Samsung to take on Apple's MacBooks in bid for notebook dominance

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 93
    That Samsung is very interesting - it has a Matte screen AND a 15" MBA equivalent. All that remains is to find out if I can make it into a Hackintosh running Snow Leopard (Lion's useless for my needs and a bundle of woe in any case at the moment).
  • Reply 22 of 93
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by KPOM View Post


    This is what annoys me about the "Sony/Toshiba/Lenovo did thin notebooks first" crowd. True, those ultraportables have been around for years, but then Apple had the Powerbook Duo back in the late 1990s, too. It wasn't until the MacBook Air, and specifically the late 2010 MacBook Air, that these became mainstream.



    Heck, there was even talk right before the October 2010 release of the Rev D Air that Apple would even DROP the line entirely. To Apple's credit, they kept going even after the early models struggled. If not for them blazing the trail, we wouldn't be seeing dozens of Ultrabooks at CES this week.



    That said, Samsung does produce nice ultraportables, and their original Series 9 was nicely done. I also like some of the Ultrabooks I've seen from Lenovo, HP, ASUS, Acer, and even Dell. It's about time that the "standard" 5-6lb notebook went the way of the dodo.



    In all fairness this category used to start at double what it starts at now.



    What annoys about this category is how it was deemed pointless when Apple created the first MBA. How it was considered pure form over function. That thinness doesn't matter, it's all about footprint. That an aluminium chassis was over-engineering. That a large multi-touch trackpad was just a gimmick. That a built-in battery and soldered RAM was just Apple trying to rape the customer and had nothing to do with the function of the design.





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by funkdis View Post


    Now that I'm half way between my transition to Premiere from FCP7, I think my next laptop may be a Samsung. I'll keep my MBP with FCP for those times I want to work on a task I'm familiar with in FCP.

    I'm really after a unit that suports USB3, good quality screen.

    I'm loving this competition as a consumer, more choices for me when the time comes to make a purchase



    I'd wait. The Series 9 are well constructed but the reviews are saying the display is average with the 13" MBA being better. It's usually more of an Android thing to say "Soon!" but if it were me and I was using it to edit video on a notebook I'd wait to see if USB 3.0 is added because it's added to the Intel chipset and if Apple goes with a HiDPI and/or IPS panel which is cropping in several places at CES for notebooks. Also, the Samsung Ultrabooks only have an option for a 128GB SSD while you can get a MBA with twice that much storage right now.
  • Reply 23 of 93
    Not a spec war question...



    But, do the new Sammys include ThunderBolt?



    I believe that TB is a very important feature -- especially for high-end use laptops for things like video editing.



    I have a 12 TB Promise Pegasus RAID with ThunderBolt -- best HDD I've ever owned going back 30 years.
  • Reply 24 of 93
    We have figured out how to copy the Macbook Air in a way we can get away with.
  • Reply 25 of 93
    simtubsimtub Posts: 277member
    I like how the sales guy in the video used the words 'Innovative','Single Shell','Aluminum Body'. They didn't innovate, the whole Ultrabook concept is a blatant rip of Apples MacbookAir Unibody Aluminum design. However The 15" screen in a 14" chassis does looks promising and shows it can be done. Apple bring out a 15" Air please!
  • Reply 26 of 93
    mstonemstone Posts: 11,510member
    Did you ever think, let's just give Windows a fair chance? I did that with Vista and spent a couple thousand dollars on a high end machine for my home office. Loser! Windows 7 is so much better I'm told. Right... I have been playing the Windows "me too" game from the beginning and it still doesn't come close to Mac OS X. It doesn't matter what hardware you have, it is the software that is important. One thing I can say though, is that when I comes to Adobe CS Suite, there is very little difference between Mac and Windows. The main difference is the day to day navigating the file system and desktop as well as the integration of the various applications and services. For that, Mac is much better.
  • Reply 27 of 93
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SwissMac2 View Post


    That Samsung is very interesting - it has a Matte screen AND a 15" MBA equivalent. All that remains is to find out if I can make it into a Hackintosh running Snow Leopard (Lion's useless for my needs and a bundle of woe in any case at the moment).



    I don't think Samsung's goal is to beat Apple. They seem to be mimicking Apple and beating vendors that use Android and, I predict, vendors that use Windows. They seem to be going for the premium markets of the non-Apple customers. I don't know why you'd choose a Dentley over a Bentley when the price is the higher for the copy-cat brand but you can't deny that it's working for them.
  • Reply 28 of 93
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by arjaosx View Post


    We have figured out how to copy the Macbook Air in a way we can get away with.



    Building a similar box is easy.



    Doing it at similar profit margins to Apple yet maintaining significant sales velocity is hard. Apple's media tablet competitors (HP, Dell, RIM) all learned this the hard way last year.
  • Reply 29 of 93
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum View Post


    Not a spec war question...



