5 ms·

Apple reportedly to release US$799 MacBook Air in 3Q12

18 points by duck 15y ago

hello_asdf 15y ago
I really hope this happens because I've been wanting to switch to a Macbook Air for a while now. Anyone interested in trading a late 2009 (I think, might be 2010) 13" Macbook Pro for a Macbook Air? :)
- envex 15y ago
  If you really want to switch, you can usually save a couple hundred dollars by buying a refurb from apple.
  - hello_asdf 15y ago
    I hadn't thought about that, thanks for the idea.
- tar 15y ago
  Why do you want to switch to a MacBook Air?
  - hello_asdf 15y ago
    I don't know really. I just want a change, plus Linus uses one. I suppose that's reason enough.
  - envex 15y ago
    I just switched from a MB to a MBA. My older macbook was starting to show it's age and I really wanted to switch to a SSD. My MB was already a 13", so the size wasn't an issue. I ended up picking up a refurb for $1,099.
toadkick 15y ago
I don't buy it, and this article doesn't really make a strong case for it either. If the MB Air is a strong seller (and by all accounts it is), what sense does it make for Apple to drop the price down $200 to "compete" in a segment where it is already dominating? Clearly other "ultrabook" makers are already having a hard time competing at even the $999 price point, so there's no need for Apple to eat into its (presumably healthy) profit margins for the MB Air. With that said, I wouldn't mind if this was true, I would have a hard time turning it down at that price. The only way I could see this happening is if Apple takes a similar approach as it does with iPhones (and now iPads), where they keep the last gen hardware on the market at a reduced price when they update the lineup. But still...a $200 price drop seems unrealistic.
- stuff4ben 15y ago
  Exactly! I don't recall many times (if ever) where Apple has competed on price. Gotta keep those margins healthy. To me it seems the article is link-bait.
  - viscanti 15y ago
    The year old iPhone and iPad seem to be pretty good examples of Apple competing on price first. They're able to, because they're selling older (cheaper) components in a product that they've already paid for the design/development/engineering for. It's not impossible to imagine that Apple would sell the current low-end version of the Air for $200 cheaper than it's current price. Doing so, should help them appeal to a new demographic of laptop buyers who buy on price first, and are willing to sacrifice performance. The same people who buy a 2 generation old iPhone for $1 are the ones who may be interested in a $799 Air.
    - toadkick 15y ago
      I don't think that's competing on price first, I think that's a graceful and inexpensive way to increase market share in a very competitive mobile environment. From everything I've read, it's the $0 with contract 3GS that is accomplishing this, and I don't think the people who would get a 2-year old iPhone because it's free are the same kind of people who would spend $800 on a laptop, regardless of the brand. I don't think the drop from $1000 to $800 would really be that compelling to them, because they likely aren't type to care about getting the super-thin awesome hotness with a small hard drive and no optical drive at a significant cost over a run-of-the-mill Dell (or comparable) laptop. The Mac has never had huge market share, and their Mac business brings in a scant amount of profit compared to the iPhone and iPad business, where they can much more afford to lose a small amount of profit in the interest of increasing market share. I don't see why they would kneecap themselves by reducing the price so much just to increase market share, when they make such a nice margin already with what little market share they do have.
- gte910h 15y ago
  Maximized profit is achieved by hitting profit X unit sold If unit sold goes up by more than the lost per unit profit, then that's a winning proposition. If people convert to the Apple brand, then Apple is going to make tons more than just that first sale. SSD prices also have probably REALLY made that 1k MBA a high profit device (they dropped a ton in the last year) I predict the $800 MBA will just be this years 1k MBA. See: The iPod Nano, the still sold iPhone 3GS (for $0 with 2 year contract), etc for past downmarket moves.
ctdonath 15y ago
Well, with iCloud in place Apple could start weaning users off massive local storage, reducing significant hardware costs. What with the biggest reason for local storage being one's iTunes library, and Match alleviating the practical need for storing all that music/video on expensive spacious & speedy storage, why not plan for OS X & iTunes to ease offloading content (most of which is little used) and relieve the need for most of the Air's flash memory?
- toadkick 15y ago
  I'd hardly call the 64 GB in the $999 model "massive". I still know a lot of people who won't make the switch to an Air due to the lack of an optical drive, and reducing the already small hard disk capacity would reduce the attractiveness of the Air to those folks even further. Also, I don't think iCloud and iTunes Match are good enough (yet) to convince people that the don't really need a hard drive anymore.
  - icefox 15y ago
    Personally I am waiting for them to put floppies back in laptops. Seriously, Air will never get a built in optical drive and you either accept that and use the USB drive once a year when you need it or you just go and buy a different laptop, but for everyone else they are picking up the air in massive numbers and it is clearly the direction laptops are heading. I have a macbook pro that came with a built in optical drive, but I still spent the extra money (and time) to remove it and replace it with a second drive.
  - gte910h 15y ago
    SSD's dropped in price precipitously. What used to cost about $140 (that 64GB drive) now costs about $40-55 bucks. I could see them continue to sell this years model with perhaps a cost reduce step or two just like they do the iPhone 3GS.
shimsham 15y ago
The Mac Pro replacement, the iMac Pro should see the light of day soon, with hot-swappable disks at the left and right sides, thunderbolt (obviously) including simple multi-screen support, touchability where required and multiple gpu support.
ef4 15y ago
I'm still wondering if there's a Macbook Air with a retina display in the works.
- pkamb 15y ago
  An 11" with a 16:10 screen would be nice.
- oemera 15y ago
  I really don't think so. Imagine every app with custom images / icons would need an update and this is way harder than updating iOS apps. The App Store is pretty "new" business and it is really fast but on the Mac it is kind of different. These things take longer. Imagine Microsoft would need to release a version with retina graphics. This would take ages instead of weeks! Another point is that it would cause fragmentation in the whole Mac / MacBook ecosystem. I really don't think that this will happen in the next time!
rdl 15y ago
I assume for laptops, unlike iPads, it doesn't make sense to just keep selling the late-2011 MBA11 for a new $799 price point once the expected 2012 MBAs ship (presumably at the current price points). Unless there are parts shortages, bumping the CPU to a newer one probably raise costs -- smaller process should eventually make the same number of computrons cheaper from a low spec new chip than a mid-spec older chip. Not upgrading to better (retina?) screen (although 1440x900 on the MBA13 is pretty close, especially when used at arm's length), keeping RAM at 4GB, and maybe cost savings with older/slower integrated graphics...maybe that could let you have lower costs and price discrimination. Refurbs already are -$100 to -$200; I don't know what availability there is on laptop refurbs vs. iPad refurbs.
protomyth 15y ago
I am trying to think of the last time digitimes got a rumor correct. They have an exceedingly poor track record. It does seem natural that a portable from Apple will hit the $799 price range to capture the college freshman crowd. Portables and not tablets are still a requirement at many schools.

