Breaking down Macworld 2008 from all sides
Macworld is a little like the Super Bowl: one big day where everything gets laid out on the table.
So, let's break down Macworld 2008, Super Bowl style. Instead of offense, defense, and special teams, however, I'll take each of the big four themes that Apple CEO Steve Jobs presented, and share my thoughts.
MacBook Air -- I'm not crazy about the name, but this is a nice-looking laptop. Ultraportable laptops are prestige products for both the vendor and the customer; Apple gets to show off what it's capable of designing, while the customer gets to show off his or her taste and style.
These $1,799 laptops are not for the masses. Most people will have to make too many compromises with the MacBook Air, from the lack of an optical drive, Firewire, and an Ethernet jack to the battery, which like those in the iPhone and iPod can't be replaced by the user.
What's in the envelope? The super-slim MacBook Air.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)But this is a nice addition to Apple's lineup of notebooks. It definitely will appeal to a group of people who aren't worried about making those trade-offs, and it gives Apple another design accomplishment to crow about.
Especially since the rest of the PC industry probably won't be able to duplicate Apple's thin approach without taking advantage of Intel's new packaging technology for its Core 2 Duo chip. Intel will probably offer that packaging technique to the rest of the PC industry, but as Nathan Brookwood of Insight 64 pointed out, Dell and Hewlett-Packard probably didn't know about that breakthrough until this morning. That would put them about six months behind Apple.
iPhone/iPod touch software upgrades: Apple introduced several new helpful features for the iPhone and the iPod Touch, such as the ability to put an icon for a specific Web page on the home screen, and the ability to send a text message to more than one person. I think the enhanced Maps application, however, will prove the most compelling.
Greg Joswiak, vice president of iPod and iPhone marketing at Apple, demonstrated the Maps application for me after the keynote. There's a little button on the lower left corner of the Maps application that brings up an icon resembling the cross-hairs from a gun's sight. Apple teamed up with Skyhook Wireless to allow the iPhone or the iPod Touch to triangulate its position to a certain degree of accuracy simply by hitting that button. The smaller the cross-hairs, the more precise the fix on your location. Then you can just use Maps to get directions to your destination from your current location, even if you don't know exactly where you are.
The first grumble of the day from the Macworld crowd came when Jobs announced that similar software upgrades would cost iPod Touch users $19.99. Granted, iPod Touch users did get five new features already found on the iPhone--Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather, and Notes--in addition to the location-finding technology and customized Web bookmarks on the home screen, which Apple calls Web Clips.
I think our good friend The Macalope is onto something, however, when iAntlers points out that Apple didn't include the iPod Touch along with the other products using subscription-based accounting, namely the iPhone and Apple TV. After the whole $2 Wi-Fi debacle, Apple made sure to announce up front that the company would record revenue from iPhone and Apple TV over a period of 24 months, which would allow it to deliver free upgrades to the product over that period of time. I e-mailed an Apple representative asking whether the iPod Touch is getting the subscription treatment, but I haven't heard back.
Time capsule: This was the first thing Jobs announced, and I have to say, I was underwhelmed. Time Capsule is a combination wireless access point/external hard drive that gets around a common complaint regarding Time Machine, the otherwise noteworthy automatic backup feature that Apple included with Leopard. Time Machine requires that your Mac be physically connected to an external hard drive in order to back up your files each night, and that's not the most convenient way to use a laptop.
If you don't have an access point, and you don't have an external hard drive, then Time Capsule might make a lot of sense at either $299 for 500GBs of storage or 1TB for $499. But the answer to the wireless Time Machine question--for those of us who already have wireless routers and external hard drives--is to have us shell out at least 300 more bucks for a piece of hardware that replaces the perfectly good hardware we already have? Sorry, I don't quite understand that one.
iTunes movie rentals/Apple TV: The biggest announcement of the day, in my opinion, even if some of the luster was lost as news leaked out over the past two weeks. My colleague Greg Sandoval, who covers the entertainment industry much more closely than I, weighed in with his thoughts on industry impact of the decision, but I'll take a moment to consider the impact on Apple TV.
With more features and a cheaper price, Apple TV is suddenly much more compelling.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks)This instantly makes Apple TV more credible. Apple can finally stand behind its message that Apple TV can replace your DVD player. As it stood before, you could only get movies on Apple TV if you were willing to buy them. So, you'd still need your DVD player for those movies you thought you might like but weren't totally sure justified a purchase, which is just about all of them these days.
