Yep, IIRC my Dad's ThinkPad back in the day (95? 96?) cost about 3500 sterling. Was a real reliable machine though. It's still pottering around somewhere.
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Quanta Said to Manufacture Apple's Upcoming 'Inexpensive Notebooks' in September Quarter
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Yep, IIRC my Dad's ThinkPad back in the day (95? 96?) cost about 3500 sterling. Was a real reliable machine though. It's still pottering around somewhere.
That would all be true if not for the fact that Apple keeps making the software more complex and therefore slower in order to get "Keynote" bullet points that don't really impress or improve the product.
I think just an IPS display would make a big difference.
the whole lineup is just confusing at this point.
Needs some cleanup IMHO.
the 12" MacBook should be discounted to the 999 level and should be the "AIR". there's little reason why its a $1300 machine given internals and components. it's clearly the "entry level" position.
the 13" non-touch bar should be the "MacBook", being the Flagship midrange part that balances performance and portability. their basic ultrabook. a 15" version without touchbar wouldn't be amiss either. All of these will come with the midrange i5-i7's. Nothing special. Performance isn't king here.
the 13+15" touchbar MacBook Pro's redesigned to be slightly thicker, better battery life and better thermals should be the high end professional grade, with the thicker, more reliable older style keyboard.
That's all that's needed. it would be clean and clear what the product lines are with good clean differentiation between.
Needs some cleanup IMHO.
the 12" MacBook should be discounted to the 999 level and should be the "AIR". there's little reason why its a $1300 machine given internals and components. it's clearly the "entry level" position.
the 13" non-touch bar should be the "MacBook", being the Flagship midrange part that balances performance and portability. their basic ultrabook. a 15" version without touchbar wouldn't be amiss either. All of these will come with the midrange i5-i7's. Nothing special. Performance isn't king here.
the 13+15" touchbar MacBook Pro's redesigned to be slightly thicker, better battery life and better thermals should be the high end professional grade, with the thicker, more reliable older style keyboard.
That's all that's needed. it would be clean and clear what the product lines are with good clean differentiation between.
That would really depend on the parts. The core-m processor tray price when introduced was $281 -- has the newer processors dropped in price? Memory has gone up, SSD that is reasonable performant has not exactly dropped like a rock in price... The retina screen... may have, but the lack of price adjustment likely has a lot to do with cost of parts + standard margin than anything. I think Apple thought it would have been able to do the same specs at a lower price by now, but reality has not fully co-operated. Building a MacBook 12" with an Ax process though... they likely would be able to hit the sub $1000 price range.
Well, what normally happens is that Apple has a September event, everybody here gets steamed up about new Macs, then acts all surprised when it turns out to be an iPhone/Watch/Music event - as it has done for the last x years.
It would be more typical to have a Mac event or press-release-only launch later in the year.
This is apple we're talking about, this will be a core 2 duo for $2000.
Maybe these will be the new Apple A12 Bionic laptops and maybe Mac Mini to replace the outdated Intel x86 chipsets.
Not really. I don't think you understand just how much the internet has evolved a in the past few years.
No! You don't do that. Take a very very old design 7+ years and add a new screen? No way. That's not Apple's approach or any other decent companies approach. You start from scratch with fresh ideas, new design relevant to 2019 and onwards not a damn 2011 design for 2019 and beyond.
Consumer notebook segment is no more a mess than the business segment.
Least expensive: MacBook Air.
Smallest, lightest: 12” MacBook
Larger, faster, but more expensive: 13” MBP
Largest, fastest, most expensive: 15” MBP
Those strictly shopping by price choose MBA. Those who want a 2 lb. ultraportable buy MacBook. If you want a more powerful machine, and have the budget, you buy MBP. It’s really not all that complicated.
To answer your questions: 1) It starts at 1,299, not 1,799; 2) No, the entry level machine is $300 cheaper than the rMB; 3) Because at $999 it’s the entry level model.
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Oh oh. Hope Apple doesn't start following the Dell junk computer model. Easiest way to make a computer cheap is by using cheap components that seem to die after two years.
And how will that old design appeal to customers in 2019, 2020 and 2021??? It won't. Very bad suggestion there! It's important to live outside of the box and innovate otherwise you become stale! Just like that drab MacBook Air that please should have gone in 2015! Horrible horrible ugly dated laptop with huge year 2000 silver bezels and tinny speakers. Just damn horrible.
How anyone can like the damn thing beats me! Nasty piece of design.
Apple can always be counted upon to do the wrong thing until legal action dictates otherwise.
It's fairly cheap, although now I wouldn't recommend it as there's been no new generation. Still using my CTO Early-2014, although I have a strong suspicion that it needs a thermal paste replacement. Also, MagSafe is great. Too bad Apple retired it in favor of USB-C.
Apple selling a Mac with an unchanged design for eight years straight (as in both the MacBook Air and Mac mini) is not something that has happened before, ever. Their treatment of both low-cost Macs over the last few years wreaks of neglect.
So, Apple needs to prove the lower-cost Macs are still a priority. Right now the MacBook Air is still using a design from 2010, which was a variation of a design from 2008. The bezels are thicker than a lot of the Air's competitors (including the MacBook), and the design is showing its age in other areas as well.
