During the Keynote, Jobs compared the Macbook Air to Sony's TZ ultraportable, implying it had a small keyboard and screen, was too thick, and was not that good. Here's what Sony thinks of the Apple MacBook Air:
Mike Abary, senior vice president of VAIO product marketing, thought the engineering to get a laptop that thin was extremely impressive. But Sony had a similiar vision for an ultraportable once, a carbon fiber notebook in 2004 called the X505 (above) that eschewed the optical and was 0.3 inches thick (compared to 0.16 of the Air) at its thinnest segment. It wasn't that well received, and research later pointed out that "Thinness is not the holy grail". Making something that thin and sexy cost it too much usability.
Mike Abary, senior vice president of VAIO product marketing, thought the engineering to get a laptop that thin was extremely impressive. But Sony had a similiar vision for an ultraportable once, a carbon fiber notebook in 2004 called the X505 (above) that eschewed the optical and was 0.3 inches thick (compared to 0.16 of the Air) at its thinnest segment. It wasn't that well received, and research later pointed out that "Thinness is not the holy grail". Making something that thin and sexy cost it too much usability.
To be fair, dropping an optical in 2004 made no sense, but it makes more sense in 2008, especially with broader internet connections, bittorrent, greater storage capacity, thumbdrives, and Apple's Remote optical drive tech which works over wireless N. But since the X505, ultra portables from Sony have evolved into the TZ, complete with LED backlight, a small but usable keyboard, plenty of ports and built in 3G data. So it is possible that Sony believes they are in many ways 4 years ahead of Apple in their understanding of what consumers want.
When the NYTimes pushed Jobs on the issues of limited storage, he responded, "Maybe this isn't the computer for you." I asked Mike who they thought the computer was for. "Beats me" was the initial reply, but came up with an answer: The extremely design conscious. I asked what feature he'd bring back to the Air, and without hesitating, he thought it should have for 3G.
I wish I could dismiss all of this as competitive trash talk, but too many of you feel the same conflicting feelings about where the Air fits into your collection of machines. At Giz, we're only tormented inside because we still want to buy it, despite it being not all that practical.
News source: Gizmodo
You either in favour and need it, you buy it. Its not suitable, then you don't, theres no crossing anyline.
Theres a sales success and a sales failure.
No I wouldn't buy it, for the same money I'd get a mac book pro or just the mac book.
Ultra portable, yes I'd be tempted by the sony, except, its more expensive :-(
tut, Windows PC and their extravagant prices :-(
You either in favour and need it, you buy it. Its not suitable, then you don't, theres no crossing anyline.
Theres a sales success and a sales failure.
No I wouldn't buy it, for the same money I'd get a mac book pro or just the mac book.
Ultra portable, yes I'd be tempted by the sony, except, its more expensive :-(
tut, Windows PC and their extravagant prices :-(
i ask you this, who is this laptop targeted at ??? i am still trying to figure that one out..
Cheers for honesty, Steve!
I know. I was being serious. That's the best possible answer he could have given.
Last edited by hotrod on 17 Jan 2008 - 22:34
I did a quick search and didn't find much, just one buy it now for $1300 (way too much).
I agree though, it looks amazing.
-800 --- Jobs needs to rethink his approach.... your finger practically goes through the keyboard.... on yer bike
Well, the problem is who this computer is for? ok it's thin and looks great but what good is an ultraportable when you can't change the batteries?
With the Air, I just don't get it. I mean - it is a good weight saving on the Macbook, but was the Macbook REALLY that heavy in the first place? Its pretty much a lower overall spec (except for the 2GB of RAM standard) and has its fair share of limitations. No ethernet jack especially is a real puzzler for me. Every laptop i've used i've found the ethernet jack really important. Optical drive I could live without definately.
I'm going to put my neck out on the line here and predict that it won't do that well - sort of like the Apple Cube. Awesome to look at, super desirable, marvellous engineering but somewhat limited, damned expensive and ultimately going to sell to a niche audience.
With full OSX, a 7-11" screen.
I agree with the no built in no optical drive. Something I can just grab out of my bag incase I wanted to check on server.
With a 3G sim card slot for internet connection when there was no wifi available (hot swappable with your phone sim)
But it would be the same price as it is now, as the Sony is more expensive.
With full OSX, a 7-11" screen.
I agree with the no built in no optical drive. Something I can just grab out of my bag incase I wanted to check on server.
