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Ultrabook: Intel's $300 million plan to beat Apple at its own game
- wtracy 15y agoAny startups thinking of using this as an opportunity to get funded by Intel and break into the computer hardware industry?
- georgieporgie 15y agoEvery time I think about Wintel laptops, I'm reminded of this piece: http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/simplicity_is_highly_overrated.html http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/simplicity_is_highly_overrated.htm... (summary: people buy things with more knobs and lights because the illusion of control gives them the impression that it is more powerful) My Toshiba Satellite has five LEDs in a row on the front. Three of them are on continuously (one turns orange, I think, when it sleeps). One represents hard disk activity, though Task Manager's I/O graph is vastly more useful. One of them has never turned on. I have no idea what it's for. It has an icon above it that sort of looks like a piece of paper. I'm sure someone at Toshiba thought it was a good idea to forgo the anti-reflective screen coating in favor of a few more LEDs. "Consumers will love all the extra power afforded by the paper-light!" he said.
- FxChiP 15y ago> One of them has never turned on. I have no idea what it's for. It has an icon above it that sort of looks like a piece of paper. Totally off-topic, but have you happened to start a print job on your machine and look at that light on Windows? That's my closest guess.
- georgieporgie 15y agoI think it might actually represent the built-in SD reader, which at least makes sense, though it's still useless to me.
- marshray 15y agoI'm sure someone at Toshiba thought it was a good idea to forgo the anti-reflective screen coating in favor of a few more LEDs. I don't think it's missing anti-reflectivity. My Toshiba seems to have an extra-reflective screen. Something about making contrast better for watching movies on it in the dark. shrug
- jeffool 15y agoMaybe I'm crazy... But why are puerile still trying to catch up with Apple? Go off in a new direction. Integrate the PC into the home entertainment system like thirty promised all those years ago. Give me a tower I can hook up to a 1080p TV, give someone a million dollars to create a lap board that doesn't suck, and give me a wireless kbm to set on a desk somewhere in case I want that experience. Also, give me a wireless touch monitor, that can double as a tablet in the house, or even a smart remote for my home entertainment system. Maybe even let me access my data over wifi... But that's just aiming high for a first generation product. Anecdotal evidence tells me most ipad owners don't even take them out that often. And if I can think of this, someone at these companies can think of something even better than "follow the leader."
- nl 15y ago(Regarding premium PCs): Dell, with the purchase of Alienware and with its in-house XPS brand, and HP, which bought VoodooPC, have both tried to carve out premium niches. At one time or another, both of these bought-in brands were producing gaming-oriented hardware. Though this makes some sense—PC gamers tend to have relatively high hardware demands, and so aren't going to be satisfied by bargain basement prices—but it also leaves the products marginalized, with styling that's not exactly mainstream (especially in Dell's case) and website promotion that leaves them segregated. This is so true. I want a good looking laptop that doesn't look like a Macbook. Gaming laptops are horrible, but I want the features. HP has some reasonable looking laptops, and so does Samsung, but both fall into the "make a nice case then cover it with stickers" thing. I realize they get paid for it, but please! I'd pay $50 for no stickers...
- innes 15y agoI'd peel those stickers off for you, for $49.
- rrrazdan 15y agoSo Apple should accommodate your special layout and your mouse nipple, and yet the PC manufacturers that do so should change and standardize their systems. I don't get it.
- rdl 15y agoMy main takeaway from this article is to be glad to be from the US vs. UK; almost all of his concerns were UK specific (crappy Apple UK keyboard layout; bad websites for UK products).
- archangel_one 15y agoThe websites don't seem to be a UK specific problem; dell.com offers me the same kind of annoying choice between "Design and Performance", "Everyday Computing" and "Thin and Powerful". Plus there's the stupid home/business distinction which offers even more options... Also, does anyone else find the apparently marketing-led commandment to describe all laptops as 'less than 1" thin' (rather than the more usual "thick") incredibly awkward?
- rdl 15y agoI guess I've followed thinkpads long enough to know 1) the "X" series is the small fast kind, T-series is the normal kind, W kind is workstation-type, and the rest can be ignored and 2) all non-apple non-thinkpad laptops can be safely ignored.
- watmough 15y agoThe Dell Precisions are, or at least were, huge and ugly, but very very solid performers with ultra hires screens. Think MacBook Pro made by Dell. I carted one around for ages, and it ran like a tank. Awesome machine. There's at least one other option not in the ignore pile.