I'd still like to see an Apple TV with a browser (yeah, yeah, I know you can hack it--for now) so I can access all the other kinds of video available on the Internet, not to mention things like weather, maps, and stock reports that would be nice to have on a television. Of course, Apple wants you to buy movies from iTunes rather than getting your entertainment for free. But the company also didn't want to just dump a bunch of features into Apple TV just for the sake of doing so, Joswiak said.
"We hate to make these things into computers; we want to make them into things that people use in their lives," Joswiak said after the keynote. Apple TV is infinitely more useful with movie rentals, although I agree with Daring Fireball's John Gruber, The New York Times' David Pogue, and countless others: 24 hours is way too short a window to finish a movie that I already started. If you start a movie at night after work, and don't finish it because something came up, you better not have plans for tomorrow night if you want to finish that movie. That's not exactly on-demand content.
While Macworld 2008 wasn't exactly a sensation (the "one more thing" was Randy Newman, for crying out loud), Apple certainly didn't made any major missteps Tuesday that would put a dent in its momentum heading into the new year. The Mac and iPod businesses appear to have had solid holiday seasons, and Jobs announced that Apple sold 2.6 million iPhones from the end of September until the end of December, for a total of 4 million since iPhone Day in June.
There's still plenty of things to keep watching for, including a MacBook and/or MacBook Pro redesign and third-party applications for the iPhone, to name two at the top of my list. I think the iTunes Rental Store bears the most watching of Tuesday's announcements because of its potential impact both on Apple's iTunes Store business and the industry at large, and we'll be sure to keep track.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom.
I can go to the nearest video store for the same price or less and thats for a full fidelity movie?
The other day I noticed these kiosk machines in the Grocery store. New movies for a 1.49 or less! and I can return it when I want.
Come on .com get of the stupid greed wagon. Apple is really becoming a greedy goliath.
music side of the iTunes store, the studios get the major cut.
Apple just has a very compelling reason to push more hardware
(ipods, iphones, appleTV)
2. iTunes will offer HD so you miss there too. Plus standard
def will grow more than hi def for years to come. Convenience
and portability will outgrow HD on big screens.
3. Sometimes you don't want to step out to go rent that $1.49
movie if you can get it instantly without leaving the house.
After the gas and time to go out, it's not worth it.
about the ability to make it portable and easy. Apple is looking
at the big picture and new innovative ideas about changing
something standard and old to fit the present generation. By
making rentals this easy and portable they open rentals to be
taken anywhere not just attached to a DVD player that has to be
plugged in to a not so easy to move TV. By putting media on
your laptops and iPods you can watch the media anywhere you
want. And for prices for old movies at $2.99 at a DVD quality is
a good grab. Unless you are an HD person who has to have their
content perfectly HD. This quality is fine for the mass amounts
of people. Also with the machines at the store for renting
DVD's, at most of them you pay $1 every day you have the
movie so if you wanted a rental for 30 days, well that costs
$30.00, not very cheap.
The only thing that I see that Apple has to change is the amount
of time that you have to watch the movie once you start. I think
that you should have more time such as 72hrs, or it be counted
by how many times you play the movie such as 10 plays a rental
for 30 days.
I think apple is an amazing company with the best way of
interacting with its consumers that I have seen in recent years.
And to call a company greedy that donates to charity each year,
donates products to children, and also supports (PROJECT) RED,
I think calling them a greedy company is a very inaccurate
statement.
rentals were a hit even if not the bullseye. I have no problem
with the pricing of the rentals, gas costs me more than the
rental if I have to go to the movie store not to mention my time
and convenience. The length of time of the rental is definitely a
concern. That needs to be rethought.
Too bad about the cost of the additional apps for the iTouch.
That was a miss but the apps were overdue and should have
been shipped with the original product. They are basic except
for the new map functions.
The MacBook Air is a good first effort but I am concerned about
the battery and replacement issue. Could be the reason I do
not buy one until that situation changes as it must in a future
release. I travel and need the battery time!
As for Randy Newman he was a distraction and it was a terrible
end to what should have been an upbeat event. I don't think it
was the right venue for the political commentary via the song
and as I said initially it was a downer from a mood perspective.
Let me put it another way. Say you bought an ounce of gold several years ago for $200. Now it's worth about $900. If you sell it for $900, when it cost you only $200, are you being greedy?
Even better: it probably cost you about $5 or less to go to work today. But you're being paid a lot more than that. Are you being greedy?
