Comments on: Apple MacBook Air: Encore please

There's a whole host of ultra-thin laptops poised to challenge the gorgeous MacBook Air, on price if nothing else. So then--what's next from Apple?

[Centra_spike]

Apple's pricepoint for the Air is laughably ridiculous. I remember the disappointment I felt after following the project on the rumor boards. SSD drives, super light form factor, the thing was supposed to hit it big in Japan, and revolutionize the notebook industry. I compare it to the Delorean, great ideas but poorly executed resulting in an insane price. And a grand for an SSD is ridiculous.

[-Xalor-]

Cheaper defenitely not, thats a sure point. It will be better most likely, the next release, I don't think will replace the MacBook Air just add another machine to the line up. It'll be 10-13" anything smaller and it will infringe in the iPod/iPhone category, it might have a 3G lineup, maybe subsidized as a mobile laptop with ATT, depending on how that exclusive contract idea works. Air has a good speed, Adamo is nothing but a netbook with a huge price tag.

[traxx09]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not an Apple hater, but this statement struck me as one by a fanboy living on blind faith:

"The Apple MacBook Air has remained almost unchanged for a year and a half--a testament to the staying power of its design."

If a Microsoft product had been unchanged for a year and half (or Sony, or Dell etc.) it would be an indication of their stagnation and how they can't innovate and are out of touch with the consumer.

[etandrib]

Every Apple product usually keeps it's industrial design for a couple years. They don't release new designs every year. I would be REALLY surprised if Apple updates the the Air (other than maybe adding a port or a different keyboard or a thinner display) for the next year or two.

It is pretty obvious that you aren't a hater but you also don't know what you are talking about either. Just because a design is constantly updated every six months or a year doesn't mean it is good or innovative. It is probably more telling that the company really doesn't know what they or their customers want. Apple puts a lot of time and $$ into creating premium designs that will last for more than a year. Usually 3-4 years.

My guess for what they will do with it is make it even more mobile by adding (optional) 3G wireless networking to the machine. Prices for SSDs will drop with market conditions (like they have every couple months with the Air). They really can start relying on Snow Leopard for performance improvements with the new GPU acceleration as well without major hits on power usage and higher processor clock speeds.

[MrZook]

Yeah, but what is the market share for the MBA? It has a very narrow target audience and I don't think that audience has fully accepted the product, mainly due to price. The entry level MBP is only $200 more! And those sell like hotcakes!

[bert1962]

The comment means that the MBA was so ahead of the competition(and it?s time) that after all this time they just starting to catch up; so a year an a half and still ahead in design it?s a lot especially in the computer market

[mightyfinder]

Companies like Sony, Dell and HP have to renew their designs frequently because of chinese knock-offs mimicking their designs for a fraction of the cost. iPods have been copied too, and macbooks, but generally the knock-offs don't run the mac OS so customers are not as easily decieved by mac knock-offs. With the new aluminium body work it becomes even more difficult to create fake macs.

Besides all that, Macs are often avant-gard design wise and don't need to be refreshed. You could also argue that refreshing designs all the time creates a "old model/obselesence" in the minds of consumers, pushing them to upgrade sooner.

[traxx09]

Everybody totally missed my point. It's not about whether the product needs updating or not. It's about the viewpoint of the person who authored this article.

If HP had put out a newly designed laptop a year and a half ago this author would have said something along the lines that HP was stuck in the past or couldn't innovate or was resting on their laurels.

Basically it's different criteria for different companies depending on where your fanboy loyalties lie. If a person is an Apple fanboy they'll consider something the Apple does an asset but they'll consider that same asset a liability if it's done by a competitor company just because of who the company is.

[divisionbyzero]

Smaller and cheaper?

[leovarg]

it's simple! Apple its going into the game business! they have the hardware capacity the style, and the graph experiences! from pixar , the next device will be a media center game system, , also you may notice that iphone it's a powerfull game system and since that! they have been thinking about it. they have a huge potential in to the game bussines , they have all the infrastructure , itunes to dowload games a purchase systme like the app store, an strong API for games!,

[sythara]

If they start offering DirectX capability under OSX then it's all over.... except for serious gamers who build their own machines.

[Random_Walk]

"If they start offering DirectX capability under OSX..."