- rdl 15y agoThat's true -- I was tempted by them (and they came with trackpoints, too). Also there were specific models of HP which were nice, and some of the Sony laptops were "ultrabook" before the macbook air. But, in general, only the thinkpad is consistently good, and only the T/X/W category.
- to3m 15y ago
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoDon't Macbook Air's run on intel chips?
- sliverstorm 15y agoPerhaps today, but Intel might be getting a little nervous about the A4 and the A5
- RyanKearney 15y agoAh, it will be the PPC -> x86 mess all over again. Can't wait!
- nicholasjbs 15y agoApple seems to be getting better at this: The transition from 68k to PPC was a nightmare. The transition from PPC to x86 was surprisingly smooth. I bet the next one will be close to seamless.
- protomyth 15y agoYou gotta love the concept of a company's main CPU supplier actively paying the company's competitors to build a clone. I can't help but think the new ARM (> 4 Gb memory) and Microsoft's plans for Windows 8 got Intel a little nervous.
- ctdonath 15y agoYawn. (Admittedly at a glance...) They still don't get it. Apple doesn't sell spec sheets. They sell end-to-end integrated systems. A 7 second boot time doesn't mean as much when it gets me to a relentless stream of "the webpage you're at wants to open a webpage you trust - are you sure?" and other user-unfriendly operations. Total experience sells. The iPad is beating the pants of tablets with twice the specs - but half the user experience. Intel is aiming at where Apple is now. When Intel arrives there, Apple will have moved on. Don't build what I want, build what I'm going to want a year after I buy it a year from now. And for that $300M plan, Apple has $30,000M cash to counter it. Get in the right order of magnitude first before picking a fight.
- dman 15y agoSome specs are more important than others - eg battery life, weight, form factor and price. Nailing a placeholder product while you figure out the reinvention prevents you from losing by default. Also I would be interested to hear what strategy you think Intel should follow to stop a future arm+apple duopoly.
- muhfuhkuh 15y agoHonestly? It's time to dump the "win" part of wintel. Intel simply needs to face facts: The chasm between hardcore gamers and the general computer-buying public is so wide and yawning it may as well be on another planet. Yet that is still where Intel aims with its wintel strategy: More games than on Mac. I mean, seriously, WHO CARES at this point that I can run Crysis on my netbook? Here's a bold plan that will kill two birds with one stone: Buy Canonical, throw the bulk of your $300 Million at their development, poach/cajole/trade for every UX guru not employed by Apple, and create a killer Linux desktop OS to go along with that ultrabook. It will scream, it will run a battery all night long and beg for more, it will have no "hells" (.dll, dependency, driver, symbol, whatever "hell" is inherent in Windows and Linux), it will run a plethora of online apps and services, and it will host a complement of installed applications that take care of 95% of a mainstream consumers needs. No need to install flash, it's already there. Need to play an .mkv file? No problem when VLC is installed by default. Netflix on demand? At your fingertip. Amazon mp3 store embedded in banshee? Sure, why not? Writing a term paper or presentation? LibreOffice to the rescue.
- notatoad 15y agoif the PC makers want to make a successful air replacement, they have to realize that apple makes their designs clean and small by sacrificing things. you can't support all the legacy PC hardware all the time. the supposed ultrabooks i've seen posted on engadget this past week still have VGA ports, ffs. that's not a thin & light component. also, 1366x768 needs to die in a fire.
- Dramatize 15y agoUltrabook? They couldn't think of a better name? Sounds straight out of the early 2000's.
