Posts Tagged MacBook Air

My thoughts on the New MacBook Air

Oct 24

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology | 9,258 Comments

I recently wrote a post about what happened to the MacBook Air and sure enough Apple comes out this week with entirely new MacBook Air.

I’m a tech nerd at heart so I thought a few of my readers would be interested in my thoughts about the model from the tech inside the unit to the price point.

1.  Price Point begins at $999.99

Apple has managed to deliver the type of design they are known for at a price that may make a few business customers at least consider them when weighing a Dell versus a Mac.  It’s not as cheap as an iPad at $499, but a much more functional machine in terms of daily usage….it can actually print documents.

2.  The use of a low voltage processor

One of the ways Apple is able to achieve great battery life with this machine is the use of a ultra low voltage processor from Intel.  Sadly these chips are extremly slow…they start at 1.4ghz and go all the way up to 2.16ghz.  The MacBook Pro I’m typing this on is a generation ahead of this chip and runs at 2.66ghz.  My hunch here is technically nothing else was possible in a .63 inch thick machine and from a pricepoint standpoint this chip is a great balance of performance/price.

3.  The use of SSD instead of a normal hard drive

Instead of bundling inside this machine a normal hard drive Apple chose to use SSD memory.  When you click on a program and you watch the hour glass on the screen as it loads most of the time that isn’t because your machine is processing it’s due to your hard drive spinning up and trying to load the application.  With SSD this process can be on the same machine 2x to 4x faster.  By bundling SSD inside the MacBook Air Apple is going to be able to make up for the slow processor inside the MacBook and make the machine feel very quick.

I think we’ve reached a point with laptops where they are fast enough for 99% of people.  If it loads up the web, plays flash videos or lets you video conference then most users are satisfied.  Sure the machine is a bit skimpy on the RAM you can upgrade it for $100, what’s really cool is that in a 2.2 pound device a person can have a fully functional laptop thats designed a by company who is notorious for making beautiful machines that are unaffordable.

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What happened to the MacBook Air?

Aug 31

Posted by Andrew Machado in Technology | 8,390 Comments

It was January 15, 2008 when Steve Jobs unveiled the world’s thinnest notebook.

Since the MacBook Air’s launch its been plagued with issues around heat, price and design.
Overpriced and underperforming

Overpriced and underperforming

Heat
When they first launched the MacBook Air users complained of lockups centered around heat produced when the machine was working near 100% capacity.  This has since been fixed.
Price
When launched the MacBook Air was $2499 to start! Since its launch two revisions have followed and both showed a dramatically reduced price. Currently today if you went to buy a MacBook Air they start at $1499.
Design
Often praised for its unbelievable craftsmanship the Macbook Air was plauged with issues around only having one USB Port, a really crappy graphics card and a very underpowered Intel CPU.  Future revisions have remedied the graphics card issue, but the one USB port and slow processor still remain.
It’s been over a year since the MacBook Air was updated. In computer time this is an eternity.  So whats going on?  My hunch is Apple used this product as an experiment a few things:
1. Better manufacturing process’ (the unibody enclosure) now used on all MacBook Pro products.
2.  A high margin product that had just enough sex appeal to sell well enough to keep the lights on but not warrant any heavy R&D investment
3.  Better market research on true mobile computing. The MacBook Air is thin and light but nowhere near the iPad which is slowly becoming a dominant force in ultra portable computing.
My Prediction
One more revision before the holiday season before the MacBook Air is retired.  You can pick up a MacBook for $999 today thats much faster, a tad heavier, but if you need lightweight computing hello iPad + a MacBook for the same price :)

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