Apple poised to build nearly 400K next-gen MacBook Airs this month - Page 2

I'm pretty sure that a lighted keyboard is a feature that most people would rather have than having a non lighted keyboard.

And speaking of things that need to get ditched, Apple should have ditched optical drives in their laptops years ago. They are a waste to most people and I can't even remember the last time I used the optical drive on my laptop.

There is a lot of gray area between casual web/email/word processing and full-on Photoshop. For example, I don't need to be able to run PS on an MBA, but I do need Lightroom. If that can connect to a high-speed external RAID drive for my libraries, well, then so much the better.

FWIW, I would gladly trade FW800 for Thunderbolt once the TB drives and arrays actually start shipping...

Get ready for a good deal on existing close out models when the new one is announced! They're still awesome.

Definitely, on the first point. People who are cost-driven (and need a Mac) would be better served by the MacBook, which has the same entry level price, has a lot more storage, and is easily upgradable after the fact. I've been lusting after the 11" Air for a while, and could see picking one up when they are refreshed. 13", not so much, because while the increase in pixels would be nice, it's not worth the size (footprint) tradeoff to me.

I don't agree that Apple should make a 7" Air, though. Whatever they could manage to shoehorn in there, CPU/graphics/RAM/storage/keyboard-wise, would be less of an all purpose computer and more of a companion device. I think the iPad already fills that need perfectly.


My first guess was for battery life. I love the backlit keyboards on MBPs and PowerBooks. Moved down to a MacBook (for size reasons) for a couple years, from late 2007 until mid 2010, and missed it. But mostly only because, well, it just looks cool. As far as increased usability, I think it only makes a difference if you're in a dimly (or non) lit room and mostly using the trackpad for browsing, with the need to hit an occasional key or two. Well, that and locating the special control keys along the top row, but pretty much the only ones I use are the volume keys and the screen brightness keys, which are easy enough to commit to memory.

So while I think it would be nice to have the backlit keyboard reintroduced, I doubt I'd be willing to pay extra for it, and if it had any impact on battery life, I'd keep it turned off.

Schiller showed a slide showing 73% of unit sales are portables, leaving 23% for desktops class Macs. Looking only at desktop Macs I'd think the iMacs, then the Mac mini, and finally the Mac Pro bringing up the rear. I'm sure the Mac Pro is profitable, but the question is how profitable. If people aren't buying enough of them they mind find it's not worth their time and effort when they can put those resources to better use like they did with Xserve.

I want both, but I'll settle for 6 (real) hours of battery life, and a mid-range performance level *if* all that comes in the MBA form factor. Otherwise I'll just wait until the next MBP refresh and get a 13" MBP.

I'm not going to buy any generic Dell's, HP's, Acers or whatever other plastic crap on the market, I've been there, I've had those, I still have to put up with one at work all day, and I hate these laptops. I'd consider a Vaio, HP Envy or Samsung 9, if they had OS X on them and were significantly cheaper than a MacBook, but neither is the case.

One thing is for sure and that is that I'll never go back to Windows, or buy one of the zillions of run-of-mill 13-a-dozen plastic $600 shovelware laptops. You'll end up regretting buying one of these every time, and counting the days until you can justify to yourself replacing them within 2 years. Meanwhile my almost 3-year old alu MacBook is still chugging along nicely, it still looks brand new, and I still enjoy using it. Good laptop =/= cheap laptop.

What time period was that data derived from? Excluding the Air, a hot selling portable likely to be sold to someone that already has a desktop Mac, Apple's portable line was updated in February. Since then, people that might want to purchase a desktop have been waiting their turn. The iMacs were only recently refreshed and we are still waiting for the Mini and Mac Pro lines to be updated.

The iMacs are recent enough that their affect on sales, if any, might not even have been included in those stats.

Potentially, all that slide shows is that portables are selling well because they have been updated, and desktops aren't selling as well because people are waiting until new Thunderbolt equipped models are released.

While I wouldn't expect a completely refreshed desktop line to outsell their portables, it is obvious a refresh would result in a significant increase in desktop sales.

-kpluck

This would be nice.

Even if Apple were to release killer new desktop models, the majority of people won't be buying them. People are simply moving away from desktop machines, as only a small percentage of people actually need them, and fewer can afford them. Most people are not content creators, they are content consumers.

I agree. I really think there should be some models (or at least one) with such a size. For many of us, the factor of great mobility (small and light, and still a fullfledged machine) is of greatest importance.

