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Just 2 weeks to WWDC and STILL no MBA refresh: Your prediction for the MBA's fate?
- Thread starter Jobsian
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I think it's a major revision now coming, but I don't know if it will come at WWDC. It seems obvious that if Apple updates the MBA at WWDC it's going to be very different. I suspect now that we have a lengthy wait for the major revision. I certainly hope it happens at WWDC, but I just don't know that Apple would have focused on the MBA during these times of putting the whole force on the iPhone OS and iPad. I do believe Apple will at least introduce one new Mac at WWDC either way... but I believe it will be a Mac Pro for sure... I just don't know that Apple would have an MBA update right now at WWDC.
A MacBook Air with a C2D and Nvidia 320m makes all the sense in the world to me, but I don't know how Sir Stevie stands up and introduces that type of MBA at WWDC? Perhaps that's still the component makeup but Apple will change the form factor? I don't know about that either. The bottom line is that I am completely confused about the MBA updates. I thought C2D and Nvidia 320m would have come last October, or at the latest March 2010... then when the 13" MBP was updated with C2D and Nvidia 320m, I thought the MBA would for certain get the MacFive update before WWDC.
A MacBook Air with a C2D and Nvidia 320m makes all the sense in the world to me, but I don't know how Sir Stevie stands up and introduces that type of MBA at WWDC? Perhaps that's still the component makeup but Apple will change the form factor? I don't know about that either. The bottom line is that I am completely confused about the MBA updates. I thought C2D and Nvidia 320m would have come last October, or at the latest March 2010... then when the 13" MBP was updated with C2D and Nvidia 320m, I thought the MBA would for certain get the MacFive update before WWDC.
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Our authoritative poster may have explained it. Letting Air and some other notebooks get stale over time, is apparently actually a highly conscious and calibrated maneuver
) consistent with evolving the firm's market focus from "pro" people (or road warriors in the Air's case), to the "luxe" market of people who won't notice the Air's staleness, or mind the value proposition. A high-level management maneuver in which Apple doesn't actually have to DO anything! Just let things slide. LOL. ------- And I love his term "nominal delay." As if it isn't a real delay, it's just something some people are calling a delay. Nominally. I don't know whether to laugh or cry, at that amazingly crafted turn of a phrase. ----- He suggests WWDC will update the Air, OR the Mac Pro. That's a big "or"! I predict that next year, Ford will update the Fiestas, "or" the Lincolns.
Our authoritative poster may have explained it. Letting Air and some other notebooks get stale over time, is apparently actually a highly conscious and calibrated maneuver
) consistent with evolving the firm's market focus from "pro" people (or road warriors in the Air's case), to the "luxe" market of people who won't notice the Air's staleness, or mind the value proposition. A high-level management maneuver in which Apple doesn't actually have to DO anything! Just let things slide. LOL. ------- And I love his term "nominal delay." As if it isn't a real delay, it's just something some people are calling a delay. Nominally. I don't know whether to laugh or cry, at that amazingly crafted turn of a phrase. ----- He suggests WWDC will update the Air, OR the Mac Pro. That's a big "or"! I predict that next year, Ford will update the Fiestas, "or" the Lincolns.I think there are a few good updates left in the life of the Macbook Air. The market is small, but many people still need a full functioning and light laptop for work. A craptastic netbook doesn't come close and the iPad is entertainment only at this point.
However, I think eventually a high end iPad will cause the air to be discontinued at some point in the next 3 years.
However, I think eventually a high end iPad will cause the air to be discontinued at some point in the next 3 years.
I can't see that happening as the Pad and the Air are totally different animals.
to add all the features now common in the Air to the Pad, you'd end up with a 10" screened Air.
ergo, why bother.
Apple is the master of cool and as such I'd say we'll see the Air around for a while yet, refreshed from time to time as the techno-combinations make it plausible - that is until the next stunning form factor for an ultra-light fully-fledged notebook is unveiled.
Apple has hit on a concept here that has appeal and which does sell rather well despite the comparisons to the rest of the range (I'd be interested to see a comparison of units sold between the Air and the 17" MBPro for example) and I believe this concept will only be refined as the time goes by.
