
Apple reportedly to release US$799 MacBook Air in 3Q12 - duck
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20120507PD214.html
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toadkick
I don't buy it, and this article doesn't really make a strong case for it
either. If the MB Air is a strong seller (and by all accounts it is), what
sense does it make for Apple to drop the price down $200 to "compete" in a
segment where it is already dominating? Clearly other "ultrabook" makers are
already having a hard time competing at even the $999 price point, so there's
no need for Apple to eat into its (presumably healthy) profit margins for the
MB Air. With that said, I wouldn't mind if this was true, I would have a hard
time turning it down at that price. The only way I could see this happening is
if Apple takes a similar approach as it does with iPhones (and now iPads),
where they keep the last gen hardware on the market at a reduced price when
they update the lineup. But still...a $200 price drop seems unrealistic.

~~~
podperson
Digitimes is completely worthless as a source of info on Apple. (They're right
sometimes insofar as a stopped watch is right twice a day.)

That said:

1\. Apple is pointedly not afraid of cannibalizing its own markets.

2\. Apple is pointedly thinking in terms of "the Mac should respond to the
iPad as a competitor" and this basically puts the iPad + keyboard case
directly in competition with the Macbook Air (expect the SSD capacity of the
Air to be reduced or the iPad to increase -- no way a 64GB Air sells for the
same price as a 64GB iPad).

3\. Now that the Mac is decidedly not central to Apple's revenues, expect
Apple to rethink its Mac pricing in (to competitors) scary ways. Apple can
afford to license its OS to third parties, and/or replace the Mac Pro with a
dongle-based OS X license (buy whatever beastly workstation you want, and
install Mac OS X Workstation Edition on it).

4\. Apple really has no-one to compete with but itself at this point. Its
competitors are a joke.

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netcan
I would add another point to that. Until a few years ago Apple built
relatively expensive products and tried to make them good enough that buyers
would want them enough to pay more. With Macs and to some extent with iPods
that let Apple collect a nice big share of the market's profits, but not much
of the marketshare.

Now, they've learned to make products price competitive without sacrificing
quality or much of their profits. iPhones and iPads are not a more expensive
option. They stay well away from the low end, but they are not expensive
relative to the competing products especially those with similar specs.

Thats a whole other kind of strategy ('penetration' they called it at Uni) and
maybe they're bringing it to the mac.

~~~
jsnell
iPhones clearly are a more expensive option. It's just that in some markets
the cost difference is hidden from the final customers, with the operator
eating the difference. An unlocked 3GS (three years old!) costs about as much
as an unlocked Galaxy Nexus.

Now, clearly some people place enough value on iOS that they're willing to pay
the comparatively expensive prices (or move to another carrier that subsidizes
the iPhone sufficiently). Good for them. And good for Apple that they're able
to sell phones at absolutely staggering margins without anyone grumbling about
the cost. But let's not pretend they're competing on price.

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rdl
I assume for laptops, unlike iPads, it doesn't make sense to just keep selling
the late-2011 MBA11 for a new $799 price point once the expected 2012 MBAs
ship (presumably at the current price points).

Unless there are parts shortages, bumping the CPU to a newer one probably
raise costs -- smaller process should eventually make the same number of
computrons cheaper from a low spec new chip than a mid-spec older chip.

Not upgrading to better (retina?) screen (although 1440x900 on the MBA13 is
pretty close, especially when used at arm's length), keeping RAM at 4GB, and
maybe cost savings with older/slower integrated graphics...maybe that could
let you have lower costs and price discrimination.

Refurbs already are -$100 to -$200; I don't know what availability there is on
laptop refurbs vs. iPad refurbs.

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protomyth
I am trying to think of the last time digitimes got a rumor correct. They have
an exceedingly poor track record.

It does seem natural that a portable from Apple will hit the $799 price range
to capture the college freshman crowd. Portables and not tablets are still a
requirement at many schools.

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ef4
I'm still wondering if there's a Macbook Air with a retina display in the
works.

~~~
oemera
I really don't think so. Imagine every app with custom images / icons would
need an update and this is way harder than updating iOS apps. The App Store is
pretty "new" business and it is really fast but on the Mac it is kind of
different. These things take longer.

Imagine Microsoft would need to release a version with retina graphics. This
would take ages instead of weeks!

Another point is that it would cause fragmentation in the whole Mac / MacBook
ecosystem.

I really don't think that this will happen in the next time!

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ctdonath
Well, with iCloud in place Apple could start weaning users off massive local
storage, reducing significant hardware costs. What with the biggest reason for
local storage being one's iTunes library, and Match alleviating the practical
need for storing _all_ that music/video on expensive spacious & speedy
storage, why not plan for OS X & iTunes to ease offloading content (most of
which is little used) and relieve the need for most of the Air's flash memory?

~~~
toadkick
I'd hardly call the 64 GB in the $999 model "massive". I still know a lot of
people who won't make the switch to an Air due to the lack of an optical
drive, and reducing the already small hard disk capacity would reduce the
attractiveness of the Air to those folks even further. Also, I don't think
iCloud and iTunes Match are good enough (yet) to convince people that the
don't really need a hard drive anymore.

~~~
icefox
Personally I am waiting for them to put floppies back in laptops. Seriously,
Air will never get a built in optical drive and you either accept that and use
the USB drive once a year when you need it or you just go and buy a different
laptop, but for everyone else they are picking up the air in massive numbers
and it is clearly the direction laptops are heading.

I have a macbook pro that came with a built in optical drive, but I still
spent the extra money (and time) to remove it and replace it with a second
drive.

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shimsham
The Mac Pro replacement, the iMac Pro should see the light of day soon, with
hot-swappable disks at the left and right sides, thunderbolt (obviously)
including simple multi-screen support, touchability where required and
multiple gpu support.

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hello_asdf
I really hope this happens because I've been wanting to switch to a Macbook
Air for a while now. Anyone interested in trading a late 2009 (I think, might
be 2010) 13" Macbook Pro for a Macbook Air? :)

~~~
tar
Why do you want to switch to a MacBook Air?

~~~
envex
I just switched from a MB to a MBA.

My older macbook was starting to show it's age and I really wanted to switch
to a SSD. My MB was already a 13", so the size wasn't an issue.

I ended up picking up a refurb for $1,099.

