First Look at the MacBook Air

[inkhead]

LOL! I'll take that bet. Easy $5K. Once the performance numbers come out, they won't sell a single one.

Okay but you should know that 2 years ago before the last keynote I made a $1000 bet with someone who I forced to pay up over on appleinsider.

I don't make bets I can't win, you should also know I happen to know how many have already been pre-order in the last few hours.

I'd suggest you go ahead and get a money-order or cashier's check..


If you don't have enough cash on hand PM me and we can work out the payment plan so you can start saving now..

 

[uNext]

Okay but you should know that 2 years ago before the last keynote I made a $1000 bet with someone who I forced to pay up over on appleinsider.

I don't make bets I can't win, you should also know I happen to know how many have already been pre-order in the last few hours.

I'd suggest you go ahead and get a money-order or cashier's check..


If you don't have enough cash on hand PM me and we can work out the payment plan so you can start saving now..

bEING AN INSIDER AND BETTING IS BRAKING THE LAW......

insider trading.......you so proudly proclaimed it....

 

[Evan_11]

Simple: it would no longer have been the world's thinnest laptop. Don't you understand how much marketing capital there is in being able to make that claim? It is absolutely worth trading off a USB and firewire port!

That's the problem with the MBA, it's 90% marketing, 10% practical. Eliminating firewire will in turn limit video professionals who rely on it for transferring video. The MBA is a dissapointment. After all the fanfair dies down I think most people will view it as the laptop version of the Cube.

The only market I see the MBA really doing well with beside the trendsetters are the marketing people who crave style over function.

 

[macenforcer]

Okay but you should know that 2 years ago before the last keynote I made a $1000 bet with someone who I forced to pay up over on appleinsider.

I don't make bets I can't win, you should also know I happen to know how many have already been pre-order in the last few hours.

I'd suggest you go ahead and get a money-order or cashier's check..


If you don't have enough cash on hand PM me and we can work out the payment plan so you can start saving now..

Umm, dude, nobody takes you seriously and neither do I. There is no bet. But since I am such a nice guy, when you are wrong and you will be I will let you keep your money. LOL.

 

[FoxyKaye]

All they needed to do was take the macbook, put a 45nm chip in there, a dedicated GPU, the guesture trackpad, an Expresscard slot, cellular connectivity and a real DVI port and it would have been a complete HIT. If they didn't have room they could have left out the dvd drive and added firewire 800 and it still would have been a HIT. This macbook air is without a doubt a MISS.

And that would be a MacBook Pro, and you'd be complaining about the missing optical drive.

Go buy a MacBook Pro - it's only a few hundred more, and sounds like what you really need/want.

 

[Bababasjd]

You're right. I did overlook that. I guess the difference between 3 and 6 pounds isn't that big of a deal to me. My laptop rarely travels outside the house and usually only for longer excursions. Size is more important than weight to me. I can lift 6 pounds, not an issue. 🙂

you wont notice the 2 pound difference once you start lugging it with the external cd drive.

 

[jessep28]

This looks to me like another Apple Lisa disaster. But Apple is doing a good job of putting their name on a product and watching it fly off the shelf so who knows.

At least they didn't call it the iAir.

I thought Palm tried something similar in a non-practical portable computer called the Foleo and had to pull it before launching.

 

[macenforcer]

And that would be a MacBook Pro, and you'd be complaining about the missing optical drive.

Go buy a MacBook Pro - it's only a few hundred more, and sounds like what you really need/want.

If the macbook pro had those things I would buy it but it sucks too. Waiting for apple to get it right.

 

[FoxyKaye]

If the macbook pro had those things I would buy it but it sucks too. Waiting for apple to get it right.

Let us know how that works out. If I waited for every computer company I'd like to get things "right" I'd still be using a typewriter.

 

[uNext]

Hey no wonder the united states is £1 in the world with cases of obesity.
People cant lug around a 6lb laptop or less without complaining?
No wonder the rest of the world sees us a Lay-z and lacking energy.
We shoulndt be looking at how to trim the laptops we should be asking ourselfs
why most of us complain about weight on something that usually weighs next to thing.

