5 ms·

Dell launches purported MacBook Air killer

6 points by snydeq 18y ago

dandelany 18y ago
I've seen very little evidence, based on Air sales, that it is popular enough to warrant killing.
- unalone 18y ago
  Where do you get your sales info from? I've never seen sales numbers for the Air, and I'm curious to see what they're like. Dell can't use this to compete with the Air. The Air's a luxury product - possibly the only real luxury laptop. It's for people who really, really, really like beautiful things that feel good, and who don't mind the fact that for that you're paying more than you would for a more powerful computer. Dell doesn't make luxury computers. I doubt they're skilled enough to make computers that work beautifully enough to deserve a luxury. Furthermore, you can't "kill" items in the luxury market. This is more a computer whose form was influenced a lot by the Air. That's it. It's not as pretty but it's still thin, and it's a lot cheaper since chances are Dell will try to sell it to people who aren't rich.
  - noamsml 18y ago
    That's a very nice way of saying the Air is for idiots who have too much money and are more impressed by shiny stuff than by real merit.
    - unalone 18y ago
      If by "shiny stuff" you mean "it works really nice and feels good," then yes. That's what I'm saying. I guess people who pay money for wallpaper are stupid? It serves no practical purpose. I guess people who buy expensive desks rather than cheap wooden ones, they're stupid? Or people who'll buy a sports car rather than a smart car? The people who'll pay money for an original painting? All really, really stupid, right? There's a sort of design deficiency in the world of hackers and programmers. I'm certain it's not just among us, but it's here that I see it most. People really don't seem to notice things like feel and look and effect. For a lot of people a design is just a long list of features. The Macbook Air is not a machine for people who want features. It's a machine for people who want to feel a delight when they look at their computer, for people who enjoy the feel of a really light computer tucked under their arm. It's got a beautiful form and it feels beautiful when you have it open on your lap and typing feels beautiful. Those aren't features. There isn't a site that rates how good it feels to type on a computer. There's no score for this. That said, calling good design "shiny" and saying it lacks "real merit" is pretty damn stupid, and I find the people who look at the Macbook Air and say they don't get it a little bit despicable. It's a bad attitude that gets people nowhere and encourages deliberate blindness. (Another way to put it is: what do you have to gain from seeing movies in a movie theater? It's expensive and the food is bad and unless you're sitting particularly close to the screen, there's nothing that it offers you that a huge TV doesn't - with one exception, which is the experience of going to a movie theater. Good design is an experience.)
- axod 18y ago
  Lamborghini sales are also quite small. The Macbook air is still a great piece of engineering.
- LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
  It's all about status and marketing. The halo effect is real.
  - unalone 18y ago
    People don't like Apple for their marketing, though their marketing is pretty incredible. The best marketing they have are their actual products. People see people using Apple products, try them out, and fall in love. Apple doesn't advertise showing people using their products. They don't bandwagon you. They don't tell you you're "cool" if you use Apple. Their competitors do, and sometimes they work. Apple never does. Their advertisements focus on their actual products, and their competitors can't do that because it only works if you make incredible products. Can you imagine a commercial showing the Zune and nothing but the Zune? It would be horrible. So Microsoft shows people using the Zune so that you can see how cool it is. Meanwhile, even without a commercial I can give a friend a 5-minute demonstration of cool Mac things and that friend will become a diehard Mac fan. At the program I attended 2 years ago, 12 people, none of them Mac users, spent a month using older iMacs. Within a year each person in the program had bought a Mac. It wasn't commercials. It was product love.
TweedHeads 18y ago
The Air is thinner, way thinner. Adamo looks more like a cheap Macbook, therefore it should compete in the lower end segment, and price, specially price.
- ggruschow 18y ago
  Depends on what you consider "thinner".. The Dell would fit in a 3mm smaller slot but won't cut cake as well.
ajju 18y ago
The MacBook air is a so-so piece of hardware with a world class operating system. Dell can easily best the Air at hardware but definitely not at software (unless Apple frees Leopard)
- jemmons 18y ago
  Looking at its size, weight, construction, rigidity, manufacturing process, backlit keyboard, magnetic power connector, DisplayPort interface, etc. I'd have to conclude that every facet of the Air represents the cutting edge in industrial design. I also must admit that, while clearly subjective, the majority of my coworkers and I find it aesthetically pleasing to look at. I am curious, then, as to why you would rate it as "so-so" hardware. Because it doesn't have a removable battery? Seriously, what?
  - ajju 18y ago
    Mostly because every other Macbook air owner I know experiences overheating and random shutdowns multiple times a week: http://blog.weatherby.net/2008/07/cool-air.html http://blog.weatherby.net/2008/07/cool-air.html http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/03/20/review-macbook-air http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/03/20/review-macbook-air
    - anatoli 18y ago
      I think we all know that people who are unhappy with something usually speak up louder than those who are happy; as such, claiming that "every other" MacBook Air is flawed is (likely) severely exaggerated. My girlfriend has a MacBook Air, it's the perfect laptop for her — it's light (she's a Uni student), well-designed, and runs fast enough to satisfy all her needs. No issues with it, so far.
    - jemmons 18y ago
      I'm trying not to resort to sarcasm, but honestly. If your evidence of "so-so" hardware is an anecdotal sampling of people who may well have defective units, that's some pretty weak tea.
laut 18y ago
This "killer" talk is lame. It won't kill anything. I remember seeing the Air at the top of the laptops sales charts on the Apple.com store.
bunnyhero 18y ago
at 4 lbs it's too heavy to compete with the air.

