New MacBook Manufacturing Process

[Sam Symons Veteran]

The MacBook Brick is a block of high-quality, aircraft grade aluminum. It is the beginning.

The beginning of what?

It is the beginning of the new Apple manufacturing process to make MacBooks. It is totally revolutionary, a game changer. One of the biggest Apple innovations in a decade.

The MacBook manufacturing process up to this point has been outsourced to Chinese or Taiwanese manufacturers like Foxconn. Now Apple is in charge. The company has spent the last few years building an entirely new manufacturing process that uses lasers (w/o sharks) and jets of water to carve the MacBooks out of a brick of aluminum.

(Yes, this sounded a bit crazy to us as well. But our source is adamant so bear with us. He says Apple has built a manufacturing process that would make Henry Ford proud.)

This isn't entirely new. Steve Jobs has always had a fondness for having his own plant to produce computers. In 1990, he built a totally automated plant in Fremont California (thanks PED) that could build NEXT machines with only 100 workers. It was a "plant with just about everything: lasers, robots, speed, and remarkably few defects." Unfortunately, the demand wasn't very high at the time. However, Jobs remarked, "I'm as proud of the factory as I am of the computer."

One thing about Steve Jobs is that he seems to always return to his failures and then turn them into successes. That is where our information ends and speculation begins.

What advantages are there to manufacturing with 3D laser and water jet cutting?

* Carving out of aluminum eliminates the need to bend the metal and create weak spots or microfolds and rifts.

* There are no seams in the final product, so it is smooth.

* Screws aren?t needed to tie the products together.

* The shell is one piece of metal so it is super light, super strong and super cheap.

* You can be a whole lot more creative with the design if you don't have to machine it.

As Peter Oppenheimer said at the recent earnings call, this innovation is something "Apple's competitors won't be able to match" for some time to come. We expect the process to drive down the prices of MacBooks over the next few years and at the same time allow Apple to continue to lead in the innovation department. Design changes should come much more rapidly.

The newly designed MacBooks are still on target for an October 14th announcement and the press should be getting invites within the next few days. There are still so many questions to be answered. I am sure Steve Jobs will enjoy answering them.

We realize that a lot of people will be skeptical but bear with us for a few weeks. Remember when we said there were going to be aluminum iMacs? Fat nanos? iPod Touch? Slim, MacBook Air? Basically, every major product that Apple has released over the past 15 months. We are putting a lot on the line here for this mother of all rumors...wish us luc:D:D

(oh, and sorry for the riddling...it was at the behest of our source)

Source: http://www.9to5mac.com/macbook-brick#comment-18797

This looks like great news to me. What do you guys think?

[Ci7]

nice moves apple ......... but does it have to be innovative in every time apple is talked about :hmmm: :rolleyes: anyway to the to next subject

just wandering and does it have "unreplaceable batteries " feature i would love to have it ... shame :shifty: *the irony* :shifty:

Edit :

btw i heard Hitman , agent 47 is apple fan

i hope he didnt notice :shiftyninja: :no: or else screwed :unsure:

[Sam Symons Veteran]

If it means much faster design changes, and much sturdier cases, etc, then I'm all for it :p And I don't even use Macs.

[Lasker]

I can't wait to see what is looks like :jump:

[Sam Symons Veteran]

Too right. I like the idea that it'll be made out of one shell, without needing screws, etc.

[johnathonm]

Great....this should be fun to do support on.

Ugh.

FYAD Apple.

[dead.cell]

* The shell is one piece of metal so it is super light, super strong and super cheap.

Cheap for them, but that doesn't mean they'll pass the savings on to us. :\

[acnpt]

Won't there be alot of wastage of aluminium??? which will then have to be melted down again?? :huh:

Anyway sounds good I guess...

[StevoJD]

Sounds great for a laptop to be honest.

No screws or anything like that, great for mobility.

[Sam Symons Veteran]

Cheap for them, but that doesn't mean they'll pass the savings on to us. :\

That's the only thing I'm worried about. Now they can use the excuse that 'we're paying for top-of-the-line manufacturing'.

[instant.human]

thats gonna look smooooth. =)

[Linkinfamous]

Are you kidding me?

Waterjet cutting and laser cutting? This is "One of the biggest Apple innovations in a decade."?

People have been doing both of those things for decades.

Edited October 5, 2008 by MioTheGreat

[sundayx Veteran]

I'll wait and see.

[sn00pie]

I know how Apple works. Their new Macbooks are going to make me regret having to buy mine just over a month ago. :/

[Deepu Sudhakar]

If it's true, it means that it's going to be a bitch to replace a hard drive or add RAM. =/

[Alexandre.]

I'm hoping for a Macbook Atom of some sorts at the event :D

[instant.human]

If it's true, it means that it's going to be a bitch to replace a hard drive or add RAM. =/

i dont think so... apple might let you access all that through the keyboard or something which kinda HAS to be put in there, either with screws or with whatever they make out.

i think they will still make ram and hdd user-servicable.

but all we can do is wait and see. =) take that information and then... wait for what it will turn out in the end. =)

[PyX]

I'm all for it :D

It'll make a good MacBook for me on October 14 if everything's true :D

With possibily nVidia, DDR3... only good stuff!

I'm also wondering about the processes of changing RAM and stuff though.

[Impact]

Man, it makes me want one lol

[HellScream63]

They might just keep the way it's done in the MacBook; through the battery bay. Which doesn't involve taking the case apart. It can be applied to the MacBook Pro. Which would be fantastic, because I don't like any of the HDD offerings for the MBP.

I either have to sacrifice storage to get a faster drive or sacrifice speed to get a larger drive. (4200RPM 300GB, 5400RPM 250GB, 7200RPM 200GB) That's been holding me back from purchasing a MBP for a while now, and I don't want to void the warranty on a brand new MBP by replacing the drive myself. Specially with the myriad of odd hardware defects or problems that people have been reporting with the current rev.

[se7en.hu]

Fantastic news, congrats on the new plant Steve. Cant wait for new notebooks :D :)

[afusion]

Made me wonder if they did this with the macbook air in some way.

I'm pumped for this as well. It's like every October there's something wonderful on the Horizon.

[rajputwarrior]

so does that mean the end of user replaceable hard drives and ram if everything is in a shell?

[carmatic]

hmm, maybe they can intergrate the heatsink into the rest of the aluminum with all that fancy cutting theyre doing... like no more fans or anything, just a nice and warm laptop

[bob_loblaw]

Are you kidding me?

Waterjet cutting and laser cutting? This is "One of the biggest Apple innovations in a decade."?

People have been doing both of those things for decades.

On a notebook computer? I've never seen one.