With a 3G sim card slot for internet connection when there was no wifi available (hot swappable with your phone sim)
But it would be the same price as it is now, as the Sony is more expensive.
Get a UMPC/Mid then. :p
With full OSX, a 7-11" screen.
I agree with the no built in no optical drive. Something I can just grab out of my bag incase I wanted to check on server.
With a 3G sim card slot for internet connection when there was no wifi available (hot swappable with your phone sim)
But it would be the same price as it is now, as the Sony is more expensive.
I'd buy one if they made a 10" model... it doesn't make sense to me in a 13"...
With full OSX, a 7-11" screen.
I agree with the no built in no optical drive. Something I can just grab out of my bag incase I wanted to check on server.
With a 3G sim card slot for internet connection when there was no wifi available (hot swappable with your phone sim)
But it would be the same price as it is now, as the Sony is more expensive.
Get a UMPC/Mid then. :p
You have a link for a good one to check out?
With full OSX, a 7-11" screen.
I agree with the no built in no optical drive. Something I can just grab out of my bag incase I wanted to check on server.
With a 3G sim card slot for internet connection when there was no wifi available (hot swappable with your phone sim)
But it would be the same price as it is now, as the Sony is more expensive.
I'd buy one if they made a 10" model... it doesn't make sense to me in a 13"...
Well I would consider it.
Checked the UMPCs out and no they don't have Mobile sim cards.
Why don't they give mobile laptops sim card slots?
LOL. Are you kidding me?
To be fair, I don't really care to begin with.
To be fair, I don't really care to begin with.
So what are you doing here?
Sony has had a hand in assisting Apple with their laptops. Case in point: the first Powerbooks and more recently the Intel-based laptops.
Sony has had a hand in assisting Apple with their laptops. Case in point: the first Powerbooks and more recently the Intel-based laptops.
I agree. Sony makes the best looking "PC" computers bar none.
A typical mac user
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smug_Alert!
A typical mac user
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smug_Alert!
Ridiculous post. A toy? where to start
A typical mac user
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smug_Alert!
Ridiculous post. A toy? where to start
Lets be honest forcing proprietary hardware to inflate prices isn't going to increase apples share for long. They have quite a few things to do if they want to switch the windows base users to Mac. I just don't see apple serious about switching everyone to Mac.
I will admit Apples OS from the core up preforms better then Windows but then again so does Linux. If you take a look for example at Linux they have WINE, a layer that allows some windows game/applications to run pretty well on their OS. Apple needs something more then boot camp.
Maybe i just don't get the whole mac thing, the smug feeling those people get.
One thing i do like about the mac air is the processor, can't wait till they make one those for x86
Last edited by Xsabin on 18 Jan 2008 - 14:05
You CAN buy that CPU.. and better. It's both x86 AND x64!! It's a-ma-za-zing the things we have today.
Technically EMT64.. or something. AMD has the rights to x64.. or something.
You CAN buy that CPU.. and better. It's both x86 AND x64!! It's a-ma-za-zing the things we have today.
Technically EMT64.. or something. AMD has the rights to x64.. or something.
Intel makes EM64T
AMD makes AMD64
Apple makes nothing.
Think Different: Build your own PC!
You CAN buy that CPU.. and better. It's both x86 AND x64!! It's a-ma-za-zing the things we have today.
Technically EMT64.. or something. AMD has the rights to x64.. or something.
Intel makes EM64T
AMD makes AMD64
Apple makes nothing.
Think Different: Build your own PC!
Only worth to build your own PC when the cost is around or above $1,000 other then that name brands are the way to go. I don't know the model number of that processor but if it is available how much and is it cheap enough to put into a UMPC
So lets see.. choice is $550 for a Refurbished laptop that looks amazing vs $1800 that might look okay but doesn't do much. Well I suppose if you have money to burn go ahead. But the average consumer probably will ignore it. This makes Vista Ultimate look pretty darn cheap.
I liked, planned on buying, saw the end of the keynote and said HELL NO!
I liked, planned on buying, saw the end of the keynote and said HELL NO!
Apple needs an inexpensive enthusiast desktop model. Or putting the TPM chip on a USB dongle and un-bundling the OS would be preferable.
The downside to that, are using other OS' and flavors of Windows, since the drivers don't exist.
Sony can match Apple for style and price, and at least Sony includes memory card readers in their laptops, I don't understand why Apple can't do that, especially seeing as they are a company for graphic types.
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