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Honestly, Retina Air?
- Thread starter Klae17
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Normally I know better than to argue with someone so stupid, but I just can't help myself tonight.
The current MBA wasn't designed to be cheap, it wasn't designed at all -- not in the way you're implying. It's a spec bump to the previous model, which was a spec bump to the model before that, which was a spec bump to the model before that. The MBA has been pretty much unchanged since 2010. The new CPU's get added every year (and expected stuff like Thunderbolt/USB 3.0), but that's it. It's not like there are better ULP Intel chips that Apple could put in them and they're holding back. The machines were designed to be thin and light, period. The fact that the 13" rMBP is approaching the MBA in this regard just shows how long in the tooth the current MBA chassis is. It's time for a redesign.
Those are the facts. As a great man once said, "facts are true whether or not you believe them."
Yeesh.
Maybe not yours. For Apple, yes, it is the weakest and cheapest laptop you can get. Please tell me if I am wrong or the definition of the word budget changed.
You fail to understand that the "power" of a computing device is not the sole metric for gauging its perceived value. Your iPhone has weaker specs than many Android phones on the market. It's cheaper than some of them, too. Does that make it "budget?" Nah, you like your iPhone for reasons that aren't related to its internal specs. It's the same with laptops. The most important feature of a laptop for me is portability. Nothing matters to me more than that. I don't care if Apple offers the most amazing 15" rMBP ever with hexacore CPU's and SLI GeForce Titans somehow all crammed into the chassis for $999. It's not even a consideration. It's 15" and well over 4 pounds. Useless.
You probably started following Macs within the past few years and never realized that the MBA used to be ridiculously expensive. You simply assumed it was the "budget" offering because it's now priced lower than the others and uses ultra-low power components. It uses the best ULP components on the market -- as it has since the very first model -- but since these components happen to be less powerful than the standard components found in other models you think "budget." The MBA wasn't designed to be cheap, it was designed to be the thinnest, lightest, most power-efficient MacBook ever made.
The fact that its manufacturing process has been optimized and the cost of its components has dropped has nothing to do with how it was designed or positioned. It's the least expensive option now because it's a mature product. Don't expect for its next iteration to be, especially if it gets a retina screen. That's what every other person in this thread has been trying to get through your thick neanderthal skull -- a retina screen very well could come to the MBA (and almost certainly will) precisely because it is not the budget device that you mistakenly think it is.
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I had the original one. You don't grasp what budget means I don't think. The iPhone is not the budget line, the cheaper iPhone 5C and old 4s is. You value portability. That's nice. That doesn't make the MBA Air not budget. If the Air is not the budget laptop of Apple, then what is? Please give me a concrete answer for that. What is the budget laptop of Apple?
I agree. The MacBook Air has taken in the place of entry level Apple portable (so in effect budget MacBook). Previously this place was held by iBook and MacBook.
Almost all Apple products forgo having only the category base name. There's no iPad anymore, no MacBook, no iPod. There's iPad mini, iPad Air, MacBook Air, Etc. A bit strange... The effect is that there is a blurring of what is considered consumer and professional; it's like Apple is stating these two categories (consumer and pro) is not what defines the product anymore, but instead it's the form factor, how it handles.
Maybe giving a quad core to the pro 13 could be the solution to avoid cannibalization?
Rumors are ..... Rumors .... 12" is not enough for my main computer, so I hope for a 12" and a 14" model, if they have to change format.
Personally i don't see Iphone 5c exactly cheap,
nor 4S is,over 400 for a phone is not for me.
I don't think that Apple worries too much about cannibalization. They have pretty high margins on all of their products.
Also it's not like its taking a sale away from their 15" MBP. In fact, if the new 12" MBA is thin and light enough, I can see professionals who bought the top of the line 15" also buying the MBA.
(Although I do agree that it will be a long time before a MBA gets a quad core)
on what planet is this true?
budget in this context means low in price - or in other words, suitable for someone on a budget.
Calling it a budget laptop because it's the cheapest one is silly.
the cheapest gulfstream is about $14 million. Does that make it a budget airplane?
Obviously these terms are all relative. If you are in the market for a luxury business jet then yes, the cheapest gulfstream might be a budget model in the sense that it's affordable. But you are still going to expect most of the luxury features that make it an appropriate purchase in the first place. A thousand-dollar laptop is no different. You are using the term budget to mean something other than what you are implying which is a bit disingenuous.