Now i understand if teh computer weighed 80lbs but now a days laptops are weighing a mere 5-6lbs or less.


Just incredible.

 

[pyrophite]

Okay but you should know that 2 years ago before the last keynote I made a $1000 bet with someone who I forced to pay up over on appleinsider.

I don't make bets I can't win, you should also know I happen to know how many have already been pre-order in the last few hours.

I'd suggest you go ahead and get a money-order or cashier's check..


If you don't have enough cash on hand PM me and we can work out the payment plan so you can start saving now..

I WAS going to toss an insult your way, but the better part of me prevented that. However i WILL say that pre-orders don't mean anything. The impulse buy of people is a possibility to get their orders in as quick as possible. There's also the droves of people who buy up stock of laptops in hopes of a market shortage to resell for a quick buck.

Also you're forgetting the impact that the initial reviews will yield. If a majority of geek magazines and blogs tout that this laptop is one of apples biggest flops in a while, more popular culture magazines and television shows will very likely pick up on this trend and report it. If the word starts to get around that this laptop is overpriced hype, then sales will very likely die, and apple will be forced to price cut, or redesign. Or i suppose just sell off remaining stock and move on.

The difference between this new laptop and the iPhone is that the iPhone you paid for luxury, versatility, and style. This new laptop is not a luxury item, just the size is. I myself cant afford an iPhone, and believe it's pretty high in price, but i also recognize that this price is JUSTIFIED. Is the iPhone worth it? to a lot of people yes, especially more to those that can afford it. Is the macbook air worth it? In my opinion, (and as it seems a lot of other people's opinions) no.

 

[Justinerator]

yeah, the mba is not quite right just yet, I don't think it will ever be. but for people who need to travel a lot, this might be just what they need

 

[sbaik]

"There's something bad in the Air"

 

[elgruga]

The answer to your question is quite simple: Apple would have no longer had the title of "world's thinnest notebook"

Being able to make that claim is worth gold.

Also, the machine you are describing, a souped-up Powerbook, would not have been different enough from a Macbook to justify a new product.

So what?
Only fools want bragging rights for the worlds ' thinnest...blah blah'.

I dont mind 'new' as long as it makes sense, but I have zero interest in thin or new for its own sake.

Someone here says that the G4 is last century - one of the most irritating and dangerous elements in humans is their ability to forget the past.
The PB12" was last made in Oct. 2005 - thats THIS century and only 2 years and two months ago.

Once again for emphasis:

THIN is NOT a feature - its an obsession.

The Airbook is too expensive for its lack of specs, and too large to be a sub-compact.
I may even buy one, but I'll have to keep my MacBook pro as well.

With the laptop computer outselling all others in todays market, how many people will want TWO laptops in the house?
Remember, this machine dont function too well on its own.....it needs a Mothership computer to do its heavy lifting.
Thats OK, but do you really want TWO laptops?

I guess you could buy an Airbook and a cheap PC as the mothership. LOL!

The market for this thing keeps shrinking.

And anyway - you dont get a say Buddy - you are the person that called everyone here 'idiots' - or have you forgotten already?

 

[CommodityFetish]

you know what i think we want? Give us a macbook with no built in optical, the option for a SSD later on, the 1.8 formfactor hard drive, the new touchpad, and slim it down a bit (which should be doable due to the lack of optical drive and smaller hard drive, and price it at $1499. Voila! Instant success. THAT is what i believe a lot of us wanted. Heck even make a smaller screen to make it a smaller footprint.

Yep. That's what I want -- in an aluminum case. Oh, and give me the option of a matte screen. You can even take away my ethernet and I'll use a USB adapter! How's that sound, Apple? 😀

 

[Ugg]

This post needs a reply.
Like a lot of the 'pro-airbook' posts, you seem to believe that simply being 'thin' is some kind of a special feature that we need.
Thats not correct.

