is Apple locked into the $899 price point where they have to offer a laptop at that price now? One thing that makes Apple's product lines messy is when things exist solely to hit a specific price point. That's why we got devices like the iPad 2 and 1st gen mini hanging around longer than they should have.
They've been able to grow Mac unit shipments as a result while the PC industry shrinks. If they cut off the entry price points then they will undo some of that. Their Mac ASP is $1237 so they will be selling a lot of units below $1200. If the entry price was $1200, those buyers at $900 might just go elsewhere instead of paying $300 more. They have raised entry prices with their other lines though. At some point it will make sense to get rid of non-Retina models entirely. Switching the higher models first is typically the route they go. With the Macbook Air, they kept the old Macbook around until the prices fell; with the Retina Macbook Pro, they kept the non-Retina models to begin with and dropped them over time and still have one left; with the Retina iMac, they started with the highest model and then introduced lower ones. Apple generally has a $200 premium for the Retina IPS displays. If the Air went Retina, it would be $1099 for 11" and $1199 for 13" so just bringing the 12" Retina MB down to $1199 is the easier route. They don't need to hit $899 but it's good to have at least one model under $1000 so keeping the old 11" around lets them do that until the 12" component prices come down and they just discontinue the Air. As I say, people who want the Air for more power would just migrate to the 13" rMBP.
What would be good is MacBook Air become like Surface and it's clearly possible because with a bigger screen, there's more room for battery and bigger processor.
To make the 13" Air redundant, they just need to drop the pro weight by around 1/3...
I love how you state "they just need" like this would be a simple thing to do.
Yeah they just find that extra 1/3 and then throw it away . They already managed to reach that weight with the Macbook Air so they know how to design a chassis of that weight. There will be some balancing between the CPU power and the battery size and improved processors help with that. Right now the 13" Air maxes out at a chip with 9.5W TDP (but has managed 17W in the past) and has a 54Wh battery and the 13" Pro has a chip with a 28W TDP and a 75Wh battery. With Skylake chips and an updated display like the Macbook to have better brightness vs power they may get away with trimming the battery down to the same as the Air and can then taper the design a bit. It only needs to get close to the Air weight, it doesn't have to match exactly because a Retina Air would have needed a bigger battery. They can also get rid of the main chassis screw mounts if they switch to a screwless base plate that uses clasps, which thins out the whole sides of the metal body.
even reading this is confusing, let alone explaining to a non-experienced buyer what their best choice is. I've bene using macs professionally for 20 years and still find it hard at the moment to choose a new laptop for my teenage kids !
I'm in the same boat. Couldn't decide which one to get my son, and staring at a specifications comparison spreadsheet I prepared wasn't leading me to a clear answer.
So I went into the Apple store to see them in person. (I already have a retina MacBook Pro, so I'm familiar with that.) The MacBook Airs seemed nice, but the display was noticeably blurry compared to retina display. It was noticeable when looking at movie trailers, but really noticeable looking at a document in Pages.
The display units had 256 GB of flash disc, with only 75GB available, which also ruled out the smallest Airs with 128 GB flash disc. The price advantage was narrowing.
On to the new MacBook. I was prepared to dislike it for the slow processor, but I couldn't find any application to test in which the MacBook seemed slow. I think the 8 GB memory and flash disc must help performance, which seemed fine. Maybe if I was doing some heavy processing in iMovie I could've seen it drag, but performance was fine when playing sample movie clips in iMovie.
My last concern about the new MacBook is the USB-C charging port. I like MagSafe, and I've read bad reviews of Apple's USB-C cables that sometimes stop working after awhile. Fortunately there seem to be other cables available that get good reviews, so I think this concern can be addressed. We rarely plug in peripheral devices, so that isn't a concern.
My decision: the MacBook. It's a really impressive laptop with a great display and keyboard packed into an amazingly small form factor. Performance seems fine for typical use, and my cabling worries have answers.
Seriously? Another eight months before we get skylake?
Just whack a retina display and 8GB ram in the current MBA form factor and I will buy three. Immediately.
Problem is I need to purchase them for Christmas. Otherwise, at the moment I am seriously looking at dell XPS or HP spectre x360. Both with Skylake, decent amount of RAM and retina like displays. Same price range.
