I wonder if this new crop of ultra-thin Macbooks is going to threaten iPad sales. Certainly the iPad is half the price of the low-end MBA, but the MBA isn't that much harder to lug around and it's so much more capable. Lately I find myself reaching for my 2010 MBP more than the iPad and that's a beast compared to this year's crop.
Apple Finishing Up Work on an Ultra-Thin 15" Mac Notebook
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Re: Apple Finishing Up Work on an Ultra-Thin 15" Mac Notebook
#12I wonder if this new crop of ultra-thin Macbooks is going to threaten iPad sales. Certainly the iPad is half the price of the low-end MBA, but the MBA isn't that much harder to lug around and it's so much more capable. Lately I find myself reaching for my 2010 MBP more than the iPad and that's a beast compared to this year's crop.
I think that depends on how we define "capability," and for which segment of hypothetical users. Over the long run, I could just as easily see cannibalization's moving in the opposite direction.
To wit: there's probably at least one big segment of the population that just doesn't seem to need laptops all that often, if at all. Even ultralight ones. Give them an iPad, and they can do their web surfing, media consuming, emailing, Facebooking, and fowl-slinging all day long. My girlfriend and my parents fall into this category, for instance; they own MBAs and iPads, and the former are usually collecting dust -- perhaps occasionally used for word processing only.
Re: Apple Finishing Up Work on an Ultra-Thin 15" Mac Notebook
#13I wonder if this new crop of ultra-thin Macbooks is going to threaten iPad sales. Certainly the iPad is half the price of the low-end MBA, but the MBA isn't that much harder to lug around and it's so much more capable. Lately I find myself reaching for my 2010 MBP more than the iPad and that's a beast compared to this year's crop.
I think most people use the ipad to view content or play games. see: http://mashable.com/2010/07/08/ipad-usage-report/
It not so much about lugging a computer around, but using the ipad while you're on the move. The Ipad is so much easier to use in that way. There are plenty of photographers and videographers who use it to show their work. People are using it to replace e-readers (like me). Restaurants are using it to manage their living social deals, loyalty programs and square credit card processing. And I notice the form factor(touch screen no keyboard) makes it simple for them to use while moving around. Most non technical people won't pay more for Macbook if ipad is good enough for their needs. So I don't see ultra thin Macbooks threaten ipad sales. For me I love using both. Ipad for magazines, books, portfolios, casual games, occasional web browsing. And Mac book pro for everything else, coding, writing music, editing pictures.
Re: Apple Finishing Up Work on an Ultra-Thin 15" Mac Notebook
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you've got a Thunderbolt display as a docking station then you could just connect a DVD drive to one of its USB ports - even the "Macbook Air" SuperDrive addon, if you want to keep everything Apple-styled.
Except the MBA SuperDrive only works with an MBA.
Or a drive-less Mac Mini. But your point still stands.
Re: Apple Finishing Up Work on an Ultra-Thin 15" Mac Notebook
#15I wonder if this new crop of ultra-thin Macbooks is going to threaten iPad sales. Certainly the iPad is half the price of the low-end MBA, but the MBA isn't that much harder to lug around and it's so much more capable. Lately I find myself reaching for my 2010 MBP more than the iPad and that's a beast compared to this year's crop.
I think most people use the ipad to view content or play games. see: http://mashable.com/2010/07/08/ipad-usage-report/ It not so much about lugging a computer around, but using the ipad while you're on the move. The Ipad is so much easier to use in that way. There are plenty of photographers and videographers who use it to show their work. People are using it to replace e-readers (like me). Restaurants are using it t…
I'm probably not a typical user, but over and over again I find that while browsing on the iPad that I want to comment at length on something I read, which I hate doing on the touch keyboard. I also tend to browse the web with a bunch of tabs open and switch around quickly and this also isn't so pleasant on the iPad. Something like the 11" MBA with Ableton Live, Adobe CS, XCode, Terminal, Chrome, and Transmit could be all the computer I need and would be no trouble to port around.
At this point the only thing I strongly prefer to do on the iPad is read ebooks. I wonder how many people there are like me that love the portability and convenience of a tablet but would be happy to put up with a slightly larger device if it meant they could do real work with it as well.
Re: Apple Finishing Up Work on an Ultra-Thin 15" Mac Notebook
#16Somewhat related, but the Asus Ultrabook mentioned in the article looks fantatic: http://www.macrumors.com/2011/05/30/intel-outlines-ivy-bridg...
I'm as unhappy as anybody else about Apple's latest raft of lawsuits but that's about as blatant a ripoff of the MBA design as I can imagine.
Re: Apple Finishing Up Work on an Ultra-Thin 15" Mac Notebook
#17And just like that my plans to by the 13 inch MBA have been thrown into dissaray
Re: Apple Finishing Up Work on an Ultra-Thin 15" Mac Notebook
#18This is what I've been expecting. I used to think I was unique, but looking at the forums, I realize there's a whole cadre of people who buy MacBook Pros, take out the optical drive, and replace it with an SSD, so they run with both an SSD and a hard drive. The SSD runs the OS and has your code and apps on it, the hard drive has your Big Media.
I hope, when Apple gives up the optical media drive, they will still continue to have a hard drive slot.
I'd much rather just buy the machine configured this way from Apple than have to rework the internals of my laptop (And undo everything if I have to take the machine in for support.)
Re: Apple Finishing Up Work on an Ultra-Thin 15" Mac Notebook
#19I hope this is true. The revamped MBA is very attractive, but the 13" screen kills it for me. I'm ready to say goodbye to my optical drive.
Have you checked one out at a store? It's actually very useable, I was surprised.
Re: Apple Finishing Up Work on an Ultra-Thin 15" Mac Notebook
#20could it be possible that they end up with just one line of products, like the current air and in 11, 13, 15 and 17" formats?