Re: MacBook shipping delay...

usenet@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Woody) writes:

You can't make the MacBook much cheaper, especially if you want to have
an alu case and a nice design.

But who wants an alu case? I wouldn't, for the sort of machine I want to
carry around with me, the last thing I want is metal.

Well, I'm not too keen on it either, but Apple seems to think that
people think they want it.

Selling it with thin margins doesn't help
much if you can't sell it in huge numbers and I wouldn't expect a
slightly modernized MacBook to sell so much better than the old one
(which sells quite good already). They would be silly to sell it
cheaper.

I think there is still a market of people who would like a mac, but
aren't prepared to pay that sort of money.

Now macs are these days good value for money, but they are all top end
processors (except the air) and a lot of people don't care about that.

OK, maybe there's room for lower prices. But still, even the MacBooks
seem to sell very well...

But if you can just take things out (like the optical drive,
most ports and some chips) and put these into an external device, you
can sell the notebook cheaper and even with thin margins, because you
can have your fat margins on the external brick that many people will
buy anyway.

I think people will balk a bit having just one USB slot.

For on the road? There's no reason not to have two or four more USB
slots in the docking station, but out there one slot probably is enough.

One rumour that set me off on that docking station tangent talked about
the codename of a central new thing: "The Brick". This would surely fit
for some desktop machine between the Mini and the Pro, too. But I still
don't think it will be that, just for the reason that such a machine, as
badly as some seem to want it, would be quite irrelevant in the
high-volume market Apple is dealing with now.

I think it is far from irrelevant if apple truly want a high volume
market. They will never get it without that mid machine.
It doesn't matter whether people upgrade or not, people want to feel
they can.

Some people, yes. Those buying MacBooks or iMacs or iPhones or iPods
seem to feel different. Most "normal" computer users I know don't care
at all for upgrades or extensions. They never open their machines or
even have the slightest clue of what's inside.

*If* Apple is coming with some major new thing it will be targeted at
the crowds buying iPhones and MacBooks today, not at nerds and
cheapskate pros. Maybe something replacing both the Mini and the
AppleTV? I couldn't care less, though.

Well, I am not particularly bothered either, but apple should be.

I just think the ATV doesn't seem to be a great hit and making it more
powerful and more expensive won't change that.

Mind you, I think a Mini with more room for a 3.5" HD (or even two) and
some PC-card slots would be a great idea and make a great little server.

Jochem

--
"A designer knows he has arrived at perfection not when there is no
longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
.

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