18 points by duck 15y ago

I really hope this happens because I've been wanting to switch to a Macbook Air for a while now. Anyone interested in trading a late 2009 (I think, might be 2010) 13" Macbook Pro for a Macbook Air? :)

envex 15y ago
If you really want to switch, you can usually save a couple hundred dollars by buying a refurb from apple.
- hello_asdf 15y ago
  I hadn't thought about that, thanks for the idea.
tar 15y ago
Why do you want to switch to a MacBook Air?
- hello_asdf 15y ago
  I don't know really. I just want a change, plus Linus uses one. I suppose that's reason enough.
- envex 15y ago
  I just switched from a MB to a MBA. My older macbook was starting to show it's age and I really wanted to switch to a SSD. My MB was already a 13", so the size wasn't an issue. I ended up picking up a refurb for $1,099.

toadkick 15y ago

I don't buy it, and this article doesn't really make a strong case for it either. If the MB Air is a strong seller (and by all accounts it is), what sense does it make for Apple to drop the price down $200 to "compete" in a segment where it is already dominating? Clearly other "ultrabook" makers are already having a hard time competing at even the $999 price point, so there's no need for Apple to eat into its (presumably healthy) profit margins for the MB Air. With that said, I wouldn't mind if this was true, I would have a hard time turning it down at that price. The only way I could see this happening is if Apple takes a similar approach as it does with iPhones (and now iPads), where they keep the last gen hardware on the market at a reduced price when they update the lineup. But still...a $200 price drop seems unrealistic.

