The New MacBook Air
Just today, Steve Jobs announced in the Back to the Mac event, the new, updated version of the MacBook Air. Aesthetically it is that sleek, sexy gadget most people weren’t able to spare $1,600 on it. Those who could, simply wouldn't justify the purchase of such a “toy” for that steep price. This trend had left the outdated MacBook Air up in the limbo. It was one of the most gorgeous industrial designs we had ever seen but simply at that price range, it wasn’t feeling much love. On the other hand, the updated MacBook Air models start at $999 and $1,199 for the 11.6” models, and $1,299 and $1,599 for the higher end of the 13” version.
Talking about specs, it has a new flash based storage that comes from 64GB all the way to 256GB, this was a big change for Apple as the flash storage comes with multiple benefits such as immediate boot up, increased durability and reduced energy consumption. The NVIDIA GeForce 320M guarantees a quality performance for normal tasks, it goes without saying that the new MacBook Air is not a performance oriented laptop. All the versions come with 2GB RAM memory (expandable to 4GB for $99), there were some reports about the RAM memory not being user upgradable but this rumor has not been confirmed.
Engadget earlier posted a video, in which we can really appreciate how small is the 11.6” MacBook Air. Its design is absolutely staggering, and it seems like the perfect match for those who care about not carrying “dead weight” around enough to sacrifice the well known disadvantages of the MacBook Air such as the lack of CD drive or a bigger hard drive.
To be fair, the new price tag starting at $999 puts the new MacBook Air into the sights of a completely different market, such as students who are likely enjoy the benefits of its small size and light weight. Other possible buyers are those power users who need a netbook for when they are “on the go” plus still having the benefits of Mac OS. Even though they aren’t intrinsically related products, some of the high end iPad potential buyers will be tempted by the low end 11” MacBook Air, thereby cannibalizing the iPad sales. This will happen mostly because the iPad market still isn’t outlined so people who lay in the middle will tend to buy the new MacBook air instead.
What do you think about it, do you think it will hurt iPad sales at all?
Use the comment section to carry this discussion on.
 |
| Steve Jobs & the new MacBook Air |
2 comentarios:
The MacBook Air can do more shit in a less visually pleasing fashion...
The iPad can do less shit in a more visually pleasing fashion...
Dun dun DUN.
That's one way to say it, but the really interesting thing here keeping your logic will be where will customers will tend to gravitate to: either "do more shit" or "how visually pleasing". That's where Apple's marketing department will do what it does best.
Post a Comment