The New MacBook

 

Brand new design, brand new chipsets, brand new MacBooks!

(Side note! Every time I refer to the MacBook, it also applies to the MacBook Pro unless specified)

2 days ago Apple announced a new line of MacBooks and MacBook Pros. They were everything the rumors said they would be! Built using a new production method (Yes, the Brick rumor was right) the MacBook is now aluminum like its big brother the Pro.

In my opinion, they look amazing. The new LED screen, the perfectly contoured edges, the slightly curved lid, everything yells APPLE! If you compared the old MacBook and MacBook Pro with a PC notebook, you would see Apple’s products were years ahead in terms of design. I can’t imagine how many years ahead they look now. Well, a lot at any rate.

On the inside there is some new stuff too! A brand new chipset from Nvidia makes graphics performance 5 time faster than the previous Intel chipset. For the MacBook Pro, there is also a brand new GPU also from Nvidia. Interestingly, Apple put the chipset and the GPU inside the Pro instead of just the GPU. This gives users a choice between the two based on what there current graphics needs are. If you want to save battery life, switch on the chipset. If you want full power, turn on the GPU!. Unfortunately, there isn’t the option to use both at once. Looking to the future, the ability to use both as well as the CPU would be an amazing feature. Especially considering that Apple is considering harnessing the GPU in they computers to handle everyday tasks is the next version of OS X.

I also have to bring something negative up. The price. Not the price in the US, but the price in Australia (this might apply to other countries outside the US) It seams that the recent financial crisis as well as the diminishing Australian dollar mean that the Mac is becoming even less affordable. In Australian dollars, the cheapest model of the new MacBooks cost AU$2100. When the difference is converted into US dollars, we here in Australia have to pay nearly US$200 more than you do in the US! This is the same for the MacBook Pro. The price point of the new lineup might be a turn off for many people. Human psychology is telling me that if the prices started at $1999 and $2999 they would sell a lot more.

All in all, I really like the new Apple notebooks. This marks a momentous occasion for Apple, no more fully plastic computers (Yeah, yeah I know about the Mini but nobody buys that!) If I had a spare AU$3200 lying around, I would pull out my check book and buy one right now! That is, if I had a check book…

Apple Event Announced

October 14, 2008

Apple Campus

‘Brick’ Explained

Today the world (of those who cared) found out what the rumored ‘Brick’ referred to. 9to5Mac has revealed that the ‘Brick’ refers to a new manufacturing process. The process allows MacBook casing to be made out of a solid block of aluminum instead of different pieces. Oh yeah, this also lets onto the fact that new MacBooks are probably going to be aluminum instead of plastic.

Yes ok, this sounds really boring on paper but in the real world it would mean the slickest and most gorgeous Apple notebooks you have ever seen. If you have seen the new iMacs you might have noticed that there is seamless joining between the aluminum face and the curved sides. This means there is no need for unsightly screws and such, just aluminum joining to aluminum. Imagine this look for a newly designed MacBook (and hopefully Pro as well). At the moment the MacBook Pro looks amazing, but what I hate is that strip of plastic around the edge of the body and around the screen. This new manufacturing process would get rid of that ugly plastic strip and would extend the aluminum to the edge of the device.

This may make no sense to you what so ever. If you would like to find out what I’m talking about, go to your local Apple Store and have a look at the MacBook Pros (and at the same time, could you please leave my blog page open on the screen as you leave. Thanks). Even if you don’t care about this new manufacturing process, you have to acknowledge that it would make the Mac notebook line leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the PC market in terms of design. This is inclusive of the fact that they are already leaps and bounds ahead, but this will mean leaving PC notebooks looking like they were during the ’90s.

Steve Jobs was right, exciting times are ahead.

(Yes, this proves more then anything that I am an Apple fanboy)

Code Name: Brick

After rumors a few weeks ago that a German store had received new MacBook Pros, we now have 9to5 Mac and MacRumors reporting that they have strong evidence that a new line of MacBooks (not the Pros) that could be arriving as soon as October 14! Supposedly, the tip off comes from the same supplier in Asia who let the world know about the ‘Rainbow iPod Nanos’.

It is rumored to be code named ‘Brick’. What is interesting about this is what the name may illude to. While some are speculating it refers to the form factor (I hope not, I thought we were past the brick laptop stage) Macenstein are saying it may refer to something else. They are deciphering it as a Windows killer, literally saying this about it: “After all, how do you break “Windows”? You throw a brick through them!”

But what would break the Microsoft market share? To answer this question, we have to look at what has probably constricted Apple’s market share until now. The answer is the price point. If you compare them, a PC could cost $200 less than a similarly spec’d MacBook. If Apple dropped the price of the MacBook to around $1000, they would be in an excellent position to make an agressive push into the market.

While this would be fantastic (I want to buy a MacBook for university), it could mean massive changes to the walled garden Mac users currently live in. In my opinion, Apple products are only as good as they are because they only have a 7% market share. Apple know their market very well and know what they want. Should millions of people join the market, they might have to diversify what they do for the Mac, moving it ever closer to Windows. I don’t want a product that doesn’t work like I want it to. Windows only has a bad name because Microsoft have to deal with the fact that 1 billion computers running Windows turn on every day and not all of those will work the way they’re supposed to. Apple will have to deal with this as well should their market share grow dramatically (but logically it won’t grow enough to threaten Windows).

On a personal point, Macs are only cool because on 7% of people have one! Lets face the facts, we have Macs because we are egotistical, competitive and want to say “Look at me, I have a Mac and you don’t because you can’t afford one.” Macs are cool because it is an exclusive club and that is something that we are protective of! If Macs evolve to take over 90% of the market, I would switch to Windows (should it improve) just to stay cool and say “Look at me, I have a PC and you don’t.”

Dear Apple,

Don’t change =)