I think at the WWDC we might see new Pro desktops (which would make mine an old duck, sigh) and not an MBA, unfortunately. Even if it were to happen, it would be as Scottsdale says C2D with 320m - but C2D is dead at the end of the year and with all the iPhone and iPad hype AND still missing MP upgrades I simply cannot see them presenting a "new" MBP with the same old processor (literally). I could see an upgrade of all 13 inch Books early 2011 when the C2D is done for... Who knows with what though given the Intel/NVIDA issue.
This sounds like a distinct possibility. Jobs seems bent of touting the iPad as a new technology that will render netbooks obsolete. That said, the MBA is the closest other product to a netbook. If Apple sees this as product redundancy, then the MBA is dead. However, as evident in the original MBA being a testbed of new tech (SSD) and its premium price, Apple is clearly not intending to advertise the MBA as a netbook, but much more.
With the mindset its more than a netbook, and the recent updates of other products, I would expect an update of the MBA to be near. This could be explosive if Apple wishes to continue to charge a premium for the MBA and distance it with new tech. While thinner, the MBA has the same width and depth of the other 13 inchers, but no disc drive. Apple could use the real estate to put in an iCore and discrete graphics, giving more than form factor to justify the premium price. (It sorely needs justifying with what is now a significantly slower processor than the MB at 50% or more greater price)
Possible configuration:
Intel i5 Core 2.40 GHz
4GB DDR3 Ram (max config)
128GB SSD (standard, 256GB available)
NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics (saves power over the 330M)
10-11 hour battery
Many of the pro set would jump to spend $1800 US on this.
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"Is he referring to...?" No, not Scottsdale, not this thread.
"Is he referring to...?" No, not Scottsdale, not this thread.
Sorry to bring bad news, but an update of the MBA is unlikely at this point. Given the state of the economy, Apple is focusing on the lower end of the market, rather than on the high-end.
Manufacturing a new Air now looks like out of the question, since there would be no major new components (maybe some RAM, bigger SSD).
My prediction is that the next MBA will be after the summer, and having a new AMD/ATI combo CPU/GPU.
Manufacturing a new Air now looks like out of the question, since there would be no major new components (maybe some RAM, bigger SSD).
My prediction is that the next MBA will be after the summer, and having a new AMD/ATI combo CPU/GPU.
Do you intend to say that apple would put a 35 watt TDP CPU/GPU in a computer that currently has a 29 watt while their main target seems to be huge battery life? What you have just said is that apple will put a battery the size of the one in the new polycarbonate Macbook into an MBA.
Okay. So, what were you referring to? The only other thread that contains the phrase "nominal delay" was concerned with the opening of the iTunes Music Store in Canada back in 2004.
I'm just curious. It was a very impassioned statement.
Call me crazy, but i think the MBA and the iPad collide. Weak processor, laptop body, and cost really hurt the MBA when faced against an iPad.
Lets face it, any person trying to get any real usage out of a laptop is going to go for a MacBook or MBP. Anyone that just wants to consume content and be portable is going to go for the iPad. There will always be people that are willing to pay the expensive price for the MBA, but not enough to keep it alive.
It is a neat little computer though.
Lets face it, any person trying to get any real usage out of a laptop is going to go for a MacBook or MBP. Anyone that just wants to consume content and be portable is going to go for the iPad. There will always be people that are willing to pay the expensive price for the MBA, but not enough to keep it alive.
It is a neat little computer though.
I see it taking the same road as the Apple Tv updates only when it truly needs it the air is perfect for email web photos and and iTunes movies what Apple pushs as they sell it. I would love to see an update but i dont see one till next Jan or Feb when the run out of C2D and truly need to.
MBA is my primary computer and it really does great. Who says thAt the MBA doesn't do enough it's because never tried it. Just go to the apple store and try the ssd version. It's much faster than any of the other 13' laptop.
I don't want to buy an ipad. I don't need it. I just want a MacBook air with 4gb of ram and the new nvidia. Possibly the glass track pad. No black bezel.
I don't want to buy an ipad. I don't need it. I just want a MacBook air with 4gb of ram and the new nvidia. Possibly the glass track pad. No black bezel.
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Nilonym: I find Google's performance is very spotty, applied to M.R.
Nilonym: I find Google's performance is very spotty, applied to M.R.
Yea I don't think Apple is as interested in a stop gap MBA (320m/4gb ram) as we are. They are perfectly content waiting 6 months and releasing a core i series set up. They can get away with it too since it's not billed as a high perfomance machine. As long as it runs the current office suite, email, and web browsing no significant number of customers will care just the .1% in this forum.