Buy a rMBP. It makes zero sense for Apple to add retina to the MBA when the rMBP exists. This rumor makes zero sense. The only thing the MBA got this year was a spec bump. If Apple was planning to keep the line around how come only the rMBP and rMB got the new trackpads? Also this rumor says these redesigned Airs will be coming out at WWDC. Seriously? PC OEMs are releasing Skylake devices right now. Dell just updated their XPS lines. I'm highly skeptical that Apple will wait 7 months to update Macs with Skylake. Plus the past two WWDC's have been hardware free and now with iOS, OS X, watchOS, tvOS, 3D Touch, iPad Pro and Apple Pencil I think Apple can easily fill up two hours just talking software updates.
My guess is it's the Pros being redesigned and we may see them announced at a Q1 event.
I couldn't disagree more strongly with you, I hope you are utterly wrong to the point of bookmarking your post to revisit in a few months time, should the new MBA sport a retina display.
It amazes me how many comments come from the vantage point of "This is what I want/I have no use for this…," instead of "This is what I think is best for Apple's bottom line/I think Apple's objective is to…"
My comments could hardly be considered what I want since I don't even own a Mac. I think it's silly for Apple to have three laptop lines. I think it makes most sense for the Air to be discontinued so you'd have MacBook for average consumers and MacBook Pro for people who need more ports and power. This is what I think is best for Apple. Get rid of the clutter and confusion and simplify product lines. And like I said I think they should do the same thing with iPad. There is no real difference between the mini and the Air. Everybody knows now iPads are super thin and light. We don't need a specific naming convention to tell us that. Just have iPad and iPad Pro. Much less clutter and confusion.
you don't even own a Mac and yet you giving us pearl of wisdom? go away
I don't even know what the point of the MacBook is. Paying that much for a Core M processor is insane. I also don't know what the point of the iPad Pro is and I think others agree with me from a rumor I've heard about sales figures. As far what I'd do and I don't know anything about running a company but FWIW.
Discontinue MacBook Air 11", allowing for only the MacBook Air 13" and MacBook Air 15" (although I don't know about the MBA 15") and to me the MacBook Air should just be the MacBook. I get that when Steve Jobs introduced it, the idea of it fitting inside a manilla envelope with the Yael Naim - New Soul song was to be cutesy and clever. It took until Revision D when it went to flash storage by default that it started to be perfect.
Keep the MacBook Pro line as is except perhaps get rid of the $1,299 model and drop the prices of the 256 GB PCIe SSD model and 512 GB PCIe SSD model for the 13" line. 128 GB was fine for an SSD before but 256 GB should be the minimum now.
Get rid of the $1,099 iMacBook Air and drop the price of the Iris Pro iMac (non-4K) to $1,099 perhaps even $999.
Also I'm hoping for the Mac mini to be updated to Skylake next year but I'll be getting a new one I feel in the meantime.
I don't even know what the point of the MacBook is. Paying that much for a Core M processor is insane. I also don't know what the point of the iPad Pro is and I think others agree with me from a rumor I've heard about sales figures. As far what I'd do and I don't know anything about running a company but FWIW.
Discontinue MacBook Air 11", allowing for only the MacBook Air 13" and MacBook Air 15" (although I don't know about the MBA 15") and to me the MacBook Air should just be the MacBook.
This is what they'll be doing: the moment the new MacBook can drop to $999, the MacBook Air will be phased out.
They did the exact same thing with the MacBook when the 11" MacBook Air came out, two years after the original Air, and sold for $999: the MacBook held on for the rest of its regular product cycle, and was dropped from the next line revision (remaining available only to educational institutions for another year).
My hunch is that the MacBook will be 12" and 14" versions, and the MacBook Pro at 15". That's the next lineup.
I'd love to see a cheaper 13" or 14" quad-core Pro, but I kind of doubt it at this point.
