Has anyone heard more about the redesigned Macbook & iMacs?

[Marcos]

Only Apple know what Apple will do but other than a Spec bump or two I seriously doubt you are going to see new designs. After all the current designs are fairly new and pretty darn good.

We're talking about Macbooks, not the Pros

so the Macbook is 3 years old, re-design is pending

 

[Marcos]

But they need to maintain separation, they aren't stupid enough to make a product which will just steal sales from the expensive macbook pro lines.

It'll also be difficult to make cheaper. Can't cut the RAM, can't realistically make the CPU slower, can't change the graphics (integral part of the chipset). But the unibody enclosure is very expensive so killing that off is one option - I can't see them making the macbook unibody - there's no way to differentiate it from the macbook pro then...

Dont forget that the Unibody is expensive, but it cuts the number of components down dramatically. So it probably evens out. Theres plenty of room there, think about it, HP sells new full featured laptops for £290, so i'm sure Apple could still make a profit on even a £500 machine, with smart engineering

But i also think they wont go unibody with aluminium, probably try and get as close to a unibody design out of plastic

 

[xrs]

I reckon they will release new cheaper Mac-books circa £500. With the recession and all, it would make sense for them to release cheaper machines.

 

[Blackhawk47]

When I got my Macbook I could have got the white one. But paid the extra for the Unibody.

Id say it was well worth the extra £s.

 

[bigredshark]

When I got my Macbook I could have got the white one. But paid the extra for the Unibody.

Id say it was well worth the extra £s.

You might but your average man in the street sees they can buy a £500 HP laptop from PC world and a starting price north of £900 for a unibody mac is a difficult sell. Yes it's a better machine but when a friend asked me for cheap laptop recommendations recently I couldn't really recommend a mac - it's not decent value for that £500 web browsing and some office work market right now...

 

[Blackhawk47]

You might but your average man in the street sees they can buy a £500 HP laptop from PC world and a starting price north of £900 for a unibody mac is a difficult sell. Yes it's a better machine but when a friend asked me for cheap laptop recommendations recently I couldn't really recommend a mac - it's not decent value for that £500 web browsing and some office work market right now...

Though Apple aren't really trying to target that market. Well kind of with the Air but a lot of people interested in a Mac would know what they are getting for themselves. I am not talking merely from a business or personal view but you are right, and I would do the same if someone asked me to recommend them a laptop for web browsing and some office work.

I remember (back in my old job) you would get one customer coming asking for a cheap system for basic tasks like the above. Only ever used/heard of Windows or don't even understand what a operating system is or the difference. And the type who would ask about the benefits over a Mac or a PC (typically in the Macbook Vs Laptop sense). I would also ask to see what they would want out of a computer and more importantly their budget.

Fair point though.

 

[LordSplodge]

We're talking about Macbooks, not the Pros

so the Macbook is 3 years old, re-design is pending

So what would they do with the WhiteBook then? The design is good*, the CPU and graphics are good and the position of ports and so on is good. The screen isn't brilliant (at least not on my 2007) but is good enough.

So what can Apple do? Can make it more expensive as it would compete with the Pro sales and I don't see Apple reducing the costs. Apple don't sell cheap computers.




* As long as they fix the plastic peeling problem.

 

[LordSplodge]

You might but your average man in the street sees they can buy a £500 HP laptop from PC world and a starting price north of £900 for a unibody mac is a difficult sell. Yes it's a better machine.

Your average man in the street is an idiot. There are always those who want to get something for as cheap as possible. Apple isn't interested in said tightwads.

On a more serious note the WhiteBook isn't much more than those horrid HP, Dell et al and would probably serve the "average man" a lot better as a web browsing machine simply because the machine is better built and the OS more robust.

There has not been one problem (aside from ones caused by me tinkering with the BSD core! ) in the three years I've had this MacBook. That's worth the increase in cost of entry.

 

[bigredshark]

Your average man in the street is an idiot. There are always those who want to get something for as cheap as possible. Apple isn't interested in said tightwads.

On a more serious note the WhiteBook isn't much more than those horrid HP, Dell et al and would probably serve the "average man" a lot better as a web browsing machine simply because the machine is better built and the OS more robust.

There has not been one problem (aside from ones caused by me tinkering with the BSD core! ) in the three years I've had this MacBook. That's worth the increase in cost of entry.