I fear you're correct. However, Apple might lose me as an OS X customer whether it loses me as a Mac customer or not. I see Windows 7 as a solution on my current MBA. I want to be able to run both OS X and Windows 7. However, Windows provides EVERY APP I NEED. While OS X doesn't provide all of the apps I need. In addition, Windows provides the entertainment experience I really want. So one solution is just moving my whole MBA system to Windows 7 and rebuying all of the applications I need and want for the Windows platform.
The whole reason for me to buy a stopgap MBA is to be able to run OS X and Windows simultaneously via a VM. I need 4 GB of RAM minimum to make that happen. So Apple is risking losing me as an OS X customer and missing out on one extra MBA sale just by not updating the MBA for me. Now add all of the customers like me who might be fine with the MBA in one OS but also want to run Windows 7. The big advantage of the Mac is I can run both OSes. If the MBA cannot technically handle both OSes then that's no longer an advantage for the MBA. I can run either at one time, but that's ridiculous as I don't want to turnoff OS X and boot Windows and vice-versa.
If I switch all of my apps to Windows, it will be very costly for me to want to switch back to OS X. Surely there are others like me with these thoughts? The whole problem with Apple gaining on Windows is each Mac switcher has the added costs of switching which is buying all of their apps in the new OS. So every Mac OS X customer lost is going to be lost with a high-cost transition to Windows which means it will be even harder for Apple to get the customer back. Honestly, Windows has caught up with OS X. Apple has stopped working on OS X 10.7. What the hell is Apple thinking? I mean not updating its Macs on a timely schedule and then stopping development of the only other reason people buy Macs, OS X. I buy Macs primarily because of the design and OS X. However, OS X is becoming less and less of a real reason in the deal. If competitors can compete with Mac designs, there is no reason to move to the Mac or stay with Apple's Macs. Apple really needs to deliver a revolutionary OS X 10.7... stopping development on it for iPhone OS 4 is a terrible mistake in my opinion. This strategy could truly come back to haunt Apple.
Scottsdale -- Like you, before I'll be interested in any MBA update, it must be able to run Windows and OS X apps simultaneously in either Fusion or Parallels. Thus, if Apple still provides only 2Gb of RAM in an updated MBA, I will not be buying one. That said, I think it is a given that any refreshed MBA will include at least 4Gb of RAM. Even the low end 13 inch MBP now has that, so it's hard for me to believe that a new MBA wouldn't.
Thanks to my MBP, which has been eminently satisfactory since I upgraded its RAM to 6Gb, I can afford to keep waiting until next March when my MBP's Applecare coverage runs out. Better yet, my iPad, despite its well known weaknesses, has proved to be an outstanding choice for highly mobile use. Thus, until and unless Apple provides an upgraded MBA that I can be sure will handle my needs, I will be happy to stay on the sidelines.
Thanks to my MBP, which has been eminently satisfactory since I upgraded its RAM to 6Gb, I can afford to keep waiting until next March when my MBP's Applecare coverage runs out. Better yet, my iPad, despite its well known weaknesses, has proved to be an outstanding choice for highly mobile use. Thus, until and unless Apple provides an upgraded MBA that I can be sure will handle my needs, I will be happy to stay on the sidelines.
I've been haunting the MBA threads lately because I've always wanted a MacBook Air, but Apple can SHOVE that 2GbRAM and I've been sniffing around for any rumor or possibility of the MBA to gain at LEAST more RAM in a much-hoped for refresh. This is EXACTLY what I am waiting for so I can run Parallels and Windows 7 - so Scottsdale and gwsat, we're soul brothers in that respect.
iPad does nothing for me.
voicegy -- I just wish that I could be absolutely certain that 4Gb of RAM would be enough to allow me to run several Windows apps and several more OS X apps simultaneously from the OS X desktop with VMware Fusion in Unity mode. I am cautiously optimistic because I have been running just such a setup with only 2Gb of RAM and 1 processor core dedicated to the Fusion vm. I keep trying to get some feedback from others who have satisfactorily run a bunch ow Windows and OS X apps simultaneously in Unity mode with only 4Gb of RAM. So far, though, I haven't seen a thing that seemed definitive.
I like the iPad but only as an adjunct to a real computer, to be used for limited purposes while in situations that make a laptop inconvenient. The iPad is not suited for either document creation or numbers crunching. It's a lightweight device, which should be limited to being used for lightweight purposes.