MBA sales going well?

[thinkdesign]

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robeddie: Thanks for that.

It's one of those words (like snarky) that, as soon as you learn it -- you wonder how you ever got along without it!

I'm pretty sure there's no common English word for that. Is there any language other than German that has one?

And, do you happen to know when this term appeared?

 

[Drinahn]

If I listened to recorded books on a real computer it would be easier, easier still if I played the actual discs. I have opted, though, to copy the discs to a hard drive so that they are readily available anytime I want them. I get it that you wouldn't do it but it works for me. By the way what is "alleged convenience" and what is the real thing is in the eye of the beholder. Trust me on this. If you do things your way and leave it to me to do them in the way that works best for me, I'm sure we'll both be very happy.

Sorry - I must be being stupid... I don't own an iPad so perhaps I'm missing something... but is there a reason you need the audio files in aiff format on the iPad? Surely just importing the CD into iTunes on your MBP, then syncing them over to the iPad would make the process less tedious? Or is it that goodreader gives you better playback options for audio books?

Again - sorry if I'm missing something - just reading this thread and got caught up in it!

 

[gwsat]

Drinahn[/I];10406122]Sorry - I must be being stupid... I don't own an iPad so perhaps I'm missing something... but is there a reason you need the audio files in aiff format on the iPad? Surely just importing the CD into iTunes on your MBP, then syncing them over to the iPad would make the process less tedious? Or is it that goodreader gives you better playback options for audio books?

Again - sorry if I'm missing something - just reading this thread and got caught up in it!

When I first got the iPad, I did what you suggest but quickly stopped. For some reason, iTunes doesn't like the way chapters of some audio CDs are titled and fails to import them in the right order. Obviously, that just doesn't work, which is why I got Goodreader and started doing it as described in my earlier posts. It takes some time but it's not hard. That said, none of this hassle would be necessary if the iPad were less crippled than it is. It is more than a toy but still falls far short of being able to do things like file transfers, which real computers make easy.

 

[PracticalMac]

Apple sells about 20,000 MBA's worldwide weekly.

Store at Frankfurt Airport is the number 1 seller of MBA's.

Source: Jessica B. our corporate account rep at Apple HQ.

Apple sells $50,000 MacBook Airs per month.

50,000x12months= 600,000 units per year

600,000x$1,499 price tag = $899,400,000 in revenue!

Well, iDisk,
Not only did entatlrg source out do your quote (80,000 units a month), but your post said "$50,000" MBA a month, as in 33.3 units.

Reading your post I feel like you are the bearded guy in the Kesha video for "Your love is my drug"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR_qa3Ohwls&feature=related

Any wonder everyone scratchings their heads?


So it seems MBA sales are strong (good), what is importance of it to:
1 million iPad's a month
4 million iPhone G4 in 3 days (or was that 7, crazy number).


So, since the MBA is 18 months old now, is a price drop in works? I can buy 1.5 MB for MBA, and get a better performing machine.
It is a gorgeous machine, but the internet is a nasty place.

Go buy an Air.

Add FW800 and drop the price $200, I will, in a heartbeat.
Might even get one at $1500 if it had FW800

 

[SamTheeGeek]

im currently looking for a light 13" laptop , i dont wanna get the MBP or the MB so i was lookin' at the MBA its seems like the best choice but im thinkin of waiting for an update as it been out for a while.


what do you guys think ?

 

[thinkdesign]

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Spec-wise, the Air is SO CLOSE to talking its potential market to the next level.

Whatever # of consumers can consider it with the current RAM... double that RAM, and the potential audience will more than double... it could multiply 5-fold? 1--fold? (... that is, if they hear the news and in a way that they 'get' it... Apple would probably have to bother to advertise it, at least a little. )

Similarly, double the size of the biggest available SSD in the Air, and again the number of people who could be well served by an Air, would instantly be multiplied by what, 10, 20, 30-fold? Again, if the new product comes to their attention, and they connect the dots... or a little advertising pushes the good news out to a large audience.

