Apple might have sold over 3.05 million Mac computers last quarter, but the real growth was in portables — desktop sales dropped 16% year over year while notebooks experienced a 35% jump. It’s easy to see why the company is maturing its mobile product lineup. Sure the iMacs got a nice bump too, but a new MacBook at the old $999 price is sure to appeal this holiday season. No it’s not a netbook or other low-priced light-and-thin device, but as James pointed out earlier today — Apple can’t produce a netbook and maintain profit margins above 35%. By adding more oomph to the base MacBook, the company is offering a sub-thousand dollar portable package that provides a full-featured computing experience at 4.7 pounds.
There’s a price premium involved of course, but the 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo paired with an Nvidia GeForce 9400M should handle most tasks. And it can do so on a claimed 7 hours of battery life — that’s comparable to a netbook run-time but in a computing package that still offers some get up and go. At the end of the day, I don’t think the new MacBook is going to sway potential netbook owners away from their purchase. At $300 or so, a smaller and lighter computing experience will meet many needs, and for one-third the price.
But I can’t overlook how the refreshed MacBook fits in my “3P Triangle” — this is the equilateral figure that netbooks fit squarely in the middle of, because the points are price, portability and power. A device that moves towards one point typically moves away from one or both of the other points. The MacBook refresh however, gets closer to the middle by increasing both performance and portability — in terms of battery life and less need to sit by an outlet — while maintaining the price.
No, I’m not suggesting that the MacBook should be compared spec-for-spec with a netbook, but some of the netbook advantages are diminished with this product update. For now, I’ll stick with a netbook for my mobile computing. Although it’s lacking in the horsepower department, I can tote it everywhere a little bit easier and it’s meeting my needs. Do we have any prospective netbook buyers that are considering a new MacBook instead?
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