- raganwald 15y ago> Is the MacBook Air actually an Ultrabook? Intel told us that that's up to Apple—the MacBook Air is an Ultrabook in all but name. Riiiiight, Apple’s marketing plan is to take a successful and strongly differentiated product and then say it is interchangeable with its competitors' products. Actually, they will say it is inferior because it lacks goodies like VGA ports. Joel Spolsky wrote a long time ago that companies like to commoditize their complements[1]. Apple wants to commoditize the CPUs and the applications, Intel wants to commoditize tablets and notebooks. Intel is going to fight like a dog in a cage to get people to think that notebooks are all pretty much the same, provided there’s an “Intel Inside” sticker plastered on the case. Apple is not going to play along, period. Instead, they are busy trying to get people to ignore the bits and pieces inside. How much RAM is in an iPhone? Who makes it?? How fast is the CPU? Apple is working hard to make these questions irrelevant for mobile devices, and Intel’s behaviour is going to encourage them to do the same in notebooks. I don’t see this article as being about Apple vs. the cloners. I see this article as being about Intel vs. the entire notebook manufacturing sector, with Apple being the biggest target. [1]: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/StrategyLetterV.html
- gnok 15y agoActually, I'd argue that they're shooting for where the puck will be two years from now (possibly less?). The article doesn't quite mention it, but it sounds like Intel is seriously concerned that future MacBook Airs aren't going to be on Intel processors. If its fair to assume that Air and Air-like notebooks account for the majority of sales in the future, then Intel is staring at a massive drop in sales, two years or so from today. I'd venture to guess that the $300 million aren't for beating Apple, but for nurturing and mentoring the company that will replace Apple as Intel's primary/flagship notebook processors customer.
- mscarborough 15y agoNo kidding. I'm not an Apple fanboy but I use their laptop products. And according to the author, they should completely change their keyboard layout to better support UK-specific idioms (while ignoring other markets, but still keeping the production costs all under $1000 per unit), as well as to accommodate at least four new dedicated keys and a tiny mouse nipple. That's just not going to happen.
- samyvilar 15y agoApple might eventually place an A chip, maybe A6 on it's MacBook air, if intels upcoming ivy bridge doesn't live up to it expectation, which I doubt it won't, the new 3d transistors are awesome! The pressure that apple has placed on intel is quite serious and I thank them for that to long has intel made power hungry chips! This ultra books are meant to compete against tablets which are growing quite fast and where intel has no solution yet afaik, I say take that 300 million dollars and invest in even more efficient and powerful architectures that could be placed in tablets and smartphones!
- Adrock 15y agoApple is always one step ahead of the game. All their competitors are constantly trying to get to where Apple's products are, but by the time they get there, Apple has moved on to something even better. Intel is scared about Apple becoming the dominant PC maker, especially because Apple has been using non-Intel chips in their new premier products (iPad and iPhone). My guess is that Apple's next big move is to start selling something in the laptop space that uses either the A5 processor or the next generation of it, which I guess would be called the A6. This will be huge. Intel processors are major power hogs and there's no way they can make them significantly better. Apple is poised to release a laptop with the Air's form factor that runs iOS on an A5 or A6 that Apple manufactures. This could be an absolute coup if it happens. They will be selling something like the 11" Mac Air for between $600 and $700, possibly less. It would have sick battery life that nobody could touch. It will run all of the iPad apps, have Safari and all of Apple's Office replacement software. The best part is that nobody could compete with it, because the only way would be to also ditch Intel's x86 processor, but there's no other OS or developer ecosystem that could run on it. Maybe Android on an ARM processor. Microsoft has nothing lined up in this space. They are dead in the water. The best part is that you don't need Jobs to make this happen. What you need is the manufacturing knowledge and capacity that someone like Cook can deliver.
- klausa 15y ago>Microsoft has nothing lined up in this space. Uhm, Windows-on-ARM?
- artursapek 15y agoFunny to see this in the news today after yesterday I scoured stores all day looking for a good PC laptop for school (with a few models already in mind), determined to end up with a PC and not a Mac (for software reasons), and eventually caved for a Macbook Pro anyway. It's true that there is no good middle-ground PC laptop with potential for performance and efficient design, most models I looked at were over-sized tanks. The industrial design language was mostly just carelessness. I wish Intel luck with this venture. They seem to share the same frustration as I. In regards to this Brit, it sounds like his only option is to just keep using his Thinkpad if he wants to stay happy. Such inflexibility.
- timjahn 15y agoI'm constantly amazed at how these companies spend all their time, energy, and money on copying Apple, or trying to catch up to Apple. Maybe throw all those resources at innovating?
- entrepreneurial 15y agoOkay, so there is one customer who is buying this new Anti-Airbook... Any others??? Don't think that there are many people searching, and I quote, "to find a 13" MacBook Air that isn't made by Apple." You have to just laugh this off...
- adamc 15y agoOh, I don't know. Not anti-, exactly, but... I'm typing this on a 13" Macbook Pro. But I have bootcamp installed to play games, and I often use remote desktop to other machines -- I'd certainly be open to buying an ultrabook. I like the more common PC key arrangements better (particularly home, back, and delete keys, rather than just a delete key). He's right, though, that's it's difficult to even find competitive machines in that space; I've been looking. I'll probably wait a month or two and see what (if anything) develops, then give up and buy a Macbook Air.