DirectX is not required for gaming (far from it, in fact... most FPS games, even today, use OpenGL libraries for ease of cross-platform coding, the lack of confiscatory licensing fees from Microsoft, etc). The proof of this? Vista was the only platform you could get DX 10 for, yet the Windows gaming community clung to XP like it were a liferaft.

In the 3D/CG graphics world, OpenGL is still king, and doesn't look to be dethroned anytime soon.

[CBattery]

"DirectX is not required for gaming (far from it, in fact... most FPS games, even today, use OpenGL libraries for ease of cross-platform coding, the lack of confiscatory licensing fees from Microsoft, etc). The proof of this? Vista was the only platform you could get DX 10 for, yet the Windows gaming community clung to XP like it were a liferaft."

Seriously? OpenGL is and has been as good as dead for gaming for a very long time. Sure, some vertical grpahics apps use it but DirectX is _THE_ API for gaming, period, and that's not changing any time soon. And for the record, DirectX 10 was one the primary reasons gamers moved to Vista when it first shipped, and those that stayed with XP were running games under DirectX 9, not OpenGL.

If you really want to learn more about the history of OpenGL and DirectX see http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/opengl-directx,2019.html.

[Warhaven]

@ CBattery

OpenGL isn't dead. As Random_Walk said, it's used largely by gaming companies who do cross-platform development for their games, such as Blizzard and EA, as well as on consoles (no DirectX on Wii & PlayStations) and non-Windows mobile handhelds (Android, iPhone, etc.).

It's still very much alive and kicking, so long as there are gaming devices that don't run Windows -- which is a lot of them.

[pithenumber]

@Random
games are actually better under DirectX if you haven't noticed and the gaming community actually switched to Vista for DirectX 10 after some of the performance issues were worked out.

Play a game in DirectX mode then compare to the same game in OpenGL
big difference

[viper396]

Random_Walk, you claim " most FPS games, even today, use OpenGL libraries for ease of cross-platform coding".

Can you even name those FPS games? OpenGL may may still have it's niche market but you are seriously exaggerating it while trying to downplay the market saturation directX has. A typical fanboy move.

Oh, and dispite it's slow start, DX 10 is pretty much a standard for for many of the triple-A PC games coming out. If not DX 10, DX 9 is still viable. Either way, OpenGL is usually a non-player in the PC gaming arena. (I guess now you're going to try to downplay how big or important PC gaming is, right?)

Either way, and to get back on subject, few people consider Mac's to be a serious gaming platform. Which is what I think sythara was trying to allude to.

[Hunnter2k3]

Dear god, no, no more of this ultra-thin crapware, please.
It is a waste of money, waste of time and doesn't even do _that_ much compared to things cheaper and just a teeny bit fatter.
What is a centimetre, compared to having less than a third of the functionality of most laptops?
Air was buckled in every way possible from day one, well, besides looks.
Regardless of how nice something is, i will never pay that much for it in one day. (nice being physical looks)

Has to be one of Apples worst points for me, and Dell too since they decided to release that terrible attempt...
It is a freak-child of laptops and netbooks. Ungodly big for a netbook, but terribly limited for a laptop. (hell, most NETBOOKS have more functionality than Air does! And that is sad...)

[sythara]

I don't know. I used Air for about an hour (I know its not much at all) and was really impressed. Although I'm kind of old school and like sturdy hardware, and to me it felt like I was going to snap it in half if I wasn't careful.

[seamonkey420]

a macbook air is not for you.

the first line of your comment states that so your not even relevant to apples market.

me, another story. i'm a total laptop geek/*****. i have my main big one; HP DV6700t w/bluray. my desktop for multimedia/server stuff. my msi wind for just surfing on the go and basic photos/scanning and planetarium/stellarium needs. and my macbook air for work (resume from standby is crazy w/the ssd. 1 sec, i swear. )

my main point about apple is that they priced it so crazy that it would only appeal to a person who wouldn't be using it as their main laptop. their target market is VERy specialized for it (ie is more of an accessory/second if not third laptop).

i hope they add an expresscard 54 slot or offer a pure matte black aluminum :)

just my .02

btw, here's a vid of startup, suspend, shutdown times of the air pre oct 2008 rev w/samsung 64gb ssd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G-DorsOhMA

[reidme314]

I've had a MacBook Air since they first came out and I have been very pleased with it. I skipped the last upgrade, but may bite the next time around. I still love the form factor. I don't think it needs to be any thinner, smaller, or lighter. The performance of the original Air is still good enough for my uses of web, email, word processing, and media. The changes I'd really like to see are: more battery life, larger SSD, and less heat output.

