Apple created the most arrogant laptop, ever
The MacBoook Air, the newest laptop to come out of Cupertino and it is probably the most arrogant laptop ever created. It’s a feat of engineering to be sure but those who buy it are not getting a great deal, at all. There will be those Apple faithful who just can’t do without, who must buy every little thing Apple puts out and bow down to the [Steve] Jobs.
I’m not going to even look at the MacBook Air, there is no doubt in my mind that this laptop was designed by Steve Jobs himself, just to show off.
It’s thin and it’s light and it runs Mac OSX but other than that there are no redeeming qualities about this laptop. It lacks an optical drive so you’re not going to be watching DVDs on the go unless you spend an extra $99 for the optional external drive. Imagine that, having to carry an extra accessory just to watch DVDs, how inconvenient.
At a price of $1,800 to a whopping $3,100 I find it hard to believe that Apple couldn’t have found within its almost soulless body to include the optical drive in the price.
The base MacBook Air gets you a 1.6GHz processor, 2GB of memory and an 80GB hard drive operating at a (slow) speed of 4200RPM and integrated graphics.
Aside from the fact that this is the smallest thin and light, I could buy any number of PCs with better specs for a lot less and the only thing I’d sacrifice is battery life. Battery life isn’t too terribly important to me, I’m happy with two to three hours.
The MacBook Air is so tiny that Intel had to design a custom Core 2 Duo processor for it, if that doesn’t spell arrogance on Apple’s part, I don’t know what does. If I were Intel, I’d have told them “no” out of principle.
Who is going to buy this laptop? Apple fanboys and that’s about it. The MacBook and MacBook Air have almost no parallel in the PC universe, both are overpriced for what they offer and the MacBook has a poor design to boot (case scratches easily and the rear exhaust vent is partially blocked).
The MacBook Pro has plenty of parallels in the PC laptop world though it is slightly overpriced (I call it the Mac OSX tax) but it is a better value than the MacBook and MacBook Air.
Steve Jobs may have charisma but the design of the MacBook Air just spells, I’m arrogant, Apple customers will pay for it just because we make it and the scary thing is, they will or at least, those that can afford it, will.
Apple should dump the MacBook Air in a year or significantly reduce its price, it is the Apple TV of its laptops, a flop, a failure that no one will want except for the truly demented Apple fan. Then, I expect, Apple will give us what the market actually has a need for, a 13″ MacBook Pro and a Mac Tablet, if Apple wants to continue to expand it’s market share, those are the products it needs to make.
The MacBook Air fills a niche that didn’t need filled, it’s a laptop designed for and only for use by Steve Jobs but almost no one else.
Arrogant
People
Producing
Laptops
Excessively
…Apple
The laptop and desktop division should start consulting with the consumer electronics division (the iPod people), at least they know what they’re doing.
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January 18th, 2008
I don’t know about “arrogant” par-say, but I do agree that the Mac Book Air is fairly pointless. If your looking for a mobile solution thats powerful and has excellent battery life, then a Mac Book Pro is a much better choice. However, there are some business people out there that prioritize the size of the laptop. As far as the thin-line notebooks go, it is the most powerful and best battery-life computer of that group. Plus, you gotta admit, being able to store it in a yellow envelope is pretty cool. But all and all, I see it as a bit frivilous and I don’t think its going to do as great as Apple hopes it will. Back when laptops where the size of Calculus, books, yea, people cared about size and weight. Now-a-days, I don’t think its so much of a selling point anymore.
January 18th, 2008
I can’t believe you get paid to write this rubbish
January 18th, 2008
Way too much money for something that in the end, accomplishes nothing other than saying, “neener neener, I’m the skinniest mofo around”.
I’m a ‘fanboy’ for apple products, but this is a loser.
January 18th, 2008
Its a G4 cube. Pretty and pointless.
January 18th, 2008
And if they sell a million of them, then what? To each his own. Don’t like it, don’t buy it. But if someone likes it, so what? We can talk specs all day. This sounds like the original iMac and iPod arguments, even the iPhone arguments. They all sold extremely well last time I looked.
