Comments on: “Mystery” of the White MacBook Upgrade Unravelled

By: Get to the Point: OS X’s Summarize Service

Get to the Point: OS X’s Summarize Service — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 20:03:43 +0000

[...] example, let’s say you really wanted to read Charles’ Mystery of the White MacBook Upgrade Unravelled article here on TheAppleBlog, but just don’t have the time to spare. The article, as it [...]

By: Louis wheeler

Louis wheeler — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:23:01 +0000

What if the reason is that Apple wanted to add the NVEDIA 9400 GPU to the new white MacBook? This means Apple’s entire Line up now uses NVEDIA. The older white MacBook had Intel integrated graphics.

Why would Apple want to upgrade its GPU? Snow Leopard 10.6 is due out in one to ten weeks. Snow Leopard has in it OpenCL software which allows the 16 cores of the NVEDIA GPU to be used in novel ways. The CPU speed bump is too small to be relivant, since Intel dropped its price on the previous speed.

Apple values its education customers. There would be a huge outcry if Snow Leopard turned out to be a huge success but Apple’s education customers were left out.

By: Louis wheeler

Louis wheeler — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:04:58 +0000

Apple values its education customers. There would be a huge outcry if Snow Leopard turned out to be a huge success but Apple’s education customers were left out.

By: Kris Jones

Kris Jones — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:47:44 +0000

There is another issue – Apple’s international pricing. I get the impression that Apple builds a machine to a price point that it thinks the market can stand in the USA. However, this strategy is not one that suits an international market. The recent weakness of Sterling and the Euro have seen significant price increases in Europe. Six months ago here in the UK the MacBook was £699. The new unibody MacBook starts at £929. If that were the entry-level model it would harm sales considerably, particularly since it is a machine that students are likely to find attractive. The white MacBook, which increased in price by £30 following the recent speed-bump, is still more reasonably priced at £749. That’s a difference of £180 or $297 at today’s exchange rate.

Apple is more or less alone in having significantly increased its European prices. Other manufacturers prices have remained steady, and at a time when inflation is close to zero, it’s somewhat surprising. Apple presumably doesn’t indulge in the same level of currency hedging as other volume computer builders.

By: David

David — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:52:36 +0000

I would postulate that the change in specs has more to do with suppliers than with Apple. If Intel finds that all their processors fall into a 2.13 or higher bin, they are not going to want to sell any at lower prices and 2.13 becomes the new low end. Likewise hard drive manufacturers are moving to new platter densities so maybe 120GB drives simply aren’t being offered anymore.

Yes I realize the 2.0 is still being used in high volumes in both the unibody and mini, but I expect that will change soon. In the case of the unibody it simply must. Paying $300 for LED backlighting and slower performance is not something most consumers do.

I think Apple intends to move the whole unibody line to non-replaceable, smart batteries and perhaps re-position the top MacBook as a 13″ MacBook Pro.

I think a simplified lineup would make a lot of sense. I’d make just 6 standard configurations: a single MacBook Air, two MacBooks (13″ and 15″) and three MacBook Pros (13″, 15″, 17″)

The MacBooks would be, in the short term, the existing 2.13GHz whitebook plus a unibody 15″ MacBook with the same processor and graphics. When economically feasible the plastic model would be dropped in favor of a 13″ unibody.

The MacBook Pros would all be 2.8GHz with GT150 video, 4GB RAM and 320GB HD. That would create a wide enough performance gap to justify the much higher prices of the Pro lineup. Faster processors, larger HDs, etc. would be available, as usual, as options.

I really think MacBook customers would rather have a choice of screen size than processor.

I also believe Apple will stick with the current Penryn family of processors until Intel starts volume production of Westmere processors some time in 2010.

By: Rudie

Rudie — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:56:34 +0000

The white Macbook will stay on the market just as long as it takes for the unibody Macbook to get a USB v3 port, I guess. They really blew it for a lot of people with dropping the Firewire for something a LOT slower, and they know. They just can’t afford to loose all the customers that feel that way. I would have bought a unibody when it came out, if not for the missing Firewire. And I am not going to either. So the only solution is a new white one – a USB3-version will be for 2011 or so, I guess.