The dimensions that matter are the screen size, because it affects the overall size, the size that matters when it goes into a bag.
Its reasonably obvious that the last compact laptop, the PB12" was very popular.
It happened to be:

2" narrower, 1/4" thicker, and 0.3" less deep.
It had a 1.5 ghz processor (only 100 hz slower than this one)
It had ALL the ports and drives and connectors you could want.
It retailed at $1499 USD.
It weighed 4.6 pounds, 1.6 pounds heavier than the Airbook.
It was last produced in October 2005.

If this new machine is so great, how has it managed to throw away all the advantages of the PB12" for a trade-off of:

A smaller drive
no optical
no ports
$300 more expensive
1.3" bigger screen. (wow)
1.6 pounds lighter
1/4" thinner.
Not very much faster processor.
A full 2" wider - thats where it gets to be too big.
And a frickin' glossy screen...

This is NOT progress - this is obsession with looks and 'thin'.

I would expect the 'new' compact laptop to be considerably better than the PB 12" - this is NOT the case.

Something has gone awry in the development and final production of this machine - who knows what? Somebody got tunnel vision with 'thin'....
Its not right, and most here see that.
Hopefully it will sell, but after all the recent successes, its a disappointment.
It could have been so much better.

BTW, idiots isnt the best word to throw around - I would hazard a guess that a lot of people here are fairly bright....😎

Who do you mean by we? You and your wife? Because you certainly aren't including me.

I own a 12" PB from Feb 2005. It's small, but lightweight it's not. Portability is a major issue for me when I travel and the largest part of that is weight. Two pounds is a big deal depending upon the traveling you do.

You've made some major errors and omissions in your specs of the 12" PB.

It came with 512 megs of ram compared to 2 gigs with the MBA.

It had a G4 processor and it couldn't run windows.

The stock HDD on the PB 12" was 60 gigs. 20% less than the MBA.

The 12" PB did not have a widescreen.

Run anything on a 12" PB with 512 megs of ram and then on the MBA and you'll never, ever want to own a 12" PB.

Just like when the floppy drive was eliminated from the Mac line, so is it time to start bidding farewell to the optical drive. It won't be long before they're entirely irrelevant.


Voice your own opinions but at leas have the intellectual honesty to do an apple to apple comparison. The MBA is the future of mobile computing.

 

[direzz]

its steve job's new toy. seriously.

 

[Loge]

Apple is trying to move people into it's wireless world of Apple bliss, wait and see in a few years time the ethernet ports on the MacBooks and pros will vanish, then the iMacs and MacPros. Then a new class of Airs will blow us away!! Muhahahaha😛

A while before the MacPros - the new ones only have wireless BTO. 😛

 

[MacbookSwitcher]

Hey no wonder the united states is £1 in the world with cases of obesity.
People cant lug around a 6lb laptop or less without complaining?
No wonder the rest of the world sees us a Lay-z and lacking energy.
We shoulndt be looking at how to trim the laptops we should be asking ourselfs
why most of us complain about weight on something that usually weighs next to thing.

Now i understand if teh computer weighed 80lbs but now a days laptops are weighing a mere 5-6lbs or less.


Just incredible.

Quite a ridiculous comment. As a matter of fact European and Asian markets are more concerned about slim form factors than Americans.

Now go join Al-Qaeda and depart from our presence.

 

[inkhead]

Wow, impressive, I'm not an apple employee or somebody sitting on their order server, and wouldn't be considered an insider..

So before you start spouting off.

bEING AN INSIDER AND BETTING IS BRAKING THE LAW......

insider trading.......you so proudly proclaimed it....

 

[theonlyrealj]

Would have been worth considering, even at the price, if it was a tablet. Darn.

Also, for those of you hoping this would drop the price of other laptops, it appears that the education/government discount for the base macbook is now $100 rather than $50, like it used to be (This may be old news or the result of the release of air).

 

[studiox]

For me it's crystal clear.

Apple is not even thinking about reaching either the consumers or the "pro mac" users at all. Even Steve was clear on the segment for the MacBook Air.

it seems like most of the people here just want a new MacBook or MacBook Pro and where disappointed, that's fair. But it's not MacBook Air's fault and would never be. It's an entirely new product.

Drive: Most 13" "lightweight" laptops comes with an external drive, why? because it wont fit.