I never thought that the 2013 Air would get a retina display and i know i argued with people on here who were sure i was wrong... but it just didn't make sense. Ultimately however, the screen will have to improve. That's just the nature of the beast.
The term "retina" is just a meaningless marketing gimmick. they could have used the word 15 years ago on something else and today's highest-def screen would be called something else. the point being everybody is competing for the highest quality screen. I'm not saying it won't ever happen - if "retina" isn't here to stay, high resolution certainly is, or at least the eternal race towards getting the highest resolution possible - so it's only a matter of time.
Good one! I'm sitting alone in Panera laughing out loud. So glad I didn't take a sip of my tea before reading
I didn't want co comment that, but I can't help myself.
The 999$ you mean, when you look at a Polish Apple site, is 4399zł (PLN). It is more than it should be when you just calculate currencies (1 US dollar is just over 3zł), but that's how most of electronic devices are priced here, and in fact in most of Europe. But that 4399zł to quite a number of people really means a lot. Average salary in Poland is currently under 4000zł and there are more than you'd expect that earn just about 1500zł a month. Try and tell them that anything made by Apple is budget. They will laugh at you, or ask you to give them some of your money
Especially bearing in mind that you can buy a fully functioning new computer for 1200zł-1500zł. Or a phone for the equivalent of 40$, without a contract.Of course many earn much more and live at a very high level. But here, if you have an Apple, you're over average, that's for sure. It certainly is NOT budget.
I think Apple is wisely taking advantage of the term 'Air' in the MacBook Air name.
A long time ago, when the MacBook Air was first introduced (by Steve Jobs in an envelope) it was very expensive. It stood out, though. There was really not much else you could buy that would match it.
Even when they reduced the size and introduced the 11" model in 2010, it was still 'pricey' compared to the standard MacBooks.
By now using the MacBook Air as the entry level computer there are probably selling it to users who were greatly impressed by the MBA before but couldn't justify the price. Being able to finally own a MBA at a lower price is probably a selling point to many customers (who may remember those early MBA commercials).
Now, though, I wonder what term they can add to designate a thinner and lighter MBA with a retina IGZO screen. It can't see the term being 'budget'.
A long time ago, when the MacBook Air was first introduced (by Steve Jobs in an envelope) it was very expensive. It stood out, though. There was really not much else you could buy that would match it.
Even when they reduced the size and introduced the 11" model in 2010, it was still 'pricey' compared to the standard MacBooks.
By now using the MacBook Air as the entry level computer there are probably selling it to users who were greatly impressed by the MBA before but couldn't justify the price. Being able to finally own a MBA at a lower price is probably a selling point to many customers (who may remember those early MBA commercials).
Now, though, I wonder what term they can add to designate a thinner and lighter MBA with a retina IGZO screen. It can't see the term being 'budget'.
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Quad in the Air ,i didn't tell that,i said quad in the 13 Mac Book Pro.
By the way,i think 15 quad-retina,13 dual-retina and 13-11 dual non retina
will stay for very long.
+1, you beat me to it.
If anyone has listened to Tim Cook's speeches he has never advertised the MBA as a budget computer rather a different computer within the range of family of Macs. It's an ultraportable that happens to be one of the cheapest MacBooks, this doesn't mean it's a budget computer just cheaper compared to the rest.
It's a logic fallacy or a specious conclusion.
It they were to release a plastic-fantastic MBA with a cheap i5 then that may be another story...
I feel like the OP may have used the word "budget" in the wrong context, but it seems to have offended a lot of people. I think the more apt term for the MBA would be "entry level", at least for the laptop segment; we seem to forget that the Mac Mini at its lowest $599 price point is a very potent gateway drug into the Mac ecosystem as well.
Just like how Acura sells the TSX at a little over $30,000 for the absolute base model, it's certainly not for budget minded consumers (aka. cheap), but it is of course the entry level product that gets you in the door.
Just like how Acura sells the TSX at a little over $30,000 for the absolute base model, it's certainly not for budget minded consumers (aka. cheap), but it is of course the entry level product that gets you in the door.
I've been tempted by the rMBP but I am holding out for a future retina version of the MBA.