Retina MacBook: What is it?

[xmichaelp]

I think its a niche product, given the following factors.
The price is relatively high for a product that is aimed at the majority of consumers. Given the high price its lacking a number of basic elements that would appeal to the majority of consumers, including ports.

It is a laptop aimed at those people who want an additional computer and have fairly high mobility needs, i.e., road warriors.

Apple had to make a number of sacrifices in designing this laptop as thin and small as possible, could that with its high price, means its not for everyone.

The higher price is temporary. It will be 999 before we know it.

I think you overestimate ports. Most people probably never use one, and if they do it's sparingly. I know a lot of people on here use their laptop most of the time at a desk with 5 wires hanging out of it, but that's a tiny percentage of people.

Correct, some think its a great computer, others do not.

My point is that the design choices apple made limits its mass appeal, and couple that with the premium price, means its a niche product.

People said the same thing about dropping the optical disk drive in the MBP. A couple years later and you don't hear a peep. No one cares anymore. I suspect the same with be the case with the lack of ports.

 

[4004786]

I don't think there's much mystery behind the MacBook's purpose. It's seems to be Apple's vision for what the entry-level model should/will be. It's priced high right now only because it's the first generation of the device. If you look at the first generation Air, it also had a crazy high price – $1799 for pretty low specifications. These folks who pay the premium for the first generation model just help bring the cost of production down.

To continue the analogy, the Air also had a shortage of ports in the first generation, but that was changed later on. So I t's possible that the MacBook could get another USB-C port. Some folks think that it's too thin to fit another. That might be the case, but it's also possible that Apple could make changes to the chassis to make it work.

And as xmichaelp suggests above, it might be that the average computer user just don't need ports as much these days.

 

[Z3man]

I don't think it will ever get another port, one usb is plenty for the majority of people, i hardly ever even use the one usb port it has and didn't on my MBP either.

 

[navaira]

It's always such a pleasure to see someone extrapolate "I don't use it" into "majority of people don't use it". Bonus points for giving a percentage, i.e. "99% people don't use it".

 

[MrXiro]

It's always such a pleasure to see someone extrapolate "I don't use it" into "majority of people don't use it". Bonus points for giving a percentage, i.e. "99% people don't use it".

Maybe because they don't use it and taking a sample of their friends they don't use it either... I think for a large portion of the audience that would buy a baseline product (Macbook) won't need as many ports as a "pro" user. Hence why they have a separation of Pro products and non-pro products. I think the MB is an interesting new divide in "consumer" end vs "pro" end. For a more lower end user who doesn't need a bunch of ports the Macbook might be the better product. If you need ports the the Pro line is what you're looking for. The thing that this does is devalues the lower end products for Pro users who are on the cheap and don't want to spring for the "Pro" devices.