- NaOH 15y agoI like the more common PC key arrangements better (particularly home, back, and delete keys, rather than just a delete key). In case you don't know, FN+Left/Right Arrow gives you Home/End and FN+Up/Down Arrow provides Page Up/Down. Unfortunately, Apple removed these key markings a few years. And FN+Delete provides Forward-Delete.
- adamc 15y agoYeah, I know, but having to hit FN isn't as convenient. Thanks, though.
- angrycoder 15y agoRemap your F12 to forward delete, and the right modifier keys to home and end.
- Encosia 15y agoI'd love to ditch my 13" MBA for a comparable PC, with Windows-friendly keyboard and chipset/video drivers.
- cletus 15y agoFor people who have been following the tech scene since the 80s, the evolution of the tech space is bordering on hilarious. In the 80s, Apple was dominant in the GUI space. Windows 3.1 put a huge dent in this. By the time Windows 95 came out, Apple was essentially dead. During all this, Intel and Microsoft had an uneasy marriage of convenience. They were dependent on each other but had clear lines of separation between hardware and software. Microsoft tried to branch out. The original versions of NT ran on other architectures, like Alpha and MIPS. Under Steve Jobs (many may remember that Steve Jobs was only interim CEO for years after the NeXT purchase while the Apple board searched for a replacement for Gil Amelio). 5+ years ago, with a resurgent Apple in the PC space, Apple abandoned Motorla for Intel, killing the PowerPC in all but name. Microsoft had long since abandoned all the non-x86 architectures. Intel was so dominant that they sold their low-power chip division (XScale) and seemed to have an answer for low cost computer devices in the form of the Atom as the netbook market just exploded. Intel basically discounted any device smaller than this. So did Microsoft. Apple completely transformed the mobile space with the iPhone and then the iPad, catapulting ARM from a niche embedded product to something eating away at Intel from the bottom end, potentially threatening their entire business. In the 90s the churn of forced obsolescence made MS and Intel a lot of money and solved a lot of problems. There were no old versions of Windows to support as the market for PCs was growing at a huge rate and hardware just didn't last that long. Now the CPU power that the average user needs has plateaued. Any PC made in the last 5 years (maybe longer) will be fine for most people. The trend now is towards lower power and more mobility, which is why ARM is a strategic threat to Intel. It's incredibly funny ("the ironing is delicious" as Bart would say) that Apple is now one of Intel's biggest customers while being the driver to the threat to Intel. And now Microsoft, once an unstoppable juggernaut, just doesn't get it when Ballmer describes tablets as "just another form factor". They failed for 10 years to make tablets just another way to sell more Windows licenses. They're still kicking that dead horse with Windows 8. All the while Apple is making money hand over fist and HP, Dell, etc are struggling to make a buck or, in HP's case, getting out of the PC business entirely. All of these companies try to imitate Apple releasing vaguely copycat products but none of them get it. They're engaged in what I call "shotgun marketing" as they have no idea what the market wants and just fire off a shotgun blast, hoping something will stick. Only Apple seems willing or able to put the consumer first. The Apple-haters will I'm sure violently disagree with some or all of this. Microsoft I believe will continue a very long but now inevitable slide into irrelevance (companies that large take many years to die). The jury is still out on Intel. The only companies that seem to have a long future ahead of them are Apple, Google and maybe Facebook.