6 points by snydeq 18y ago

dandelany 18y ago

I've seen very little evidence, based on Air sales, that it is popular enough to warrant killing.

unalone 18y ago
Where do you get your sales info from? I've never seen sales numbers for the Air, and I'm curious to see what they're like. Dell can't use this to compete with the Air. The Air's a luxury product - possibly the only real luxury laptop. It's for people who really, really, really like beautiful things that feel good, and who don't mind the fact that for that you're paying more than you would for a more powerful computer. Dell doesn't make luxury computers. I doubt they're skilled enough to make computers that work beautifully enough to deserve a luxury. Furthermore, you can't "kill" items in the luxury market. This is more a computer whose form was influenced a lot by the Air. That's it. It's not as pretty but it's still thin, and it's a lot cheaper since chances are Dell will try to sell it to people who aren't rich.
- noamsml 18y ago
  That's a very nice way of saying the Air is for idiots who have too much money and are more impressed by shiny stuff than by real merit.
  - unalone 18y ago
    If by "shiny stuff" you mean "it works really nice and feels good," then yes. That's what I'm saying. I guess people who pay money for wallpaper are stupid? It serves no practical purpose. I guess people who buy expensive desks rather than cheap wooden ones, they're stupid? Or people who'll buy a sports car rather than a smart car? The people who'll pay money for an original painting? All really, really stupid, right? There's a sort of design deficiency in the world of hackers and programmers. I'm certain it's not just among us, but it's here that I see it most. People really don't seem to notice things like feel and look and effect. For a lot of people a design is just a long list of features. The Macbook Air is not a machine for people who want features. It's a machine for people who want to feel a delight when they look at their computer, for people who enjoy the feel of a really light computer tucked under their arm. It's got a beautiful form and it feels beautiful when you have it open on your lap and typing feels beautiful. Those aren't features. There isn't a site that rates how good it feels to type on a computer. There's no score for this. That said, calling good design "shiny" and saying it lacks "real merit" is pretty damn stupid, and I find the people who look at the Macbook Air and say they don't get it a little bit despicable. It's a bad attitude that gets people nowhere and encourages deliberate blindness. (Another way to put it is: what do you have to gain from seeing movies in a movie theater? It's expensive and the food is bad and unless you're sitting particularly close to the screen, there's nothing that it offers you that a huge TV doesn't - with one exception, which is the experience of going to a movie theater. Good design is an experience.)
axod 18y ago
Lamborghini sales are also quite small. The Macbook air is still a great piece of engineering.
LogicHoleFlaw 18y ago
It's all about status and marketing. The halo effect is real.
- unalone 18y ago
  People don't like Apple for their marketing, though their marketing is pretty incredible. The best marketing they have are their actual products. People see people using Apple products, try them out, and fall in love. Apple doesn't advertise showing people using their products. They don't bandwagon you. They don't tell you you're "cool" if you use Apple. Their competitors do, and sometimes they work. Apple never does. Their advertisements focus on their actual products, and their competitors can't do that because it only works if you make incredible products. Can you imagine a commercial showing the Zune and nothing but the Zune? It would be horrible. So Microsoft shows people using the Zune so that you can see how cool it is. Meanwhile, even without a commercial I can give a friend a 5-minute demonstration of cool Mac things and that friend will become a diehard Mac fan. At the program I attended 2 years ago, 12 people, none of them Mac users, spent a month using older iMacs. Within a year each person in the program had bought a Mac. It wasn't commercials. It was product love.

TweedHeads 18y ago

The Air is thinner, way thinner. Adamo looks more like a cheap Macbook, therefore it should compete in the lower end segment, and price, specially price.

ggruschow 18y ago
Depends on what you consider "thinner".. The Dell would fit in a 3mm smaller slot but won't cut cake as well.

ajju 18y ago

The MacBook air is a so-so piece of hardware with a world class operating system. Dell can easily best the Air at hardware but definitely not at software (unless Apple frees Leopard)

jemmons 18y ago
Looking at its size, weight, construction, rigidity, manufacturing process, backlit keyboard, magnetic power connector, DisplayPort interface, etc. I'd have to conclude that every facet of the Air represents the cutting edge in industrial design. I also must admit that, while clearly subjective, the majority of my coworkers and I find it aesthetically pleasing to look at. I am curious, then, as to why you would rate it as "so-so" hardware. Because it doesn't have a removable battery? Seriously, what?
- ajju 18y ago
  Mostly because every other Macbook air owner I know experiences overheating and random shutdowns multiple times a week: http://blog.weatherby.net/2008/07/cool-air.html http://blog.weatherby.net/2008/07/cool-air.html http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/03/20/review-macbook-air http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/03/20/review-macbook-air
  - anatoli 18y ago
    I think we all know that people who are unhappy with something usually speak up louder than those who are happy; as such, claiming that "every other" MacBook Air is flawed is (likely) severely exaggerated. My girlfriend has a MacBook Air, it's the perfect laptop for her — it's light (she's a Uni student), well-designed, and runs fast enough to satisfy all her needs. No issues with it, so far.
  - jemmons 18y ago
    I'm trying not to resort to sarcasm, but honestly. If your evidence of "so-so" hardware is an anecdotal sampling of people who may well have defective units, that's some pretty weak tea.

laut 18y ago

This "killer" talk is lame. It won't kill anything. I remember seeing the Air at the top of the laptops sales charts on the Apple.com store.

bunnyhero 18y ago

at 4 lbs it's too heavy to compete with the air.