If the MBA is discontinued, how will we know?

[Hellhammer]

*snip*

If they can fit 3G in iPhone, they can fit it in Air. Even though Sandy Bridge is coming in early 2011, there is no guarantee that Apple will use them right away, especially in MBA. Heck, it took Apple 4 months to use Arrandale in MBPs even though they sell like hot cakes. I haven't seen any specific details of Sandy Bridge so we have no idea about the TDPs and performance, yet.

I think MBA doesn't need more than 4GB RAM, better battery and price cut. Whether it gets 10% faster CPU or not, I don't care. Same applies to GPU. There is always something to wait for but when we're talking about Apple, we never know will Apple use it and if they do, when they will use it.

 

[thinkdesign]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11) Sprint PPC6850SP)

These discussions always run the gamut from --what would be great? What would be enough? and what will they actually do (and when)?


Since the Air has stagnated way more than any other Apple laptop, the third question looms larger with each passing month, with some on this forum (not me) even arguing that the ones on sale now may be the end of the line, if the whims of the CEO-monarch have turned elsewhere.

There's facts. There's logic. Ther's market demands.

And then, there's Jobs.

He makes money, but doesn't necessarily cover the waterfront with a product for every user. And in the absence of Mac O/S licensing, if Jobs loses interest in an ultralight Mac, nobody else can make one.

The customers have little leeway to go elsewhere.

He has Apple's "supine board" (a term of art; not mine) wrapped around his finger, more than ever now. So, he's free to make the dumbest decisions possible on the Air's fate, with effectively no accountability. It,s hard to think of another product so vulnerable to one person's whim.

 

[voicegy]

There's no indication that the Air is going EOL other than the fact that, historically, it is due for an update and that hasn't happened yet. I predict it will get an update in specs, but not necessarily design, soon.

 

[Scottsdale]

There's no indication that the Air is going EOL other than the fact that, historically, it is due for an update and that hasn't happened yet. I predict it will get an update in specs, but not necessarily design, soon.

The Mac mini wasn't touched for over two years. Then it got a small update or maybe two (I don't recall)... then it got the latest incredible update. Everyone thought the Mac mini was EOL. Everyone was convinced it was gone... and it's still here and probably selling better than ever based on the response.

I definitely believe the MBA will get its update... maybe minor, then big. Maybe BIG... maybe a long wait, maybe a short wait... but the new "mobility" company Apple claims to be surely wouldn't axe its most mobile Mac that runs its long time successful OS X.

I believe the MBA's concept is here to stay. Could get renamed or things could change, but an ultraportable Mac notebook will be one of Apple's offerings for a long tim.

 

[Hellhammer]

The Mac mini wasn't touched for over two years. Then it got a small update or maybe two (I don't recall)... then it got the latest incredible update. Everyone thought the Mac mini was EOL. Everyone was convinced it was gone... and it's still here and probably selling better than ever based on the response.

I definitely believe the MBA will get its update... maybe minor, then big. Maybe BIG... maybe a long wait, maybe a short wait... but the new "mobility" company Apple claims to be surely wouldn't axe its most mobile Mac that runs its long time successful OS X.

I believe the MBA's concept is here to stay. Could get renamed or things could change, but an ultraportable Mac notebook will be one of Apple's offerings for a long tim.

I agree. If I may correct you, Mini was without an update for one year and 7 months with my maths. It has now got three updates within a year and three months, all being pretty major (first one introduced new GPU and DDR3 etc, second brought the Server model and now the latest brought the new design, new GPU and HDMI). Just because the buyer's guide says it's due for an update doesn't mean that it'll get one soon. 30" ACD has been without an update for over three years but it's not EOLed yet as it's being sold and hopes for new displays have been around all the time.

20 000 units per week is still a nice job, it's over million machines per year! MBA may not be the best selling Mac, nor is the Mac Pro but both have their market.

 

[thinkdesign]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11) Sprint PPC6850SP)

Well, IIRC as soon as the economy crashed, rumors of the Mini and even the MB being EEL'd or at least no more updates on the MB, became obviously moot. You don't dump your cheapest laptop and your cheapest desktop, right after financial armegeddon hits some of your buyers. Even if it's true that you were thinking about doing that, before the $ crisis hit.