And besides, this whole "greedy" concept is absurd. As if the fair exchange in a free market of something as trivial as entertainment can ever be even in the same neighborhood as greed. Maybe Apple set the price too high, but who really cares? If you like it, buy it. If you don't, then forget about it. Your life won't be any different either way. And if the business model doesn't work for Apple, they'll adjust (like they just did) or they'll drop the product.
Two trips, park, wait in line to check out. Total 1 hour.
Going to the store for a hot new movie, and found out that it is out of stock - priceless.
the 4 dollars they make close to 75 cents at the most a dollar. And
only a download? Have you given a deaf ear to the writers strike?
can't remember the last time that I used a cable. As for the DVD/
CD thing, you can get the superdrive or just use the wireless
again from some other chump's reader. Plus with itunes installed
you have all of the media at your fingertips anyway. Sure its
probably not best as someone's only computer, but as an
addition to a Macbook Pro or a tower its great option for when
you need a Mac but don't need to carry 7 pounds that overfill
your carrying case. I only wonder about the video performance,
but then for the chance of having a mac that small, but that is
still powerful is worth it.
This is a tech show, run by one of the best in the business, with a reputation for delivering a 'tech' 'one more thing'. Not some random singer.
So, no Randy was not one more thing for crying out loud.
world which includes Pixar (what movie did he point out that he
really likes during the presentation???) and Randy Newman wrote
the scores for most of Pixar's movies. How unrandom is that? Just
because YOU aren't into him ... I don't remember you being
mentioned on stage other than "all of you" being the live
audience and those that would watch the keynote on their
computers.
what they "claim" to do now which are New Gadgets of ANY kind,
right???
Put the Device Anywhere - Dishwashers, Coffee Makers, Coffee
Cups, Key Chains, Gas Pumps, Toys, Robots, etc, etc Or... they
could just put Music Anywhere since that's what put the
"excitement" back into the dying Computer Science company
almost a decade ago.
Good luck Apple dumpling!
I listen to internet radio channels all day through iTunes, there is a
special section for them in iTunes.
many people around the world who aren't in Apple's 'club' of
iTunes Music store countries won't even have the option of
upgrading their iPod touch software. Thanks to their network-
tethered model the iPhone is still not in Asia (apart from many
jailbreaks), but now those of us who opted for a '2nd best' in
the form of an iPod touch are now further insulted by US-centric
rubbish... and all of that followed by an attempt to drum up
sympathy for the US at the conclusion of the keynote. Rotten
Apple.
you don't have to buy it. if you were happy with your ipod touch
without those apps then leave it the way it is and be happy... if you
want the apps... then pony up $20....
that said... i would not have complained it is was free...
cords?
iPod Touch owners the ability to buy an upgrade. Keep in mind that while they are almost identical
minus the phone, the company had to decide what direction they wanted to go with them.
The iPhone software upgrade is free because it is not adding more applications to the iPhone and Apple
gets a monthly subscription fee from AT&T. The business model for the iPod Touch is different and also
never had these 5 applications on it. If I was you I would have a huge smile on my face not the other
way around. This is a big win for iPod Touch owners for Apple to finally decide to make both products
the same minus the phone.
You must keep in mind that they are not getting any monthly revenue off of the iPod Touch.
Years of work went into creating this amazing technology so maybe $20 is not to much to ask to give
you the same apps that they get paid monthly for on the iPhone.
I would think the opportunity of being able to get and use email on your iPod along with some other
killer apps would make you jump for joy instead of seeing it as the glass is half empty or being robbed
while you sleep.
Apple is a corporation and are in the business of making money.
When you bought your iPod Touch you didn't have these features nor was there any promise that you
would ever have them.
Think about it, there is no gun to your head here. If you are upset about paying for 5 New Applications
that you never had before then just use the ones you paid for. If on the other hand you think this
upgrade not update is worth a $20 spot then pony up the few bucks and be happy that you now truly
have an iPhone without the phone.
Given the endless QuickTime and Mac OS updates, call me skeptical that third party software will work on this device, until others demonstrate it.
(I also think no firewire and "hard coded battery" are also insane. I'd love the laptop for travel, and yep, airline travel can take more than 5 hours these days...).
on mac or pc it can read it... even a mac disc in a pc computer...
watch the keynote.... very cool.... updates can be done over wifi
like normal....
also, this is not supposed to be a replacement computer... if you
want firewire and user-replaceable batteries apple still make the
macbook and macbook pro.....
for me the features of the air far outweigh any shortcomings... i
never replace batteries.... but i do love multitouch...
air - so there really should be no worries.
