MacBook Update from Apple Rivals Netbook Run-Time
Apple might have sold over 3.05 million Mac computers last quarter, but the real growth was in portables — desktop sales dropped 16% year over year while notebooks experienced a 35% jump. It’s easy to see why the company is maturing its mobile product lineup. Sure the iMacs got a nice bump too, but a new MacBook at the old $999 price is sure to appeal this holiday season. No it’s not a netbook or other low-priced light-and-thin device, but as James pointed out earlier today — Apple can’t produce a netbook and maintain profit margins above 35%. By adding more oomph to the base MacBook, the company is offering a sub-thousand dollar portable package that provides a full-featured computing experience at 4.7 pounds.
There’s a price premium involved of course, but the 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo paired with an Nvidia GeForce 9400M should handle most tasks. And it can do so on a claimed 7 hours of battery life — that’s comparable to a netbook run-time but in a computing package that still offers some get up and go. At the end of the day, I don’t think the new MacBook is going to sway potential netbook owners away from their purchase. At $300 or so, a smaller and lighter computing experience will meet many needs, and for one-third the price.
But I can’t overlook how the refreshed MacBook fits in my “3P Triangle” — this is the equilateral figure that netbooks fit squarely in the middle of, because the points are price, portability and power. A device that moves towards one point typically moves away from one or both of the other points. The MacBook refresh however, gets closer to the middle by increasing both performance and portability — in terms of battery life and less need to sit by an outlet — while maintaining the price.
No, I’m not suggesting that the MacBook should be compared spec-for-spec with a netbook, but some of the netbook advantages are diminished with this product update. For now, I’ll stick with a netbook for my mobile computing. Although it’s lacking in the horsepower department, I can tote it everywhere a little bit easier and it’s meeting my needs. Do we have any prospective netbook buyers that are considering a new MacBook instead?
Plus you should note that Apple really likes to bloat up its battery times. You probably will not get over 5.5 hours of netbook-like use. Where as there are netbooks lasting 7 hours on full brightness with constant use.
Duuno. Anandtech showed that with the MacBook Pro’s they were easily able reproduce Apple’s claimed battery life figures: http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=3580. Unless you have any compelling evidence otherwise your claim holds no validity.
My macbook (last revision with x3100 gfx) gets more than 1 hour under the advertised time (80% brightness, can’t really use less outside). Sure you COULD potentially reach the advertised time if all you did was light surfing, but even on my netbook, I do more than just surf light pages (and still get over 7 hours of life with full brightness). Which is my point.
I’ve owned and used both 13 and 15in macbooks (still have the 15in) and they do indeed get that much battery life. Roughly 6 hours with wifi on, listening to music, while browsing the internet, or 7 hours with wifi off, using word (could be more playing with brightness).
Nevermind they use non-anemic processors (the atom is an abomination), with plenty of ram, an optical drive (imagine that), etc, etc. The 13in macbook outclasses any netbook except for the price. But you get what you pay for.
I just don’t like Apple computers. I don’t like the way the OS works or the interface or commands.
I also don’t like supporting a monopoly like Apple. Microsoft has nothing on monopolies compared to Apple, who controls everything related to their products.
I also have a hard time buying products from a company that brags about a 35% profit margin. Talk about gouging a consumer. That is a monstrous profit margin for any company, but people keep buying their products, so they can keep up the profit margin.
I’ve used Mac’s and played with friends’ iPhones. Just didn’t like them.
That’s a small price to pay for a product where everything works when you plug it in or install it. Windows is the one with the monopoly, they are the ones who buy out or steal everyone else’s ideas. And when a company resists like Google, they start a rival website like bing and then claim that Google has a monopoly. Funny how Google remains open source while Microsoft screams because they are losing money. Funny what happens when a better product does not bow down to the man. Cry my a river, and if you don’t want to pay for a mac use linux or better yet just buy a mac and run windows in the safest environment ever, in a mac.
While i respect that you do not like apple interface that’s a preference, dont try and say that microsoft is not equally bad or worse. They put a product out they know is not safe and easily infiltrated. I wonder how much money they make from virus removal software companies, or how many people they have on the payroll who make the virus that end up on their machines. vicious cycle…
Glad to hear your opinion.
They should have given it a 1″ smaller screen (12″ instead of 13″), dropped the optical drive, maybe a core-2 solo instead of duo, and start with 1GB of RAM instead of 2GB.
Then lower the price accordingly.
Would just barely qualify as a netbook, at the upper end of the price and size ranges. And might get everyone to stop talking about an Apple Netbook.
This new plastic MacBook was very intriguing…and then I noticed the glaring omission of FireWire.
I don’t mind it as much on typical Wintel PCs, but Macs have this little feature called Target Disk Mode that turns them into external drive enclosures. It only works with built-in FireWire.
Macs will always be better than PC’s no matter how much they change in my eyes, I have had problem after problem with my PC Laptop, where as my MacBook has never so much as crashed. The battery in my PC is down to about 1/2 hour and my mac is still at around 2 hours this is after the same amount of time and the same amount of use. Macs rule.
Nope. No way. Not gonna happen. Not until it has a footprint of 10.9″ x 8.6″.
So will the macbook 13 inch be cheaper than it is now this holiday season? and how much?