For about five minutes, I hesitated. I was about to buy a 2018 iPad, mostly for writing via Scrivener, which has both macOS and iOS versions.
"Would a Mac laptop serve me better?," I thought. "Was it worth waiting for an as-yet undefined October event to find out?" "No," I concluded. "For years, Apple's track record for creating good laptops has been abysmal. This one will drop MagSafe. It will have that terrible keyboard. It will have only USB-C ports. It may even try to cram that awful Touch Bar down my throat. There's no reason to wait."
Besides, even the best-case scenarios for the price mean it'll cost over twice what that iPad costs.
"Would a Mac laptop serve me better?," I thought. "Was it worth waiting for an as-yet undefined October event to find out?" "No," I concluded. "For years, Apple's track record for creating good laptops has been abysmal. This one will drop MagSafe. It will have that terrible keyboard. It will have only USB-C ports. It may even try to cram that awful Touch Bar down my throat. There's no reason to wait."
Besides, even the best-case scenarios for the price mean it'll cost over twice what that iPad costs.
I wonder what design this will be in? The MacBook or the Air? A lot of people like the design of the Air and I could see them keeping that but adding a Retina display and putting the 8th gen processors in it, that way Apple get to still say the 12” MacBook is the “thinnest and lightest”
Or
They make the Air just as thin and light as the 12” MacBook add a 13” screen size and add it to the line up, the 12” being the cheaper $999 version that’s being rumoured.
Also if there is an October event I think it would be for Mac’s only, the iPad Pro will probably be announced in September alongside the new iPhone’s and new Apple Watch Series 4.
Or
They make the Air just as thin and light as the 12” MacBook add a 13” screen size and add it to the line up, the 12” being the cheaper $999 version that’s being rumoured.
Also if there is an October event I think it would be for Mac’s only, the iPad Pro will probably be announced in September alongside the new iPhone’s and new Apple Watch Series 4.
Just went through the process of buying a laptop for my son for college as a Freshman.
Like most of the last 20 years, I am choosing to buy inferior hardware in a Mac for a superior OS. That's what it boils down to.
We ended up with the education pricing of $849 for a Macbook Air that has a 5th generation Intel processor while the PC laptops are less money for the 8th generation processor. It did come with a free pair of $299 Beats headphones, though, which he will use quite a bit at college, I'm sure.
My wife has an HP laptop for work and we have a HP docking station at home on a desk. It's connected to a Dell LED monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, ethernet, printer. She just plugs the laptop into the dock and the Windows login screen comes up on the monitor and she starts working. Apple invented the dock, I think, with the Duo. My guess is they abandoned docks years ago because Steve Jobs would rather sell you a desktop AND a laptop versus a laptop and a dock. That really does suck.
For the Macbook Air, I bought a USB hub that has ethernet (MacBook Air has no ethernet port - boo!) and 3 USB ports. I have his ethernet, USB printer, keyboard, mouse plugged into that hub. I bought him a monitor that will be plugged into the mini display port of the Macbook Air. And there is the power cable. So 3 things to plug in and unplug every time he comes and go. Apple is known for innovation, but this really sucks.
The OS is superior to Windows 10, though, and I won't have him coming home on weekends needing me to run a Registry Fixer or reinstall Windows because his laptop slowed down to a crawl after 3 months of use.
Like most of the last 20 years, I am choosing to buy inferior hardware in a Mac for a superior OS. That's what it boils down to.
We ended up with the education pricing of $849 for a Macbook Air that has a 5th generation Intel processor while the PC laptops are less money for the 8th generation processor. It did come with a free pair of $299 Beats headphones, though, which he will use quite a bit at college, I'm sure.
My wife has an HP laptop for work and we have a HP docking station at home on a desk. It's connected to a Dell LED monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, ethernet, printer. She just plugs the laptop into the dock and the Windows login screen comes up on the monitor and she starts working. Apple invented the dock, I think, with the Duo. My guess is they abandoned docks years ago because Steve Jobs would rather sell you a desktop AND a laptop versus a laptop and a dock. That really does suck.
For the Macbook Air, I bought a USB hub that has ethernet (MacBook Air has no ethernet port - boo!) and 3 USB ports. I have his ethernet, USB printer, keyboard, mouse plugged into that hub. I bought him a monitor that will be plugged into the mini display port of the Macbook Air. And there is the power cable. So 3 things to plug in and unplug every time he comes and go. Apple is known for innovation, but this really sucks.
The OS is superior to Windows 10, though, and I won't have him coming home on weekends needing me to run a Registry Fixer or reinstall Windows because his laptop slowed down to a crawl after 3 months of use.
Apple doesn’t need “headway”. I don’t understand why you people think Apple is going to switch to the low margin high volume strategy that makes the OEM computer industry rely almost entirely on enterprise sales.Apple needs a $599 in this category to make any headway. Period.
This will be a *less* expensive Mac, but it’s not going to be competing with the cheap **** from the likes of a $500 HP.
With Apple now long supporting h.265 how likely is it that this laptop doesn’t support hardware decoding?