RAM: Yes i agree that a laptop that size should have expandable ram. Even apple realised that so they went with the 2GB option. It's a compromise

Battery: I don't have strong feelings about a replaceable battery. It's not a PRO computer that would require a battery change ever 12 months.

GFX: Apple is a friend of Intel, and everyone has to accept that. Sony uses nVIDIA instead of an integrated chipset like the 1300 that Apples does. Same with MacBook.

Personally I'm selling my MacBook now and upgrading to the Air as I want save some extra Kg's while travelling (Around 100 days / year). It will be a perfect word and powerpoint friend for me, nothing more, nothing less. And it's about €500 cheaper than a Sony.

 

[jacktiernan]

This is a pretty good product for some people and a great leap forward in terms of miniturisation of notebooks.

This product doesn't make me want to fork out money at all though. It's completely 'un-upgradable', with the RAM soldered to the motherboard and baaaaad graphics card.

Not a good investment at all, in my opinion - it will be a clunky piece pretty damn fast. Don't get me wrong, i think it IS a good product, just definitely not for anyone interested in doing more than email/web/word processing.

I'm most interested in how this miniturisation will play out in terms of the inevitable multi-touch tablet, which i'm guessing will be released next macworld or sometime later in 2009.

I really see the MBA as a gap filler - a way to use the micro technology they have been developing for a tablet, without having to let it sit there for 12 months while the rest of the issues around a tablet are resolved.

Also, it will basically be a beta-tester for this micro technology, so they know what works and what needs improving.

My very early guess is that 2009 Macworld we will see the release of a 12" Multitouch tablet with a 2.0-2.4ghz C2D processor incorporating a lot of the patents we have seen filed in the last 3 months or so (elevating tactile keyboard and maybe - very big maybe - the imac docking concept).

Well, there's my thoughts. 🙂

 

[elgruga]

I WAS going to toss an insult your way, but the better part of me prevented that. However i WILL say that pre-orders don't mean anything. The impulse buy of people is a possibility to get their orders in as quick as possible. There's also the droves of people who buy up stock of laptops in hopes of a market shortage to resell for a quick buck.

Also you're forgetting the impact that the initial reviews will yield. If a majority of geek magazines and blogs tout that this laptop is one of apples biggest flops in a while, more popular culture magazines and television shows will very likely pick up on this trend and report it. If the word starts to get around that this laptop is overpriced hype, then sales will very likely die, and apple will be forced to price cut, or redesign. Or i suppose just sell off remaining stock and move on.

The difference between this new laptop and the iPhone is that the iPhone you paid for luxury, versatility, and style. This new laptop is not a luxury item, just the size is. I myself cant afford an iPhone, and believe it's pretty high in price, but i also recognize that this price is JUSTIFIED. Is the iPhone worth it? to a lot of people yes, especially more to those that can afford it. Is the macbook air worth it? In my opinion, (and as it seems a lot of other people's opinions) no.

Well said!

BTW, the iphone is expensive, but it is worth every penny for its incredible functionality, which sadly, this new MBA doesnt have.

 

[macenforcer]

Let us know how that works out. If I waited for every computer company I'd like to get things "right" I'd still be using a typewriter.

You probably are. Lenovo has it right. I have a T61 right now and it has everything except the DVI port. Oh, I paid $1000 for it new from Lenovo thank you. Corporate discount with additional holiday savings.

T61
- 15" 1680x1050 screen
- 2.2ghz C2D
- Best keyboard in the world
- Upgradeable battery
- Superdrive (removable bay) I have 2 hard drives in there now.
- Docking port
- Multiple options for navigation like trackpad and trackpoint
- SD SLOT
- PCMCIA and ExpressCard slots
- 3 usb ports
- Firewire port
- Fan NEVER comes on
- Fingerprint reader
- Modem, Ethernet
- 802.11n
- Bluetooth
- Carbon shell, very strong
- Keyboard light

- OH AND UPGRADEABLE CPU BABY.




Optional stuff I didn't get...

Higher rez screen, cellular, faster video cards, camera, faster cpu.


Apple needs and attitude adjustment. If my thinkpad had OS X running it would be the best laptop EVER.