Feasibility of New Solid Aluminum Manufacturing Process?

[fat phil]

Apple Brick(tm) Assembly Worker

Further investigation and careful consultation with "I'm Never Wrong" analysts reveals this artist's impression of a "Steve-O's Magic Brick Factory" worker.

It would appear, after all, that the new facility is based in the United States.

This speculation game is fun!

 

[Gasu E.]

It would appear, after all, that the new facility is based in the United States.

Judging from his attire, I would guess the facility is in Alaska.

. And in case you didn't catch that, again.

 

[d3fcon]

Do you think they would throw that out? Why?

Aluminum has a very low melting point, all scraps could be collected and melted into new blocks to use again at a very low cost in energy.

Low cost I take it you don't work in fabrication then. I thought the aluminium was to make them greener.... Who comes up with these rumours half of them are completly idiotic... And the fanboys buy into it.... LOL

 

[d3fcon]

Steve himself replied to an email (he always does) with this sneak preview.

I'm sure he'll understand me sharing it.

I like it good work....Put an apple sticker on it and you'll probably be able to sell to the 90% of the people on this site... No wait does it get too hot, under perform, Have outdated technology inside and cost the earth... Yes ... It's a mac then

 

[hiimamac]

Well, wouldn't it being more expensive initially fit with Apple's lower forecast for the next Q?

Did anyone here go to college? Study economics at least one semester or quarter?

Apple cripples Macbooks from 70% to 171% with Leopard with X300 and brings it back down to 70% OPEN GL, no, you could never play a game but you could run motion. But, hey, lets cripple it for the less than 1% marketshare. Good, glad the stock is $89.00, serves them right.

Then they try to release chip firewire in Macbook Pro, Macbook and iMacs, and it caused problems for pro audio and graphics, they fixed it for the macbook pro and still use the non standard in the Macbook and iMac, the standard is Texas Instruments, difference in cost less than .50 cents.

Then they release GLOSSY only for iMacs, (with bad firewire mind you) so no PRO GRAPHIC work unless you get a matte finish.

I can go on and on.

Apple needs to get over itself. The air is a bust, said that last year.
I said two months ago (give me a cookie), they will make them all the same shell and save more money, but still keep the price.

If apple wants to be competitive, they need dedicated GPU across the board, a mid priced headless mac, standard firewire (Texas Instruments) on all machines and price cuts.

Sorry Steve, the market is asking for it (see USB dongle EFIx) and you need to do it and you're closing call centers for iPhones. The economy is bad and Vista is starting to heat up again and $500 machines are getting the job done with gaming allowed, duo core, firewire.

 

[Timichango]

You've adopted a strategy of confusing the common forum troll with English. Genius!

Personally, I doubt that an R&D memo would likely pay much respect to grammar or tense. I often receive mails and memos from "educated" people who don't bother to use a spell-check or even correct abbreviations.



We can only speculate based on the information available. And the last word from the horse's mouth was transitionary period and lower returns. They've already capitalised on the spenders, and any good business adviser would say "use that momentum". How do you gain momentum? Reduce friction. High prices equal friction, and it's no secret that to get a lot you have to give a little.

Of course this isn't my theory, I have better things to do than try to second guess something that really doesn't bother me, but I think it's sound. And working in a business full of codewords, brick is about as analogous to agressive action as any other codeword, whatever your english lessons tell you.

i.e. "I'm going to brick your margins, sucka"

For sure - better pricing would help, no doubt.

But 'bricking pricing'?

'I'm gonna brick your margins'?

I think it's reaching a bit. Especially since it's a company that designs no shortage of oblong, boxy objects of desire.

 

[fat phil]

For sure - better pricing would help, no doubt.

But 'bricking pricing'?

'I'm gonna brick your margins'?

I think it's reaching a bit. Especially since it's a company that designs no shortage of oblong, boxy objects of desire.

In the sober light of morning coffee, you may be right, but, well, life's proving to be quite suprising this past couple weeks already.

Still could be an Apple branded segway.

 

[Timichango]

In the sober light of morning coffee, you may be right, but, well, life's proving to be quite suprising this past couple weeks already.

Still could be an Apple branded segway.

SWEET

I've been waiting for one.

 

[MowingDevil]

Then they try to release chip firewire in Macbook Pro, Macbook and iMacs, and it caused problems for pro audio and graphics, they fixed it for the macbook pro and still use the non standard in the Macbook and iMac, the standard is Texas Instruments, difference in cost less than .50 cents.

Care to elaborate more on this? I'm very interested from an audio standpoint...and very concerned abo the rumours of possibly losing the fw 400 in the new notebooks.

 

[nanok]

Stupid idea - what are they gonna do with the rest of the block?

Of course they are not "cutting the case out of a solid block of aluminium" - what would they do with the rest of the block of aluminium? Throw it back into the oven and melt it again and form another block? Seems like a very energy-intensive and expensive method...

 

[marbles]

Of course they are not "cutting the case out of a solid block of aluminium" - what would they do with the rest of the block of aluminium? Throw it back into the oven and melt it again and form another block? Seems like a very energy-intensive and expensive method...

well , there have been some engineers in this thread saying that it is not as an energy intensive an process as we laymen would have thought ,...apparently, the heat required to melt aluminium and re use it is not all that great ,...not like steel which only melts at much higher temp's .

 

[TraceyS/FL]

Well, MacRumors themselves commented on the fact that Apple purchased an HP assembly plant only a mile from the Apple campus not all that long ago. It wouldn't be all that difficult to convert it to a manufacturing and assembly plant, would it?

Can i get more info on this?!

Curious and haven't been able to find anything on this anywhere.... but i stink at searches.

 

[Vulpinemac]

Can i get more info on this?!

Curious and haven't been able to find anything on this anywhere.... but i stink at searches.

Regretfully, I cannot relocate the announcement myself, and I only read it about 2 weeks ago, though it referenced a statement made earlier this year, sometime in May, if I remember correctly.

Even so, it seems that while some of us were right on the 'brick' being a manufacturing method of milling a slab of aluminum into a one-piece body/frame for the new notebook Macs, we were all wrong about the $900 unit being a lower-priced MacBook. That's an iMac-styled 24" display-only designed for use with the notebooks with proprietary connectors (but interestingly enough could still lead to something new in the January MacWorld convention.) Bringing the price of the base MacBook down $100 is an improvement, and might just be enough to tempt some of the holdouts, but nothing announce is likely to be enough to really make a significant improvement on sales just yet.

Of course, I could be wrong.