I must admit though that this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If the tablet is the "answer" to competing in the netbook space, then these new MacBooks will be in that same space competing with the tablet for attention.
Sounds like nervousness and a somewhat less-than-certain strategy from Apple this time around. It's not like Apple to cover their bets like this IMO.
Either that tablet *is* so revolutionary that Apple is worried it will be a fail, or it's so dull that it really *is* just a big iPod (and thus just a fail of a different kind).
Keep it. By making a tablet out of the MacBook and leaving only the MacBook Pro line you're going to end up losing a lot of people. That's going to hurt Apple.
They need to keep this product and possibly drop the price.
good, Apple need a £499 macbook and a £699 imac in England, that would push them into a completely new market, so many people want one but just cannot justify twice as much money for something that they're not sure they will like
I don't know about MBP's, but my PowerBook after a year-long deployment to Iraq, three drops on a hardwood floor, two trips across the states, endless trips to and from work, and now entering its second Iraqi deployment has nary a dent nor a scratch on it.
From all that abuse only the top and new battery are slightly askew.
If Apple drop the optical drive and the new MacBook is available before a 4GB MacBook Air, then I'll buy one. In other words, I'll buy the first Apple notebook with 4GB and no optical drive.
MBA could be cheaper than the MB. Just let it stagnate and keep lowering the price.
The fixed costs have already been paid off for that engineering feat, and the unit cost should be lower than MB. So, a lower price will bring more demand, and no further investment is required.
Also, MBA customers might be more likely to buy additional accessories.
Exactly. The low-end MacBook (aka the new "iBook", aka the iTablet) will simply incorporate more multi-touch aspects into the product (the screen, for example) and there might even be a new size that fits nicely into the subnotebook space. It makes little sense to attempt to carve out a new niche product on it's own, when simply extending the existing lines makes the marketing so much easier.
I didn't realize that connecting Macs to one another in the least painful manner was considered a high end legacy feature. Fact is Firewire, still is more feature packed then USB and the road map for development looks a lot better as well. That is why long time Mac users went nuts when Apple temporarily abandoned it. People will notice that Apple made a point of announcing it was back at it's last keynote.
USB and Ethernet do not let users manage various computers as well as Firewire. Firewire will not be sacrificed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
while high-end legacy features like FireWire connectivity are likely to be sacrificed in the tradeoff.
Apple is replacing all cracked plamrests free-of-charge, even if it is out of warranty.
I don't know why they never redesigned those damn plastic facings. It's the ribs at the top edge of the screen fascia that concentrates all the forces on two spots on the palm rest (when you shut the screen) which eventually crack and break off. All Apple needs to do is widen the surface area of those ribs several fold and the forces get less concentrated. Actually, the plastic surrounding the ribs also crack. I have both palm rest and screen border replaced last year and they look like they're going to need replacing again soon. And this computer is babied-- the lid is always shut gently and nothing gets stacked on it.
Rapidly? You are kidding right? With the exception of the $99 iPhone 3G all of their products are still in the premium market. The economy has been in the tank for a year and this refresh won't see the light of day until sometime in 2010. And you call that rapid?
It's only been two quarters since Apple has started to any kind of impact from the recession... and it hasn't even hit them as hard as the rest of the industry. So to see this kind of move this quickly, would be considered "rapid". Apple probably wants to move quick before it does start hurting its bottom-line.
Something has to be done abut the lack of quality in the MacBook case. Cracks and discoloration are the rule rather than the exception.
I believe the tablet and low end MacBook target different uses so both products can thrive.
Although I understand the $99 - 999 graphic, I view the mandatory voice/data plan as part of the purchase price so I see the iPhone 3G as a $1499 device rather than a $99 one. To me the low end offering is the $229 iPod touch.
don't see the point in paying for Garage Band if i'll never use it.
If they stopped pre-loading Garageband on your computer, it's not like you'd see the price drop. If you don't like it, then just consider that HD space you can reclaim and delete it.
The Macbook needs a price range in the UK of £495-795.
Wintel laptops are available from £395.
It wasn't that long ago Apple offered a £695 iBook and an iMac for £695. I think they need to go lower than that this time.
They don't have to be Dell cheap...but cheaper than currently. I'm glad the Macbook is being realigned. It's overdue after the alu Macbook mistep that saw it changed to a 'Macbook Pro' with the Firewire port people wanted...and a price cut.
I hope we get a nice slender design. Plastic. Affordable. It's got to be cheaper than the current model by a good hundred pounds or so.
Same with the desktop line. The mac mini and iMac are due reality checks.
