Will the Macbook Air eventually be the only Apple Laptop?

[Forgeron]

So here is my thought:

- In a couple years Apple will drop the white macbook, and every macbook pro.
- We'll get a lineup of 11, 13, 15 and 17 inch MacBook Airs.

Why?

- Unless you need storage/optical media or need to save money, there really is no upside to not getting an Air if you want anything 13 inch.
- Apple is moving to flash, when it gets cheaper, we will be able to get 1TB+ storage in the airs on flash.
- Optical media is dying. Apple will never get Blu ray, because there is no point to bother with ancient discs, when we can download 1080p movies from iTunes and our software from the Mac Store.
- There won't be a lack of ports. The 13 inch has an extra SD card slot over the 11 inch. There is no reason to assume a 15 inch won't have ethernet and the 17 inch won't have everything it has today, while still having that awesome slope to super thin.
- There is no reason to assume video processors and CPU's won't get small enough to be powerful enough for a 17 inch Macbook air "pro" laptop.

So my guess, by 2013, every macbook will be a macbook air. And I cannot wait to get my 17 inch Air.

 

[alust2013]

I don't think they will be quite that thin, and until internet speeds are fast enough everywhere, the optical drive stays. Currently the HD content on iTunes is only 720p, and takes forever to download, so 1080p would easily take twice as long. I honestly would love to see blu-ray drives, as I have yet to find any sort of internet streaming or download movie that comes close to that kind of quality.

 

[dukebound85]

i like my ports, my storage, the price, the upgradeability of the non airs but to wach his own

 

[HardLuckStories]

one word..yes.

 

[drjsway]

The MBPs might approach the thinness of the current MBAs someday, but by then the MBA will be even thinner. There will always be MacBook that use the ULV CPUs and ones that use regular ones.

 

[Apple OC]

No they will not become the only Macintosh Laptop ... the reason being is they service completely different users.

however ... I do see the macbook retired someday

 

[hachre]

I think the MacBook Air will replace the typical consumer MacBook eventually. The MacBook will be retired.

Maybe the Pro line loses the 13" again and will be trimmed more to pro likings.

I think Apple wants the majority to buy the Air and a substantial lower amount to buy the Pros again.

 

[iEdd]

Next phase is the 11" and 13" dropping to $799 and $999 respectively, with the white macbook going for good.

I'd be happy for Apple to remove as much stuff as they want to eventually Air the whole lineup, BUT they should add a lightpeak port or two to allow any possible peripheral to be connected. (It would also allow a single-connector docking station for at home.)

 

[KPOM]

I predict the MacBook will be retired, and that there will be thin Pro models without optical drives in the near future, but that there will always be a "Pro" line that has more advanced processors and graphics. Perhaps the 17" will be the only one with a built in optical drive, just as it is the last one left with an ExpressCard slot.

 

[darksolusion]

Next phase is the 11" and 13" dropping to $799 and $999 respectively, with the white macbook going for good.

I'd be happy for Apple to remove as much stuff as they want to eventually Air the whole lineup, BUT they should add a lightpeak port or two to allow any possible peripheral to be connected. (It would also allow a single-connector docking station for at home.)

yeah lightpeak is cool....but NO..our cpu and ssds will not that handle speed of 10gb/s.....atleast not until macbook air 2012 arrives.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/28/ocz-amps-up-performance-on-revodrive-x2-pcie-ssd-740mb-sec-up/

think thats one of the fastest ssds which goes into pci which is as big as the 11.6 macbook....pointless until the day iphone 10 comes out!

 

[tdream]

one word..yes.

one word.. no

 

[hachre]

yeah lightpeak is cool....but NO..our cpu and ssds will not that handle speed of 10gb/s.....atleast not until macbook air 2012 arrives.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/28/ocz-amps-up-performance-on-revodrive-x2-pcie-ssd-740mb-sec-up/

think thats one of the fastest ssds which goes into pci which is as big as the 11.6 macbook....pointless until the day iphone 10 comes out!

Lightpeak won't arrive until 2012 anyway.