- mgkimsal 15y agoThere's something that gets missed in most of these discussions, and it makes me think that no one will be able to stop Apple's growth for many many moons. I don't know if there's a particular business word for this, but for me, it's 'trust'. When buying a Macbook, I know I'll be able to get parts and service for it - often from a local Apple store - for several years. If I buy a Dell N5040 today, and need service for it 2 years from now, will I be able to get it? Dell's got a reputation for good service for businesses, but that's because they're paying a lot extra for service contracts and such. Looking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Inspiron http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Inspiron then looking at http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-laptops http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-laptops - I don't see some of the Dell models on the Wikipedia site (granted, they may not be 100% up to date all the time) but I also see a long litany of model variations, none of which inspire much confidence in me. With all the differing parts that change between models, will Dell even be able to get the same parts for my model in, say, 3 years? Some of this is just trust in the brand - I know Apple's changed their macbook lineup several times, but rarely enough to warrant an entirely new name change - usually just spec upgrades. There's a certain amount of trust I and many other friends seem to have in Apple because of the simplicity of the product line. Yes, it's better for Apple as well, to streamline cost/operations, but from my standpoint simpler == less cognitive dissonance. I say this as someone who grew tired of building my own desktops years ago, speccing out parts (and trying to find linux drivers for them during my linux years), and have gone more mobile. There's usually far less "build it yourself" in the laptop world, so you go with what's available from manufacturers. Apple's models have a consistency between them and over time which builds confidence in the brand itself, not just any one particular model. Trying to compete on specs with new models being introduced quarter to quarter will not work - Apple competitors need to rethink their long term strategy if they want to win back customers. I still run Windows sometimes, but I don't need a dedicated Windows machine from HP/Lenovo/Dell to do it on, and I'm not sure what would ever get me back to that camp. Would I pay a 'premium' price for a Lenovo? Possibly, but there's gotta be a bigger faith in the brand, and I don't have that right now.
- w1ntermute 15y ago> Would I pay a 'premium' price for a Lenovo? Possibly, but there's gotta be a bigger faith in the brand, and I don't have that right now. Maybe you just didn't know, but the ThinkPad brand is highly respected in the business world for its quality and service (the latter of which IBM continues to provide).
- twodayslate 15y agoThe Toshiba Portege has been out for a while and can compete with the macbook air right now. It's expensive but gets the job done.
- adamc 15y agoThat's a good point, and you can get one below $800 (Core i5), although I doubt it's thin enough to meet the ultrabook spec. But some of what they are aiming at is styling, no? Have only seen it in pictures, but it didn't make me think of a MacBook Air. It wasn't beautiful.
- rokhayakebe 15y agoI am waiting for someone to make a great notebook with detachable keyboard. It's a notebook. It's an ipad. It's a notepad.
- nmridul 15y agoAsus has one.. Or you could go for some of the tablets with docking station... http://www.amazon.com/Transformer-TF101-A1-10-1-Inch-Tablet-Computer/dp/B004U78J1G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1315279063&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Transformer-TF101-A1-10-1-Inch-Tablet-...
- rfugger 15y agoLenovo's Thinkpad T420s does a pretty decent thin-and-light (under 4 lbs.) for Macbook Air prices, with a bigger screen: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/t-series/t420s http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/thinkpad/t-series/t420s
- initself 15y agoTo the point of the author, the only difference between all the different types of T420s series systems is CPU and GPU. Why list all the other components in a list when they are all exactly the same?
- crander 15y agoIf you are comparing a T series with a MacBook Air I can tell you have never actually touched or picked up a MacBook. You should really visit one of the stores and check them out.
- MrFoof 15y agoOur organization bought several of these shortly after release. All of them developed a serious crack in the top of the enclosure around the trackpad (a bit right off-center) within a month. Some also have hairline cracks on the right side. The wireless drivers were also incredibly problematic upon release until they were updated.
- wavephorm 15y agoSomeone should remind him the original Macbook Air came out in Jan 2008. The PC industry isn't even trying to catch up with Apple anymore. They're trying to catch to where Apple was three and a half years ago. It's like the iPhone all over again, but this time applied to laptops.
- crenshaw 15y agoThe big thing the article misses is most people who buy PCs don't want a MacBook Air. Or rather, they don't want to pay for a MacBook Air. If they did, they'd already own one. My cousin was just looking at laptops -- most she'll pay is $400. Even $799 is a luxury machine. Apple skims the users who are willing to pay more for intangibles. The PC market just isn't flush with users who want to pay $1000 for a laptop -- regardless of battery life and form factor. Just ask Dell and it's 10mm Adamo, which may have sold more poorly than the JooJoo.
- dagw 15y agoHad the Adamo been $1000 it would have sold amazingly well. The problem was it was close to $2000.
- jeffthebear 15y agoI'm guessing even if they do make a laptop like the Air it will probably come preloaded with a ton of crapware that nobody wants, utility programs that take over functions I would rather have Windows maintain, and lots of stickers telling consumers what features it has that will inevitably become obsolete.
