Not only no floppy, but USB-only. You are right, this is Apple pushing forward. This IS exactly the same move they made with the iMac...a disruptive technology. There is nothing really new, but the way it is bundle is a new concept for most people. It's the ultra portable for those of us who don't want an 8 or 10-inch screen and a cramped keyboard.
This product should really help break Apple into the business world. Sales weasels will be all over this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ironknee
folks, not every consumer cares about what we care about.
instead of the cube, i see a comparison to the original iMac.
iMac
1) no floppy
Macbook Air
1) no optical drive
2) built in memory and battery
this is a new breed of consumers who wants an iPod Mac.
it's all about the wireless generation...damn lucky kids...
we want upgradability, the missing ports like firewire or ethernet, etc...but i think a big market is out there for people who don't care about that stuff...
it's as sexy to apple's product line now as the cube was sexy at the time (and still is)
i think this will be a major money maker for apple...
So far, out of 119 votes, 77% of the respondents have a favorable view of the Air with a full 27% who think it is fantastic... in stark contrast to the vast majority of flames on AI (although those are mainly coming from a few vociferous types).
With the newest HD cameras coming out of Japan, you no longer need FW to connect to a computer; USB is all they have.
The poll don't lie: Looks like Apple has a winner.
50% percent of the voters are unsure as I read it. "It May do OK". That's not very comforting or certain. That's an I don't know vote. The Majority is obviously undecided, or unsure.
The absolute yes to no ratio is exactly even. 33 to 33 as it is right now.
Your right that the poll don't lie. It's not a clear cut winner on either side though. And at this rate I don't think there will be.
50% percent of the voters are unsure as I read it. "It May do OK". That's not very comforting.
The absolute yes to no ratio is exactly even. 33 to 33 as it is right now.
Your right that the poll don't lie. It's not a clear cut winner on either side though. And at this rate I don't think there will be.
Onlooker, you have overlooked the fact, as pointed out by an earlier poster, that you created a negative-biassed poll, with only one out-and-out positive option, with said option being excessively positive.
Given that "It may do OK" is the "middling" option, there should be two more positive options above it, just as there are two more negative options below it. Therefore, many people will have chosen the "It may do OK" option, when they would have chosen the next most positive option, had it been available to them.
and the MacBook Air is coming out a real winner. It is designed for a small market and it seems to be getting a fairly good response already. Of 6756 votes, 20% plan to order or have already ordered. Over 8.5% have already ordered; that's 574.
50% percent of the voters are unsure as I read it. "It May do OK". That's not very comforting or certain. That's an I don't know vote. The Majority is obviously undecided, or unsure.
The absolute yes to no ratio is exactly even. 33 to 33 as it is right now.
Your right that the poll don't lie. It's not a clear cut winner on either side though. And at this rate I don't think there will be.
Agreed with Mr. H - poorly crafted poll. I voted "It May Do Ok" when in reality I think it will sell very well. I don't, however, think that it will be "the biggest thing since king kong."
Fine criticize my poll all you like, but here is a poll done in a similar manner, but there is only one absolute no vote, and the majority is absolute no votes. There are also Eleven thousand four hundred voters. Dose of reality.
Once you read the poll and answer the question as it is asked with just a straight Yes, or No you'll find the actual Number is =
First, this is a machine (like everything else in the MBA category) which is aimed at a sub-set of the laptop market.
Second, you'd need to compare to other similar polls (like, for instance, when the last rev of the MBP came out). Obviously, the majority of mac-buyers don't have plans to buy any particular machine.
Third, my first and second reasons are both irrelevant because - let's say it all together now - self-selecting internet polls tell you absolutely nothing about anything!!
If they did, Ron Paul would already be our overlord.
First, this is a machine (like everything else in the MBA category) which is aimed at a sub-set of the laptop market.
Second, you'd need to compare to other similar polls (like, for instance, when the last rev of the MBP came out). Obviously, the majority of mac-buyers don't have plans to buy any particular machine.
Third, my first and second reasons are both irrelevant because - let's say it all together now - self-selecting internet polls tell you absolutely nothing about anything!!
If they did, Ron Paul would already be our overlord.
++ "self-selecting internet polls tell you absolutely nothing about anything!!"
So far, out of 119 votes, 77% of the respondents have a favorable view of the Air with a full 27% who think it is fantastic... in stark contrast to the vast majority of flames on AI (although those are mainly coming from a few vociferous types).
With the newest HD cameras coming out of Japan, you no longer need FW to connect to a computer; USB is all they have.
The poll don't lie: Looks like Apple has a winner.
My Canon Powershot G7 is USB. So I'm in. Just need a few bucks is all then I order it.
Throughout ~five corporate environments (technical research of various sorts) I never once saw wireless in use. In at least two of them, wireless networking was explicitly banned for security.Only, there's nothing cramped about the keyboard that goes into a 12" or 12" widescreen laptop.
OK, then the dongle's useful.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gon
I'm clearly of the group you're talking about. IMO, 13" makes this a Macbook.
