I bought my 13 inch ultimate late last year and it has and continues to serve my needs well. Did I know it would be updated within a short period of time? Sure, but computers are always being updated and when you need a computer, you jump in and get something that fills your needs now. Just updated to Lion and all is good. Who doesn't know you can wait forever for the next great thing? My guess is my Air will do what I need it to for the next year or two and I will replace it with whatever new model is out at that time.
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So I bought a macbook air in late 2010 and half a year later there is a refresh ???
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So, lets see - you bought a computer where the processor was still 2 generations behind of processors already in other Macs. They removed the back lit keyboard and we all (well, many of us) expected it would come in the next iteration, the RAM they offered as basic version was the standard from 5 years ago - and now you are surprised? And as others are pointing out yours is still working and not suddenly falling apart.
I ordered the new one but I know that in probably less than a year they will have one with up to 8G RAM and a better graphic solution) - however, I waited for so long for this specs (mine is up to now a refurbished 2d generation from early 2009) so I knew that its a good time to go for it now.
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When I got my Air in Jan/Feb, I was already then convinced that I wouldn't get buyer's remorse even if the refresh would come in May with 8 gigs of RAM and 512 gigs of storage by default, backlit keyboard, a 1680x1050 pixel display and the rumored LightPeak (ThunderBolt) technology. And I still am. If my Air had not been worth the price at the time, I wouldn't have bought it - and if I had been in such dire need for high specs at all times, I would most likely have gone Pro instead. The Air is not for everyone, and certainly not for penny-pinching spec-whores.
I am thoroughly enjoying this thread. I have yet to see so many negative votes for one OP.
To the OP, it sucks apple doesn't replace models around your needed product cycle
To the OP, it sucks apple doesn't replace models around your needed product cycle
I feel for you OP, I really do. It must be hard purchasing a computer with an outdated processor, 6 months into a 1 year refresh cycle, and then having an update being release 6 months later! Perhaps this will help sooth your pain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7wtNOkuHo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7wtNOkuHo
That's simply not true. The purchaser considered the MBA worth purchasing and did so, which is really the ultimate way of approving a product. What Apple released subsequently has no bearing.
You can't get on them for something you bought 6 months prior to a refresh, that's just too much time. Now, take my case where I bought mine 3 weeks before the refresh and the value of my laptop dropped $600 almost overnight. I do think they should have special consideration for people who want to upgrade (not straight refunds) within 30 days of a refresh (I'd prefer to see 60 days). They go to herculean efforts to provide very positive customer experiences in so many ways, which is applaudable and I'd like to see them take care of this small little issue too. I'm not really mad, I wanted that upgraded model but I was unwilling to lose $600 for 3 weeks of use to do it.
everybody knows apple refreshes their products every year. I just bought an iphone4 a month ago. And I'm not feeling ripped that they're releasing another one in a month. Get over it. We all know we buy tech which will be old in two months.
why didn't you return your macbook? you still were in time for a return. forget about feeling guilty. I rather return it and get the new one, than feel like crap about owning a product I'm not so happy with since a new one just came off.
The window of time in which you can return it is 14 days and I'd had it for around 23 days when they came out with the 2011 refresh. I tried anyway to return it and they politely but firmly refused.
That sucks bro. I feel for you.
You have to understand where Apple is coming from though. It does not make sense to them, from a business standpoint to do something like that. It'd be one thing if they sold you a defective product, but you're effectively asking Apple to take a loss of several hundreds of dollars buying back your old hardware and refurbing it, when the product works as advertised and intended. Compound that by the thousands of people who would probably do the same within 60 days of a refresh, and it would amount to a lot of coin....particularly because putting a large amount of refurbs up would further reduce the cost they could reasonably sell them for.
Beyond that, Apple is purposely very tight-lipped about their new releases solely because they do not want to hinder the sales on their current hardware. Most hardware manufacturers will spend months hyping their products, while Apple is radio silent on theirs until they finally hit the market. They do not want new hardware cannibalizing the sale of old(er) hardware even before they hit the market. Every piece of hardware that isn't sold prior to a refresh will be sold at reduced prices...this comes straight off the bottom line of Apple and their retailers. Given that, it would not make sense, from a business standpoint, for Apple to turn around and buy-back old hardware and further compound the loss of revenue they take in from selling older hardware.