- mscarborough 15y agoI don't understand the point of this article. It could have benefited from some editing by someone who knew more about the subject. On the first page, the author complains about having to type 'our' instead of 'or' for some British spellings, key mapping requirements, inclusion of the TouchPad but exclusion of a TrackPoint (keyboard nipple), Macbooks not having dedicated home/end/page up/down keys (which is just function + each arrow key, and should not really require four extra dedicated buttons), Bootcamp not being good enough to run multiple versions of Windows, etc... I can't speak to the # symbol being on a different key, but the author complains about not having the return key taking 3 spots instead of two. And framing that as some kind of US-centric thing! Plenty of keyboards designed for the US use a giant return key, and others do not. It's a design and user choice issue which optimizes for space, not some conscious US-centric, ignoring-international-design-standards type of decision.
- pat2man 15y agoI was following along until he said he loved the TrackPoint. No one who uses one of those can be taken seriously.
- jseliger 15y agoWhy? I like them: they're much more precise, in my experience, than trackpads. And I say this as someone with MacBook who, if he could get one with a nipple mouse, would.
- ghempton 15y agoI use an Air as my primary dev machine. I love it, but my allegiance has nothing to do with OS X. In fact, I would kill for a laptop with Air's form factor that was running Ubuntu as the primary OS.
- there 15y agoi'm awaiting the asus ux21 (and wondering why the article didn't even mention it, as it was, i believe, the first laptop to be shown in the new "ultrabook" category): http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/30/asus-outs-ux21-ultrathin-laptop-with-up-to-core-i7-cpu-video-ha/ http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/30/asus-outs-ux21-ultrathin-... linux and other operating systems on the newest macbook air are currently being held up by a bug in the intel video driver (https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=39533 https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=39533) but all of the other hardware should work fine under ubuntu (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1810275 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1810275).
- Mizza 15y agoI am in this exact same situation. Looking forward to the influx of 'Ultrabooks.'
- bergie 15y agoThe Air runs Ubuntu pretty well. I only saw OS X on my 2010 11" on the initial boot and never since :-)
- hencq 15y agoI would prefer to run Ubuntu as well. Unfortunately it looks like Optimus support won't be coming soon, so I'm starting to lean towards biting the bullet and switching to OS X.
- justin_vanw 15y agoMakes sense. Intel would certainly want people to use PC laptops that use intel chips throughout, rather than Apple computers that use intel chips throughout. Don't interrupt, it's on a website, it must make sense somehow.
- dhruvasagar 15y agoI couldn't agree more! I ended up settling for a Dell XPS laptop instead, although I was contemplating buying a macbook pro and hope to get comfortable on it. I am glad I didn't go ahead with it, there are so many such simple but significant differences in a mac that just don't seem to justify spending time trying to get comfortable with a machine when I can easily get a better one at half the price and not have to spend any effort on getting comfortable with it.
- cageface 15y agoThe gratuitous variety of models offered by PC manufacturers is definitely a problem. If I'm confused by all the overlapping options I can only imagine how difficult this must be for non-technical people to understand. Apple is careful to steer you through two or three meaningful choices instead.
- Triumvark 15y agoOk, the OEMs offer such customizability that it hurts margins and offers a silly customer experience. But they might have chased this model for a more complex reason than "all these companies are idiots." Maybe OEMs found, with the ubiquity of components, that if they don't compete with customization, they invite competition from homebuilt PCs, or PCs built and shipped out of some guy's basement. Maybe they're walking an awkward tightrope which Apple avoids by making its own OS.
- three14 15y agoAnyone know where to find a laptop with a screen with something x 900 resolution, 8G RAM, and a non-crazy markup for an SSD? Preferably without various other upgrades that drive the price to $2000? Thanks for any tips.
- silverlake 15y agoA used Vaio Z.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- saturdaysaint 15y agoI love my MacBook Air. I believe that the difference in operating systems is being underestimated - if anything, they've diverged even more dramatically with Lion. The large multitouch trackpad and the powerful gesture features feel less and less like a nicety and more like a necessity. In an era where I'm doing more and more in Chrome and a handful of crossplatform apps, I'd love to jump back to a PC, but the trackpads are just painful. They're barely getting things like two-finger scrolling that Apple nailed five years ago. Also, I appreciate Windows 7 in many ways, but the fit, finish and refinement on the UI and animations in Lion strike me as something that will always be a differentiating factor for many people shopping for a $1000 + system.
- dhughes 15y agoI once heard or read "competing with a rival gets you nowhere at best you're equal, to succeed you have to be better you have to excel beyond what they do."