The story of the Air is "close, but no cigar". Both of the cramped memory specs are JUST ONE OR TWO MINI-BUMPS AWAY... from a whole higher level of mass market success!

It's a late-bloomer.

Jobs cannot possibly be so thick headed, as to not let it bloom.

 

[gwsat]

Sorry - I must be being stupid... I don't own an iPad so perhaps I'm missing something... but is there a reason you need the audio files in aiff format on the iPad? Surely just importing the CD into iTunes on your MBP, then syncing them over to the iPad would make the process less tedious? Or is it that goodreader gives you better playback options for audio books?

Again - sorry if I'm missing something - just reading this thread and got caught up in it!

Drinahn -- Thanks to your having reminded me of the possibility of using iTunes to copy CDs and sync them to the iPad, I took another run at doing it and was pleased. I had forgotten that iTunes compresses the CDs' native AIFF files to MP4. That alone makes using iTunes to copy the CDs worthwhile because AIFF files are between 8 and 10 times larger than MP4 files. What that means is that instead of only being able to keep a couple of audio books on the iPad, I can now put 15 or 20 there. I also discovered that some audio book discs have enough information encoded on them that iTunes automatically creates a directory for the book and subdirectories for each disc. The downside is that, in addition to being able to create subdirectories, the lack of information sometimes makes iTunes copy files to a playlist out of order. I have some ideas, though, about how to get around this.

Anyway, thanks for the tip. Copying audio books from CDs and downloading them to the iPad really is easier with iTunes. Thanks again.

 

[thinkdesign]

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Typo in 2nd paragraph of my post, 2 posts above this:

--- that should be... "... 5-fold? 10-fold?"

 

[mrsir2009]

It seems like the MBA has been replaced by the iPad.

As for the Mac Pro: Its quite sad that Apple have moved so much into the gimmicky mobile devices industry that they have forgotten about the serious machines

 

[gwsat]

It seems like the MBA has been replaced by the iPad.

My experience with the iPad has convinced me that it is no replacement for the MBA or any other real computer. So far at least, there are so many things the iPad can't do, or does poorly, I avoid using mine for much beyond reading ebooks or listening to audio books. The iPad may ultimately become a viable alternative to the MBA but it's not that yet.

 

[thinkdesign]

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entatlrg: Is it possible you could ask your Rep. ... which stores in the USA sell the most Airs? And which Apple Store in NYC?

(Whichever one in NYC sells the most... that would be the one whose Genius Bar I would want to use... as they might have more experience with it.)

Thanks!

 

[PracticalMac]

My experience with the iPad has convinced me that it is no replacement for the MBA or any other real computer. So far at least, there are so many things the iPad can't do, or does poorly, I avoid using mine for much beyond reading ebooks or listening to audio books. The iPad may ultimately become a viable alternative to the MBA but it's not that yet.

I would agree with this. iPad is really an information point, not a content creator, however the MBA has limited performance and may be not much more then something to send emails with and update Facebook page.

 

[flynz4]

I would agree with this. iPad is really an information point, not a content creator, however the MBA has limited performance and may be not much more then something to send emails with and update Facebook page.

Very wrong.

/Jim

 

[theappleguy]

however the MBA has limited performance and may be not much more then something to send emails with and update Facebook page.

Considering I can use my Rev A MacBook Air for everything other than gaming and video editing, I would imagine the current Rev C would be more than sufficient for most people's needs.

 

[PracticalMac]

Very wrong.

/Jim

Will you be doing Dreamweaver on it?
Photoshop?
Hows about Filemaker Pro?
big Excel files?
Oh, those are professional, not

Then what about
iMovie? (better to use a desktop, no?)
iPhoto? (can do, but my iPhoto library is about 50gb, and some think that is small)
iTunes? (need a superdrive to rip CD's, but there is always iTunes and Limewire)

I am not saying MBA cannot do it, but for major projects and/or large volumes of work MBA may be too limiting.

