This?

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Buyer's Premorse

Presenting: The MacBook Air

MacBook Air - Intel integrated graphics, with no Ethernet, no CD drive, 2 GB of non-replacable/upgradable RAM, flash hard drive, and non-replacable battery, 1.6 GHz Duo Core, no Firewire, no eSATA, with a base model price of almost $1800. Unless you want the solid-state drive, in which case open that second mortgage - $3000.

Hey! But at least it weighs 3 pounds less than a MacBook Pro and you can fit it in a manila envelope.... meaning, I guess, that you can offset some of the expense by saving on a carrying case.

I was trepidatious about the product announcements, because I just gave in and bought a MacBook Pro two weeks ago, and I was gritting my teeth in case they introduced something that really made me regret it - always the risk with the super-secret, disloyal-to-existing-customer-base Apple.

My big fear? A tablet laptop.

But that long, low hiss you hear coming from just north of New York City? That's the sound of me letting out the world's biggest sigh of relief. My impulse purchase has not become obsolete with a keynote speech.

So I have at least a year before the buyer's remorse sets in...

Oddly, the thing I find most alluring in the whole product announcements is the TIme Capsule, Apple's new wireless hard-drive (500 GB/1 TB) merchandised as a tie-in to Time Machine, Leopard's new automated backup. I find myself giving it serious thought.

D.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's true. Apple does not care about its faithful customers. It has a habit of alienating them by constantly pulling the rug out from beneath their feet. The iPhone's somewhat botched release, and subsequent precipitous price drop, is a perfect example. A rebate (to only certain buyers) really isn't enough to restore consumer confidence.
My 30G iPod video was pretty much obselete mere weeks after I bought it. It was replaced by the 80G iPod video, which in turn was rendered obsolete by the iPod Touch--which itself was outdated within several weeks after ITS release.
Apple--chill out!