The Apple ‘Brick’ is revealed… as a manufacturing process
Is that it? Seriously? I have to say I’m slightly disappointed, and that’s coming from someone who isn’t a fan of Apple and has never bought an Apple product, though the iPhone does have some appeal. It seems the Apple ‘Brick’ that has been the subject of intense speculation for the past few weeks is actually a new manufacturing process.
A rumour began circulating the InterWebs at the start of January concerning the existence of the ‘Brick’, an Apple invention that most believed was to be some sort of new product. According to 9 to 5 Mac, the ‘Brick’ was to be the most talked about thing at a forthcoming Apple event. What the ‘Brick’ was though seemed to be anyone’s guess.
Some thought the ‘Brick’ would turn out to be a Mac Tablet, others thought it would a sub-notebook, while even more others thought it was to be Mac Mini of some sort. We now know, or at least think so on the word of a reliable source, that the ‘Brick’ is a new manufacturing process. Which is underwhelming to say the least.
Those 9 to 5 Macheads are back at it again, this time following up their original story with a new rumour (that they fully expect to prove accurate). They claim that the ‘Brick’ is a “new Apple manufacturing process to make MacBooks.”
Up to now, the manufacturing of Apple products such as the MacBook has been outsourced to Chinese or Taiwanese companies. That’s now all set to change, with this new manufacturing process giving Apple control of its products again.
The ‘Brick’ is actually a process which sees lasers and jets of water used to carve out a MacBook from aluminium. This process would see MacBooks made with no weak spots and no seams. There would be no screws required, and the one piece of metal used would mean the product is light, strong and super cheap.
This new manufacturing process could see the price of MacBooks drop rapidly over the coming years and really put Apple in the driving seat of the laptop market. While I’m not exactly blown away by the whole thing, 9 to 5 Mac describe it as “totally revolutionary, a game changer. One of the biggest Apple innovations in a decade.”
Newly designed MacBooks are still destined to be unveiled at this Apple event on October 14th but if this story is to be believed, the star of the show is likely to be the ‘Brick’ manufacturing process. Steve Jobs clearly needs to get out more.
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October 5th, 2008
“Newly designed MacBooks are still destined to be unveiled at this Apple event on October 14th but if this story is to be believed, the star of the show is likely to be the ‘Brick’ manufacturing process. Steve Jobs clearly needs to get out more.”
What makes you think that the manufacturing process, aka “Brick”, would be the “star of the show”? Has Apple indicated that in any way?
Just because Apple possibly has great enthusiasm internally for this brick process – and why wouldn’t they – won’t mean Apple would actually make the event about the process or feature it in their consumer marketing.
Apple will probably focus on whatever merits and features this process brought to the new macbooks. Of course, industry watchers and analysts will still keep talking about the brick process, but that’s something else.
October 5th, 2008
Saving a few dollars on manufacturing a laptop computers CASE… is really going to be “revolutionary”… or “save huge amounts of money”????
I would think the case is only a small part of the overall price.
What does it cost to make the case? $50? So it drops “drastically” down to $25. That’s a big deal???
I care what’s *IN* the case… not the case itself. (Regardless of whether it has 6 screws or 0 screws.)