In the end, Apple is a huge publicly traded company very much concerned with maximizing its profitability. Apple is better to their customers than most companies, but they aren't a charity either. A lot of the cost of Apple's 'generosity' is likely financed by the 'Apple tax' we pay on their products, and without Apple significantly raising their prices even further, I don't see how it would make sense to them to implement a buy back/return program.
If it was just a few days to a week, I might feel some regret or sense of pity for myself because if I had waited just that bit longer, I could have obtained a superior machine for the same price that would have served me better.
But 6 months? Come on! You have had more than 1/2 a year to enjoy your purchase. To me, that is already an eternity.
But 6 months? Come on! You have had more than 1/2 a year to enjoy your purchase. To me, that is already an eternity.
A manufacturing company like Apple has the largest profit margins at the end of a product's life when it's costing less to make it so they have room to reduce the price and help buyers out in the transition process. This company has 79b in cash from current practices (this just being one small aspect of it all) and I simply don't agree with it entirely. It's one little spot of customer service that doesn't quite dovetail well with their overall attitude of a great customer experience across the board. I'm saying there's room for improvement here in making sure the customer experience is always top-notch in all aspects that they can control. I've always liked this overall customer service attitude about Apple and I think there's still a bit more they can do.
Just because they have the financial capacity to do implement something like this doesn't mean that it necessarily makes sense....because from a business standpoint, it does not make sense. Implementing something like that will not increase sales or revenue.....in fact, knowing the mentality of Apple customers and their obsession with having the latest and greatest versions, you'd have hoards of customers trading old hardware in, and they'd be technically be taking a loss on every product they sold as part of trade-in, effectively hindering the financial performance of each refresh. Even if the Apple execs wanted to do something like this from the kindness of their own hearts, they still have to answer to share-holders...of which two very large institutional investors (Barclay's and FMR) have a huge stake in. From the perspective of the shareholders, a program like this is wasteful and does not add value to their financials.
I also don't understand the mentality that releasing a new product and not letting you sell back an old one is 'bad' customer service. Car companies release a new car every year....do you expect them to eat the depreciation and buy back the car you racked 10,000 miles on after they release a new one a month later? That's what you're effectively asking Apple to do. Do you really think that's fair?
Maybe its a product of Apple's efforts to be extraordinarily generous to their customers....As they say: "give a mouse a cookie and he'll ask for a glass of milk."
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Don't forget Intel. They should have told us not to buy MacBook Airs because they were coming out with a new processor.
Hi, I see you have the MBP and the MBA. I'm looking to buy a MBA (either 11 or 13") to replace my bulky HP piece of crap. I think the MBA will be sufficient for my needs. I have a desktop and this laptop will be used for almost exclusively word processing, researching and browsing at university (which I understand is fairly reasonable usage, sufficient for a MBA). So it won't exactly be my primary machine on which i store everything (old documents, pictures, etc). Do you think the MBA will be good for the job, and would the 11" be enough? You seem to love your MBA, as most MBA-owners do.
You've got a pretty impressive apple collection. I'm most likely buying the MBA (either 11 or 13") this summer so how do you find it compared to the MBP? I've got a desktop on which i store everything so the MBA will be almost exclusively a word processing computer - that and researching/browsing. I've got an iPad 2 but the MBA will be my main work computer during university terms. Any useful tips prithee?
When I buy a car that is close to the end of it's cycle, such as a 2009 that I'm buying in December I always get a discount off what that car cost back in January of the year, don't you? It's ok with me if you want to spend full retail at all times but most of us are more savvy than that.
I don't have any buyers remorse. It's a great machine that is extremely fast. For my uses it's not like I would significantly gain from using sandy bridge.
HDD is the bottleneck and it's SSD, so no problem.
If i was doing video editing or encoding/decoding I might be a bit sour, but I don't do anything like that.
Am considering selling it but just because I might opt for 11 inches vs. 13.
HDD is the bottleneck and it's SSD, so no problem.
If i was doing video editing or encoding/decoding I might be a bit sour, but I don't do anything like that.
Am considering selling it but just because I might opt for 11 inches vs. 13.