MacBook Air 'Sandy Bridge' Update in June?

[Quadra610]

when will they merge?

I just now understood the air's quote "The future of Macbooks".
No more plastic macbook, no more macbook pro, ONLY THE AIR WILL SURVIVE!
all jokes aside, im worried that apple may drop their white+mbp 13" and keep air 11-13 and pro 15-17.

I think the quote was "the future of notebooks," which expresses a slightly more Jobsian view of the world. That aside, I find it interesting to speculate when the Pro design will be displaced by the Air design. It's a matter of when the cost per performance becomes equal. Probably not going to happen this Spring, but once the MBPs and MBAs get updated in the next few months, we'll see them get closer in cost. If they are very close, this might be the last MBP update! Or am I too optimistic?

 

[sniffies]

FAIL.....great job Apple..lets keep updating "toys" and iDevices and forget about the products that built the company. When I see an official release of MBP I will change my tune...but not until then. I am so sick of seeing "consumer devices" get update after update and those of us that pay 2K+ for a machine continue to flounder in the past.

I understand that these days thats where the dollars come from but lately the company keeps going against it's core values and is treading in the same waters as every other electronics manufacturer. I came back to Apple for powerful "professional" grade equipment...seems like those days are waning fast.

WRONG!

Apple is not just MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac Pro.

Apple is ALL of this:

 

[croooow]

im worried that apple may drop their white+mbp 13" and keep air 11-13 and pro 15-17.

I actually wouldn't mind seeing that. As long as the Air in 13" was made more powerful with a nice amount of storage around $999 then people who would get a 13" MB or MBP would not have to compromise as much as they would with the current 13" MBA.

Someone said the 11" should be around $799. I agree, the prices are just too high at this point (but heading in the right direction compared to the original Air!)

 

[deconstruct60]

Production of C2D was already stopped in December but Intel will be shipping them until October 14th.

Errr, the SL9400 is listed in the article as a discontinued and as a continued model. Unless the embedded version is broken somehow it is still going to get used. So much for it going away. Likewise, a subset of these could show back up repackaged as Celeron or some other "non premier" brand. Same stuff different label stamped on the external physical package.

Apple TV had an old Pentium long after it disappeared from the premier desktop/mobile Intel branding.

 

[Jaro65]

I love my current 13" MBA. It will be interesting to see how much faster the new one will be. Also curious about the size options for the SSD....

 

[pika2000]

Would the Sandy bridge GPU supports openCL? I thought openCL is another reason for skipping previous intel integrated graphics. I couldn't care less about gaming performance, but I want whatever Apple uses in the MBA to support any GPU acceleration that OS X and apps would use, including openCL.

 

[Yamcha]

Thats good news, Apple needs to get its act together as far as hardware goes, having a Core 2 Duo in any machine these days is not good.. Core 2 Duo is OLD (2006)

Its not like Core i3 is that expensive, you could easily find a laptop today that ranges between $400-500 with a Core i3 ..

 

[Hellhammer]

Errr, the SL9400 is listed in the article as a discontinued and as a continued model. Unless the embedded version is broken somehow it is still going to get used. So much for it going away. Likewise, a subset of these could show back up repackaged as Celeron or some other "non premier" brand. Same stuff different label stamped on the external physical package.

Apple TV had an old Pentium long after it disappeared from the premier desktop/mobile Intel branding.

Apple does not use embedded CPUs

 

[PeterKG]

FAIL.....great job Apple..lets keep updating "toys" and iDevices and forget about the products that built the company. When I see an official release of MBP I will change my tune...but not until then. I am so sick of seeing "consumer devices" get update after update and those of us that pay 2K+ for a machine continue to flounder in the past.

I understand that these days thats where the dollars come from but lately the company keeps going against it's core values and is treading in the same waters as every other electronics manufacturer. I came back to Apple for powerful "professional" grade equipment...seems like those days are waning fast.

Did you read that the phrase "FAIL" is as outdated and old as the C2D? That goes along with "EPIC" too. Not "COOL" to use anymore

 

[HiRez]

Hopefully they correct their stupid mistake to leave the backlit keyboard out in the same run (stupid at least in my opinion and please don't tell me to learn to type again) - than I can finally upgrade from my old MBA, which is running low on SSD space and has always been low on RAM (more of that would be nice, too).

Yeah, the keyboard backlighting seems like a small thing, but it's actually one of the things that is making me wait on buying the 11". If you use one in bed or in a lot of dark environments (like backstage), it is a big deal. If they offer an 11" with reasonably-priced 256 GB SSD and keyboard backlight, I'll buy it tomorrow.

 

[PuckDaddy]

I'll buy an 11" if they lower the price to $799.

the refurbs are currently $849

 

[HiRez]

Since an 11” MB Air would likely be a secondary machine (for me anyway) I wish there was (or is there?) something to sync the most up to date file versions via WiFi and not the cloud with the primary MB Pro. Anyone know?

ChronoSync should do the job. I love this utility.

 

[deconstruct60]

I think the quote was "the future of notebooks," which expresses a slightly more Jobsian view of the world.

More so Jobs view of the longer term future. Some folks seem to be taking it as the "next model will all be like this". First, as the components come down in price will get more of the same characteristics. In 2009 the MB had a 120GB, 160, 250, or 320 hard drives. When the SSD cost of that drives comes down to the price point that a 240-320 GB would be now then would see it appear in a MB class offering. Once the affordable SSD capacity covers the users base for the model then can drop the old hard drive containers. When you do that you get a shrink in the overall chassis.