Considering I can use my Rev A MacBook Air for everything other than gaming and video editing, I would imagine the current Rev C would be more than sufficient for most people's needs.

Sounds about right.

 

[flynz4]

Will you be doing Dreamweaver on it?
Photoshop?
Hows about Filemaker Pro?
big Excel files?
Oh, those are professional, not

Then what about
iMovie? (better to use a desktop, no?)
iPhoto? (can do, but my iPhoto library is about 50gb, and some think that is small)
iTunes? (need a superdrive to rip CD's, but there is always iTunes and Limewire)

I am not saying MBA cannot do it, but for major projects and/or large volumes of work MBA may be too limiting.

The original copies of all my digital media lives on a 27" i7 iMac, and that is where I do the vast majority of the type of work that you mention.

Mostly... it is because of the 2TB diskspace, large monitor, and of course processor.

However, on the MBA I can do any of my workflow with the possible exception of video transcoding (I never tried).

I use Aperture 3 and the MBA handles it with ease. My photo library is larger than yours. My main aperture library is on the iMac, but I can easily export libraries and consolidate masters to do photo work in the field. I have no desire to have my full library on my laptop.

I have a quite large and very complex excel spreadsheet with dozens of tabs and huge complex pages with thousands of variables and extensive conditional formatting which the MBA handles with ease. There is no noticeable difference between it and the i7. I am in that spreadsheet many times every day, and it is one of the most complex I've ever seen.

Irrespective of what laptop I own... I will have a heavy duty desktop for many reasons. Given this... it just intensifies my resolve to have as comfortable laptop as humanly possible. I have pretty much completely stopped using my 15" MBP because the MBA is 10X the machine in terms of ease of use. My wife also has a 15" MBP... and she keeps asking me when I am going to buy a new MBA for myself so that she can inherit this one.

As far as I can tell... the MBA form fact is about as perfect as I can imagine in a laptop. I would like it to be a bit lighter, and I would like it to have 4GB of RAM. The battery life is just fine. If they made it an ounce heavier to give us a longer battery I would be disappointed.

I have owned about 20 laptops in my life, most of which were performance machines. In my opinion, the MBA is the very best by far, with nothing in 2nd place.

Having said that, I would not necessarily recommend if it was going to be a sole machine. Luckily, I do not have that handicap.

/Jim

 

[Quad 2.5 G5 =)]

This is spot on and no doubt the combination of these two factors are the two biggest reasons we are playing the waiting game and starting threads like this, ad infinitum.

I think the best thing for them to do, if they can't do a spec bump on the CPU, throw in the GT 320M, and double the memory and HD size, at least to 160GB.

 

[sushi]

Interesting thread.

On a personal level, priorities for me to consider the MBA over a MBP13, would be 4GB or more of RAM, plus a larger capacity SSD.

Increased CPU speed/throughput would be nice. But for me, it is a distant 3rd to compared to more RAM and a bigger SSD.

Of course, a cheaper price point would be nice. And maybe in the future we will see an option like this in the future.

 

[gwsat]

I believe that those who think the MBA is inadequate for basic data input functions, such as word processing and numbers crunching, have been misinformed. The current MBA is more than adequate for such tasks. Nevertheless, when the time comes to replace my current MBP I will probably be forced to buy a 13 inch MBP instead because I will need more than 4Gb of RAM, which I suspect is what will come in an upgraded MBA. Of course, if Apple surprises us and provides an option for more RAM that 4Gb, I'll be first in line to buy one.

 

[sushi]

I believe that those who think the MBA is inadequate for basic data input functions, such as word processing and numbers crunching, have been misinformed. The current MBA is more than adequate for such tasks.

Agree.

Plus it's much better than a Netbook for those tasks for a myriad of reasons, but most importantly it has a full sized keyboard.

 

[Cottonsworth]

Agree.

Plus it's much better than a Netbook for those tasks for a myriad of reasons, but most importantly it has a full sized keyboard.

