"model spacing theory" so easily runs amok...
There surely must be a limit to how many products Apple is willing to offer at once, and how "close" different models will be allowed to get. But for us to speculate on this and try to project it into the future, seems to be the most foundation-less kind of projecting we do.
The Kahney book shows how the returning Jobs cut the bloated computer line down to 4. But obviously that number of products has been climbing back up ever since. In the same vein, I happened to see a documentary on McDonald's before Ray Krok bought it, how simple the menu was. And how integral that simplicity was to the business plan. Compare that with the current stores with a long menu and the menu being shown on big video screens jammed in side by side. It gives a rather fuzzy image to read from afar, but I guess those screens allow instant change.
Back on topic. To say that the MacBook Air will never get 3G, because that would encroach on sales of the iPad.... aaaaggghhhhh.
When they express recent trends in their sales, in this language, was it we've become "a mobility company", the smallest possible interpretation would be -- that COULD be nothing more than a vague euphemism for "we've become a company making over half of its profits from iOS & app/music/book selling thru iOS". But I think that taking "a mobility company" at face value is an interpretation that resonates with an Apple facing the facts of current trends in the real world and in the marketplace. Specifically, other laptop makers aren't offering the option of cellular modems, for nothing.
Some other trends favoring cell modems integrated into the macbook line some day: 1.) the dream of Wi-Fi hotspots all over, all gloriously unlocked, has died. I happen to live in a city that promised to build a free Wi-Fi system as part of revivifying the downtown Main Street area, which has been withering on the vine as malls and big box / category-killer stores suck the money out. Reality: the free Wi-Fi never got installed, and all the home Wi-Fi's are de facto locked, even if the list of Wi-Fi systems your computer/etc. finds, initially seems to show that some are locked and some are unlocked. 2.) Here's another trend: Geographic dispersion. As housing prices climbed in the last 25 years, people went farther from centers of employment to buy houses. They decided to put up with longer commutes, as the tradeoff. Heck, by the end of the 1980's already there were people employed in Manhattan, commuting daily from the eastern end of Pennsylvania! The horrifically long commutes of more than an hour each way, were no longer just an L.A. thing. If you're on a commuter train, or bus, or in a carpool where you aren't the driver, what do you do with that 1-1/2 or 2 or 2-1/2 hour ride? And for sure, that burb in the boonies doesn't have any free Wi-Fi.
My route to optimism on 3G goes like this: The recent manifestations of design growth and design leadership at Apple have been: The iPhone (had wi-fi, when plenty of competitors didn't... had relatively good battery life and now it's even better... and got a big effort on the Retina display which leapfrogs over the whole market even when the market wasn't demanding it), and the iPad (great screen too... big battery-life in tune with real-world needs... AND A CELLULAR MODEM OPTION). All of these things I've listed in parenthesis, seem to indicate a historic THAW in Jobs's earlier negative thinking as expressed in his exaggerated statement "Design is about saying 'No'."
Of course Apple has some products that are gathering moss from being too skimpy to begin with, and being updated not enough. But look at where the growth is in Job's on-the-job education and maturation as the decision-maker that the designers report to. Look at the growth in profits which percentage-wise too is shifting towards the products with less stinginess and more leadership in their designs.
If this recent design approach of "let's lead" spreads just one rung up the product ladder (weightwise, which would be logical if your direction is to be "a mobility company"), that rung IS the Air. Sooner or later, if Apple is smart, the revised Air or a new post-Air ultralight, could make a great leap forward. Could.
What mobile worker wants a laptop with no handle or grip-ability features of any kind, which is so heavy that if you drop it, it'll break a bone in your foot?
I lifted a 17" MBp the other day, and the weight was actually frightening. Drop that anvil on your foot, and you'll break more than one.
