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Analyst: New aluminum Apple MacBooks in transit from China

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 · 10:45 am · 16 Comments

“If we take the word of Citigroup analyst Richard Gardner, the much rumored new aluminum MacBooks are already winging their way from China to Apple’s secret underground storage facility,” Charlie Sorrel blogs for Wired.

“Gardner’s ‘field checks’ (read: crystal ball) have told him that the new MacBooks will have a ‘very thin aluminum casing, an LED-backlit display and an aggressive entry-level price point,’” Sorrel reports.

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "mangosquash" for the heads up.]

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Comment Feed

16 Comments

One guy from Finland

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 10:47 am · Reply

No $hit! Now the AAPL will go even further down. Thanx again!
Orange Juice

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 10:49 am · Reply

As Dell-like as this sounds, on the low end I would offer a few of the new bright iPod nano colors for the new thin Macbook. A color choice really attracts teenies, but messes with the inventory. Applies to cars, too.
Mike

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 10:54 am · Reply

Won’t a thin aluminum Macbook make the Air obsolete?
Bob

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 10:55 am · Reply

I’m not sure what the happy hard-on is over the price point. Apple is selling MacBooks very well at their current price and making healthy margins. What is the point in slashing margin?
ElderNorm

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 10:58 am · Reply

@Bob,
“What is the point in slashing margin?” To make the stock price go up!!! Yep. if good news makes the price go down, maybe bad news will make the price go up. ?????

Just a thought.
en
Mr. Reeee

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 11:05 am · Reply

Presumably, a new model MacBook would continue to be a full-featured consumer level laptop, with the full compliment of ports (FireWire!!!!) and an optical drive. It might be thinner, but I doubt it could be much lighter than the current MacBooks.

Colors would be grrrrreat! Since the MacBook is one of Apple’s best selling Macs (isn’t it #1?), you’d think that it would be easy for them to offer colors. I’d guess at a premium price like the current black MacBook.

We shall see.

I’m most curious about an upgrade to the Mac mini. I know several people who are dying for them! Me too, since I’d like to piggyback one onto to my HDTV to use like an TV only with power and flexibility.For photos (I don’t use … ugh … iPhoto), presentations, email, web surfing, gaming, etc.. The poor TV just doesn’t cut it in so many areas.
M.X.N.T.4.1

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 11:14 am · Reply

Silly Analyst, everyone knows that for their really secret products Apple transports everything from the factory via the iTunnels that run under the oceans directly to the storage facility under Steve Jobs’ house..
bizlaw

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 11:17 am · Reply

@ Mike.

No, the Air won’t be obsolete because a MacBook would still have an optical drive, more ports, etc. than an Air, and therefore it will be thicker and heavier than an Air.

It wouldn’t surprise me if a new Air was introduced very soon that dropped the hard disk drive totally, with a reduced price point.

@Bob:

To gain market share. Reduce the price point on laptops because you still have people complaining that Apple doesn’t make a $500 laptop (and it won’t), even though the $500 laptops are usually pretty stripped machines. However, in this economy a reduced margin/price point will keep sales high and keep Apple’s market share gains high at a time when Apple has great momentum and plenty of cash in the bank.
MacFhearghaile

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 11:19 am · Reply

Secret underground storage facility? that must be the same place Steve has been hiding the alien design team.
alansky

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 12:10 pm · Reply

Won’t a thin aluminum Macbook make the Air obsolete? —Mike

I’ve always thought of the MacBook Air as a concept design. It’s elegant and superbly portable, but not really suited to the everyday needs of the average Mac user. The Air has its niche and will change as ideas first seen in this model make their way into mainstream Mac portables.
Famous Grouse

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 12:10 pm · Reply

Can’t wait for the financial train wreck to result in all these friggin’ analysts being turfed out into the street where they belong.
HMCIV

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 12:34 pm · Reply

“…the new MacBooks will have a ‘very thin aluminum casing, an LED-backlit display”

Yeah, but will it have a keyboard and a power cable??? Gardner has an absolutely startling mastery of the obvious. He should be commended.
Quad Core

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 5:05 pm · Reply

“What is the point in slashing margin?”

It’s simple, If you build a wdget for $3 and sell it for $10, you make $7.

If you sell the item for $7, you only make $4.

However, if the lower price causes you to sell three times as many products, you make more money, even though the margin is lower.
bobchr

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 9:33 pm · Reply

@ Alansky
I think you’ll be surprised when Mac Book air becomes more main stream than you currently think. Transfer a dvd to an 8 GB jump drive and you really don’t need the outboard drive. The MB Air is the future. As bandwidth increase, flash drives get cheaper and tethering becomes available via Iphone optical drives will become obsolete. You can already rent movies via Itunes and used Google apps to do all the heavy lifting on presentations, spread sheets and word processors. I think it’s already less of a niche machine than you think it is. Give it 6 more months, If Apple were to lower the prive point of the HD version to $1200 offer a 250GB HD version for $1400 I would already have one.
DogGone

Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - 11:07 pm · Reply

How low will this price point be? We need to replace a laptop so the timing is good. I was thinking of a refurbished Macbook for $900, but now it makes sense to wait.

Will Apple sell the new MacBook for 800-900 bucks? Hopefully someone will spill the beans.

In the last quarters conference call the CFO said Apple margins would be lower this quarter. I can’t see much reason for this with the current product lineup. The new MacBook isn’t coming out until the next quarter. Maybe he was referring to the next set of quarters.

With Apple’s margins the can afford to drop price a bit. If the ASP is $1400 and margin is currently >30%, dropping the margin to 20% in the short term would allow the price to be lowered by $130. Given that Apple have a lot of headroom to grow they could recoup some of that with lower component and production costs.
Pete

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 - 1:24 pm · Reply

@ bizlaw

“It wouldn’t surprise me if a new Air was introduced very soon that dropped the hard disk drive totally, with a reduced price point.”

I too am waiting for an new Air, but one without keyboard and hard drive, and battery. I want it to look so good that it can run on emotional energy which as we know exists in both positive and negative form.