We'll see what the 'fall' brings...
Lemon Bon Bon.
Exactly what is wrong with the Mac Mini and iMac in terms of price? The iMac is priced extremely well against its competition (Dell XPS One, HP TouchSmart) and is typically a better value as well. And the Mac Mini is never ever going to become a midtower because it would serve no purpose (90% of the market never upgrades their computers to begin with and on a mac, an external drive would serve the same purpose since dual booting is really the only way for legit gaming, making upgrading video cards rather irrelevant). If you're primarily gonna be gaming, you'd be much better served by buying a Windows midtower to begin with.
Anyway, I'm expecting Apple to do something like this to its line-up:
iMacs
20" 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo- $1099
4GB DDR3 RAM
640GB HDD
Nvidia 9600m GT
24" 2.66GHz Core i7 Mobile- $1399
4GB DDR3 RAM
640GB HDD
Nvidia 9600m GT
24" 2.93GHz Core i7 Mobile- $1699
4GB DDR3 RAM
750GB HDD
ATI Radeon 4850
24" 3.06GHz Core i7 Mobile- $1999
4GB DDR3 RAM
1TB HDD
Nvidia GTX285
Apple has pretty much purposefully skipped over Core 2 Quad mobile because of its inherent problems, but the new i7 chips should make it safe to finally jump into quad core for the iMacs. I pretty much expect the aluminum MacBooks to just get spec bumps, but here's what I hope will happen with the polycarbonate ones:
13" LCD- $799
2.13GHz Core 2 Duo
4GB DDR2 RAM
250GB HDD
Nvidia 9500m
13" lcd- $999
2.26GHz Core 2 Duo
4GB DDR2 RAM
320GB HDD
Nvidia 9500m
I'm putting it on faith that Apple will stop shipping miniscule hard drives (a 250GB base one would not murder their margins by any stretch of thought). I don't really know what to expect of a redesigned shell, but hopefully it will finally put that cracking issue to rest, cause the last thing Apple needs is for alot of new customers' first impressions of a MacBook to be that it has a quality control issue. The iMacs have long been great in terms of QC, but the engineering team really needs to stop slacking off when it comes to the notebooks. I'm also hoping the the advertising team finally comes up with a better pitch for the TV commercials because a lack of viruses is seriously in the middle of the pack in terms of reasons to buy a Mac.
One way or another, though, I'm really excited to see what the team has in store for the next year.
Comments
why not make the tablet the new macbook?
My thoughts too. This "redesigned" MacBook may be redesigned into the Tablet.
why not make the tablet the new macbook?
Maybe the tablet is the new iBook.
I must admit though that this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. If the tablet is the "answer" to competing in the netbook space, then these new MacBooks will be in that same space competing with the tablet for attention.
Sounds like nervousness and a somewhat less-than-certain strategy from Apple this time around. It's not like Apple to cover their bets like this IMO.
Either that tablet *is* so revolutionary that Apple is worried it will be a fail, or it's so dull that it really *is* just a big iPod (and thus just a fail of a different kind).
They need to keep this product and possibly drop the price.
I don't know about MBP's, but my PowerBook after a year-long deployment to Iraq, three drops on a hardwood floor, two trips across the states, endless trips to and from work, and now entering its second Iraqi deployment has nary a dent nor a scratch on it.
From all that abuse only the top and new battery are slightly askew.
I'll reiterate, the new Tablet will replace MacBook.
But how will the children learn to type?
But how will the children learn to type?
does someone pay you to troll around on this forum?
But how will the children learn to type?
lke thy do now wit ther thums at 60 wds a min.
The fixed costs have already been paid off for that engineering feat, and the unit cost should be lower than MB. So, a lower price will bring more demand, and no further investment is required.
Also, MBA customers might be more likely to buy additional accessories.
why not make the tablet the new macbook?
Exactly. The low-end MacBook (aka the new "iBook", aka the iTablet) will simply incorporate more multi-touch aspects into the product (the screen, for example) and there might even be a new size that fits nicely into the subnotebook space. It makes little sense to attempt to carve out a new niche product on it's own, when simply extending the existing lines makes the marketing so much easier.
lke thy do now wit ther thums at 60 wds a min.
But seriously I doubt that the "educational" laptop would ever loose its keyboard?
USB and Ethernet do not let users manage various computers as well as Firewire. Firewire will not be sacrificed.
while high-end legacy features like FireWire connectivity are likely to be sacrificed in the tradeoff.
Apple is replacing all cracked plamrests free-of-charge, even if it is out of warranty.