Of course there's the wide gap between Minis and the big desktops... would no new desktop have appeared in the middle? I guess the Mini WAS "middle" pricewise, in relation to its competition... if not specwise. Would it be fair to say that the most unclear area of Apple's plans, is with the desktops? They deny that the highest users are being fired, they decide not to dump the low end, they have no middle...

Wondering: is the Mini's refresh "incredible" in part due to the aluminum case? It's a desktop, small enough to be hidden. No need for durability. The case could be made of any number of materials; do people really dig solid milled aluminum enough to pay the extra cost for it? On a tiny desktop, unless there's some functional benefit to the new case, it seems a bit fetishistic, or perhaps status-related? (Said the guy with the largely plastic G-Shock solar/radio-controlled wristwatch, that he got for $60. Why put more $ and effort into my hidden computer's looks, than into a my
very visible watch's looks?)

Since the Mac Mini's so easily stashed in a cabinet wherever you have the empty space.... and since the cabinets it may end up in may be made of wood AND have close to no ventilation.... I wonder if there's a heat dispersal problem there needing further effort. Perhaps have a heat-dumping hose a foot or 2 long -- that follows the cables thru whatever hole they go through, out of the furniture compartment -- to dump heat outside?
Like the micro version of one of those windowless A/C's hoses? Just thinking out loud.
How hot can a confined Mini get?

Does the new one change that temperature?

 

[tim100]

just information

The Mac mini wasn't touched for over two years. Then it got a small update or maybe two (I don't recall)... then it got the latest incredible update. Everyone thought the Mac mini was EOL. Everyone was convinced it was gone... and it's still here and probably selling better than ever based on the response.

I definitely believe the MBA will get its update... maybe minor, then big. Maybe BIG... maybe a long wait, maybe a short wait... but the new "mobility" company Apple claims to be surely wouldn't axe its most mobile Mac that runs its long time successful OS X.

I believe the MBA's concept is here to stay. Could get renamed or things could change, but an ultraportable Mac notebook will be one of Apple's offerings for a long tim.

whats the point? going without an update for so long makes the 13 mbp and others more attractive. 2 gigs of ram in a notebook, come on. I know many use it and are fine but many could use a 5 year old powerbook and be fine. I am not buying something with specs from 2 years ago even if it is thin.

 

[thinkdesign]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11) Sprint PPC6850SP)

The galling thing about the 2 gigs of RAM is that, everyone can see that it's absolutely easy for them to change to 4 gigs. There are no complications, no problems with availability, and no "change this and you have to change that" stuff involved.

As something intended as a quiet update, with no dvance announcement of a date, Jobs could have given the order at any time in early 2010. It could have been utterly painless, even in bean-counting terms: As soon as the factories ran out of 2 gigs parts, the next supplies sent in could've been the 4 gig RAMs. Then as soon as most of the old stock sold off, they could've swept the last few oldies into the refurb store, and Voila! the next Tuesday the AppleStore web site gets changed.

It is indisputable that there have been absolutely NO technical or supply problems preventing them from doing this.

Nor does it interfere with or get too close to any change that might be coming, next.

Low sales can be a self-justifying prophesy. A brilliant mid-century New Yorker travel writer Frimbo, who specialised in the deluxe trains of yore, once explained how this works, in that context. His example was how state regulators in N.Y. didn't want needed train lines discontinued. So the RR corps. would fiddle with the schedules to in effect, shake off customers. A 10 PM train might get shifted to 10:30. They'd deliberately depress ticket sales so they could show the regulators "Look, proof that demend for this line is falling." and thus eventually get permission to drop it.

The relatively low Air sales might (we don't know) be used to rationalise neglect of Apple's skimpiest spec'd laptop. But it's an interactive cycle... if they didn't neglect it (esp. the substandard RAM, and not offering a 256 SSD option)... it would HAVE higher sales.

The current Air's deal -- is not unlike buying one of those 1.4 or 1.6 four cylinder econo-box cars, knowing that by the time that tiny
engine is approaching 50,000 miles and is getting really weak, you're going to have to sell it.