Quite! Your average man in the street is a complete idiot. But unless you make even a token effort to sell to the man in the street then apple will have 8% market share for ever more.

I quite agree the OS is worth the extra cost to you (and me), but I couldn't tell a completely computer illiterate friend to spend the extra - it's not a small increase either, it's 50% more!

Personally I think home users regard computers as a commodity item more than ever and I think less and less people will spend more than £500-600 when they can buy a functional laptop for that kind of cash (my parents just bought themselves some 13" toshiba thing for using skype in the living room - I wouldn't touch it but it does the job just fine for £600 odd).

Maybe apple don't fancy that market but if that's the case then they'd be better off having the macbook pro as the conventional laptop line and the macbook as a nokia booklet like device. I can't imagine they've sold a whole heap of whitebooks in the last 6 months and a cheaper entry point for a netbook running OSX might persuade more people of the benefits of OSX and boost higher end sales. In my opinion. God knows what Steve has planned

My basic point - those tightwads are increasing in number and apple has to either sell a product in that market or convince them to spend more - a tough order but if any product line is suited to the task it's the macbook and it's due a refresh now anyway.

 

[Marcos]

So what would they do with the WhiteBook then? The design is good*, the CPU and graphics are good and the position of ports and so on is good. The screen isn't brilliant (at least not on my 2007) but is good enough.

So what can Apple do? Can make it more expensive as it would compete with the Pro sales and I don't see Apple reducing the costs. Apple don't sell cheap computers.

* As long as they fix the plastic peeling problem.

Well, they can basically use the innards of the 13" unibody inside a new, cheaper, better plastic case. A plastic case should be a lot cheaper than a CNC alumnium unibody, especially mass produced.

Either way, its gonna be interesting. and now that quadcore for laptops is out, i expect a revamp on all the machines spec-wise

 

[Marcos]

My basic point - those tightwads are increasing in number and apple has to either sell a product in that market or convince them to spend more - a tough order but if any product line is suited to the task it's the macbook and it's due a refresh now anyway.

I agree, price/entry point is easily the biggest reason people walk away from the Apple shops empty-handed

They like what they see, but not many people can easily drop a grand on a new computer on the spot

 

[bigredshark]

Well, they can basically use the innards of the 13" unibody inside a new, cheaper, better plastic case. A plastic case should be a lot cheaper than a CNC alumnium unibody, especially mass produced.

Either way, its gonna be interesting. and now that quadcore for laptops is out, i expect a revamp on all the machines spec-wise

I can't see that, if it's got the same spec it'll massively steal sales from the unibody, you might buy it for the fancy case but businesses and schools likely won't. So that approach is pretty much out.

I also wouldn't expect quadcore, my reading is the available chips are way outside the TDP of chips previously used in the macbook pro. Not impossible mind, just can't see it happening immediately...

 

[Marcos]

I can't see that, if it's got the same spec it'll massively steal sales from the unibody, you might buy it for the fancy case but businesses and schools likely won't. So that approach is pretty much out.

I also wouldn't expect quadcore, my reading is the available chips are way outside the TDP of chips previously used in the macbook pro. Not impossible mind, just can't see it happening immediately...

Sorry i didnt make that clear, i meant the same innards in the sense that they can share a lot of the components etc, just obviously a lower-spec version. But things like the speakers, drives, etc can be shared to reduce cost

But ppl would still have to get the Pro for the higher specs, backlit keyboard, battery life etc


Also, what is TDP?

 

[GeForce]

TDP is Thermal Design Power - this needs to be relatively low in a notebook compared to a desktop as the cooling system is smaller and more compact and as such, less able to dissipate heat from the CPU.

 

[NickK]

I think they'll just divert attention using the Tablet and do minimal updates, possibly make the MacBook Pros have a touch screen too.

 

[bigredshark]

Also, what is TDP?

To confirm, the mid range 820QM has a maximum TDP of 45w, compared to the current processors in the macbook pro which all share a max TDP of 35w - so basically the swap would mean 25% more heat to deal with than before. My macbook pro gets hot enough as it is...

It would also likely mean a new chipset too - I'm not sure nvidia have one handy, and if they don't then the graphics are all up in the air.

Can't see it happening before, say, january/february time...