New MacBook Air - competition for iPad?

[Seadog]

I spent quit a bit of time with both the 11 and 13 at the apple store yesterday. Overall I thought they were overpriced......can't do much more than what I need in a mobile device and not powerful enough to justify as a laptop / desktop replacement for the serious work. My iPad and a keyboard can do an awful lot of what I need. My HP laptop has not left the house in months!

Slick machines though...light weight, solid, balanced, and well designed. What a net book really SHOULD be IMHO but at the same price point as a 13" MacBook pro.

At $999, the 11" MBA is cheaper than the basic MBP. Not as powerful, but more than adequate, and better than most netbooks. It is not designed to compete with the iPad, but to be the best travel laptop available at that price point. There will be customers that choose the MBA as their device of choice over the iPad. It occupies a niche that the old MBA could not fit, and neither can the iPad.

 

[iVan]

At $999, the 11" MBA is cheaper than the basic MBP. Not as powerful, but more than adequate, and better than most netbooks. It is not designed to compete with the iPad, but to be the best travel laptop available at that price point. There will be customers that choose the MBA as their device of choice over the iPad. It occupies a niche that the old MBA could not fit, and neither can the iPad.

You're right, many people can't live without a keyboard so the MBA will be perfect for them.

 

[iVan]

At $999, the 11" MBA is cheaper than the basic MBP. Not as powerful, but more than adequate, and better than most netbooks. It is not designed to compete with the iPad, but to be the best travel laptop available at that price point. There will be customers that choose the MBA as their device of choice over the iPad. It occupies a niche that the old MBA could not fit, and neither can the iPad.

You're right, many people can't live without a keyboard so the MBA will be perfect for them. Carrying a separate keyboard with an iPad is quite the hassle they'll avoid.

 

[gentlefury]

This is an interesting thread, I personally don't see the new Air as ipad competition, the MacBook air is still a laptop, where as the ipad is not... I love the ipad... I use it all the time... But I would also love the new MacBook air, I think the MacBook air and the ipad together could give everyone all they would ever need as portable devices, the MacBook does many things the the iPad will not do.... And the ipad does many things a MacBook won't do, but i agree with other posts, a combination of the two would be very interesting.

Yes OS X Lion is in a way suppose to be be a combination of the two but a Mac is never going to have touchscreen functionality (as jobs has said) like the iPad and the iPad is never going to have full computer functionality (because that's not what it's meant to be)

When did they ever say they would never make a touchscreen mac? If he did say that he is either lying or delusional. What I heard was that it made no sense to have a touchscreen on a laptop with a keyboard, since the angle is bad. Next gen tho I guess won't have the keyboard. MacPad is on the way...if it's not then the old man has gone senile.

 

[pallentx]

At $999, the 11" MBA is cheaper than the basic MBP. Not as powerful, but more than adequate, and better than most netbooks. It is not designed to compete with the iPad, but to be the best travel laptop available at that price point. There will be customers that choose the MBA as their device of choice over the iPad. It occupies a niche that the old MBA could not fit, and neither can the iPad.

You're right, many people can't live without a keyboard so the MBA will be perfect for them. Carrying a separate keyboard with an iPad is quite the hassle they'll avoid.

Yep, and some people may need certain software thats only written for OSX. That's mainly what it comes down to. There's a lot of stuff out there for IOS, but mobile devices running a mobile OS will not have the robust kind of apps that are available for a full OS. If you need a full OS and want something as portable as possible, and you're willing to pay a premium for that portability, then the Air is not bad. Time will tell how many people fit that niche though.