I strongly suspect that it wasn't even average consumers who bought the MB white. I think it was likely to be students. And I have a feeling most of these students will easily transition to the low end MBA or the low end 13inch MBP (if they want a drive). The education discounts and iTunes gift cards will help them along.
Well you suspicion, is wrong, there are a lot of average customers who wanted mac only for surfing the internet and lite office work at home, and some who like plastic more then aluminum ( new white macbook looks gorgeous).
I strongly suspect that it wasn't even average consumers who bought the MB white. I think it was likely to be students. And I have a feeling most of these students will easily transition to the low end MBA or the low end 13inch MBP (if they want a drive). The education discounts and iTunes gift cards will help them along.
Student have got a choice between a laptop with a screen 20% smaller than the white MacBook or a laptop that is significantly more expensive that the white MacBook.
I bought the first ever white MacBook 5 years ago when I was a student - after the edu discount, it cost me £640 ($1035). If I wanted to buy Apple's cheapest 13" laptop today, it would cost me £859 ($1388) after discounts. In all likelihood, if I was student now, I just would have bought a PC. Spending £640 on a laptop as a student is a lot (most people buy £350 Dells), let alone £859.
Apple has always been a premium brand and to an extent you get what you pay for, but now in the undergraduate market it's decided to put its products out of reach except for the wealthy.
MacBook has been replaced by a more expensive and less adequate Air. Too little storage, too high a price.
The 13' Pro is more of a direct replacement, and much better a deal than the plasticbook was. Not really a big loss, IMO, for a bit more money you got double the RAM (which covered the cost itself, if you were silly enough to get a RAM upgrade from Apple directly), aluminum case, backlit keyboard, ambient light sensor, etc.
In any case I think the Air will serve most casual users better if they aren't on a strict budget, that SSD really makes it feel faster then the Pro for the majority of tasks, and especially now with Turbo Boost and HT the vast majority of users will never be lacking in crunch power.
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I strongly suspect that it wasn't even average consumers who bought the MB white. I think it was likely to be students. And I have a feeling most of these students will easily transition to the low end MBA or the low end 13inch MBP (if they want a drive). The education discounts and iTunes gift cards will help them along.
Well you suspicion, is wrong, there are a lot of average customers who wanted mac only for surfing the internet and lite office work at home, and some who like plastic more then aluminum ( new white macbook looks gorgeous).
I strongly suspect that it wasn't even average consumers who bought the MB white. I think it was likely to be students. And I have a feeling most of these students will easily transition to the low end MBA or the low end 13inch MBP (if they want a drive). The education discounts and iTunes gift cards will help them along.
Student have got a choice between a laptop with a screen 20% smaller than the white MacBook or a laptop that is significantly more expensive that the white MacBook.
I bought the first ever white MacBook 5 years ago when I was a student - after the edu discount, it cost me £640 ($1035). If I wanted to buy Apple's cheapest 13" laptop today, it would cost me £859 ($1388) after discounts. In all likelihood, if I was student now, I just would have bought a PC. Spending £640 on a laptop as a student is a lot (most people buy £350 Dells), let alone £859.
Apple has always been a premium brand and to an extent you get what you pay for, but now in the undergraduate market it's decided to put its products out of reach except for the wealthy.
MacBook has been replaced by a more expensive and less adequate Air. Too little storage, too high a price.
The 13' Pro is more of a direct replacement, and much better a deal than the plasticbook was. Not really a big loss, IMO, for a bit more money you got double the RAM (which covered the cost itself, if you were silly enough to get a RAM upgrade from Apple directly), aluminum case, backlit keyboard, ambient light sensor, etc.
In any case I think the Air will serve most casual users better if they aren't on a strict budget, that SSD really makes it feel faster then the Pro for the majority of tasks, and especially now with Turbo Boost and HT the vast majority of users will never be lacking in crunch power.