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Stella

macrumors G3
Apr 21, 2003
8,837
6,334
Canada
Apple will have to sort out pricing - the existing price tag may look high compared to other windows laptops.

For the average person - why would they pay a few hundred dollars more for an Apple intel laptop with the same specs than a same spec'd laptop from another company?

The average person wouldn't really care about the OS, the price would be more important.
 

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
JW Pepper said:
I can't understand what all the excitement is about. ... Clock speed is going to be significantly higher, but in low end Macs outright performance will still be eclipsed by PowerMacs running PPC, so the actual increase in performance is likely to be modest indeed.
The G4 does not eclipse the Pentium M, and certainly won't eclipse the dual-core Yonah :)

And at the low end is where the MOST native apps are ready--already! Most of what the average home user needs was demoed on Intel months ago.


Stella said:
For the average person - why would they pay a few hundred dollars more for an Apple intel laptop with the same specs than a same spec'd laptop from another company?
Don't forget to look at ALL the specs and bundled apps, and not just pick out a few details to compare. The common pitfall when people say Macs cost more.
 

opg4759

macrumors newbie
Nov 27, 2005
5
0
By the mothership, San Jose
I would love a Intel Powerbook in January, but I'm just so wary of a rev A machine.

My 17" 1ghz is starting to to feel slow I decided that instead of buying a new Macintel machine due to the rev A concerns I have, I decided on a dual core G5(now if itwill only ship, that's a whole other story.:mad: ). Figuring by the time that machine is running out of steam the Macintels will be solid and the major bugs wil be worked out. Granted I do believe that the rev A's will be stable because if they aren't it will be a real black eye to Apple, but I don't want to take that chance with my money.
 

lopresmb

macrumors 6502
Apr 29, 2005
289
0
512ke said:
My half serious prediction. In January Apple will scrap their hit product the Powerbook. They'll come out with three iterations of one laptop line, the iBook. The 3 models:

The iBook. The iBook Nano. And the iBook shuffle.

Available in white and black.

(The iBook shuffle will be a revolutionary step, the first laptop to do away with the screen.)
thats funny, and the shuffle will randomly open programs to "keep life random"...
 

motulist

macrumors 601
Dec 2, 2003
4,234
611
JonHimself said:
I've been trying my best to follow all of the intel-related threads but I haven't seen the actual name of the laptops being discussed. Does anyone think they will keep the same names (iBook, Powerbook, and iMac, PowerMac as well I guess) when they switch? Or do you think they will rename them?

My guess is that as much as they want to promote the intel switch they also don't want to freak out their existing user base too much. So my guess is that the names will stay the same and the form factors will be little changed.
 

Stella

macrumors G3
Apr 21, 2003
8,837
6,334
Canada
nagromme said:
Don't forget to look at ALL the specs and bundled apps, and not just pick out a few details to compare. The common pitfall when people say Macs cost more.

Yep, and most companies will give you a lot of software for your windows machine - far more than Apple does ( normally ).
 

Photorun

macrumors 65816
Sep 1, 2003
1,216
0
NYC
Stella said:
Yep, and most companies will give you a lot of software for your windows machine - far more than Apple does ( normally ).

Yes, and they're SOOO much better than the iLife suite of app!:rolleyes: Or were you talking about all the malware? Or warez?

Anyhoo this would be good news all around except those whiners who can't get past the fact Intel is coming (and deal with it!). The part of the article I found a bit confusing is when they're talking about Apple's worth, were they talking actual liquid assets or inflated fake money, i.e. stocks, stocks aren't real money, as a great book of the title aptly explains it, it's "Dumb Money." In terms of actual cash on the dollar, real money, leverage, money money money, last time I read (I believe on my stock report from Apple) they had something like 7.3 billion in the black (that's pretty damn good!) in actual dollars. For reference, that's far more dollars per share than say Dell has laying around. I'd be confused/surprised/happy to find out they somehow had 10 billion more in actual cabbage to throw around though, especially because 1. I'm a stockholder and they've made me quite a bit of dough and 2. they just plopped down over a billion to secure flash memory.
 

hayesk

macrumors 65816
May 20, 2003
1,459
101
Stella said:
Apple will have to sort out pricing - the existing price tag may look high compared to other windows laptops.

For the average person - why would they pay a few hundred dollars more for an Apple intel laptop with the same specs than a same spec'd laptop from another company?

The average person wouldn't really care about the OS, the price would be more important.