Head over to Amazon and see where the MBA is right now. It’s at number seven. I already pre-ordered one for our CEO. She loves it.
Can’t you see the future is wireless? That is where it is all headed. And at 3 lbs. carrying a DVD drive, if you had to, is nothing.
I would say you just don’t get Apple if you can’t see that for some people this might have been what they were looking for. Geez, go buy a cheap plastic PC laptop with all the ports and drives you like, and let me know how that works for you.
January 18th, 2008
“The MacBook and MacBook Air have almost no parallel in the PC universe, both are overpriced for what they offer and the MacBook has a poor design to boot (case scratches easily and the rear exhaust vent is partially blocked).”
I’d reserve analysis till seen, held, and used. This is clearly not a laptop meant to replace “normal” laptops or desktops. The fact that it has no “parallel” might mean that the MB Air will create a new market rather than trying to fit in an old one (feel free to cut and paste “iPhone” into that sentence).
I love my old laptop (talk about slow vs modern computers) but it does take up space and weight in my carry-on. At home I use it via WI-FI when I’m not at my desk. The MB Air would be a better second computer for me than a traditional laptop. Much easier to use around home (as I have a desktop for true computing power), and more convenient for trips where essentially I just need web access, Powerpoint, and entertainment.
I have a desktop at home and lots of storage.
Maybe we should think about this as a network terminal access device that can sort of function as a true standalone computer (in the right environment).
As an aside…the DVD point. How many DVDs do you take on trips? Let’s just say there are more convenient workarounds, and the MB Air works fine for those. Apple didn’t remove the optical drive to save bucks. They removed it for space issues and because it’s not central to what this machine needs to do.
January 18th, 2008
I’m not sure which group is more annoying – the fanbois or the haterz. Both are pretty amusing.
I think the new laptop is pretty slick, myself. It’s not suitable for what I need a computer to do, but I like it.
January 18th, 2008
I don’t drive a BMW nor a Volkswagen, but I don’t consider those who do “fanboys”, nor that the companies that make them have made some big mistake.
Maybe Apple will sell a lot of them and maybe they won’t. Big deal. It’s a product. Buy it, don’t buy it… do you write similar articles about the kind of shoes companies make?
January 18th, 2008
To TJ:
par-say should be per se
your should be you’re
thats should be that’s
frivilous should be frivolous
Calculus, books should be calculus books
its should be it’s
January 18th, 2008
“Apple should dump the MacBook Air in a year or significantly reduce its price, it is the Apple TV of its laptops, a flop, a failure that no one will want except for the truly demented Apple fan.”
They said the same thing about the iPod Mini too…
January 18th, 2008
I just ordered one with a flash drive! Did I pay too much? of course I did, but so what. It is perfect for me! I carry a heavy backpack with lots of papers for work. Is a three pound laptop with a full size screen perfect for me? Absolutely! Do I watch DVD’s at work? No. Do you?
I’m glad it is missing the CD ROM Drive. I really don’t feel like carrying my TV around with me all day long. I’ll watch TV when I get home on my 40 inch screen.
If you don’t like the laptop don’t buy it, but to suggest that this is not what people want, you’re crazy! How many times have you watched a movie on your laptop in the parking lot over the past year? None? I thought so. The DVD player should stay home just as Steve Jobs suggests.