And besides you are thinking too constrained. You seem to only be thinking about IO transfers. Sure they are a huge factor. But Lightpeak isn't meant to be maxed out by one task. They wanna be able to do anything any other port is doing today in one unifying port type. And they wanna do several of those things over ONE cable.

They even want to replace display cabling with light peak, and on the MacBook Air 13" that essentially means a 1440x900x3x8x60 bits/s data stream. That alone is 1.7 GBit/s.

 

[bowlerman625]

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I'd say no too.

 

[Forgeron]

I don't think they will be quite that thin, and until internet speeds are fast enough everywhere, the optical drive stays. Currently the HD content on iTunes is only 720p, and takes forever to download, so 1080p would easily take twice as long. I honestly would love to see blu-ray drives, as I have yet to find any sort of internet streaming or download movie that comes close to that kind of quality.

A 1080p movie of 8gb takes a couple hours on com cast. Faster than driving to best buy and back.

My guess is an external drive option for those who really need it. Last time I used a disc was 2008.

No they will not become the only Macintosh Laptop ... the reason being is they service completely different users.

Not by the time CPUs and storage have gotten up to most peoples needs. Which some argue they already have.

The different users would pick a 11 or 17 inch air model. No need for a pro because of higher CPU power anymore, in a couple years.

 

[coelacanth]

I think, within 1-1.5 years, Apple will drop the optical drive from most of MacBook Pro line. Maybe the 17" will be the only one with optical drive.

At that point, Apple will drop "Air" from MBA name, and this form factor will become the standard "MacBook (Pro)."

One more prediction: I think they'll sell OS X Lion in the form of memory stick only, no DVD.

 

[Brien]

I don't think the Air will "replace" the Pro lineup for several years. Instead I, like many others, think that Apple will kill the white MacBook and hopefully slide the prices down $100-200 (bringing the 11" into PC pricing, for once).

I also think we'll see a 15" MBA, so that there will be overlap like in the old iBook/PowerBook days.

What I would love to see is since Apple can now focus on making the Air the sexy, thin machine, they are more likely to put better CPU/GPUs in the MBP.

PS: The trend has been toward people buying smaller, not larger, laptops, so it's entirely possible that we'll never see a 15" or 17" MBA.

 

[hachre]

I think, within 1-1.5 years, Apple will drop the optical drive from most of MacBook Pro line. Maybe the 17" will be the only one with optical drive.

At that point, Apple will drop "Air" from MBA name, and this form factor will become the standard "MacBook (Pro)."

One more prediction: I think they'll sell OS X Lion in the form of memory stick only, no DVD.

I think the optical drives will disappear sooner than that. The next refresh will already drop them from the MBP 13" at least, and the rest on the refresh after that I believe.

And, yea, I also think the MacBook Airs of today will be the MacBooks of tomorrow. And the Pro line will lose the 13" again eventually, I think...

I also expect Lion on a stick

 

[iEdd]

I think the optical drives will disappear sooner than that. The next refresh will already drop them from the MBP 13" at least, and the rest on the refresh after that I believe.

What, so the 13" MBP is just a MBA with ethernet and firewire?

IMO that would never happen. Apple would just kill off the MBP instead of making 2 products that close. Edit: As in, go directly to your 2nd paragraph, but not anytime soon.

 

[coelacanth]

I think the optical drives will disappear sooner than that. The next refresh will already drop them from the MBP 13" at least, and the rest on the refresh after that I believe.

And, yea, I also think the MacBook Airs of today will be the MacBooks of tomorrow. And the Pro line will lose the 13" again eventually, I think...

I also expect Lion on a stick

My thoughts exactly. The first "sign" will be there sooner.

How's this?

MacBook: 13", unibody, no optical drive mainly for education/kids/volume buy. Probably plastic and not as thin as Pro/Air. HDD standard.

MacBook Air: 11" only. Apple's "Netbook." SSD only.

MacBook Pro: 13" (today's 13" Air) and 15" with no optical drive probably more ports compared to the "new" Air. SSD only.