Comments
They've been able to grow Mac unit shipments as a result while the PC industry shrinks. If they cut off the entry price points then they will undo some of that. Their Mac ASP is $1237 so they will be selling a lot of units below $1200. If the entry price was $1200, those buyers at $900 might just go elsewhere instead of paying $300 more. They have raised entry prices with their other lines though. At some point it will make sense to get rid of non-Retina models entirely. Switching the higher models first is typically the route they go. With the Macbook Air, they kept the old Macbook around until the prices fell; with the Retina Macbook Pro, they kept the non-Retina models to begin with and dropped them over time and still have one left; with the Retina iMac, they started with the highest model and then introduced lower ones. Apple generally has a $200 premium for the Retina IPS displays. If the Air went Retina, it would be $1099 for 11" and $1199 for 13" so just bringing the 12" Retina MB down to $1199 is the easier route. They don't need to hit $899 but it's good to have at least one model under $1000 so keeping the old 11" around lets them do that until the 12" component prices come down and they just discontinue the Air. As I say, people who want the Air for more power would just migrate to the 13" rMBP.
To make the 13" Air redundant, they just need to drop the pro weight by around 1/3...
I love how you state "they just need" like this would be a simple thing to do.
I agree that the wording isn't the best, but I think the rest of his statement puts it into context.
How about: "[In order to effectively] make the 13" Air redundant, they [would] need to drop the pro weight by around 1/3…"
From what I read, Type-C 3.1 supports Thunderbolt 3 so you wouldn't need two separate ports. That would be a good thing.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/207211-intels-thunderbolt-3-offers-usb-compatibility-at-full-thunderbolt-speed
What would be good is MacBook Air become like Surface and it's clearly possible because with a bigger screen, there's more room for battery and bigger processor.
MacAir!!! That's it! Mac Air!
Bring back the 17 inch Macbook Pro.
Yeah they just find that extra 1/3 and then throw it away
even reading this is confusing, let alone explaining to a non-experienced buyer what their best choice is. I've bene using macs professionally for 20 years and still find it hard at the moment to choose a new laptop for my teenage kids !
I'm in the same boat. Couldn't decide which one to get my son, and staring at a specifications comparison spreadsheet I prepared wasn't leading me to a clear answer.
So I went into the Apple store to see them in person. (I already have a retina MacBook Pro, so I'm familiar with that.) The MacBook Airs seemed nice, but the display was noticeably blurry compared to retina display. It was noticeable when looking at movie trailers, but really noticeable looking at a document in Pages.
The display units had 256 GB of flash disc, with only 75GB available, which also ruled out the smallest Airs with 128 GB flash disc. The price advantage was narrowing.
On to the new MacBook. I was prepared to dislike it for the slow processor, but I couldn't find any application to test in which the MacBook seemed slow. I think the 8 GB memory and flash disc must help performance, which seemed fine. Maybe if I was doing some heavy processing in iMovie I could've seen it drag, but performance was fine when playing sample movie clips in iMovie.
My last concern about the new MacBook is the USB-C charging port. I like MagSafe, and I've read bad reviews of Apple's USB-C cables that sometimes stop working after awhile. Fortunately there seem to be other cables available that get good reviews, so I think this concern can be addressed. We rarely plug in peripheral devices, so that isn't a concern.
My decision: the MacBook. It's a really impressive laptop with a great display and keyboard packed into an amazingly small form factor. Performance seems fine for typical use, and my cabling worries have answers.
Discontinue MacBook Air 11", allowing for only the MacBook Air 13" and MacBook Air 15" (although I don't know about the MBA 15") and to me the MacBook Air should just be the MacBook. I get that when Steve Jobs introduced it, the idea of it fitting inside a manilla envelope with the Yael Naim - New Soul song was to be cutesy and clever. It took until Revision D when it went to flash storage by default that it started to be perfect.
Keep the MacBook Pro line as is except perhaps get rid of the $1,299 model and drop the prices of the 256 GB PCIe SSD model and 512 GB PCIe SSD model for the 13" line. 128 GB was fine for an SSD before but 256 GB should be the minimum now.
Get rid of the $1,099 iMacBook Air and drop the price of the Iris Pro iMac (non-4K) to $1,099 perhaps even $999.
Also I'm hoping for the Mac mini to be updated to Skylake next year but I'll be getting a new one I feel in the meantime.
They did the exact same thing with the MacBook when the 11" MacBook Air came out, two years after the original Air, and sold for $999: the MacBook held on for the rest of its regular product cycle, and was dropped from the next line revision (remaining available only to educational institutions for another year).
My hunch is that the MacBook will be 12" and 14" versions, and the MacBook Pro at 15". That's the next lineup.
I'd love to see a cheaper 13" or 14" quad-core Pro, but I kind of doubt it at this point.