[The_happy_switcher]

It's a nice design but it seems underpowered compared to MBP--which is why I went with that. Paying for the thinness isn't worth it.

[drwam]

Boys and girls, I am a MacHead. I just bought an Air for my wife and the price is way more than it should be. On introduction the price was high because of a custom Intel processor and new technologies for the unibody case. Intel has just hit with lower priced small form factor processors and the aluminum shell of the Air is common to most laptops Apple sells now. IMHO the price should be cut. IMHO Apple should make a 2 pound-ish Air with a smaller screen but still a close to full size keyboard and usable track pad, basically a netbook you could actually do work on. Every one of those Hackintosh netbooks demonstrates the demand is there.

[Aaron Kempf]

Apple has no future, they do not innovate. They abuse their customers.

No amount of brainwashing is going to override the fact that they install QuickTime and Safari _WITHOUT_PROMPTING_ and I would like to be part of a class-action lawsuit to _SUE_ apple for downloading software onto my PC without asking my permission first.

I will never use Apple-- never in my life - for anything whatsoever.

[lusciatti]

I will always use Apple, every chance I get!

[Austin_Mike]

I'm no fan of Apple, but you're completely wrong. I'm assuming you're saying that they were installed via Apple Update which you have because you run iTunes.

About a year ago Apple tried to package Safari w/ the new version of iTunes that came out and they quickly got slammed for it and they just as quickly made it optional during the install process.

If you're running iTunes you have to have QuickTime. Welcome to the proprietary world of Apple. Don't like it? Don't use iTunes. And you can always disable most of QuickTime's functionality as well as tell it during installation that you do NOT want it to be the default media player.

Anyway, to finish up, Apple does prompt you before installing either QuickTime or Safari. I'm no fan of Apple, but you sir just sound like an idiot who shouldn't be using a computer.

[kelmon]

FYI - QuickTime is a necessary component of iTunes due to the Mac origin of the software where QuickTime is the framework (read: software library) that provides the ability to playback media, such as video and audio.

However, I agree that pushing Safari on people wasn't on. Still, I'm not sure you can honestly call installing Safari on your PC as "abuse".

[tekitsune]

"I will never use Apple-- never in my life - for anything whatsoever."

Boy, I hope you don't have anything like a Firewire port on anything.... like a computer, scanner, hard drive or video camera. Wouldn't want you to support anything that Apple created.

[ecotopian--2008]

Apple has no future? Ha ha ha! If you were smart, you'd be buying AAPL.

[gybognarjr]

A Hunday can look like a Mercedes, yet the quality, the features and the driving experience will be in relationship to their price difference.
Why do all the people think they are smart, by constantly asking Apple top make cheap, low quality garbage? If that is the wish, buy a PC, you got plenty of choices. I don't want garbage, I want hight quality, good design, good performance and reliability, intuitive, stable software, service and reliability to go with it and if the price is in relationship to the quality is acceptable, I pay it. Apple does all of this almost all the time. (Ask Rolls Royce to make a cheap car, why don't you?)
PC makers just fake it, they copy, they cheapen the product and that is a deception and a lye. No, the thin MSI x340 is not even close in quality to the MacBook Air, thank you, try it out first. See how the keyboard and the mouse works, keep it for 6-8 months and see how happy you will be, when you want to sell it and get no takers. A used MacBook Air still commands twice the price, the MSI X340 costs new.

[Austin_Mike]

Keep on drinking the Apple kool-aid. A sucker is born every minute.

[snorky22]

For those who practice Vista, how does Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit run on a 1.4 Ghz core 2 duo proc? I'm curious...

[pithenumber]

it runs decently, 4gb RAM really helps

and Windows 7 is coming out soon too
runs on netbooks just about as fast as XP

[benjwah]

"The Apple MacBook Air has remained almost unchanged for a year and a half--a testament to the staying power of its design."

More like a testament to Apples policy of updating its products once every thousand years.