Apple, I love you, but I don't understand you

[Zak]

Well as rumored, the new macbook pros are out. WTF.

I'm literally going to try to take the Air back. For $200 more you get twice the laptop. I just do not understand the strategy behind this move, what, less than a month after releasing the Air.

I'll save some of you the trouble, I understand they are two different computers...I understand that, but from a hardware perspective, the $2k Pro is completely the better choice, and honestly, probably not that much bigger.

Surely I can't be the only one that feels that way. Right?

[billreeves]

What a pain in the ass. Couldn't they have warned people at MacWorld, "hey, the Air is really cool, but for you guys who want some real muscle in your laptops, stay tuned" or something like that?

[Zak]

That's exactly how I feel. To be honest, the Air will be under 1500 by summer.

[Daniel from Montréal]

The big complaints on the mac boards is Apple still forcing people to go to the 1,300$ MacBook when the entry-level (at 1,099$ - a lot for "entry-level") still doesn't have a DVD burner, something that comes standard with laptops a fraction of that price.

[Sachsen]

Look, I'm not justifying the high cost for the Air. I was hoping it would be less myself. I'm not going to be buying one.

But.

It's pretty obvious that you don't buy the Air for its "muscle". If you're concerned about that, you're not the target buyer, and you never were. The Air is all about the form factor. The thinness. The lightness. The total lack of cables and discs. The etherealness of the thing.

It's the same with the black MacBook. You're getting the exact same computer as a white MacBook, but paying more for the color. If you want a certain image, you pay more. It's that simple.

Honestly, I have no sympathy for early adopters who then whine when something "better" comes out shortly thereafter. It was the same with the iPhone. It's old news by now - if you want to be sure about your purchase, WAIT.

You want extra style, or you want it early, you pay a premium. It's really very simple.

[Visca...]

Look, I'm not justifying the high cost for the Air. I was hoping it would be less myself. I'm not going to be buying one.

But.

It's pretty obvious that you don't buy the Air for its "muscle". If you're concerned about that, you're not the target buyer, and you never were. The Air is all about the form factor. The thinness. The lightness. The total lack of cables and discs. The etherealness of the thing.

It's the same with the black MacBook. You're getting the exact same computer as a white MacBook, but paying more for the color. If you want a certain image, you pay more. It's that simple.

Honestly, I have no sympathy for early adopters who then whine when something "better" comes out shortly thereafter. It was the same with the iPhone. It's old news by now - if you want to be sure about your purchase, WAIT.

You want extra style, or you want it early, you pay a premium. It's really very simple.
Agree.

iPod Touch is a great example of it. Now with 32GB!!! :D

[CutePuppy]

iPod touch simply rocks but Macbooks always suck.

[Andy Bennett]

Yeah, these are pretty amazing things...

OKQPpq2Mo8g&NR=1

:D

Seriously, though, who needs a portable/laptop/whatever THAT thin???

[Visca...]

iPod touch simply rocks but Macbooks always suck.
says you, of course. :)

[Kryptonite]

Honestly, I have no sympathy for early adopters who then whine when something "better" comes out shortly thereafter. It was the same with the iPhone. It's old news by now - if you want to be sure about your purchase, WAIT.

You want extra style, or you want it early, you pay a premium. It's really very simple.

Remember when HDTV first came out? We saw the early adopters go out and be the first on the block with a 720 TV when the rest of us still had the CRT 480 4x3 TVs? Everyone waited, and waited. 1080i came out and the early adopters dumped the 720 TVs for the 1080i. A few "non early adopters" went out and got the 1080i.

More people waited until their 4x3 TVs were broken beyond repair to buy a 1080p TV.

Same thing with HD-DVD. People ran out to get those boxes like they were the hottest item on the market.

IMO, unless you have boatloads of money to burn, and feel like gambling, don't be an early adopter...you may end up regretting it.

PlayStation2, Nintendo 64...when those items first came out, I waited several months (or a year or more) to buy them. Sure, I had to wait around, while everyone else was talking about it, but at the same time, I didn't pay $1200 more than the store price or wait in some long line at 4 AM in the snow to buy it. After a few price cuts, then it was time.

This is how Apple makes money...the more computers they release in patterns like these, the more money they make. Is it an honest business practice? Probably not. But it works. Watch...in under a year, they'll release the MacBook Air 2 or MacBook SuperAir or UltraAir or something like that. It'll make the MB Air obsolete.

[Ringo]

Couldn't they have warned people at MacWorld, "hey, the Air is really cool, but for you guys who want some real muscle in your laptops, stay tuned" or something like that?

i'm not a laptop guy, but how did you guys not know that? everything I read about the Air was that it WASN'T designed for the power users and that if you want real muscle, this wasn't the computer for you. I thought it was pretty obvious that they're serving two different markets ....
anybody who needs some real muscle and bought an air needs some brain muscle, too.

[dannytoone]

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/02/26/macbook-and-macbook-pro-penryn-battery-life-updates-sooner-than-later/
The biggest question is why Apple bothered speed bumping the MacBooks which were not yet due for revision. According to our sources, Apple was forced by Intel into upgrading the MacBooks at this time. Intel is aggressively phasing out the older generation 65nm Merom chips over the coming months. As a result, Apple needed to upgrade the MacBooks in the interim to maintain a proper supply. One could speculate that, consequently, the next MacBook refreshes may occur mid-year, ahead of their expected product cycle.

Since the new 45nm process technology is vastly cheaper, Intel has wanted to drop their 65nm technology as quickly as possible. Intel quickly realized it was a mistake to release it so soon, because retailers complained about not being able to sell their old 65nm stock. Intel cut back sales of the new processors to allow the old ones to sell. It should be mid-May before you wont be able to buy a 65nm processor anymore.

Apple didn't plan to release the new Intel processors until they could release the new chipset at the same time, but with the quick liquidation of the old design, Apple was forced into making this decision.

The next Macbook update will be much more important than this one, as they are finally updating their FSB and memory standard with a new chipset.

[Own Goal Hat-Trick]

I'd love to go back to Apple, actually, but none of the software I need is developed for macs...

[dannytoone]

I'd love to go back to Apple, actually, but none of the software I need is developed for macs...
What software do you use?

[Own Goal Hat-Trick]

What software do you use?

Well, I don't know if I'll have a personal copy or not when I'm done with school, but ArcGIS. I mean, yeah, you can use virtual PC, but I'd imagine that the memory requirements get sketchy...

[dannytoone]

Well, I don't know if I'll have a personal copy or not when I'm done with school, but ArcGIS. I mean, yeah, you can use virtual PC, but I'd imagine that the memory requirements get sketchy...
Have you tried Parallels? It is not really an emulator, which means it doesn't run slower or have more system requirements to run. It runs windows programs natively.

Also, have you looked into open source solutions to ArcGIS? Almost every scientific licensed application now has an open source equivalent, many of which are even better than the licensed software. And most open source programs are easily compiled to use any OS you want.