January 18th, 2008
Good satire. Thanks. I loved the part of no optical drive so you can’t watch a DVD
January 18th, 2008
Hey, Jonathan. From your comments, I’m pretty sure you aren’t seeing the bigger picture. The MacBook Air is probably another example of Jobs “skating to where the puck is going to be” (A Wayne Gretzky reference, IIRC). Right now, only a fairly small niche of people have the completely wireless environment the MBA is designed to fit. No way is it intended for everyone, or even just typical users. But couple it with the wireless access to home servers via .Mac, booting and installations via other wireless networking (I forget the name Apple’s using for this), wireless backup with Time Capsule, and you start to realize why it’s called MacBook Air. There’s simply no need to plug it in just to access your media, to boot up or back up. No, it isn’t stand-alone, but I think it is a clear early movement towards where we all will be, five years from now when wireless broadband will be ubiquitous. It may be that now is not the right time to mass produce a “solution” when people aren’t quite aware of a problem, but Jobs might be able to catch this wave. He clearly sees it approaching. Whether this device succeeds in the market or not, it has already inspired a lot of people in the industry to rethink what is possible and what CAN be accomplished. This could be another Newton MessagePad or Cube–too early, too expensive and too compromised for current consumers. But Apple has been more careful this time to make the compromises in areas that wireless solutions compensate for, and have resisted compromises in the user experience (miniature keyboard, small screen). I mostly respect their design choices (removable battery aside!!) and hope you reconsider some of your opinions given the intended use of the MBA.
Peace,
Dan
January 18th, 2008
It kills me that PC apologists invariably take pot shots at Apple products because they can get cheaper machines with better specs. You’re still stuck with Windows.
I too was a bit nonplussed by the MacBook Air, until I got my hands on one at the expo. It really is a nice machine. No, it’s not the fastest, no, it’s not the lightest, or the thinnest, or the cheapest. And it’s lacking some features that many people want. That’s why Apple still makes MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
All ultralights are compromises. Sure, you can get a thinner, lighter PC with an optical drive, but it’s going to be thick from edge to edge instead of being a low-volume little wedge; it’s going to have a crappy TFT-backlit screen; it’s going to have a tiny keyboard; it will have a lot of plastic in it, instead of freaking aircraft-grade aluminum; it will have short battery life; it won’t have a multitouch trackpad (and if you haven’t used one, don’t think this is an insignificant point).
I myself have a MacBook Pro and have no real need for an Air, but to say it’s arrogant for Apple to produce a niche machine for a niche that has deep pockets is as stupid as criticizing Aston Martin for making expensive sports cars. There’s a market for those machines. Not everyone wants to drive a Scion. Cheapness doesn’t equal quality.
January 18th, 2008
I think this post by Cringely nails it pretty well where Apple and Steve Jobs are headed.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080118_003967.html
January 18th, 2008
I’m perplexed by the “The MacBook Pro has plenty of parallels in the PC laptop ” remark. Can someone enumerate for me how many 17″ 1080p resolution PC laptops are there? They exist for sure, but are a handful at most from my research, and the quality ones (e.g. non-Dell) are not far in price from the Macbook Pro.
January 18th, 2008
“You’re still stuck with Windows.”
Actually, no I’m not. What is the difficulty in understanding Microsoft is not a hardware company? If you want to run OS X you’re stuck with overpriced hardware. Nice hardware to be sure, but they’re just PC’s.
“Cheapness doesn’t equal quality.”
Nor does expensive .
January 18th, 2008
“You’re still stuck with Windows.”
Actually, no I’m not. What is the difficulty in understanding Microsoft is not a hardware company? If you want to run OS X you’re stuck with overpriced hardware. Nice hardware to be sure, but they’re just PC’s.
“Cheapness doesn’t equal quality.”
Nor does expensive .
January 18th, 2008
Overpriced. Yes. Underfeatured. I don’t think so. We own five mac laptops. I used all the ports on my laptop (17″ macbook pro). But I’m a power user. Other family members use only the ports and features found on the air, except they do use the optical drive for watching movie rentals. They will probably stop doing that now. We have moved all the movies we own to the server already. I think diskless entertainment is the future. I would not buy the macair because I like to get my family all the features they never use just in case they learn to use them. Laptops are like digital cameras — they do everything. But only hardcore photo hobbiests use the features. Everyone buys for features, but they don’t have a clue what to do with them. Air is the future. A lot like the first computer to drop the 3.5 inch floppy — what was that computer? It was called an iMac – and there were a lot of people saying how stupid it was to drop the floppy – but no one really missed it much.
