(Yawn) Apple Updates the Macbook

If you’re like me, you drive a Ferrari, are a mainstay on People’s 100 most beautiful people list, and you sift through countless sites, blogs, etc. looking for the most-likely-to-be-true of all the wild Mac-related rumors that disseminate daily across the web. I participated in the collective yawn of Apple fanboys and rabid rumor sites across the internet when Apple announced a decidedly pedstrian update to their Macbook line of laptops today.

According to CNET’s News.com:

The new consumer laptops, all of which are an inch thick and have a 13.3-inch display with 1280×800-pixel wide-screen resolution, are available in three models: white with the option of 2GHz or 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors, or black with the faster processor.

All three models are equipped with 1GB of RAM that can be expanded to 2GB of RAM. They also have built-in iSight video cameras, AirPort Extreme wireless cards capable of 802.11n wireless networking, two USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire port.

The lower-end white MacBook, with a starting price of $1,099, comes with an 80GB hard drive; its 2.16GHz counterpart, which has a 120GB hard drive and a faster, double-layer support 8x SuperDrive DVD drive, costs $1,299. The black MacBook, identical to the faster white MacBook except for the color and a beefed-up 160GB hard drive, is priced at $1,499.

That’s it.

That’s it? No LED backlit screens?? No Santa Rosa???

Which begs the question: have we come to expect too much of Apple? Do we now drive ourselves into such a blog-fueled frenzy that Apple is constantly a victim of hype?

Most definitely, but it’s also exactly what they want to happen. The obsessive speculation equates to free publicity as people research Apple product cycles and development trends…and then analyze them ad nauseum. Whereas the PC industry is predictable and quick to update with the latest technologies (Santa Rosa is the perfect example) so as not to lose ground on each other, Apple plays a different game…

They rely on The Apple Mystique. Apparently it goes a long way because fanboy apologists and journalists alike still assume that Apple misses one update because they have something better up their sleeve down the road. No Santa Rosa in the new Macbook? They must be saving it for the imminent Macbook Pro update everyone is expecting during or just before Apple’s World Wide Developers’ Conference, starting on June 11th of this year.

Whether or not “down the road” ever actually comes to fruition and is worthwhile doesn’t seem to damage Apple’s credibility in the long run. They learn from their mistakes quickly (Motorola Rokr anyone?), and they do have an illustrious track record with the truly big announcements.

Once again, though, they truly understand the principles of marketing. Going back to the forthcoming Macbook Pro update, they realize they have now bridged the gap into the more casual computer-user arena with the Macbook, finally eating into the $1000 laptop range that Dell and Sony have been prospering in for quite some time now. This doesn’t sit well with the Apple die-hards in the same way officially dropping “Computer” from their name and pulling resources from Leopard development to ensure completion of the iPhone doesn’t.

Check the positive/negative ratings disparity of the Macrumors announcement yesterday if you want a sample of the malcontent.

But the reality is Apple can issue a run-of-the-mill update to the Macbooks without impacting perception among the general public because they are not the ones reading the blogs and they sure as hell don’t know what Santa Rosa is or means. “Faster processor? More RAM. My wife will love this!”

In fact, there have been grumblings lately that there really isn’t a whole lot of performance gain by stepping up to the more expensive Pro laptop models. CNET agreed there, awarding the Macbook its coveted Editor’s Choice award. Bigger screen, dedicated graphics card, holds more RAM…that’s about all you’re getting with the Macbook Pro. Worthwhile upgrades to professionals, but also clear evidence that Apple’s lack of an astounding design update to the Macbook Pro line since the G5 debut is deliberate. Their focus for the past year or so has clearly been to increase the perception of value in their entry-level line amongst the casual buyers in order to sustain appeal and put a system to market that is made for iLife (and its target audience).

But it’s the beasts that the web community wants – the machine that will reinforce Apple’s reputation as the slickest laptop maker around, providing a new round of bragging rights over the befuddled Windows camp. And they will undoubtedly get something worthy of all the saliva in the next Macbook Pro update.

I won’t speculate on what the update might include – that would make me a hypocrite. But I do believe the lack of Santa Rosa in the Macbook revision yesterday is a clear indicator that Apple is shifting back towards better separation of the Pro lines from their consumer counterparts.

~ by CK on Wednesday - May 16, 2007.