stuff4ben 15y ago
Exactly! I don't recall many times (if ever) where Apple has competed on price. Gotta keep those margins healthy. To me it seems the article is link-bait.
- viscanti 15y ago
  The year old iPhone and iPad seem to be pretty good examples of Apple competing on price first. They're able to, because they're selling older (cheaper) components in a product that they've already paid for the design/development/engineering for. It's not impossible to imagine that Apple would sell the current low-end version of the Air for $200 cheaper than it's current price. Doing so, should help them appeal to a new demographic of laptop buyers who buy on price first, and are willing to sacrifice performance. The same people who buy a 2 generation old iPhone for $1 are the ones who may be interested in a $799 Air.
  - toadkick 15y ago
    I don't think that's competing on price first, I think that's a graceful and inexpensive way to increase market share in a very competitive mobile environment. From everything I've read, it's the $0 with contract 3GS that is accomplishing this, and I don't think the people who would get a 2-year old iPhone because it's free are the same kind of people who would spend $800 on a laptop, regardless of the brand. I don't think the drop from $1000 to $800 would really be that compelling to them, because they likely aren't type to care about getting the super-thin awesome hotness with a small hard drive and no optical drive at a significant cost over a run-of-the-mill Dell (or comparable) laptop. The Mac has never had huge market share, and their Mac business brings in a scant amount of profit compared to the iPhone and iPad business, where they can much more afford to lose a small amount of profit in the interest of increasing market share. I don't see why they would kneecap themselves by reducing the price so much just to increase market share, when they make such a nice margin already with what little market share they do have.
gte910h 15y ago
Maximized profit is achieved by hitting profit X unit sold If unit sold goes up by more than the lost per unit profit, then that's a winning proposition. If people convert to the Apple brand, then Apple is going to make tons more than just that first sale. SSD prices also have probably REALLY made that 1k MBA a high profit device (they dropped a ton in the last year) I predict the $800 MBA will just be this years 1k MBA. See: The iPod Nano, the still sold iPhone 3GS (for $0 with 2 year contract), etc for past downmarket moves.

ctdonath 15y ago

Well, with iCloud in place Apple could start weaning users off massive local storage, reducing significant hardware costs. What with the biggest reason for local storage being one's iTunes library, and Match alleviating the practical need for storing all that music/video on expensive spacious & speedy storage, why not plan for OS X & iTunes to ease offloading content (most of which is little used) and relieve the need for most of the Air's flash memory?

toadkick 15y ago
I'd hardly call the 64 GB in the $999 model "massive". I still know a lot of people who won't make the switch to an Air due to the lack of an optical drive, and reducing the already small hard disk capacity would reduce the attractiveness of the Air to those folks even further. Also, I don't think iCloud and iTunes Match are good enough (yet) to convince people that the don't really need a hard drive anymore.
- icefox 15y ago
  Personally I am waiting for them to put floppies back in laptops. Seriously, Air will never get a built in optical drive and you either accept that and use the USB drive once a year when you need it or you just go and buy a different laptop, but for everyone else they are picking up the air in massive numbers and it is clearly the direction laptops are heading. I have a macbook pro that came with a built in optical drive, but I still spent the extra money (and time) to remove it and replace it with a second drive.
- gte910h 15y ago
  SSD's dropped in price precipitously. What used to cost about $140 (that 64GB drive) now costs about $40-55 bucks. I could see them continue to sell this years model with perhaps a cost reduce step or two just like they do the iPhone 3GS.

shimsham 15y ago

The Mac Pro replacement, the iMac Pro should see the light of day soon, with hot-swappable disks at the left and right sides, thunderbolt (obviously) including simple multi-screen support, touchability where required and multiple gpu support.

ef4 15y ago

I'm still wondering if there's a Macbook Air with a retina display in the works.

pkamb 15y ago
An 11" with a 16:10 screen would be nice.
oemera 15y ago
I really don't think so. Imagine every app with custom images / icons would need an update and this is way harder than updating iOS apps. The App Store is pretty "new" business and it is really fast but on the Mac it is kind of different. These things take longer. Imagine Microsoft would need to release a version with retina graphics. This would take ages instead of weeks! Another point is that it would cause fragmentation in the whole Mac / MacBook ecosystem. I really don't think that this will happen in the next time!

rdl 15y ago

I assume for laptops, unlike iPads, it doesn't make sense to just keep selling the late-2011 MBA11 for a new $799 price point once the expected 2012 MBAs ship (presumably at the current price points). Unless there are parts shortages, bumping the CPU to a newer one probably raise costs -- smaller process should eventually make the same number of computrons cheaper from a low spec new chip than a mid-spec older chip. Not upgrading to better (retina?) screen (although 1440x900 on the MBA13 is pretty close, especially when used at arm's length), keeping RAM at 4GB, and maybe cost savings with older/slower integrated graphics...maybe that could let you have lower costs and price discrimination. Refurbs already are -$100 to -$200; I don't know what availability there is on laptop refurbs vs. iPad refurbs.

protomyth 15y ago

I am trying to think of the last time digitimes got a rumor correct. They have an exceedingly poor track record. It does seem natural that a portable from Apple will hit the $799 price range to capture the college freshman crowd. Portables and not tablets are still a requirement at many schools.