I hate to say it but Sony was doing thin and light way before anyone, granted they never used metal but carbon fiber and magnesium.
So if everyone is just copying Sony then how come we never heard about 'Ultrabooks' until after MBA became successful? Yeah Sony had wedge shape laptops years ago but you can't seriously claim the MBA or any of these 'Ultrabooks' would be mistaken for a Sony Vaio. They wouldn't.
I hate to say it but Sony was doing thin and light way before anyone, granted they never used metal but carbon fiber and magnesium.
First, magnesium is a metal.
Didn't Sony "copy" Toshiba's Libretto? Toshiba did thin, light and pocketable before Sony did. My point there is a form factor is not in itself a protectable design element. Just like tower computers, or notebooks. Form factors are not something that anyone really cares about for IP protection. Styling is a very different matter. MBA isn't styled anything like any Sony ultralight. There have been many ultra light computers, the problem is the whole ultrabook "platform" is the industry shifting the styling to look more like Apple's styling.
I don't see any forgetting going on. Apples advantage with ARM is irrelevant as an independent thing when it comes to a transition or not decision. Performance must in some way significantly outstrip the shipping at the time MBA hardware before an ARM CPU becomes a viable replacement in that market. That could be outstrip in pure performance, or be like-performance at FAR lower power budgets. Either way Apple won't just chose to take absolute performance appreciably backwards in any niche, even for an MBA. Changing to a fat binary all over again is a traumatic event that won't be done until it is obviously a win to push devs top do it.
The only way that Apple advantage plays is that Apple will have a better understanding than anyone else exactly what the calculus of that tradeoff is.
ARM ain't there yet, there definitely is potential for them to be but there is still a lot of hard work to be done yet to catch a slowing Intel.
Ok, that's a sensible reply.
The point is that above a certain performance level CPU and GPU power is irrelevant.
My opinion is that that point is reached for ARM when PowerVR 6 is combined with a quad core 64 bit A15 (at 2.5 GHz). This performance can be compared with that of a Playstation 3 and is more than enough for almost all computer task on a MacBook Air.
So next year Apple could release an ARM Air and it will be stunning.
My opinion is based on my extensive experience as an (embedded) programmer and a lifetime of experience with computer hardware.
I could be wrong of course but the specs of the new 64bit ARM hardware and PowerVR 6 leave little room for error.
Apple currently has two lines of hardware and will get rid of one in the future (to save cost, to enhance security and to make it near impossible to clone). With ARM Apple has full control and next year ARM is fast enough...
That's nice, but how does it make up for the fact that ARM is far, far slower (both CPU and GPU) and the CPUs Apple is currently using in its laptops?
Can you see Apple introducing an MBA that's 1/10 the speed of the previous version? I don't think so.
I can't. But as I explained in other posts, that isn't the case.
I was sitting on a plane next to a guy responsible for promoting the Ultrabooks design. I asked him, why are you trying so hard to promote Windows ultra books instead of MacBooks Airs? Why must Macbook Air fail for Ultrabooks to succeed? Doesnt the Macbook Air have Intel chips in it anyways? Why are you guys doing this? He keep trying to avoid answering this question. Finally it he admitted to me, "we think Apple will move to ARM Macbook Airs'.
Really? Who did he actually work for? I'd like to know who this "we" is that's expecting ARM MacBooks. Might add some credibility to the rumour.
Intel is pushing ultrabooks to kill off AMD's market share in notebooks, especially right now as AMD is pushing their APUs (which are actually decent, and very cheap). That's really what's going on. They want to have as many components in as many laptops as possible, and while Macbooks sell great, Intel needs the other vendors on board too. I don't think Intel cares what computer a consumer buys, as long as it has Intel inside and not AMD.
Comments
First, magnesium is a metal.
Didn't Sony "copy" Toshiba's Libretto? Toshiba did thin, light and pocketable before Sony did. My point there is a form factor is not in itself a protectable design element. Just like tower computers, or notebooks. Form factors are not something that anyone really cares about for IP protection. Styling is a very different matter. MBA isn't styled anything like any Sony ultralight. There have been many ultra light computers, the problem is the whole ultrabook "platform" is the industry shifting the styling to look more like Apple's styling.
Ok, that's a sensible reply.
The point is that above a certain performance level CPU and GPU power is irrelevant.
My opinion is that that point is reached for ARM when PowerVR 6 is combined with a quad core 64 bit A15 (at 2.5 GHz). This performance can be compared with that of a Playstation 3 and is more than enough for almost all computer task on a MacBook Air.
So next year Apple could release an ARM Air and it will be stunning.
My opinion is based on my extensive experience as an (embedded) programmer and a lifetime of experience with computer hardware.
I could be wrong of course but the specs of the new 64bit ARM hardware and PowerVR 6 leave little room for error.
Apple currently has two lines of hardware and will get rid of one in the future (to save cost, to enhance security and to make it near impossible to clone). With ARM Apple has full control and next year ARM is fast enough...
J.
I can't. But as I explained in other posts, that isn't the case.
J.
Quote:
I was sitting on a plane next to a guy responsible for promoting the Ultrabooks design. I asked him, why are you trying so hard to promote Windows ultra books instead of MacBooks Airs? Why must Macbook Air fail for Ultrabooks to succeed? Doesnt the Macbook Air have Intel chips in it anyways? Why are you guys doing this? He keep trying to avoid answering this question. Finally it he admitted to me, "we think Apple will move to ARM Macbook Airs'.
Really? Who did he actually work for? I'd like to know who this "we" is that's expecting ARM MacBooks. Might add some credibility to the rumour.
Intel is pushing ultrabooks to kill off AMD's market share in notebooks, especially right now as AMD is pushing their APUs (which are actually decent, and very cheap). That's really what's going on. They want to have as many components in as many laptops as possible, and while Macbooks sell great, Intel needs the other vendors on board too. I don't think Intel cares what computer a consumer buys, as long as it has Intel inside and not AMD.