January 18th, 2008
@Ken/Aquaadverse:
OK, fine, you’re not stuck with Windows. So you’re running Linux or Solaris or some other tiny-market-share distro.
There are more robust OSes than OS X, but nothing beats OS X for usability on top of a UNIX platform. Regular users can use it; power users can use it. Try putting a regular user in front of a machine with Debian on it. It’s good for a laugh, but the user doesn’t laugh much.
So the Air isn’t for you. Does that mean that it’s not for anyone? Of course not. Does everyone have to wear the same size pants as you?
January 19th, 2008
“The MacBook Air is so tiny that Intel had to design a custom Core 2 Duo processor for it, if that doesn’t spell arrogance on Apple’s part, I don’t know what does.”
The Macbook Air is not a Super Sweet Sixteen, it’s a peice of consumer electronics. Getting a uniquely designed chip is not for the purpose of vanity, but for the purpose of creating a smaller computer.
This comment, and this whole article, sounds very immature. Steve Jobs should put out a rap song about all these haters.
January 19th, 2008
“Try putting a regular user in front of a machine with Debian on it. It’s good for a laugh, but the user doesn’t laugh much.”
Right. Because clicking on an icon to launch Firefox to get on the Web is so different in Linux as opposed to OS X. My 72 year old Mother-In-Law runs Ubuntu with no problems whatsoever. Looking at a picture and clicking on it is universal. The package management in Linux is light years ahead of any other OS, period.
If you read my previous post, you will see I didn’t even mention “The Air” at all. RIF.
January 19th, 2008
OK, Jonathan, let me get this straight:
1) You are not going to look at the product.
2) You decide what laptop is best by looking at technical specifications.
3) If you can’t watch a movie on your computer without an accessory, everything else about the machine isn’t worth considering.
And you accuse Apple of arrogance?
January 19th, 2008
The technical specifications are WHAT makes the laptop… there are no other considerations…
January 19th, 2008
Does any one remember the first iMac and what it left behind?
Apple has just done to the Laptop with the Air, what it did to the desktop with the iMac. Is everyone asleep out there?
So do tell, how well did the original iMac sell?
January 19th, 2008
At least the iMac still has an Ethernet port, dedicated graphics and faster processors… the same cannot be said of the MacBook Air, nice try but the analogy doesn’t quite work here.
January 19th, 2008
If you recall Jonathan, the ethernet port was forward thinking back then. I am not talking about the current iMacs.. but the FIRST ONES. The “AIR” is just the first Wireless Laptop. Welcome to the first of the next generation of New Laptops. Again the future is being brought to you by Apple. Not just by what they have added but also by what they have left behind and how well they did in packaging it.
Coming to a computer near you soon, ubiquitous high speed wireless, SSD-smaller,faster, more storage: OLED displays (better color gamut-better resolution-less power usage-cheaper to build): seamless software and a post desktop metaphor GUI, gestural interface elements and an AGGRESSIVE harvesting of Moores law.
Of course none of that is forward thinking compared to ALL THE IBM PC clones that have this all, already too and they are ten times faster then a Mac and they all cost one tenth as much and VISTA is the envy of the whole world. HA! HA! HA! Really you MSPC fan bois are such fun sour grapers.
January 20th, 2008
The Macbook Air doesn’t need to sell very well to be successful.
It’s job is to sell enough that Joe Clueless in the airport or in the board room sees someone with one and says, “What’s that? That’s the coolest!” The carrier says, “It’s an Apple,” and that gets Joe Clueless into an Apple store. He probably won’t buy a MBA ’cause in the Apple Store he’ll find out it doesn’t have a cd drive or an ethernet port, so he’ll buy a MBP instead.
But the Macbook Air will have done its job.
January 20th, 2008
Another arrogance is hearing how the MacBook Air supposedly is some kind of saviour for the subnotebook category.
One: it is not a subnotebook.