It eschews a whole lot of function just to achieve its form and that sort of defeats the point of a mobile computer no?
We do not yet lived in a world with ubiquitous power everywhere, a hacker-free homogenious computer network capable of yottabytes per second downloads, or devices (replicators)that can compliment this (almost a dumb terminal-like) laptop's needs.
Specifically, though.. I am just a power-user and I have heard of the pico-ITX technologies (i.e. motherboards as small as a pack of cigarettes) and other designs since Microsoft started demonstrating that those laptops with the secondary external screens and home PCs as everday devices, so I doubt that HP et al are scrambling to catch up when tech like this requires so many companies' involvement to get them brought to market.
I also don't think that other PC makers are going to race Apple to the "razor blade" laptop. Many of them have been making ultra-lights long before now and have made the appropriate concessions (docks, port replicators, extend-able batteries, what should be built in vs. what should be external) between size and usability.
...And as usual I was able to spec a competitor --Sony in this case, and for $1787.52 I would be able to get all the same or better specs as the Air.
Anybody else know anything?
Christmas. Just an educated guess but I don't think there are
enough pieces of the puzzle put together for that yet. Apple is very
particular of pulling off feats that amaze us. They will most likely
not release a 3G phone until they can figure out a way to make it
work with the right battery or make it last longer then the rest of
the 3G phones out there.
years in an office setting, when it came time to buy a computer, I decided to get a Mac for the purpose of recording digital music. I have never looked
back.
I don't mind people making strong arguments against Apple, it is great to see what people have to say. What does tend to get under my skin is the
absolute lack of intelligence that comes from the majority of people that talk smack. I am down with a healthy debate, please bring it on but for all that
is Holy in the Universe at least show some sign that you know what the heck you are talking about.
#1 Apple is merely a Corporation that is in business to make it's stock holders money. Just like every other corporation that exists on planet earth. They
are not Mother Teresa and as far as I know, they have never claimed to be. Yes in a perfect world, highly skilled people would work around the clock to
make all of your dreams come true and not charge you a single penny. Look all of you iPod Touch owners, can you honestly say it is not worth $20 to get
such a substantial upgrade. When you bought your iPod Touch you knew that the product did not include these applications and yet you gave your
money willingly at that time. You are not required to give them any more money. So please stop whining. If these very compelling applications are worth
$20 bucks to you then pay for the upgrade. An iPod able to do Email is worth it alone. If you are so cheap that you are not willing to pay people for the
work that they do then keep the product the way you bought it and shut up already.
#2 To fit all of the power of a Mac into a laptop that small took 2 years to work out. That is a feat of modern engineering. For the person that was
worried about whether the laptop would be able to read an Office install disk from the Optical Drive on another computer. It does. You just download
new apple software that works on either a Mac or a PC and the Air laptop reads the installer DVD or CD no problem. For the person that said he could
get the same specs on a Sony laptop for around the same price, one would have to laugh... lol... I suppose that Sony laptop also comes with Apples New
Leopard OS, iLife 08 suite of software, the brand new Touch Gestures introduced yesterday as well. No you say... Oh and the Sony laptop is not this thin
and probably doesn't have the back lit keys or the 13.3 inch backlit LED or have 5 hours of Battery life?
I don't mind people talking smack but if you are going to compare Apples with Oranges it kind of misses the point doesn't it? It is not finding a laptop
that has similar components, it is finding the entire package but you wouldn't know that because you probably never owned a Mac. Will there be a better
product than this. Yes of course, that is the whole point of competition, to make the products better, faster and cheaper. But unless you own a Mac,
don't even start to compare it with the Windows operating system. They are not even close and I know because I use both.
#3 Movie Rentals. Most have already chimed in about this one and I think they handled it pretty well. Look Apple didn't do anything spectacular here but
they did it better than anyone else has. Price is exactly the same as all other major competitors that have the same studios involved. Not saying that you
can't find a cheaper deal somewhere else. I can promise you 100% that Steve Jobs and Apple would much rather have the prices be 99 cents for Catalog
Movies and $1.99 for New Releases. In order to get all of the 6 Major Studios to participate they had to give up several concessions to make this work. It
is really simple to have an opinion but it takes some thinking to have an informed one. Nothing would please Apple more to have the prices lower. Out of
the 99 cents charged for a song on iTunes Apple makes about 30 cents. I am guessing because movies take up a heck of a lot more room and much
more bandwidth that Apple may get double that say 60 cents or possibly as much as 99 cents per movie but no more than that. My point is the studio's
and the people behind creating the movie get the lions share. Yes Apple makes a profit not as much as you think and they pay for the bandwidth and
the servers. What Apple really wants, is to sell more iPods and iMacs which is where they make their money.
