPU/Intel Arrandale problem. Apple used the Nvidia chipset/GPU in every Mac except the Mac Pro. That means the low-end MBPs are going to probably get the same graphics as the MBA, MB, Mm, and even low-end iMac.

I definitely believe that Apple is in deep with the MBP and Mac Pro buyers who have literally ancient technology (in the digital age 10+ and 14+ month old computers are ancient). Apple can get away with selling an old MBA, because most of the users just don't care what's in it. Us fans in this MBA forum are not the average MBA buyer... we care about the value proposition of the MBA based on the components and price vs. the same MBA ten plus months ago - it's abnormal because Apple pushed the coolness and form factor not the internals.

We can still get an MBA this week, when the MBPs are updated, or by WWDC. Don't give up hope or blame it on the iPad. The MBA and iPad are two completely different markets.

 

[ddd269]

I just picked up my iPad this afternoon and haven't put it down yet.

It is pretty cool! Sure, it's kind of like a giant iPod touch but with subtle differences. Size appropriate differences, I might add. Love the magazines with iPad specific content. Couple of freebie mags and one of them was macworld on the zinio app. I found this article interesting...

First Mac, then iPhone, now iPad: Apple’s ongoing effort to simplify computing
BY DAN MOREN

This month, I’m handing my space over to Senior Associate Editor Dan Moren, who was with me at Apple’s iPad announcement and has some interesting thoughts about where that product might lead us.—JASON SNELL

A few years ago, I took my MacBook into an Apple Store to get it serviced. The two Geniuses there looked it over with the same critical eye that car enthusiasts might give to a hot rod. “Look,” said one, “he’s replaced the battery monitor in the menu bar. And he’s got the Dock down in the bottom right of the screen.”

Techies wear their tweaks and optimizations as badges of honor. But something strange happened after I watched Steve Jobs introduce the iPad. I looked at all those little inscrutable icons in my MacBook’s menu bar and saw them for what they were: hacks and shortcuts to “fix” the way the computer worked. “Surely,” I thought, “there must be a better way.”

Removing the Buttons

In 1984, Apple introduced the Mac and first brought a graphical user interface to the masses. “Look,” Apple said, “computers are powerful, useful tools, but they’re clumsy and inelegant. Let us show you a better way.” Of course, the Mac was derided as a toy by those who had grown accustomed to typing their instructions at a command line.

But look where we are now: Every subsequent personal computer operating system has followed the Mac’s example. Twenty-six years later, we’re all interacting with our computers with a cursordriven interface in which we point, click, and drag.

But as good as the Mac interface is, Apple realized that it isn’t good enough. While PC makers have been adding extra buttons and controls to try to give users more ways to tell their computers what to do, Apple has been headed in the opposite direction by removing the buttons.

A New Way of Doing Things

The smartphone market gave Apple an opportunity to implement these ideas on a more compact canvas. Seventy-five million iPhones and iPod touches later, the touchscreen interface has become familiar; users have learned a new way of doing things.

But even now, the iPad is a bold, ambitious product. Like the iPhone, it abstracts the nitty-gritty details of a computer’s underpinnings and removes obstructions to the tasks you actually want to do. Much of the negative response to the iPad seems filled with anger (which, as Yoda pointed out, stems from fear). Much of that anger comes from power users who like dealing with the underpinnings of their computers. I don’t think Apple wants to kill off tinkerers—it just wants to make sure that you don’t have to be a tinkerer to use a computer.

Making Computing Easier

Few people mourned the damage the personal computer dealt to the typewriter, and most of those who did were either a) fueled by nostalgia or b) people who made typewriters. Few people mourned the damage that e-mail and the Internet dealt to the fax machine—in fact, we’re mostly just pretty ticked off that the fax machine is still persistently clinging to life at all. In both instances, people embraced the new technology because it was, well, better.

The iPad represents the next phase of computing. Apple isn’t the only one to realize it, either. What Google is doing with its Chrome OS is different than what Apple is doing with the iPad. But they’re both aimed at the same target: making computing easier for the average user. I wager that we’ll see a touchscreen tablet running Chrome OS within a year of the software’s release, though I am skeptical of how effective that combination will be.

The iPad won’t kill the computer any more than the graphical user interface did away with the command line. (It’s still there, remember?) But it is Apple’s way of saying, once again, that there’s a better way. Regardless of how many people buy the iPad, it’s not hard to look forward a few years and imagine a world where more and more people are interacting with technology in this new way. Even if it often seems to do just the opposite, the ultimate goal of technology has always been to make life easier.

