“At Macworld 2008, Steve Jobs once again strutted across the stage like a prize peacock, this time claiming to have learned from past mistakes by listening to Apple customers. Well if Apple and its boss have indeed been listening to their customers they have a funny way of showing it because customers are still waiting for their two most requested products,” Stan Beer writes for iTWire.
Beer’s first product is 3G iPhone, despite the fact that 3G chipsets are still too power-hungry (although that’s about to change quickly) and most of the U.S. (where most iPhones are currently) doesn’t have 3G coverage (meaning a 3G iPhone would be sucking battery life while connecting to slower 2.5G towers anyway).
MacDailyNews Take: The 3G iPhone will come when it makes sense, not just because Stan Beer, the self-appointed stand-in for all Apple customers, has classified it as one of the two most-requested Apple products. If you read tech articles all day long (and we do), you’d think that a 3G iPhone is the holy grail, but if most U.S. users had one today, they would rarely benefit from 3G and would instead be constantly griping about how the iPhone needs a better battery. iPhone didn’t sell an average of 20,000 units per day for the last 200 days for nothing.
After screwing up his understanding of Apple’s iPhone sales goals and how far ahead of them they are today, Beer has better luck with his second product, writing, “For the past 18 months, loyal Apple users have been practically screaming for their beloved vendor to release a smaller form factor notebook than the MacBook. An ultra-portable with a screen around 10 inches or smaller, maybe a tablet style device, something they can easily take with them on a trip, is what they’ve been asking for. What do they get instead? A pancake. or to be more exact – a weak ultra thin crepe.”
MacDailyNews Take: Beer has a point here. MacBook Air is not a 10-inch ultra-portable. It is an ultra-thin MacBook. It makes sense for a certain market which, we presume, Apple believes is a larger market than the one for 10-inch ultra-portables. It would be nice if Apple offered both, we suppose, but it may not be worth it for Apple to do so. Or maybe they’ll address it in the future. As for a tablet-style, multi-touch device, we probably have to wait for the iPhone SDK next month and apps to be released, before anything like that would debut.
Beer continues, “The MacBook Air may ultimately prove to be a useful computer for some users but it’s not what the market has been asking for… Some analysts may postulate that the market will come to appreciate the MacBook Air when they touch it and feel it. However, the market knew what it wanted and it didn’t get it.”
MacDailyNews Take: Again, who named Stan Beer the portable computer market’s rep? Apple’s portable sales are growing faster than HP’s, Dell’s, etc. Obviously, Apple has a good handle on what the market really wants. That’s not to say that Apple may be missing it here. They have done Mac designs in the past that didn’t have a large enough market to adequately support them (see: G4 Cube). Again, we’d like to see what Apple would do with a small-screen ultra-portable MacBook Pro, too.
Beer continues, “The iPhone was a perfect example of what can be achieved if a company listens to the needs of its customers. Hopefully Apple hasn’t forgotten how to listen.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Wait, we thought the iPhone was one of two of the most requested products that Apple is failing to properly deliver, not “a perfect example of what can be achieved if a company listens to the needs of its customers.” Which is it, Stan?
The market in my little world is screaming for a mouse that has a trackpad on it that won’t clog up every week.
What was really missing was Apple TV with a screen or even better with a remote control that has a screen and functions like an iPod so that music can be put on a NAS and listened to in every room where there is an Apple TV but no TV available. But since the product contains the word “TV”, it was a useless hope. I guess I will be buying a Sonos system this Spring. The second thing that was missing was getting rid of DRM for all iTunes songs.
2 most wanted products???
I thought they were a Gaming Mac, and a Mac Tablet??
Have to agree with Beer on the MBA. Who wants a thin 13in Macbook with no ports, not me anyway. I’d have ordered a 10in straight away
@ PowerTone
Yes, you are right. That was the third missing product. Apple has such a fine touch technology. Why not replacing the nipple on the mouse with a touch sensitive spot. (I hope this sentence doesn’t sound too erotic!)
While Air is cool I don’t see it as something that was really needed. It isn’t smaller then the Macbook (thinner doesn’t help much), it’s slower then the Macbook, and cost almost as much as a Macbook Pro.
Non-removable battery? Unless this is some kind of super breakthrough battery technology does anyone really want a notebook that they can’t switch the batteries?
Air is cool but I’d rather spend my money on the next Macbook or Pro that comes with the Air’s trackpad.
“”At Macworld 2008, Steve Jobs once again strutted across the stage like a prize peacock, this time claiming to have learned from past mistakes by listening to Apple customers.”
Who the hell writes this crap?
When Apple heard that their iPod Touch customers wanted full eMail and Google Maps apps like their iPhone cousins, did they also hear that those same customers wanted to pay an extra $20 that new customers wouldn’t have to pay?
my friends is running across the top of the page – last chance to buy AAPL below $165…
Tell me Greg… just how often does anyone replace their laptop batteries in the first place?
Geez is this the last keynote of the year? It’s JANUARY
Patience grasshopper. 5 years from now the iPhone will look like a toy.
Steve Jobs saying Apple does what customers ask is just part of the show. The fact is, Apple is great because it does NOT do everything customers want. If it did, we’d have Apple of the ’90’s with five dozen different Mac models and configs catering to every perceived customer “need.” And we’d have an iPhone with and without a physical keyboard. And the iPod mini would still be in the lineup, along with both the fat and skinny nanos.