Setting aside the debate about whether Air should be considered an ultraportable at all, I think Apple is taking the already sorta small ultraportable niche and dividing it again by going too large for many in that niche. Out of all dimensions they could have optimized, they optimized thickness which matters the least.*facepalm*
Matters the least to whom? That's the thing about tradeoffs.
Let me put it another way: The subnote market has never been very large or very profitable. There are two ways to deal with that. You can try to find a sweet spot and steal market share away or you can try to broaden or even reinvent the market. Apple tends to take the latter route, and that's what they've done here. Broadly, they don't care whether the MBA qualifies as a "subnote." They care whether you buy it or not.
If you recall the reaction to the original TiBooks, there was, as Steve anticipated, pure lust over how thin they were. A lot of people switched to Mac just to get one. The MBA makes the other books look like bricks.
Also, the width of the MBA reflects another tradeoff: By all reports the notebook has a solid, rigid feel to it, which will make a lot more people comfortable with buying it and carrying it around. That's clearly the hope, anyway. We'll see what happens when the numbers come in. But my intuition tells me that it's a solid hit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gon
The 1.2GHz U7600 is the current top of the range in ULV processors, which makes it the top choice for an ultraportable.
Among the stock CPUs that Intel offers for that category, yes. But Apple had them make a custom CPU for the MBA that's more powerful.
Fine criticize my poll all you like, but here is a poll done in a similar manner, but there is only one absolute no vote, and the majority is absolute no votes. There are also Eleven thousand four hundred voters. Dose of reality.
Once you read the poll and answer the question as it is asked with just a straight Yes, or No you'll find the actual Number is =
10.464 to 932.
If you have a poll and 20% of the respondents say they are committed to buying a new product, that's usually a huge success. I bet the iPhone had similar or lower poll figures.
If you have a poll and 20% of the respondents say they are committed to buying a new product, that's usually a huge success. I bet the iPhone had similar or lower poll figures.
I don't believe we were talking about "people's claim's" of one day purchasing this POS. Deep Breaths.
In any case we'll see now wont we. I'm still saying this is the new Cube/Failure
If you have a poll and 20% of the respondents say they are committed to buying a new product, that's usually a huge success. I bet the iPhone had similar or lower poll figures.
Comments
This product should really help break Apple into the business world. Sales weasels will be all over this.
folks, not every consumer cares about what we care about.
instead of the cube, i see a comparison to the original iMac.
iMac
1) no floppy
Macbook Air
1) no optical drive
2) built in memory and battery
this is a new breed of consumers who wants an iPod Mac.
it's all about the wireless generation...damn lucky kids...
we want upgradability, the missing ports like firewire or ethernet, etc...but i think a big market is out there for people who don't care about that stuff...
it's as sexy to apple's product line now as the cube was sexy at the time (and still is)
i think this will be a major money maker for apple...
So far, out of 119 votes, 77% of the respondents have a favorable view of the Air with a full 27% who think it is fantastic... in stark contrast to the vast majority of flames on AI (although those are mainly coming from a few vociferous types).
With the newest HD cameras coming out of Japan, you no longer need FW to connect to a computer; USB is all they have.
The poll don't lie: Looks like Apple has a winner.
The absolute yes to no ratio is exactly even. 33 to 33 as it is right now.
Your right that the poll don't lie. It's not a clear cut winner on either side though. And at this rate I don't think there will be.
50% percent of the voters are unsure as I read it. "It May do OK". That's not very comforting.
The absolute yes to no ratio is exactly even. 33 to 33 as it is right now.
Your right that the poll don't lie. It's not a clear cut winner on either side though. And at this rate I don't think there will be.
Onlooker, you have overlooked the fact, as pointed out by an earlier poster, that you created a negative-biassed poll, with only one out-and-out positive option, with said option being excessively positive.
Given that "It may do OK" is the "middling" option, there should be two more positive options above it, just as there are two more negative options below it. Therefore, many people will have chosen the "It may do OK" option, when they would have chosen the next most positive option, had it been available to them.
This product should really help break Apple into the business world. Sales weasels will be all over this.
Not gonna happen. Those "sales weasels" don't have any real software on the platform.
When ACT gets ported or NightHawk has a CRM module, then maybe the Mac will make headway in sales offices.
I agree on the previous post that there were no enough options, and thus I read into the poll a positive meaning for the third choice.
There is a good poll going on over at MacPolls
http://www.macpolls.com/
and the MacBook Air is coming out a real winner. It is designed for a small market and it seems to be getting a fairly good response already. Of 6756 votes, 20% plan to order or have already ordered. Over 8.5% have already ordered; that's 574.
50% percent of the voters are unsure as I read it. "It May do OK". That's not very comforting or certain. That's an I don't know vote. The Majority is obviously undecided, or unsure.
The absolute yes to no ratio is exactly even. 33 to 33 as it is right now.
Your right that the poll don't lie. It's not a clear cut winner on either side though. And at this rate I don't think there will be.
Agreed with Mr. H - poorly crafted poll. I voted "It May Do Ok" when in reality I think it will sell very well. I don't, however, think that it will be "the biggest thing since king kong."