Two: the real hero of the subnotebook category is the Asus Eee PC. It alone understands that for the kind of things a subnotebook can do, it should not cost more than $800. The MacBook Air, meanwhile, is just happy to milk more people.
January 20th, 2008
I couldn’t agree more. I would honestly rather have a $500 Dell laptop than this.
Sadly it will sell, the same way that the iPhone sells to people who are too stupid/blinded by cool to buy Nokia N95s instead.
January 21st, 2008
i trained as a windows/pc engineer then discovered Apple Macs and never looked back.
i’ve not had any hardware or software problems with any of my 3 Apple computers so far (iBook, iMac, MacBook). i cannot say the same for any of my non-apple computers or software. in fact, i continue to find my Macs a pleasure to use and i squirm uncomfortably when i have to watch a windows computer struggle to perform a basic task which Macs perform effortlessly without a fuss or drama, or a major re-install every 3 months!
The MacBook Air is beautiful and robust and i know it will be reliable because i trust Apple hardware and software. i would not waste my time and money on a cheaper, inferior, infuriating product. End of!… Hows that for arrogance?
January 21st, 2008
hi,
about mba- it looks beautifull, and great for just looking at dvd-film in bed, after you are done surfing etc. you “need” to do on net, which is coming through usb and is not destroying my pleasure viewing when dvd is loud and getting hot and surrs etc. and it is for sure much nice to surf etc. with it, when it does not make your legs dull, because of weight
it long when i had my last mac – it was a black and white powerbook with track ball and 8mb ram, and the old macos 5till7, i loved it
as for iphone – did you ever tried to hold iphone in your hand and hold nokia-smart phones? if you do not have a hand big like a grizzly and enough power in your arms, this big nokia thing is just biiig and heavy and uncormfortable.
i would like to buy myself an iphone one day – but i also like my very tiny samsungs – for the functions i use on a phone – to phone and occasional photos…..
as i cant afford these wonderfull machines, with realy great system – i just recently could play a bit with mac book pro – what a realy beautifull peace of technology, not only it has it all, it is also very pleasing to your eye AND the feel of case and touchpad and keyboard, the great monitor and it sooo quite – i just think its great that at least one manifacturer thinks of people, who just live of technics, but who wish that technics would live up to them, make their work-freetime-gaming experience not just the super duper xtreme, but also aestethic and eye pleasing (hilfs against depression and agressions too
)
what i would wish from apple in short term – is that they again update ipods, especially shuffle, as first i though the new nano is ugly, but after i had it in the hand, it just feels in your hand, like there is nothing, no edges, very fine, and i want this for shuffle too, half that small and thin like now – then i will buy one.
so long
and do not forget, eye pleasing things around you, make your life and soul healthier in a long term (short term you will be broke hehe)
January 21st, 2008
@Ken:
“The package management in Linux is light years ahead of any other OS, period.”
Yeah, pull the other one.
January 22nd, 2008
“@Ken:
“The package management in Linux is light years ahead of any other OS, period.”
Yeah, pull the other one.”
Nice comeback. All my software is updated with one click. I can search for software in Synaptics, Apt or other package management software by keyword, section, type or designation. Upon choosing a package, it’s analyzed for software dependencies, and if needed, updates for the other requirements are installed. The software is extensively tested before it’s included in the repositories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_management_system
Got anything besides a smug “Your mamma wears army boots ” answer?
January 22nd, 2008
You Sir, are a genius. That is the best headline about the Apple Air I’ve read so far!
January 24th, 2008
@Freakgirl: not sure if watching DVD-videos in bed with the MacBook Air is going to be that practical — it doesn’t have a built-in optical drive. I guess you’ll have to hope the USB cable to the external drive doesn’t keep detaching. Same goes for watching it on airplanes.
Before anyone says anything: yes, one could rip the DVD to the internal hard disk first. If you like spending 4 hours to rip each movie, I suppose that could be a fun way to fill your time. Oh, if there’s any space left on the dinky drive, that is.