 

[blairh]

But even now, the iPad is a bold, ambitious product. Like the iPhone, it abstracts the nitty-gritty details of a computer’s underpinnings and removes obstructions to the tasks you actually want to do.
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Couple points.

Regarding what I've quoted. Removes obstructions to the tasks you actually want to do? Can someone explain how the iPad does this exactly? I don't look at my MBP as having obstructions that get in the way when I want to do something, even simple things like browsing the web.

I think this article makes a mistake in trying to substitute the use of the word "easier" when really it means "dumbing down". Look, if you want to do simple tasks and you like doing them on your iPad, great. I'm happy that works for you. But personally there isn't a single thing the iPad does where I go "right, I'd want one to do that instead of the current setup of Apple products I use". Sure, "simpler" computers may be great for grandma and grandpa, your five year old. But should we really be excited that the iPad is "simpler" to use than a laptop or desktop? Honestly if I had a six year old I'd put an iMac in their room and I'd teach them how to use it. If anything the current generation of kids are more advanced then any other generation because they have access to the technological tools that were not available in the past. Think about how many times you've stumbled upon a video on Youtube by some kid between the ages of 10 - 13 doing a review on a tech product or giving an opinion. In all likelihood they shot, edited, and uploaded that footage onto Youtube.

Do you want to know what I respect about the iPad? It gives consumers a choice on the go when they want to consume media and want/need something bigger than a smartphone but something other than a laptop. I see the advantage of that. You don't have to sit on that plane or train and prop that laptop on the tray in front of you. I see the appeal in that. And the option to turn a 3G data plan on and off is brilliant. But that's the future of computing? Um, no.

Once tablets start running real OS's and come in widescreens (for easier typing on a virtual keyboard and proper movie viewing) I'll start to take it seriously. While the iPad offers the consumer a new option, for now it's nothing more than a device that runs a compromised web experience, an ereader on an illuminated screen, a movie player on a 4:3 aspect ratio screen (where you need to purchase your movies/tv shows from iTunes or convert files to play on the iPad itself), games without proper tactile controls, and an awkward on-screen keyboard. Despite those flaws, it can work for some people. For twice the price of an iPad you can get the now "old" baseline MBP, add 3.5 lbs to your bag, and not make a single compromise. Yes, maybe you don't need that much computer, but you also make no compromises in your experience.

 

[AAPLaday]

Do you honestly believe Apple wouldn't prefer selling a $1799 MBA rather than a $699 iPad? I think that logic is completely backwards. Apple makes half its revenue from the Macs, and it's not going to drop them to sell iPads at less than half the price.

Depends, i think they would prefer to sell 3 iPads to one MBA as it will lead to further switchers and also theres the big iTunes cash cow that the iPad and iPhone have helped to become even more profitable.

 

[Scottsdale]

Depends, i think they would prefer to sell 3 iPads to one MBA as it will lead to further switchers and also theres the big iTunes cash cow that the iPad and iPhone have helped to become even more profitable.

Let me tell you the cash cow in the App Store, iTunes music and video content... it sells MORE iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads, and Macs. Seriously, Apple isn't making a ton of money on music, videos, and apps. It uses the advantage of having those on Apple devices that it sells MORE AND MORE Apple products. Apple would rather sell three iPads than one MBA, absolutely. But Apple wouldn't rather sell an iPad over an MBA.

I wrote an article on this very topic for a magazine. I will post a link here when it goes live in the issue. Or, send me a PM with your email address if you want it before that and I will send you a copy of it in a PDF.

 

[lucifiel]

Let me tell you the cash cow in the App Store, iTunes music and video content... it sells MORE iPhones, iPod Touches, iPads, and Macs. Seriously, Apple isn't making a ton of money on music, videos, and apps. It uses the advantage of having those on Apple devices that it sells MORE AND MORE Apple products. Apple would rather sell three iPads than one MBA, absolutely. But Apple wouldn't rather sell an iPad over an MBA.

I wrote an article on this very topic for a magazine. I will post a link here when it goes live in the issue. Or, send me a PM with your email address if you want it before that and I will send you a copy of it in a PDF.

Post the link, I would like to see the logic behind that. Personally I think (and without research), there is a possibility that the iPad margins are greater, or as they are easier to sell (lower entry price etc) the volume will make up the difference.

It's a little simplistic to compare "one iPad v one MBA" if you ignore the fact that the iPad is designed to be more market permeating than the MBA.