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CNET: Apple's New Notebooks Had Better be Pretty
by , 4:05 PM EDT, October 10th, 2008
Some people regard technical feature of their notebooks as the equivalent of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, according to Chris Matyszczyk at CNET on Friday. The most important thing, however, about Apple's new notebooks to be announced on October 14 might be how they look and what it will be like to be seen with one.
The author noted that some might fear that Apple will pander to the masses with an inexpensive MacBook that will be short on specs. Instead, he wrote, "It's not about moving below or above your price point. It's about how you do it."
In fact, what's really important is whether the new MacBook will be cute. There's good reason for that. Apple's brand is now so strong, the company can "tiptoe through its competitors' tulips and check out the undersoil, Mr. Matyszczyk wrote. [He was very likely suggesting that time is right, in this economy, to take a hit on gross margins, just a tad, to make life difficult for the competition.]
There's no doubt Apple understands what the technical requirements for a modern notebook computer need to be. With every other competitor's notebook looking like creaky old General Motors car from the 90s, the right kind of industrial design and touchy-feely design by Apple could increase the laundry bills at a certain facility in Austin, Texas considerably.
Observer Comments
Sat Oct 11, 2008 3:07 am Subject: nanos and shuffles
The problem with the comparison between a shuffle and a nano Macbook is that the Shuffle has a _vastly_ reduced feature set. You get the logo/brand, and a solid, good quality player, but you also don't get a screen or any of the other "goodness." Let's imagine a MacBook Nano in a similar vein--no hard drive? greatly reduced hard drive? Not expandable? low memory? tiny screen (800x480)? How many compromises? And if they don't compromise? Too many MacBook purchasers buy the Nano, undercutting the MacBook.... No, I highly doubt a Nano from Apple. I suspect that they are quite happy with people buying a Wind and hacking OSX onto it. Let them play with it, fall in love with the OS, but then get frustrated enough trying to get it to work right that they buy a higher-margin MacBook. Perversely enough, I suspect that this is Apple's "strategy."
-Jon
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