Frodo wrote:
Another bit of news today that seemed to rub against the purpose of the iPad is the announcement of the new MacBook Air. It's not entirely clear what the differences are, but there are differences. More to the point, it's not clear what the markets for the new MBA and iPad are panning out to be.
The new Macbook Air is just like the old one except that it's smaller, faster, and has longer battery life. The hard drive is only available as SSD/Flash (mounted to the logic board) and remember there is no multitouch and the OS is not iOS.
Frodo wrote:
If the differences are the built-in keyboard and a bit of extra CPU power, then there's a certain mindset that still distinguishes an honest laptop and *sort of* thinks of the iPad as a glorified iPhone. Some are finding iPhone and iPod Touch quite capable of a great many things to the extent that they find no need to invest in an iPad.
This MacBook is being positioned as a Mac with some iPad/iPhone flavor and that's a pretty genius marketing move. Lion is what will bring a bit more unity to that concept.
Both the MacBook Air and the iPad are being marketed as second computers, but in truth there are many basic users who would need nothing more than what they offer.
This computer is targeting customers who's first mac was an iPad or an iPhone, and who think of those devices as something nearly like a computer... The idea is that this is an affordably nice Mac to step into... Meanwhile if this gets them in the door, they can always grab a MacBook or a 13" MacBook Pro instead.
Frodo wrote:
There's a reluctance with Apple to embrace Flash on i-Apps', which is half the rage and a reality of web info services like youtube, etc. But I wonder about iPad 2.0 (proverbially speaking)--- why the next iPad is not put forth as the new barn burner rather than a new MacBook Air.
YouTube uses h.264 as well as flash so you can watch anything. All the major news sites also offer a similar switch off for iPhone/iPad users. At this point there is very little that iOS users are being left out of that actually matters in a mobile circumstance.
BTW... Apple streamed the presentation today using HTML5 and it was smooth as silk. Better than any Quicktime or Flash-based streaming and my laptop fans never came on. Kind of showed that Apple may be making the right moves in avoiding flash and pushing HTML5.
Frodo wrote:
Is this some form of Newtonitis?
We are so far beyond the Newton now that I'm not even sure Apple remembers they even made one. They have outdone themselves 20 times over in the past few years. Very Impressive.
I also like that they spoke of their commitment to the Mac as a business (something I have been saying). They even went as far as to say that their Mac business alone would be listed as #110 on the Fortune 500 were is a separate company.
http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/20/apple-mac-business/
Apple is just so many levels beyond what they were in the past that we probably are better off not even comparing them to what came before. Total different ballgame.