Why the Macbook Air isn’t worth the price and Sony agrees
By Danny Mendez
The Macbook Air, released yesterday, has garnered both praise and condemnation. While critics may disagree with each other, everyone agrees the little computer is the result of the finest engineering work. Despite the genius behind the machine, the computer is far too expensive (and ugly) for the average consumer.
First, let’s get something straight. We like Apple products. We like them a lot, and, as a result, we get excited when a product gets released. Thus, we don’t have an anti-Apple agenda, so please don’t accuse us of that.
If you haven’t noticed, the color scheme matches the latest iMac. It’s nice of Apple to try to match all our electronics, but not at the expense of overall beauty. The Macbook Air is terribly ugly, and it’s really not that thin.
Right now the Macbook Pro and Macbook are exactly 1″ and 1.08″ thick respectively. The Macbook Air is .76″ thin. Does the $700 price difference between a Macbook and a Macbook Air justify the price?
When you shave the .32″ off the Macbook to get the .76″ Macbook Air, you lose the 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo for a 1.6 GHz. You also lose the optical drive but lose 2 lbs. You do, however, get 2 GB of RAM and LED backlighting instead of 1GB of RAM and traditional LCD lighting.
So $700 gets you a slightly thinner, slightly slower, slightly lighter, and slightly more energy efficient computer without an optical drive. The Macbook Air doesn’t justify the $700 price increase.
We know what you’re thinking, “But the Macbook Air gets as thin as .16 inches!” And our response is that only the edges of the machine are .16 inches. The bulk of the machine is .76″ and that’s what it’s going take up on your lap, in your bag, and on your desk. It is a common tactic in the electronics industry to thin the edges of your product to make it look thinner.
Sony unsruprisingly believes the machine won’t sell well because consumers don’t want to pay more for less functionality. Gizmodo had a chance to speak with senior vice president of VAIO marketing Mike Abary, who admitted to being impressed with the engineering behind the Air but thinks it’s too much for the masses.
Sony used to have an ultraportable, carbon figer laptop called the X505 (pictured above) which was .3″ at it’s thinnest. It didn’t sell well, and, after much research, the company found that “Thinness is not the holy grail.” Customers tend to prefer usability over size. With the Apple Macbook costing less and offering more functionality at a ridiculously reasonable price, it’s unlikely any money-conscious consumers will buy the Air.
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January 17th, 2008
don’t discount us fanboys.. if lord jobs says its the thing for us to buy.. we obey.
January 18th, 2008
i think it’s a gorgeous laptop. and for people who travel frequently, need to be mobile, want something lightweight, and enjoy elegance, i believe they will buy it. i think there’s a market for it, but it’s certainly not a low-budget user.
January 19th, 2008
vaio tz is lighter than macbook air!!
and comes with optical drive/ethernet/more usb and great resolution(pixels per inch).
that is what is fine engineering is all about, you cant put a monitor and keyboard and call it nice engineering!!
February 4th, 2008
If you want something light, look no farther than the Palm T|X. if you dont like it, then try the HP iPAQ 211. If you still dont like that then try Palm’s laptop. If you don’t like any of those, then you don’t need the Macbook Air, because those are lighter and smaller and still allow you to get your work done.
February 8th, 2008
I can’t imagine lack of value being a deterrent for Apple fanboys. Apple has had some of the most expensive products around for some time now. The only company to offer less value for the dollar than Apple is probably Sony, so it’s kind of funny that they’re throwing stones. The x505 didn’t fail because it lacked an optical drive (the last 4 computers I purchased came with DVDRW drives, and I can probably count on one hand how many times I actually burned a DVD - if I get to use two hands and my feet, I can count off the number of times i used the optical drives, at all). The crucial functionality that the x505 lacked was a functional keyboard. I was ready to throw down cash for that gorgeous little thing, but I decided I wanted to stave off carpal tunnel for a few more years.