Well I'd like a new entry level Mac desktop similar to the old workhorse Sawtooth G4. My position now is that I think the Mini is too gimped in specs, the iMac has a screen I don't like and no upgradeable graphics card, and the Mac Pro is too bulky and expensive.

imo he is right to be concern with stats since he is upgrading from a 2008 MBP. And at some point stats do matter, especially when a company is still selling a 1.4 ghz core2duo CPU on a $1000+ PC in 2011. I understand such a slow CPU is a problem for many people that would want the great design of the Air if only it was more powerful.

Apple is long overdue for MBA and macmini upgrades.

Some people have been waiting for and wanting a machine like that for a long time. It's not for everybody, but I guess one option is hackintosh, if somebody is willing to go that route.

Those sales figures Schiller used are probably for multiple quarters, to flatten out the impact of new products. My guess it would be TTM (Trailing Twelve Months) or last four completed quarters.

In any case, the takeaway here is that Mac notebooks outsell desktops by a three-to-one margin and that the downward decline of the desktop computer continues.

It is likely that there will be a market for for desktop PCs for the foreseeable future, but I think Apple notebooks will probably reach 85-90% of their total Mac sales in five years. By that time, the number of desktop SKUs will probably dwindle to five or six (2 iMacs, 1 Mac mini, 2-3 Mac Pros) down from the ten current SKUs.

A 11" SBridge seems like a sensible addition to my 27" iMac i7, 2007 C2D MBP, and iP 4 family. And It would negate my need for an iPad.

Exactly. Great, for instance, for Keynote and PowerPoint presentations made on a true Mac (the iOS does not deliver!).

Fanboi bull back to you... many had issues... this has nothing to do with dell and sony... you fanboys are nuts

The biggest problem is that consumers ended up hating this size.

The initial netbooks were this size; there were lots of returns and then sales faltered as the buying public finally understood the limitations of this form factor, particularly the unhappy typing experience.

Today, it is pretty difficult to find a netbook below 10".

They really couldn't until they switched the OS to be available as an internet purchase - maybe they will in the next major refresh.

I totally agreed 7" is even too small for a tablet: I was looking at the Playbook at lunchtime today and I was surprise how small it is. Its too small for a good experience and too big to really be portable without a bag. imo you are better off with an big phone than a 7" tablet.

So the consensus here is that the CPU (Sandy B) will be faster, but the CPU (Intel crap) will be much slower than the current NVIDIA graphics, yes? And both are important, e.g. OpenCL isn't supported by Intel's crap gfx but is by the NVIDIA on board now.

Is there any possibility the next MBA will indeed have a real graphics card?

It's not 'much slower', but it's not faster either, and I agree it's a step back from the 320M in the current MBA because it's frankly a pitiful GPU based on a years old inflexible architecture.

That said, you're not going to notice any difference rendering your desktop or playing back video, the Sandy Bridge GPU kind of sucks but not as much that it affects any of that. For gaming, the 320M doesn't really cut it either, unless you like simple, lightweight, or old games. The HD3000 handles these as well.

So for a machine like the Air, I could live with the Sandy Bridge GPU. That the current 13" MBP doesn't have a better GPU is inexcusable though, taking 2 steps forward in CPU power, and one step back in GPU, making it weaker than last generation's MBA

You're right about that, but one option could have been to release it on a USB stick, at a slightly higher price maybe.

I must respectfully disagree, I had the original and did not have a single bit of trouble with it and consequently purchased the most recent refresh. For as light and thin as they are they are incredibly rigid.

Perhaps a Mac with a 7 inches display is a bit too small to make a good keyboard (which is of real importance for the writing users). Sony P has a 8 inches display, and the keyboard is acceptable in size. (However, the right shift key is far too small and squeezed in so that one often mistypes the arrow up key - such an annoyance!). But my point is that with such a size one CAN make a satisfying keyboard, and still make the unit portable enough.

I however disagree with the posts that state that the iPad is a good replacement for such a small foldable machine (7-8-9 inches display): The iPad is not convenient to operate on the lap with an external keyboard (which I think is necessary for writing longer texts). The two separate parts (iPad/display and keyboard) do not make a good match, so to speak, in such settings. It's much better with the compactness that ONE unit: display and keyboard are much easier to handle in these types of settings. You need IMO to sit by a table to use the iPad with an external keyboard in a comfortable way.

So: I think there is a need for machine with such a footprint (7-9 inches).

I was a life long Windows user. Purchased my MacBook a year ago, after getting acclimated to the iPhone. It has been a bit of a learning curve, but an truly great experience. After a year, my MB still runs like it is brand spanking new after heavy use. Still enamored with the all white design.

