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> 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

> 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 ago
Actually, 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 ago
No 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.
- ionfish 15y ago
  The missing # key is annoying, although it's not the kind of thing that would make me change operating systems. Apple's chosen shortcut for the '#' character is Alt+3 which is frustrating for terminal users who use Alt as the meta key—for example, it makes it hard to enter channel names in Irssi.
  - leon_ 15y ago
    Get Ukelele and change the keys' locations. I did that for #, @, \ and |.
    - DrPizza 15y ago
      That's what I do on my MacBook Pro. It was much more palatable than discarding years of typing experience. I don't dispute that it works. But it does rather detract from, well, the aesthetic elegance of the machine. Apple has these fancy backlit keyboards--it's a great shame to make the keycaps wrong. Plus, it also causes big problems when I let others use my machine. Hunt-and-peckers don't stand a chance when your keys are mismatched. Though they probably struggle even with the regular Apple layout--good luck finding # on the keyboard, since Apple doesn't deign to print it. Sure, once you know it's option-3 it's not so bad, but I don't know how you're meant to just figure that out for yourself. And the thing is, it's all just gratuitous. Apple's layout isn't in any meaningful sense better. It's just... different.
      - jvdongen 15y ago
        ... currently typing on a MBP with a clearly visible #, @, \ and | all reachable by merely using shift. Is this only an issue with a US keyboard layout perhaps (I've a Dutch layout)?
        splidge 15y ago
        It's an issue on UK keyboards. UK keyboards on PCs have a dedicated key for #/~, " is shift-2 and @ is shift-'. £ (currency symbol) is shift-3. On a Mac the " and @ are the wrong way round (shift-' and shift-2 respectively), and the key that should produce # instead generates \. The only way to get a # is option-3, which is not marked on the keys. The Mac "UK" layout is basically the US layout with £/# reversed.

gnok 15y ago

Actually, 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 ago

No 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.

ionfish 15y ago
The missing # key is annoying, although it's not the kind of thing that would make me change operating systems. Apple's chosen shortcut for the '#' character is Alt+3 which is frustrating for terminal users who use Alt as the meta key—for example, it makes it hard to enter channel names in Irssi.
- leon_ 15y ago
  Get Ukelele and change the keys' locations. I did that for #, @, \ and |.
  - DrPizza 15y ago
    That's what I do on my MacBook Pro. It was much more palatable than discarding years of typing experience. I don't dispute that it works. But it does rather detract from, well, the aesthetic elegance of the machine. Apple has these fancy backlit keyboards--it's a great shame to make the keycaps wrong. Plus, it also causes big problems when I let others use my machine. Hunt-and-peckers don't stand a chance when your keys are mismatched. Though they probably struggle even with the regular Apple layout--good luck finding # on the keyboard, since Apple doesn't deign to print it. Sure, once you know it's option-3 it's not so bad, but I don't know how you're meant to just figure that out for yourself. And the thing is, it's all just gratuitous. Apple's layout isn't in any meaningful sense better. It's just... different.
    - jvdongen 15y ago
      ... currently typing on a MBP with a clearly visible #, @, \ and | all reachable by merely using shift. Is this only an issue with a US keyboard layout perhaps (I've a Dutch layout)?
      - splidge 15y ago
        It's an issue on UK keyboards. UK keyboards on PCs have a dedicated key for #/~, " is shift-2 and @ is shift-'. £ (currency symbol) is shift-3. On a Mac the " and @ are the wrong way round (shift-' and shift-2 respectively), and the key that should produce # instead generates \. The only way to get a # is option-3, which is not marked on the keys. The Mac "UK" layout is basically the US layout with £/# reversed.