Once you read the poll and answer the question as it is asked with just a straight Yes, or No you'll find the actual Number is =
10.464 to 932.
Second, you'd need to compare to other similar polls (like, for instance, when the last rev of the MBP came out). Obviously, the majority of mac-buyers don't have plans to buy any particular machine.
Third, my first and second reasons are both irrelevant because - let's say it all together now - self-selecting internet polls tell you absolutely nothing about anything!!
If they did, Ron Paul would already be our overlord.
First, this is a machine (like everything else in the MBA category) which is aimed at a sub-set of the laptop market.
Second, you'd need to compare to other similar polls (like, for instance, when the last rev of the MBP came out). Obviously, the majority of mac-buyers don't have plans to buy any particular machine.
Third, my first and second reasons are both irrelevant because - let's say it all together now - self-selecting internet polls tell you absolutely nothing about anything!!
If they did, Ron Paul would already be our overlord.
++ "self-selecting internet polls tell you absolutely nothing about anything!!"
Ordered my MacBook Air today!
So far, out of 119 votes, 77% of the respondents have a favorable view of the Air with a full 27% who think it is fantastic... in stark contrast to the vast majority of flames on AI (although those are mainly coming from a few vociferous types).
With the newest HD cameras coming out of Japan, you no longer need FW to connect to a computer; USB is all they have.
The poll don't lie: Looks like Apple has a winner.
My Canon Powershot G7 is USB. So I'm in. Just need a few bucks is all then I order it.
Throughout ~five corporate environments (technical research of various sorts) I never once saw wireless in use. In at least two of them, wireless networking was explicitly banned for security.Only, there's nothing cramped about the keyboard that goes into a 12" or 12" widescreen laptop.
OK, then the dongle's useful.
I'm clearly of the group you're talking about. IMO, 13" makes this a Macbook.
Setting aside the debate about whether Air should be considered an ultraportable at all, I think Apple is taking the already sorta small ultraportable niche and dividing it again by going too large for many in that niche. Out of all dimensions they could have optimized, they optimized thickness which matters the least.*facepalm*
Matters the least to whom? That's the thing about tradeoffs.
Let me put it another way: The subnote market has never been very large or very profitable. There are two ways to deal with that. You can try to find a sweet spot and steal market share away or you can try to broaden or even reinvent the market. Apple tends to take the latter route, and that's what they've done here. Broadly, they don't care whether the MBA qualifies as a "subnote." They care whether you buy it or not.
If you recall the reaction to the original TiBooks, there was, as Steve anticipated, pure lust over how thin they were. A lot of people switched to Mac just to get one. The MBA makes the other books look like bricks.
Also, the width of the MBA reflects another tradeoff: By all reports the notebook has a solid, rigid feel to it, which will make a lot more people comfortable with buying it and carrying it around. That's clearly the hope, anyway. We'll see what happens when the numbers come in. But my intuition tells me that it's a solid hit.
The 1.2GHz U7600 is the current top of the range in ULV processors, which makes it the top choice for an ultraportable.
Among the stock CPUs that Intel offers for that category, yes. But Apple had them make a custom CPU for the MBA that's more powerful.
Fine criticize my poll all you like, but here is a poll done in a similar manner, but there is only one absolute no vote, and the majority is absolute no votes. There are also Eleven thousand four hundred voters. Dose of reality.
Once you read the poll and answer the question as it is asked with just a straight Yes, or No you'll find the actual Number is =
10.464 to 932.
If you have a poll and 20% of the respondents say they are committed to buying a new product, that's usually a huge success. I bet the iPhone had similar or lower poll figures.
If you have a poll and 20% of the respondents say they are committed to buying a new product, that's usually a huge success. I bet the iPhone had similar or lower poll figures.
I don't believe we were talking about "people's claim's" of one day purchasing this POS. Deep Breaths.
In any case we'll see now wont we. I'm still saying this is the new Cube/Failure
Watching the poll is very interesting... the percentages are not swaying that much even though now more than 14000 people have voted.
I rounded the results to make it easier to read for the no-so-reality- inclined.
60% still say no way
19% are undecided
13% are planning to buy
8% have ordered
Extremely exciting numbers for Apple, I'm sure, even from a non-scientific poll.
OK, then the dongle's useful.
Yah, its useful but Gon did his survey in 2001...
If you have a poll and 20% of the respondents say they are committed to buying a new product, that's usually a huge success. I bet the iPhone had similar or lower poll figures.
http://www.handcellphone.com/archive...-iphone-survey
77% had heard of the iPhone
6% said they'd buy one in two years.
So of the population that had heard of the iPhone, about 8% said they'd buy one.
So no, not a particularly good survey to try to show that the MBA is DOA.
In any case we'll see now wont we. I'm still saying this is the new Cube/Failure
Gentlemen's wager then? What is the criteria for failure?
Gentlemen's wager then? What is the criteria for failure?
Steve didn't set a sales target for the Air (at least not publicly). I wonder what Apple's internal goal is.