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You are the one who made the choice to get the tiniest, slimmest computer available. You made that choice. Don't come griping now that you had no choice: you di

by Bud 13y ago

You are the one who made the choice to get the tiniest, slimmest computer available. You made that choice. Don't come griping now that you had no choice: you did. You chose to get a computer so conveniently slender that, as an inevitable and obvious consequence, there was not room in the design for socketed RAM. Quit your griping and enjoy what you bought, or buy a slightly larger machine that has room for more upgradable components.

barrkel 13y ago
Are you a laptop designer? How do you know it's not possible? FWIW, it wasn't the tiniest slimmest computer available, and I already had a lighter PC laptop that also had a DVD drive (Toshiba Portege). It was one of the lighter options that ran OS X, but only a handful do by design. If I could have gotten something slightly bigger, lighter and with more upgradeable components, I would have. But Apple didn't sell it. In any case, this is missing the point. You're reacting to what you perceive as my griping. But I'm not actually griping. My point is that Apple is motivated by profit, and divides the hardware they produce with market segmentation. If they get the segmentation wrong, or if there is a bunch more profit that can be extracted by segmenting it differently, they'll extract it, like any company should. Limited hardware expandability is a part of that segmentation, as it reduces the bleed of low-margin parts into high-margin segments.
- gnaffle 13y ago
  Of course everything is _possible_. But with the added space of DIMM sockets, something has to give. Bulkier laptop, less battery space, or something else. That is why you don't see iPad or iPhone competitors with DIMM sockets either. Of course Apple doesn't have a big incentive to add such ports, but the fact that they've left them on the desktop Macs and the non-retina (and bulkier) MacBooks are an indication that it's not primarily a business decision, but more likely a design decision.
- astrodust 13y ago
  There is literally no room in the Air for socketable memory. Look at the teardown (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Mid+2013+Teardown/15042 http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Mid+2013+...) if you don't believe me. This thing is 80% battery, 20% highly dense circuit board. There's barely enough room on there for an upgradeable SSD. Until they make a standard DDR3 socket that's smaller, there's simply no way to fit removable memory into a computer that thin.

by Bud 13y ago

barrkel 13y ago

Are you a laptop designer? How do you know it's not possible? FWIW, it wasn't the tiniest slimmest computer available, and I already had a lighter PC laptop that also had a DVD drive (Toshiba Portege). It was one of the lighter options that ran OS X, but only a handful do by design. If I could have gotten something slightly bigger, lighter and with more upgradeable components, I would have. But Apple didn't sell it. In any case, this is missing the point. You're reacting to what you perceive as my griping. But I'm not actually griping. My point is that Apple is motivated by profit, and divides the hardware they produce with market segmentation. If they get the segmentation wrong, or if there is a bunch more profit that can be extracted by segmenting it differently, they'll extract it, like any company should. Limited hardware expandability is a part of that segmentation, as it reduces the bleed of low-margin parts into high-margin segments.

gnaffle 13y ago
Of course everything is _possible_. But with the added space of DIMM sockets, something has to give. Bulkier laptop, less battery space, or something else. That is why you don't see iPad or iPhone competitors with DIMM sockets either. Of course Apple doesn't have a big incentive to add such ports, but the fact that they've left them on the desktop Macs and the non-retina (and bulkier) MacBooks are an indication that it's not primarily a business decision, but more likely a design decision.
astrodust 13y ago
There is literally no room in the Air for socketable memory. Look at the teardown (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Mid+2013+Teardown/15042 http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Mid+2013+...) if you don't believe me. This thing is 80% battery, 20% highly dense circuit board. There's barely enough room on there for an upgradeable SSD. Until they make a standard DDR3 socket that's smaller, there's simply no way to fit removable memory into a computer that thin.