MacBook Pro 17": Still got optical drive, bunch of ports and all that jazz. 15hours of battery life. SSD and/or HDD.

 

[hachre]

My thoughts exactly. The first "sign" will be there sooner.

How's this?

MacBook: 13", unibody, no optical drive mainly for education/kids/volume buy. Probably plastic and not as thin as Pro/Air. HDD standard.

MacBook Air: 11" only. Apple's "Netbook." SSD only.

MacBook Pro: 13" (today's 13" Air) and 15" with no optical drive probably more ports compared to the "new" Air. SSD only.

MacBook Pro 17": Still got optical drive, bunch of ports and all that jazz. 15hours of battery life. SSD and/or HDD.

Yea but I think todays 13" Air will replace tomorrows MacBook 13", not the Pro. The Pro 13" will just totally disappear.

I think it will end up being something like:

MacBook 11" (todays Air 11")
MacBook 13" (todays Air 13")
MacBook Pro 15" (like todays basically, new resolution of 1650 as standard, maybe SSD for the OS + second spinning HDD for more space, no optical drive)
MacBook Pro 17" (same as 15", but also optical drive)

And then next refresh the 17" loses the drive too and that's it.

 

[Moodikar]

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I don't think mb/mbp/MBA will merge.

The MacBook may resemble today's air as soon as optical drives vanish but the air will by then resemble something different.

Perhaps have touch features on the keypad or the monitor is made solely of glass (no aluminum or wires). Lighter and thinner like rolling paper.

The MacBook Pro will still be more powerful. Larger and offer more storage or battery like a 4 day lasting battery. They simply will be better based on having more space to fit the technology.

I think they'll all become a form of iPad in touch and some new OS but won't lose a keyboard as people need to work in cubicles and disturbing each other speaking emails isn't productive. Reading won't disappear so neither will writing. You won't write without a keyboard but perhaps handwriting recognition becomes the ultimate typewriter.

Air/mb//iPad won't merge cause luckily they do different things by offering opposite options. My opinion.

 

[miknos]

When you enter Apple webpage, you see the Macbook Air. Just below the phrase; "The next generation of Macbooks".

It doesn't say "Macbook(s) Air" for a reason


IMO:

- The Macbook Air will be the new Macbook. Today you get better performance in a smaller case. Plastic Macbook will be discontinued. You can argue that Apple has plenty of money and could decrease margin (just a little) to sell more aggressively the base models.

About the Pro line I'm not sure...
- Flash memory? Surely in future models (when price decrease).
- Optical drive? I believe they will be gone. Maybe an external Blueray (optional).
- Ethernet? USB adaptor.
- Firewire? Don't know. Maybe USB 3.0?

This will lead to more empty space. Options:
- Decrease the Pro line size (more likely). With bigger screens (15-17inch) they'll get only thiner.
- Make room for more battery making it even heavier (less likely).


This is not accounting miniaturization of hardware components and software improvements.

 

[Forgeron]

If I look at my current 17 inch pro, the only thing they have to do to turn it into an air is:

- drop the optical
- flash instead of HDD
- Make it thinner and lighter.

I believe there will still be plenty of room to keep all the ports.

I cannot wait!

 

[hsl]

- Make it thinner and lighter.

Add more batterypower & storage

 

[WardC]

I think Apple will rebrand the "MacBook Air" as the "MacBook" line eventually and keep the MacBook Pro with more horsepower, larger display options, but Flash storage standard (up to 512GB) and do away with the optical drive, making it slimmer and lighter. So we will see Sandy Bridge be implemented on the MacBook Pro line sometime early next year, and Apple will redesign the MacBook Pro case chassis to a thinner, lighter design using Flash Storage. Apple will probably do away with the optical drive eventually. The MacBook Pro line will still feature Ethernet, FireWire, and all the extra ports that come standard on today's models, with 15" and 17" screen options, although Apple may adopt 16:9 aspect ratio as standard across the entire line, with the 17" MacBook Pro having a 1920x1080 resolution, and the 15" models all having the higher than current standard (possibly) 1680x945 resolution.