As much stick as the Mac Web rumoristas and “insider” channelers take from advocates of “serious journalism,” over the years they have proved to be right more often than not, and leading up to yesterday’s new Apple MacBook announcements, it’s now confirmed that they’ve been batting a pretty high percentage this time.
Let’s take a look at the various rumors that were passed around about the new MacBooks and see how they fared.
Rumored: All metal enclosures
Outcome: Correct
Rumored: “Unibody” enclosures fabricated from a single block of aluminum
Outcome: Correct (in the case of the MacBook and 15″ MacBook Pro)
Rumored: NVIDIA 3D Graphics processors and integrated graphics chipsets
Outcome: Correct
Rumored: Glass Multi-Touch large format trackpads (one I had been skeptical about)
Outcome: Correct
Rumored: LED backlit displays across the board
Outcome: Correct
Rumored: Thinner, more rounded form factor
Outcome: Correct
Rumored: FireWire 400 port gone
Outcome: Correct – FireWire is gone completely on the 13″ MacBook, while the 15″ MacBook Pro still has FireWire 800 and the updated 17″ MacBook Pro, with its old-school enclosure, still has a FireWire 400 port
Rumored: DVI video out gone to be replaced by a MiniDisplay port
Outcome: Correct
Rumored: Modest refreshment of the MacBook Air
Outcome: Correct – the Revision B Air gets NVIDIA graphics, a larger 120 GB hard drive and a 128 GB solid state drive
Rumored: Entry-level price point of $800 – $900
Outcome: Strikeout — This one the rumoristas, and a large cohort of the mainstream financial media and analyst community got somewhat spectacularly wrong. The entry-level, new model MacBook starts at $1,299 — the same price point as the previous middle model MacBook. Apple has broken the sub-$1000 price threshold, by one dollar, but only with a recycled previous version low-end MacBook mildly upgraded with a 120 GB 5400 RPM HD and a slot-load 8X SuperDrive instead of the erstwhile combo drive available for $999.
However, not a bad showing overall for the tea-leaf readers and crystal ball gazers (or whatever).
Being in the hunt myself for a new Mac notebook system, I now have plenty to mull over. I’m a bit disappointed about the price points — the MacBook Pros remain at exactly the same price points as the previous models, albeit with considerable value-added, and I’m not cheering the loss of FireWire 400. These new machines are actually a lot more evolutionary than revolutionary aside from the new fabrication process.
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