MacBook Mini Photos Generate Speculation

[talkingfuture]

As preposterous as $899 for a Netbook sounds, I reckon it is fairly realistic for an Apple Netbook. Don't forget this is Aluminium whereas the bottom end Macbook is not.

Ultimately I think Apple will make something more innovative than this (think touchscreen) to justify the price tag in consumers minds.

 

[KALLT]

That thing is just plain ugly.

 

[pcorrado]

In former Soviet Russia, MacBook fools YOU!

Haha! That was great!

 

[Abstract]

That's priced more like an under-speced laptop, not a netbook...

Go figure

The keyboard depicted is full-size layout. If indeed this product has a 10" screen, like the Asus netbook I'm typing on now, then those keys are going to be pretty tiny.

That's why this thing is a fake.

And I've seen the layout for a 10.6" netbook on Engadget, and it's nearly big enough for a full-sized keyboard, albeit on the smaller size of the spectrum.

 

[rhysmorgan]

And is Nvidia making a board that would fit an Intel Atom and a 9400M just for Apple?? I don't believe such a thing exists for anyone else right now.

Nope, this platform is known as the Ion platform.
Ion netbooks however, are yet to see the light of day.

 

[mambodancer]

$899 = not entering the netbook market

again, no such device could fit into the product line. Nope. Sorry. Not happening.

Yep, and that's what they said about the iPod and iPhone when they first came out.

 

[plumbingandtech]

It's fake.

Just plain fake.

 

[Tallest Skil]

Yep, and that's what they said about the iPod and iPhone when they first came out.

They said no such thing about the iPhone...

 

[colonels1020]

$899? For $100 more you'd get a macbook with a bigger screen, faster processor, and other goodness? Ridiculous.

People would pay that price because they don't want the big screen and large size of the regular macbook. They pay for small because that's all they want/need.

 

[statik13]

I'd be all over this if the price and ssd are right. All I want is a little laptop to haul around when I'm out of town and a 10" screen is just right.

 

[Prometheus2000]

Looks more like MBA 2.0

I would take that as replacement for my MBA if the screen is a bit bigger and it has 3G and an Atom dual core...

 

[aresinferno]

As preposterous as $899 for a Netbook sounds, I reckon it is fairly realistic for an Apple Netbook.

And the price for a VAIO P is?

Apple would need to do something major to compete with that.

It's just someone's rendering and not anything that apple would make.

 

[BenRoethig]

Personally, I can't see the attraction with only a *reported* $100 difference in price between this and the low-end MB. If as the pic shows they made it in Aluminum it would be cool. But, are people so concerned with size that they'd got for this when for $100 more they could get a 13" screen?

Its half the weight of that 13" screen. Think of it as the consumer equivalent to the MBA.

 

[ux4all]

I would take that as replacement for my MBA if the screen is a bit bigger and it has 3G and an Atom dual core...

I am with you. The screen size isn't as important as the dual core.

That being said, since the Mac Mini (my first post and I thought it was a fake) fiasco, I will not be proclaiming anything.

However, is it a stretch (possibility) that the MBA could come in a 10" size perhaps?

 

[student_trap]

$899? For $100 more you'd get a macbook with a bigger screen, faster processor, and other goodness? Ridiculous.

i think that you are missing the value of portability. Yes it would be expensive for a netbook, but would still fall in a different category to the macbooks: if you want to be able to slip it in a bag to take with you every day, there is no way you would take a macbook

 

[haravikk]

It looks like the kind of things I'd expect them to make, though I'd much rather they did a touch-screen device with on-demand on-screen keyboard like the iPhone.

The specs seem quite off anyway.

 

[That-Is-Bull]

$899? For $100 more you'd get a macbook with a bigger screen, faster processor, and other goodness? Ridiculous.

$1800? For $800 less you'd get a Macbook with the same screen size, a faster processor and other goodness. Ridiculous.

Except this Macbook mini would actually be smaller rather than just thinner/lighter.

Fake, apple wouldn't install AdiumX and World Of Warcraft on a promotional laptop.

 

[allmIne]

Of course it's fake; I'd imagine Apple would be unlikely to have promotional shots taken so far ahead of any release. Unless of course its release is imminent.

It'd be more believable if it was a spy shot or something. Of course that'd be more difficult to mock up.

 

[commander.data]

And is Nvidia making a board that would fit an Intel Atom and a 9400M just for Apple?? I don't believe such a thing exists for anyone else right now.

It's called Ion and it exists as demo kits. The problem is that Intel isn't enthused about people coupling Atom with non-Intel chipsets and nVidia has been begging someone to adopt Ion to get the ball rolling. If anyone would adopt Ion, it would be Apple.

However, I find it hard to believe that Apple would adopt Atom or Ion in a notebook. The performance just isn't there. The most likely use of Atom and Ion was thought to be the Apple TV which hasn't seen a hardware refresh since launch and could really use the 9400M for h.264 acceleration.

 

[ericinboston]

For giggles I am going to assume that Apple is entering the Netbook market...and that they are trying to sell a netbook class machine for $899.

Apple is on major drugs if they think their netbook is going to compete with Dell or HP's that sell for $275. Yup...$275. You can add a few upgrades and max it at $499.

I bought a Dell Mini 9 a few months ago for $275 to my door...1gig ram, 16gig solid state hard drive...weighs 2 pounds and battery runs for about 5 hours (believe it or not)...I strictly use it for streaming my iTunes from one end of the house to my stereo...works like a charm.

I hear/read that more and more people are buying netbooks for the casual couch-surfing rather than plopping down hundreds more.

Hopefully I am wrong about Apple's price...it would really need to be under $500 to even seriously compete with the pc-side of netbooks...and before people jump in about pc/mac bashing...we're talking about netbooks here folks...essentially web surfing plastic devices.

-Eric

 

[zen]

Fake but looks quite nice. I'd be very tempted by a Macbook mini, if it was the right price.

But even the specs looks fishy. Wouldn't a SSD push the price out of the netbook range? I would have thought a cheap netbook would use a mini HDD rather than an SSD.

 

[mr_matalino]

If true, it needs to be under $600. I'd rather own a white MB for almost the same price.

 

[dwl017]

Have we already forgotten about the hundreds if not thousands of post calling the new Mac Mini fake no one here has any creditability at all!

 

[student_trap]

Fake but looks quite nice. I'd be very tempted by a Macbook mini, if it was the right price.

But even the specs looks fishy. Wouldn't a SSD push the price out of the netbook range? I would have thought a cheap netbook would use a mini HDD rather than an SSD.

quite a lot of the pc netbooks use SSD, in particular i know the eee 1000 9 months ago had 40gig SSD and retailed for £400, so 64gig could be very possible.

whole thing seems tremendously unlikely though, but i still want one!

 

[wavelayer]

$

I wonder if it's possible for Apple to turn out a netbook in the $499 to $599 price range. I've actually been thinking about getting an Acer One for basic web surfing, emails, etc, just because the price is so appealing...but I'd be more than willing to pay a bit extra for an Apple. This just isn't the time for luxury products.