The average person doesn't even know what a processor is aside from a magic thingamajig inside a computer. The average person will ask for Windows anyway. The people who would even consider a Mac wouldn't care about the brand of CPU, except for the hard core geeks.
 

dashiel

macrumors 6502a
Nov 12, 2003
876
0
tough situation for apple... it makes sense to update the consumer level machines first as the majority of their apps will be intel native at launch... but a 2Ghz dual core yonah would wreck the current powerbook lineup in every way except screen size. it would cannibalize sales, unless as mentioned here apple goes to a single laptop lineup.

$799 single core 12"
$999 single core 15"
$1499 dual core 15"
$1999 dual core 17"

not sure if they could meet those prices, but if they could -- they wouldn't be able to make enough of them.
 

maclamb

macrumors 6502
Jan 28, 2002
432
0
Northern California
dashiel said:
$799 single core 12"
$999 single core 15"
$1499 dual core 15"
$1999 dual core 17"
.

geez I hope you're right
It will be interesting to see if apple lets current intel notebook prices drive their line.
I would be standing in line overnight to get a 15" iPB dual core
(insert major drool, wipe screen) for under $2k
 

Stella

macrumors G3
Apr 21, 2003
8,837
6,334
Canada
I've seen a lot better bundles for PCs than Apple - iLife isn't the greatest bundle.

Calling PC software bundles Spyware is a bit, well, stupid.
 

runninmac

macrumors 65816
Jan 20, 2005
1,494
0
Rockford MI
Noiseboy said:
Any of you OS X intel developers out there think that you're even remotely close to a GM release? I've seen nothing on these or any other forums to suggest that you are. I could only assume that any computer that Apple might launch at MWSF would not actually ship for some time. Maybe I'm being pessimistic but I just don't see anything being ready in just over a month.

The reason I think you havnt heard anything remotly close is apple could sue the $h!t out of them if they squeeled about them. (or atleast im pretty sure they could)
 

Lord Blackadder

macrumors P6
May 7, 2004
15,662
5,496
Sod off
Stella said:
I've seen a lot better bundles for PCs than Apple - iLife isn't the greatest bundle.

I disagree that iLife isn't a great bundle - I think it adds a lot of functionality for a decent price, though I wish it could do more, especially with video.

Until the new portables actually come out, barring a leak, we can do nothing but speculate for the next month and a half whether we'll see Powerbooks in January.
 

adrianl

macrumors newbie
Aug 17, 2005
5
0
I have it from an Apple employee that the first Intel Mac to be released in Jan 2006 will be the Mini.

Doubt if a 'pro' Intel machine will be readied till a lot more software important to pros is native.
 

patseguin

macrumors 68000
Aug 28, 2003
1,685
503
adrianl said:
I have it from an Apple employee that the first Intel Mac to be released in Jan 2006 will be the Mini.

Doubt if a 'pro' Intel machine will be readied till a lot more software important to pros is native.

That makes 100% sense to me.
 

generik

macrumors 601
Aug 5, 2005
4,116
1
Minitrue
512ke said:
(The iBook shuffle will be a revolutionary step, the first laptop to do away with the screen.)

Not just that, it has been engineered from ground up to give random a chance(tm).

Every CPU instruction, every memory load and store, every read and write from the hard drive will result in COMPLETELY unpredictable and random data!
 

obeygiant

macrumors 601
Jan 14, 2002
4,167
4,082
totally cool
if they really do come out with intel PBs.
they'll prolly have a design change... silver, red, or blue PBs!


you heard it here first!
 

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
Stella said:
Yep, and most companies will give you a lot of software for your windows machine - far more than Apple does ( normally ).
"Most" companies certainly doesn't include Dell :D I was shocked at what they make you pay extra for when it comes to the software bundle. Catching a low-end Dell up to what a Mac comes with costs hundreds--and you still haven't achieved the integration and ease-of-use of iLife. You've still paid more for less. Ease of use does matter. And the fact that you don't NEED anti-virus or anti-spyware software on a Mac matters too.

Stella said:
I've seen a lot better bundles for PCs than Apple - iLife isn't the greatest bundle.
A valid viewpoint. It depends on what you want. If you're a user who doesn't even DO those things, then of course iLife isn't a selling point. But if you DO want those things, Windows really doesn't have anything to touch the iLife suite, for any price. iLife is an outstanding and well-integrated package.
 

generik

macrumors 601
Aug 5, 2005
4,116
1
Minitrue
Peace said:
Aluminum iBooks
Black Powerbooks

I hope the black PBs don't have paint flaking off after a while.

Perhaps they can do it they way they do with those anodized aluminium pots that I have in my kitchen :)
 
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