    But, do the new Sammys include ThunderBolt?



    I believe that TB is a very important feature -- especially for high-end use laptops for things like video editing.



    I have a 12 TB Promise Pegasus RAID with ThunderBolt -- best HDD I've ever owned going back 30 years.



    I believe I read they have a shrunken DisplayPort and HDMI ports but no Thunderbolt.



    Note this machine is due out in February and no machine demoing Thunderbolt will be coming out the first half of the year, or thereabouts.
  • Reply 30 of 93
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post


    The Ultrabooks shown at CES by Samsung are really nice. I don't think anyone had a better overall design. I didn't care for the HP with the glass on the top case or the 360° foldable notebook to tablet from whomever.



    I think Samsung has a chance of being the most profitable non-Mac PC vendor.



    From what articles I saw I would have to agree. The Samsung models where the nicest looking of the previewed Ultrabooks. And yes they could be the number one in that group. But even if they were number one in the Ultrabooks it doesn't mean they will actually bet the macbook air or even just MacBooks in general. No matter what Samsung's people say
  • Reply 31 of 93
    jack99jack99 Posts: 157member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post


    I don't think Samsung's goal is to beat Apple. They seem to be mimicking Apple and beating vendors that use Android and, I predict, vendors that use Windows. They seem to be going for the premium markets of the non-Apple customers. I don't know why you'd choose a Dentley over a Bentley when the price is the higher for the copy-cat brand but you can't deny that it's working for them.





    That's probably closer to the mark. Go for the easy pickings instead of the bigger beast.
  • Reply 32 of 93
    Pah, it's all puff and hot air.



    At the end of the day the PC market is about a race to the bottom. There is no such thing as a "premium PC market" as those people buy Macs, and they don't buy Macs so they can run Windows.



    Whereas Windows users buy on price, and premium machines are cheap by their very nature.



    So all the talk about Samsung competing with Apple is just stuff and nonsense.



    If you don't believe me, pick out the research done a while back about how the market breaks down when you take into account how much people spend and you'll discover that the only game in town for a machine above $1k is Apple. And what makes the Mac stick out - OSX.
  • Reply 33 of 93
    It's official. Samsung is now as clueless as Microsoft.
  • Reply 34 of 93
    for samsung to build a ultra slim machine is not hard. the point is that ppl have been always thinking PCs are cheap. so no matter how hard samsung can try, the profit for them is not that bright.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cvaldes1831 View Post


    Building a similar box is easy.



    Doing it at similar profit margins to Apple yet maintaining significant sales velocity is hard. Apple's media tablet competitors (HP, Dell, RIM) all learned this the hard way last year.



  • Reply 35 of 93
    tylerk36tylerk36 Posts: 1,037member
    The old familiar saying. Lead, Follow or Get out of the way. Samsung is following and trying to improve on an Apple design.
  • Reply 36 of 93
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post


    You got me. I'm a Samsung fanboy through and through.



    hahahhahahahhahahah wow, I thought I've seen it all.
  • Reply 37 of 93
    i_ii_i Posts: 10member
    "Being Thin has never been so Big".... they are using similar marketing slogans to Apple... really lost respect for Samsung especially with the Galaxy debacle, copying the iPhone hardware design and skinning Android to look like iOS for a comprehensive knockoff. I feel bad that I have a Samsung monitor just because it was a bit cheaper.
  • Reply 38 of 93
    erioerio Posts: 28member
    Apple needs a different supplier.

    Find someone else who won't copy/steals ideas.
  • Reply 39 of 93
    Supposed the price of all internal components is the same between MBA and Series 9, I do believe it is difficult for Samsung to set its selling price as same as Apple. Reasons is...



    Firstly, Apple has less models than Samsung and most of them are fully using unibody housing. So Apple can keep the cost down per each unit cost in term of scale of economy. (The way to take Apple's position is to combine all other Brands together and share their casings in a one single-shell design! Only difference is to put different Logo into it but sounds impossible.)



    Secondly, Apple has plenty of free cash in hand and no plan for returning dividend to shareholder. It can lock up the major components by prepayment. Moreover, Apple can help the vendors to build more factories in order to either ensure the capacity or make some advanced components which never existed before.



    So.......Even you can easy to follow but hard to chase !
  • Reply 40 of 93
    tundraboytundraboy Posts: 1,884member
    There was this outfit back in the 90's called Northgate that tried to sell premium PC clones. Really beautiful well-built machines inside and out with the latest components. Had to abandon the strategy in '94 because a cheapo PC worked just as well for most people. Samsung is breathing some funny air if they think they can succeed where everyone else, including mighty IBM has failed.



    Samsung selling premium priced PC clones is like VW selling a $100,000 luxury car. Oh wait, VW did try that with the Phaeton and crashed and burned deeper than a bunker buster bomb. Those Phaetons were a great bargain at $60,000 when VW shut down that operation.
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