Don't forget a larger screen and much higher resolution. I brought a netbook for traveling and absolutely hate it. The resolution is just too low to surf the web without having to scroll constantly. That would be my biggest grip. The best part is the battery life though and I envision the next MBA update will manage to have much better battery life like the current gen MBPs.

 

[raccoontail]

Don't forget a larger screen and much higher resolution. I brought a netbook for traveling and absolutely hate it. The resolution is just too low to surf the web without having to scroll constantly. That would be my biggest grip. The best part is the battery life though and I envision the next MBA update will manage to have much better battery life like the current gen MBPs.

I love my netbook for traveling. I can pop my camera's SD card into it and easily transfer photos without hauling around a cable. I've given an impromptu PowerPoint presentation just by plugging in the VGA cable at the podium - no dongle required. The last hotel I stayed at had wired-only ethernet... again no dongle required. I was on a bus with internet and no outlets, and my battery lasted five hours. It's no speed demon, but I develop websites on WAMP, Photoshop, etc and it's perfectly usable. MS Office actually feels faster on my Netbook than on my Core2Duo iMac (probably MSFT's fault, not Apple's). I have small hands, so maybe the keyboard bothers me less than most... I'll replace the netbook with a MBA when a better one comes out, but I hope in an update Apple corrects the lack of ports/SD Slot as well as the low RAM capacity, high-heat, and short battery life.

 

[flynz4]

I love my netbook for traveling. I can pop my camera's SD card into it and easily transfer photos without hauling around a cable. I've given an impromptu PowerPoint presentation just by plugging in the VGA cable at the podium - no dongle required. The last hotel I stayed at had wired-only ethernet... again no dongle required. I was on a bus with internet and no outlets, and my battery lasted five hours. It's no speed demon, but I develop websites on WAMP, Photoshop, etc and it's perfectly usable. MS Office actually feels faster on my Netbook than on my Core2Duo iMac (probably MSFT's fault, not Apple's). I have small hands, so maybe the keyboard bothers me less than most... I'll replace the netbook with a MBA when a better one comes out, but I hope in an update Apple corrects the lack of ports/SD Slot as well as the low RAM capacity, high-heat, and short battery life.

Almost all good hotels (Westin, Sheraton, W, Ritz, Marriott, etc) only have wired connections. The budget chains tend to have wireless... but coverage is usually spotty. I prefer wired connections.

To overcome the problem, I carry an Airport Express. I really do not like being tethered to a cable dragged across the floor... and besides, my wife also wants an internet connection so we can share a single connection. Highly recommended.

I do not mind having no ports on my MBA. I would rather have that then any extra bulk in the basic machine. I do keep a tiny flash card reader in my bag just in case I want to empty my camera. With the ridiculosly low cost of flash cards, I generally do not need to unless I am planning to edit. I generally do not do that during trips, but occassionally it is nice.

I actually returned a netbook and bought my MBA. I am pleased with my decision.

/Jim

 

[raccoontail]

To overcome the problem, I carry an Airport Express...I do keep a tiny flash card reader in my bag just in case I want to empty my camera. /Jim

Carrying an iPhone USB cable for charging phone, netbook + its powerbrick is plenty for me - I like to travel light as possible. the MBA is a great computer, I just don't understand how adding wired ethernet, SD Slot, and another USB port to the design would weigh it down that much and all of these are really useful for travelers, which must be a target market for the MBA. I plugin a USB mouse + printer or USB stick all the time....

 

[gwsat]

Almost all good hotels (Westin, Sheraton, W, Ritz, Marriott, etc) only have wired connections. The budget chains tend to have wireless... but converage is usually spotty. I prefer wired connections.

To overcome the problem, I carry an Airport Express. I really do not like being tethered to a cable dragged across the floor... and besides, my wife also wants an internet connection so we can share a single connection. Highly recommended.

I have had uniformly good luck with the wireless connections provided by Hampton and others. Nevertheless, I agree that taking an Airport Express would be good insurance. It is both small and light so throwing one in your computer bag with your computer would not be a big deal.