Guest Editorial: Apple "MehBooks" and the Future of Macs

[own3d]

Agree 100% with OP, Would love to try mac but they're prices are ridiculous, they kept the old white plastic macbook in the UK and now its a year old put the price up by £20 from £699 to ?£719 , Pathetic.

[ac500]

I do not often comment on these things, but I have to say this seems to me to be one of the most biased and subjective "editorials" I've seen on notebookreview.com, and personally I would be ashamed of this if I had anything to do with it.

Keep in mind that I'm a PC user, and have never owned a MacBook. I've always preferred PCs, but I always keep an open mind and when I see an article like this I wonder what the author was thinking.

The point of this thread is, "what do you get for the price premium?" So what do you get?

Exactly, here's what you get (as far as I can tell):
- Sturdy all aluminum body
- All glass display panel (you don't have to worry about touching/scratching/bending your laptop's display any more)
- LED backlight (better battery life)
- Generously large, innovative (IMO) touchpad
- Backlit keyboard

Just because a $600 piece of junk from Dell has similar specs as Apple's $1300 MacBook doesn't mean Apple's MacBook is shamefully overpriced as the article states. Consider that some people actually prefer durability, easy of use, convenience, portability, and something that just works (and won't fall apart at the seams) over specs.

Personally I'd much rather buy a 2 GHz quality notebook for $2000 than a 3 GHz "consumer" toy for $500.

[Xirurg]

1)Because every single brand have bad things and no one jumps on and defends for those brands tirelessly. However, that happens when Apple is brought up.
2)They do suck, I tell them many times.

1)and why none of them is posted on NBR homepage?
2)You can say that they suck,but it wont stop them from enjoying thiir products...will you stop liking your HP if I say that HP's business line is rubbish and overpriced?

[Han Bao Quan]

This ,with apple in the equation instead of purse manufactures, is that the products are genuinely better made, And more perfected then alot of other devices..

All the computers are made in some factories in China, either by Quanta or Compals or some other ODMs.
And no, they are not genuiely better made (as which lots of fanboys want to believe).
"More perfected"?? yeah right! Look at all the specs and compatible capabilities between a "Personal Computer" Mac and a PC.

And that not to mention the previous Macbook generation was just crap in terms of build quality compared to other brands, and still is.

1)and why none of them is posted on NBR homepage?
2)You can say that they suck,but it wont stop them from enjoying thiir products...will you stop liking your HP if I say that HP's business line is rubbish and overpriced?

1) Because there are HPs, Dells, Lenovos, Asuss, Sonys, Toshibas, Acers...which all make Personal Computer and none of them makes the distinction like Apple does.
2) Many people enjoy their Acers, which is totally crap, and there is nothing wrong with that. The point is, the build quality difference is clear between an Acer and a sony. That's the same case for Macbooks.

come on, where is Sam???

[2.0™]

Ok,Mac sucks and you get nothing for your money...can we now close this thread?

You know, so far there hasn't been any real flame warring. What's so wrong with assessing the relative value of a product by comparison? Isn't that what reviews on here do? This may help someone who is deciding between a Mac or a PC or between different Macs. It may help them overcome peer or social pressure or even misconceptions and give them the ammunition to do so.

I don't mean to harsh on you. But let the thread develop a little more first.

[Johnny T]

After alittle thought, what some people love arent really MACs, but OSX, it is simple to use and easy to maintain which means that new computer users can get the hang of it easily. Its only selling so well due to OSX, design, and marketing. Its a shame that the only way people are going to get hold of OSX in a legal way right now is by using a MAC.

Excellent dose of straight talk. Much needed and much appreciated.


The internet is full of disinformation. Nice to see a post with substance.

Summed up my thoughts on this article. Yes this is an editorial/article not a forum post/thread.
That said I am a windows user all the way but I can certainly understand why so many would prefer OSX, people who just want something that works out of the box. And Apple provide that in a very nice box indeed. I could have bought a MBP myself back in July but then realised my notebook just suit my needs better in everyway. I paid more than I would have paid for a MBP, but it has a better and longer warranty, BR writer, HDMI, the list goes on. Not to mention the workstation GPU.

No its not that simple, it is...''If you want one and can afford one get one.''

If MS doesnt screw up their next job and PC companies continues to make half decent looking notebooks (HP+Dell...etc), then maybe ......................

[Andrew Baxter]

I agree with a lot of what's said in the editorial here, but I actually think Apple will do okay in terms of sales and making $$$, though certainly won't sell near as many laptops had they come out with the rumored $800 Mac. They'll have a healthy profit margin on the current MacBooks so no need to sell a large volume.

IDG had said Apple would have 30 - 40% of the computer market by 2012 (not just education, that's the entire market) and if they are to get there it will definitely involve something that costs under $1,000. I hope next year Apple does bring something slightly lower end in terms of notebooks to make the OS X platform more accessible.

The two USB ports doesn't turn me off, that's all I need. Not having a media card reader or expansion port does remove this as an option for my needs. Plus I just always buy business oriented PCs for various reasons, I'm just not the target market for Apple.

[Superczar]

Kind of disappointed to see this rather biased article on the NBR homepage

I wouldn't get into the rather overdone Mac vs PC debate

But If at all the author wanted the article to at least look objective, he should have done the price to specs comparison between say a XPS 1330 and the Macbook and not the Inspiron

Comparing the Inspiron with the Macbook is to use a cliche, comparing apples to oranges (no pun intended) or a Kia to a Volkswagen (since Kia vs Porsche would again veer to the other extreme, which I am accusing the OP of)

[slayerfaith1982]

I think also to some degree people get frustrated that even if they want to try OSX or use it, or even try out a Mac in general for the style factor and chic factory, Apple controls all of it and charges a premium price of entry.

You can't customize a macbook, not really. And the limited options (usually 2 per SKU) exclude a lot of nearing mainstream options (no HDMI? really? still?)

It's just a disservice I believe to those who don't have anything against a macbook. They're undoubtedly some of the trendiest and sexiest laptops available. However I think Apple should

A) Lower their prices so it's only a 30% premium over comparable PC's give or take

B) Adopt a more HP or Dell like business model of allowing customers to customize what size HDD, graphics card, speed of CPU, etc they want in their laptop. So people aren't stuck paying for things they dont necessarily want

C) Sell OSX seperately that'll work on any other manufacturer's PC

I would bet money that if Apple did these 3 things, Microsoft would be beyond screwed. I'd wager within 5 years you'd see nearly a 50/50 split marketplace then, and a real competition

Apple though seems content on catering to only the super-high-end consumers and a small chunk of the market

[2.0™]

Kind of disappointed to see this rather biased article on the NBR homepage

If at all the author wanted the article to at least look objective, he should have done the price to specs comparison between a XPS 1330 and the Macbook

Comparing the Inspiron with the Macbook is to use a cliche, comparing apples to oranges or a Kia to a Volkswagen (since Kia vs Porsche would again veer to the other extreme, of which I am accusing the OP of)

But the comparison was preferenced with "average user." That makes all the difference. Average user may think the MAC is better by default do to their (Apple's) misinforming commecrials about Vista problems.

XPS is a Dell premuim that an average user doesn't or may not need, like a Macbook or HP HDX.

One of the reasons why netbooks are selling so well. Average user realizes his needs and has started to question why he/she needs to pay so much for something that does what or more than they need it to do.