As for the time we are allowed to watch a movie, I couldn't agree more. This has to be another concession Apple had to give up in order to score the
deal. I hope after the Movie studios all read the blogs and Internet chat and Podcasts, that they will allow Apple to extend that to 48 hours or a week.
When we get movies from the store we have at least 48 hours. To be honest I really hope Apple has a Subscription business model up their sleeve. That
truly would be the killer app. Be able to keep 3 movies at one time on our Computer, iPod or Apple TV for as long as we want and when we are done with
it, press delete and we can download another one. Pay $20 a month for this service and everyone wins. You wouldn't have to wait for it to come in the
mail only to be scratched or the wrong one, never have to drive to return it or pay late fees and be able to move it around to any device you want. If I
know Apple and I think I do, this has to be in the wings and perhaps we will see it at next years Mac World.
Lastly, Steve Jobs and Apple don't always get things right but I don't know any company or human for that matter that does. When you are dealing with
the Entertainment industry and a lot of other partners, things take time and money to iron out the details. We all know that in the future we will be able
to have whatever entertainment we want on any device we want and pay a reasonable price for the ability to do so. Whether you own a Mac or a PC and
whether you own an iPod or some other media player, I don't think anyone can argue that Apple has done the best job so far at moving us forward into
that future. With the announcement of iTunes Movie Rental and with the updated Apple TV, no one is closer to having all the pieces of this puzzle put
together in the most simple, elegant and seamless way that Apple so far has managed to do. What we see today is just the beginning. Maybe some of
you missed the fact that Steve Jobs stressed in his Keynote that this is what Apple is showing in just the first two weeks of the year and their are 50
weeks left. I think it is a safe bet to say that Apple has plenty of tricks up it's sleeve. This progress only appears to be slow because we live in a society
where Fast Food is not fast enough and we need something called Twitter because blogging isn't cutting it lol...
WG
Come on. With downloads you have a large upfront cost as a company to build in the infrastructure and networking to provide downloads, After that its all gravy. You store digital files on disc farms and weed them out. No need for physical inventory. That alone is a huge savings.
$4 or $5 dollar rentals is a crime considering that brick and mortar can charge less and be burdened with a much higher overhead.
Its called greed. Digital downloads if anything should actually reduce the cost of rentals.
is that you do not own a Mac and you probably don't follow Apple news that closely.
I don't mean to be rude but you don't seem to understand what you are talking about.
Apple gets between 30 cents to say 99 cents for a movie rental, the rest goes to the Studios. Apple
as you stated pays for all of the technology and infrastructure and this is their profit. If you want to
complain then talk to the studios. What you may not fully understand is the complexity of this
situation that is not as you have laid out. The content owners (Major Studios) are protecting the
price that they have been getting from DVD sales and rental models as they should. It is their
property and they are not about to loose $1 per transaction because you think it is a good idea. I
wish it was that simple and I would buy more movies if they did but they are not ready to do that
yet.
You have easily identified a truth. Downloading a movie to your computer is a lot less costly then
owning a brick and mortar store.
But where you miss the target is that Apple can't just go buy a DVD like Block Buster and put it on
the shelf and now charge what they want.
When you own a physical copy of movie, you can rent it out at any price you see fit. Period.
Not so in the digital realm. You have to make a deal with the major studios that own that content.
Period. And they don't want you selling it for 99 cents when they think people will pay more.
I am sure that none of us, Mac fan or not would like nothing more than cheap movies on iTunes.
Apple would love nothing more than the price being 99 cents to $1.99. That is a fact not puff
marketing. But of course you haven't been following the board room meetings have you. Who gets
the money? Studios get the money. It is their content and they are sure not going to make cheap
digital deals as long as they can suck it up for as long as they can.
Sorry if I come off hostile there but this is how it is, not just puff marketing. Real World. Period.
stuff away. the real comparable is PayPerView. PPV on my cable tv
costs closer to $10 per rental. Apple offers the same convenience at
a much lower cost.