The issue with the Pro (and at bit less so with the MB ) models is whether the SSD limits will suffice. Right now it isn't true across the board. At the low end of storage demand it works. Mid to upper range it doesn't.

The second issue is that even if match on cost, you probably won't on performance. Again for the userbase whose laptops are really "fast enough" for what they do now, they will have opportunity to "move down" in minimum device size. The number of folks who "have to" buy a $2700 laptop is going to shrink over time. ( most people's workloads are not increasing as fast as the changes in delivered CPU "horsepower" ).

Right now though Apple sells way more MBPs than MBA. The MBA is just out of the basement (lowest volume) box now. It by no means on verge of taking over the top spot this year or the next. 3-4 years from now perhaps but right now no.

It's a matter of when the cost per performance becomes equal. Probably not going to happen this Spring, but once the MBPs and MBAs get updated in the next few months, we'll see them get closer in cost. If they are very close, this might be the last MBP update! Or am I too optimistic?

If they equal on cost but the performance is greater on the MBP then the cost per performance aren't going to be equal.

If Apple keeps hard drives as an option (but drops the DVD drive ) in the new MBP 13" they could squeeze in at the same price point they have now if they try hard enough (hold line on processor costs, lowest end on hard drive, etc.) but still easily outlclass the MBAs on performance in multiple categories.

 

[gri]

I think they are thicker than the non-backlit keyboards and won't fit in a MacBook Air.

Nah - they fit in the old one - which was a bit thicker, ok, but I can live with a mm more thickness, less well with the loss of the back lighting...

 

[Marx55]

Apple should make a truly portable (pocketable) Mac. 300 to 600 g. 4 to 7 inches. Whatever form factor (clamshell, slider or tablet).

 

[chrmjenkins]

Apple does not use embedded CPUs

He makes a good point. Is Apple's practice of soldering to the motherboard considered embedding? Or I guess I should say, why distinguish when they are functionally equivalent?

 

[deconstruct60]

but I can live with a mm more thickness,.

It isn't whether you can, it is whether Apple can. At almost every product announcement "thinner" has to be a fawned over attribute. If Apple was a person you'd think they were suffering anorexia nervosa .

 

[Hellhammer]

He makes a good point. Is Apple's practice of soldering to the motherboard considered embedding? Or I guess I should say, why distinguish when they are functionally equivalent?

It could be considered as embedding but the difference is that Apple uses normal CPUs instead of embedded ones. FYI, only SL9400 has embedded version available; SU9400, SU9600 and SL9600 don't.

 

[eddieairplanes]

It's tempting to trade in my 13'' MBP for an 11'' lower end Air (downgrade?), but it's probably because I'm just tired of waiting for the next iPad.

 

[firewood]

It is about time. I try to buy a new laptop every other year. I'm a year over due, because there have been no significant improvements in processor speed for three years. My current three year old MacBook has a 2.4 Core 2 Duo. Why upgrade to a new computer that is not faster or even slower? I want a MacBook Air but am not willing to go slower.

I switched from a MBP with a 2.53 MHz C2D to an MBA 11. The MBA 11 made a big difference for me because of its greater portability and faster performance from the built-in SSD. Because it's so much faster for many tasks (app launching, even Xcode builds), I rarely notice that the CPU is over 1.5X slower.

 

[Eidorian]

He makes a good point. Is Apple's practice of soldering to the motherboard considered embedding? Or I guess I should say, why distinguish when they are functionally equivalent?

It could be considered as embedding but the difference is that Apple uses normal CPUs instead of embedded ones. FYI, only SL9400 has embedded version available; SU9400, SU9600 and SL9600 don't.

It is going to boil down to pin grid array and ball grid array. Oh joy. Or are we really going that far or just looking for specific embedded variants?

 

[Hellhammer]

It is going to boil down to pin grid array and ball grid array. Oh joy. Or are we really going that far or just looking for specific embedded variants?

This started when deconstruct60 said that SL9400 will be available as embedded option even after October 14th. It doesn't really matter as Apple does not use those and I doubt one model would be enough for them.

I guess we are just trying to come up with reasons why Apple cannot use C2Ds anymore...

 

[Eidorian]

This started when deconstruct60 said that SL9400 will be available as embedded option even after October 14th. It doesn't really matter as Apple does not use those and I doubt one model would be enough for them.

I guess we are just trying to come up with reasons why Apple cannot use C2Ds anymore...

Intel tends to provide embedded processors for much longer periods. If I recall correctly, there are many Intel and AMD long term embedded processors compared what you see boxed or at retail.

The Apple TV comes to mind with its Pentium-M.

 

[chrmjenkins]

This started when deconstruct60 said that SL9400 will be available as embedded option even after October 14th. It doesn't really matter as Apple does not use those and I doubt one model would be enough for them.

I guess we are just trying to come up with reasons why Apple cannot use C2Ds anymore...

But we're still missing the key part of how much inventory Apple could potentially build up prior to the cutoff.

 

[firewood]

Apple should make a truly portable (pocketable) Mac. 300 to 600 g. 4 to 7 inches. Whatever form factor (clamshell, slider or tablet).

You can do this now by using an RDP or VNC app on your iPhone (or a mid-sized Android device with a larger display), and remoting in to your Mac desktop.

It isn't whether you can, it is whether Apple can. At almost every product announcement "thinner" has to be a fawned over attribute. If Apple was a person you'd think they were suffering anorexia nervosa .

What IBM and Sony found out years ago was that higher price points, thin sells. Now Apple is leading that fashion segment, not (only) because of fashion, but because of profitability.