I don't know why they never redesigned those damn plastic facings. It's the ribs at the top edge of the screen fascia that concentrates all the forces on two spots on the palm rest (when you shut the screen) which eventually crack and break off. All Apple needs to do is widen the surface area of those ribs several fold and the forces get less concentrated. Actually, the plastic surrounding the ribs also crack. I have both palm rest and screen border replaced last year and they look like they're going to need replacing again soon. And this computer is babied-- the lid is always shut gently and nothing gets stacked on it.
Rapidly? You are kidding right? With the exception of the $99 iPhone 3G all of their products are still in the premium market. The economy has been in the tank for a year and this refresh won't see the light of day until sometime in 2010. And you call that rapid?
It's only been two quarters since Apple has started to any kind of impact from the recession... and it hasn't even hit them as hard as the rest of the industry. So to see this kind of move this quickly, would be considered "rapid". Apple probably wants to move quick before it does start hurting its bottom-line.
I believe the tablet and low end MacBook target different uses so both products can thrive.
Although I understand the $99 - 999 graphic, I view the mandatory voice/data plan as part of the purchase price so I see the iPhone 3G as a $1499 device rather than a $99 one. To me the low end offering is the $229 iPod touch.
don't see the point in paying for Garage Band if i'll never use it.
If they stopped pre-loading Garageband on your computer, it's not like you'd see the price drop. If you don't like it, then just consider that HD space you can reclaim and delete it.
drop the screen size to 10-12"
drop the optical drive
drop the price to $799
(one model available in five colors)
Agreed.
Fair play to Apple if this road map comes about.
The Macbook needs a price range in the UK of £495-795.
Wintel laptops are available from £395.
It wasn't that long ago Apple offered a £695 iBook and an iMac for £695. I think they need to go lower than that this time.
They don't have to be Dell cheap...but cheaper than currently. I'm glad the Macbook is being realigned. It's overdue after the alu Macbook mistep that saw it changed to a 'Macbook Pro' with the Firewire port people wanted...and a price cut.
I hope we get a nice slender design. Plastic. Affordable. It's got to be cheaper than the current model by a good hundred pounds or so.
Same with the desktop line. The mac mini and iMac are due reality checks.
We'll see what the 'fall' brings...
Lemon Bon Bon.
Exactly what is wrong with the Mac Mini and iMac in terms of price? The iMac is priced extremely well against its competition (Dell XPS One, HP TouchSmart) and is typically a better value as well. And the Mac Mini is never ever going to become a midtower because it would serve no purpose (90% of the market never upgrades their computers to begin with and on a mac, an external drive would serve the same purpose since dual booting is really the only way for legit gaming, making upgrading video cards rather irrelevant). If you're primarily gonna be gaming, you'd be much better served by buying a Windows midtower to begin with.
Anyway, I'm expecting Apple to do something like this to its line-up:
iMacs
20" 2.93GHz Core 2 Duo- $1099
4GB DDR3 RAM
640GB HDD
Nvidia 9600m GT
24" 2.66GHz Core i7 Mobile- $1399
4GB DDR3 RAM
640GB HDD
Nvidia 9600m GT
24" 2.93GHz Core i7 Mobile- $1699
4GB DDR3 RAM
750GB HDD
ATI Radeon 4850
24" 3.06GHz Core i7 Mobile- $1999
4GB DDR3 RAM
1TB HDD
Nvidia GTX285
Apple has pretty much purposefully skipped over Core 2 Quad mobile because of its inherent problems, but the new i7 chips should make it safe to finally jump into quad core for the iMacs. I pretty much expect the aluminum MacBooks to just get spec bumps, but here's what I hope will happen with the polycarbonate ones:
13" LCD- $799
2.13GHz Core 2 Duo
4GB DDR2 RAM
250GB HDD
Nvidia 9500m
13" lcd- $999
2.26GHz Core 2 Duo
4GB DDR2 RAM
320GB HDD
Nvidia 9500m
I'm putting it on faith that Apple will stop shipping miniscule hard drives (a 250GB base one would not murder their margins by any stretch of thought). I don't really know what to expect of a redesigned shell, but hopefully it will finally put that cracking issue to rest, cause the last thing Apple needs is for alot of new customers' first impressions of a MacBook to be that it has a quality control issue. The iMacs have long been great in terms of QC, but the engineering team really needs to stop slacking off when it comes to the notebooks. I'm also hoping the the advertising team finally comes up with a better pitch for the TV commercials because a lack of viruses is seriously in the middle of the pack in terms of reasons to buy a Mac.
One way or another, though, I'm really excited to see what the team has in store for the next year.