Movie companies don't have a say on the physical rental market, they
are required by law to allow it. Downloads are another story, Apple
had to go to them to obtain rights. Its called "rental" but its a different
model than Blockbuster.
playing in just under 30 seconds. There was only 2 times during
the playing of the movie that it had a short stutter. Even DVD's
have done this so it was not a big deal.
The Audio and Video looked great and watched it on my 20 inch
cinema display. I currently don't have a Video iPod or Apple TV
so I didn't have a chance to try moving it but just wanted to
report that it worked fantastic and I played the movie 2 different
times. It is still on my computer and actually really interested to
watch it disappear after the 24 hours is up. I actually plan on
playing the movie when it is due to die just to see what happens.
I would give it 10min or more if I was to watch a movie before I started.
1) Ipod touch upgrades. Only a handful of countries benefit from the upgrades. Most Asian and european nations don't have itunes store.
2) New ipods will come with the application installed without any extra bucks. So why do people who bought it a month back (for holidays) have to shell out 20 bucks more?
stores in every country but that is not because Apple doesn't
want them. Each and every country has different laws and a
person would have to be crazy to think Apple is holding things
up. They know that having an Apple iTunes store in every single
country on the planet will make them the most money but
unfortunately there are a lot more complexities to making that
happen then you think. A lot of the is on the Record Labels and a
lot of that has to do with you only have so many people that
work at Apple.
As far as the upgrade price charge there are probably a few
things at work here. Any time you buy something in the tech
world you are faced with waiting to get the latest and greatest
for cheaper or buy it now. I always recommend to my friends to
wait until Mac World before buying a New product as that is
when they are usually announced.
I don't blame anyone for wanting free stuff but that is life in the
digital world. Eventually there is a cut off day and the very next
day you feel like you got screwed some how. That can never be
avoided or how are they ever going to come out with a new
version of anything!
$20 is not a lot to pay to get 5 brand new apps that have even
been improved. To be honest I think you should be happy that
they added them to the iPod Touch. When they first released it I
think they really wanted to keep the products different. One was
for communications and one was just the best iPod they ever
made. They make a monthly revenue off of the iPhone and they
don't get another dime from the iPod Touch so asking you for
another $20 to upgrade, not update your iPod is not really asking
much.
Lastly I the accounting done on the two products is completely
different. Where the iPhone gets put in under a subscription
based accounting system the iPod Touch does not. I am not an
accountant but from all that I have gathered there are details
involved that don't always make it easy to just give out free
upgrades.
- Air
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by thomcarl
January 18, 2008 11:31 AM PST
- It?s not for everyone, and those who are unhappy with no optical
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Reply to this comment
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- I hear what you're saying...
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by lkrupp
January 19, 2008 10:38 AM PST
- but your logic falls on deaf ears around here. The trolls and and
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(52 Comments)drive and one USB port should have watched Mr. Jobs keynote
address. This lap top is intended to be a wireless device period.
That includes optical drives and external hardware that are also
wireless. Wireless and bluetooth are becoming more and more
common in all types of external devices. I think that the Air is a
large step forward in the evolution of note book computing, will
I buy one? No, I?m retired and my Aluminum iMac covers my
needs very well, if I were in electronics R&D as I used to be, I
would be beating IT?s doors down to get one. Expensive? Yes,
very, all new technology is, however as it ages the price will
come down. Judging the Air on current laptop standards, as
some people have, is a very big mistake. True to Apple tradition
the Air is visionary, for those who don?t understand that,
perhaps you should stick to your current archaic laptops, for
that is what the Air has turned current notebooks into,
dinosaurs.
self-proclaimed experts don't want to listen to logic. They
decided what the MacBook Air was supposed to be and since it
doesn't conform to their predetermined "expert" opinions they
have declared it a failure. You see in their pea sized minds only
their view of the market matters. They decided the MBA would
just be a small version of a standard laptop. It isn't of course
and that frosts their nipples. How dare Apple design something
without their express permission. Anybody who cares to look
into the market of course finds that the sub-compact notebook
is indeed a niche market. You will also find that most of the
machines in this market are more expensive than the MBA, have
smaller screens, have non-standard keyboards. This market is
all about weight and size, not features and price.
As is its custom Apple is dragging us into the next era whether
we like it or not. That's why its both enthralling and enraging to
be an Apple devotee. SJ is driving the car and we're just along
for the ride. I, for one, like watching all the broken stuff on the
side of the road as we pass by.