Idle Speculation: MBP "air"?

[suzerain]

I'm bored and have decided to needlessly speculate, because after reading about Sandy Bridge, I really want a new MBP. (I'm currently running a mid-2009 Core Duo...15").

I was wondering what the peanut gallery thought about the possibility of Apple releasing the standard MacBook Pro, plus a larger ultrathin "air" version?

Apple does have a history of leading the charge with models that are not the "pro" models, and then later reflecting those things in the Pro models.

It seems we are right on the cusp of the wave that's finally, once and for all, going to kill off hard drives. Perhaps this will play out over the next 2-3 years. Personally, if they wedged Sandy Bridge + a 500 GB flash chip into a very thin and reasonably light hybrid of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, this is a machine I would buy right now, even though the storage capacity is only the same as what I currently have. (I'm imagining something with all the other "pro" features, like great screen, backlit keyboard, etc., and I realize the machine wouldn't be quite as thin as the Air...but I really just mean a Pro laptop with no hard drive.)

In fact, I'd probably opt for that over a hard drive-based MacBook Pro with 1 GB HD space, even if it was a bit more expensive.

Just wanted to know if people would like this kind of machine, and if they thought this was a plausible release for this product cycle?

 

[sivosam]

What's the point?

 

[alust2013]

That won't happen until the 500GB SSDs aren't so expensive that they double the price of the computer. Plus that lacks any form of upgradeability, something that "pro" users want as much of as they can get.

 

[skiltrip]

Pros need ports. Thinning eliminates them. They are two different products for a reason.

 

[suzerain]

What's the point?

For me, the point would be thinness, decreased weight, and increased battery life. I realize that might not be what other people want.

But I'm not suggesting that Apple would convert the entire line...I'm suggesting they'd do a full line of HD-base notebooks, and have one ultrathin version, to prime people for the next wave.

About upgradeability, I see no reason Flash memory couldn't theoretically be upgraded just like RAM. Apple chose not to do that in the Air, but that doesn't necessarily preclude them from doing so in other machines going forward.

 

[sivosam]

For me, the point would be thinness, decreased weight, and increased battery life. I realize that might not be what other people want.

But I'm not suggesting that Apple would convert the entire line...I'm suggesting they'd do a full line of HD-base notebooks, and have one ultrathin version, to prime people for the next wave.

About upgradeability, I see no reason Flash memory couldn't theoretically be upgraded just like RAM. Apple chose not to do that in the Air, but that doesn't necessarily preclude them from doing so in other machines going forward.

You're basically describing what MBA will (well, could) be in few years.

 

[suzerain]

You're basically describing what MBA will (well, could) be in few years.

I guess that's where we differ in opinion. I see the MBA as an early adopter version of what all laptops will (or could) be in a few years.

(But, as the user above suggested, perhaps with more ports wedged in to satisfy Pro-level users.)

 

[vipergts2207]

I guess that's where we differ in opinion. I see the MBA as an early adopter version of what all laptops will (or could) be in a few years.

(But, as the user above suggested, perhaps with more ports wedged in to satisfy Pro-level users.)

Given that Apple still has to obey the laws of physics, you won't see ultrathin notebooks with MBP level components anytime soon.

 

[Thiol]

I guess that's where we differ in opinion. I see the MBA as an early adopter version of what all laptops will (or could) be in a few years.

(But, as the user above suggested, perhaps with more ports wedged in to satisfy Pro-level users.)

But the point is that you literally cannot fit those ports in a thin notebook. There is no physical room for ethernet or firewire.

 

[Hellhammer]

You aren't the first one to come up with the idea of 15" MBA, nor the last one.

 

[alust2013]

For me, the point would be thinness, decreased weight, and increased battery life. I realize that might not be what other people want.

But I'm not suggesting that Apple would convert the entire line...I'm suggesting they'd do a full line of HD-base notebooks, and have one ultrathin version, to prime people for the next wave.

About upgradeability, I see no reason Flash memory couldn't theoretically be upgraded just like RAM. Apple chose not to do that in the Air, but that doesn't necessarily preclude them from doing so in other machines going forward.

I'm not sure where the increased battery life comes in exactly. If they made the computers thinner, the batteries have to get smaller, and SSDs really don't save much power, if any at all.

But the catch with the Flash memory is that the very most you could stuff in there at the moment with the MBA type chips is 360GB. That's fairly limiting, and the biggest I have seen even in standard SSDs is 512GB, which will run in the $1200 range. I'd call that prohibitively expensive, and as far as RAM goes, they can't really fit standard chips in, so they basically have to be soldered.