I have my eye open for a fully loaded MBA 13" III. It will be a an absolute screamer. It's just that my MacBook is solid and could easily last me another 3 yrs

I'm still required to use a Dell a work. What a POS. Have had to re-image it twice already since I got it six months ago.

Check out www.clamcase.com, they have an excellent case that basiclly turns the iPad into a small laptop with external keyboard.

Apple will be moving the MBA forward not backwards. That doesn't mean an iOS based device with a keyboard won't show up some day though.

Gunslinger! Thanks a lot for this information! I have been looking around for such a thing, but not before now found one with a good enough keyboard (for instance the location of the right shift key).

This is really a great solution for me and my habitual writing position!

err, I'm not sure I agree 100% with that, it is just that different workloads tax the machine in different ways.
Yep, I have a early 2008 MBP that could easily be replaced by an AIR (15") given the right features. The primary concern for me is lots and lots of internal secondary storage.

A very tempting approach. Something I've thought about on my old 2008 machine. The problem is it is a little old to be upgrading to the latest technology. However I have to suggest one thing, look beyond 750GB for that HDD.

I'm really hoping that Apple can find the space for multiple blade storage slots in the 15" AIR along with at least one drive bay. Actually the slots for SSD'd can be the current blade or the coming standards, but the idea is to make it easy to add a bit more SSD storage as your needs grow.

It probably isn't in Apples DNA to offer a hybrid machine like this (both SSD and conventional HDD) but it would make for a very nice 15" machine. If they don't seem up to a hybrid then they really need to allot more space to SSD blades or whatever and maybe offer some sort of volume management.

The new '10 MB Air is night and day different from the old '08 model/style. In terms of reliability, speed, usability, size... it's unmatched.

My dad has one, he's a finicky user who isn't kind to his hardware, and it's going strong after several months with no complaints.

I'm envious b/c I have an MBP '10 with SSD and his MBA feels faster.

Why is the MacBook Air memory not user upgradeable?

The slot takes up more internal space than soldering the chips to the main board......

For those of you who want a 7" display, you must have eagle eyes.... I have trouble seeing my 13" MBP some times.....

tekstud?

Just got off a long day at work, read the title of the article and thought "what an absurdly low amount of memory , 400K what the hell are they thinking! Oh... Units... Never mind.

After reading this I started thinking about the which way Apple will take their entire laptop line.

The white plastic MB I say should be killed off, because for 200 US more you can pick up a MBP in metal, with brand new internals.

But WHEN Apple rips out the optical drive from the line up, there will be a major over lap between the Airs and Pros. So my thinking was, Apple should rename the current Airs to just Macbooks. And should come in their 11 and 13. They should come with thunderbolt, 2x USB, SD Card reader (if space to squeeze into 11 inch) LAN and audio ports.

Whereas the pros, should start at 15 and 17 inches. The main difference will be ports and internals. All of the ports I listed above for the MB but also FW800, another USB port and possible an expresscard slot. Due to more space in a 15 inch and 17 inch case, I would expect decent dedicated cards, maybe dual HDD config (one SSD and one HDD) and some quad core goodness. But I would not want apple to use that space for battery, the battery of my current MBP is great and to me battery life is most important in anything under 13 inches as those machines will be carried around more often than a 15 inch will. I know some people will disagree and say they want a super long battery life in a 15 inch, but I cannot see why a 15 inch laptop has to compete with a ultra portable laptop using a ultralow voltage chipset.


What does everyone else think?

I wonder what the sales are for that machine. At my local Apple Store the table closest to the door, a table against the wall, is 4 white MacBooks. The other wall table opposite the MacBooks are iPads. It's the 2nd and 3rd set of tables that have the other products.

So does being first and having so many units that are the same indicate an item they are trying to get rid of or a big seller?

Exactly.

And if the hard drive is such a problem, it's not like you can't replace it with an SSD.

The darn thing's aren't hermetically sealed

The current lineup is a little bit confusing to some, and come in 3 different cases. I think they should kill all (6) current models and come out with 4 MBA models. Make them in 11, 13, 15 & 17" The 2 largest ones with SSD + BTO SSD or HDD. Thunderbolt & SD card for all models. Various SSD sizes, possibly a 512GB option.

What do you think?

Cheers,
PhilBoogie

The fact that the 11.6-inch MacBook Air has outsold the 13.3-inch model is revealing. If Apple made an even lighter and smaller MacBook Air, it would outsell the other models as well. Because many people want a full Mac but as mobile as possible. And here the iPad cannot deliver, because it is not a Mac.