Today’s Apple is focused, sometimes to a fault. But I wouldn’t want it any other way…
>Unless this is some kind of super breakthrough battery technology does anyone really want a notebook that they can’t switch the batteries?
1) How many people actually HAVE two laptop batteries? Not only have I never had two batteries, but also all but one of my laptops are ones I’ve bought used and the people I’ve bought them from have never had two batteries. Really, I’m interested, is there any market research on what percent of laptop owners have two or more batteries?
2) The battery life on the MBA is quite high. Even if you shave off 20% as Apple puffing, that would make a 4 hour battery life. My crappy Gateway celeron “bought it so I won’t care if someone steals it” gets only 2 hours, and no one can point to a laptop in the MBA’s class that gets significantly more than that. This thing with one battery gives me as much uninterrupted non-powerplug time as if I had a spare battery for the Gateway, so what exactly is the downside? Besides, when I really want battery life I pull out the dinosaur clamshell iBook. Now that’s got battery life.
Tell me Greg… just how often does anyone replace their laptop batteries in the first place?
Apple sent me a replacement. Many people carry an extra battery or two with them. Batteries do go bad and need replacing long before the notebook needs replacing.
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The Mac is a gaming machine. It’s just that we only have a handful to choose from. But with bootcamp you can install the windows plugin and play all the windows games you want.
The MBA has a market, I just don’t know how large it is. I have a few (read 2) clients that have been asking about when a lighter, thinner MacBook might emerge.
Thing is, you lose a great deal for that slimness and while it’s really, really thin, I couldn’t actually recommend it to anyone. Especially at the price/performance mark.
As much as I enjoy MacDaily it would be nice if it could just once perhaps accept a little constructive criticism.
The iPhone outside of the US hasn’t been a great success because of the restrictive contract model chosen by Apple and let’s be honest despite the undoubted originality and quality of aspects of it’s design e.g. the interface, it’s actually pretty old hat by mobile phone technology.
Apple may want to downplay the importance of 3G and 3.5G, but for the rest of the world it’s already pretty well established. I’m sure when Apple finally do get round to releasing a 3G iPhone then 3G will suddenly become of huge importance. In the UK sales of the iPhone have been disappointing. No 3G support (which now covers over 90% of the UK) as opposed to the Edge network (30% coverage) has been a large factor in many users choosing other mobile phones. Obviously the expensive and restrictive contract model has also been a huge factor.
Again with the Macbook Air (silly name) it’s a very original but fairly niche product. I can’t help feeling that Apple have gone for the thinness aspect of it’s new laptop for purely marketing reasons. Perhaps the technology at the moment available wouldn’t allow them to develop a true utraportable that would be different enough from the competition. There are already plent of pretty thin notebooks on the market with a much smaller footprint. Indeed the Macbook itself is a pretty light and thin notebook. It’s is also considerably cheaper and more powerful.
Don’t get me wrong, I love many Apple products. My Macbook Pro is a simply fabulous machine. However it doesn’t mean that Apple are beyond criticism and for me I’ve feel the Macbook Air is an ultimately expensive and disappointing product.
Yeah my Macbook Pro is only 8/9 months old and the battery is lucky to last 40 minutes. And thats without playing a DVD. Just light work. The new MBA though a little ‘underwhelming’ is welcome because it means that all laptops next year will be solid state. Which means the battery should last a lot longer with no moving parts. And the multi touch pad is nice too.
I’ve watched Steve’s video from Moscone twice now. Here’s why there’s such disappointment in his performance:
1. Tweaks and goodies for the phone and tunes player are not Keynote worthy – should have been in the just-do-it-without-fanfare category.
2. Ultra thin laptop has very limited usefulness – may be wet-your-pants-again because Steve has the ‘world’s thinnest’ or whatever but it’s not useful and not worth half the money just for the intangibles.
3. Marxist, anti-Amierican piano man a colossal blunder. Steve has to be losing sleep over what a pall that was cast upon the whole event by this loser.
I think the Air will end up filling the students backpacks to lighten their loads and quite frankly, the travelling executive is still carry 8.5 x 11″ paper. To carry a super light laptop that still gives them one major working device with a full size keyboard and a proper screen is impressive. the main dimensions of the device are 2″ longer than paper and 1/2″ wider. I can’t see the benefit of a smaller portable other than an iphone/ipod touch if you want to do email.
I agree, the MBA seems to have a very limited market segment in mind, like the G4 Cube—not enough power for the money and not cheap enough for anything else.
I am also very surprised that the iPhone didn’t get a memory upgrade. And why is the AppleTV still stuck at 40GB and 160GB? And why does it still take a hack to use the USB2 port for a hard drive on the AppleTV?
That said, the AppleTV, iTunes movie/TV rental universe setup might not be totally innovative/revolutionary/sexy but I think it will be a major cash cow for Apple.
The cable companies better wake up. Jobs just did an end-run around your entire business model. Just like the the under-30 generation has given up telephone land lines, they could easily give up their cableTV subscriptions.
Don’t mean to sound dumb here, but if you have a 3G phone, will it also work on an edge network?
like 811 n/g wifi does
I don’t find my Macbook Pro that much of a pain to lug around in the boot of my car, and it ain’t that heavy to carry. And when I’m actually using it for presentation whatever it’s sitting on a table anyway. I fear this may be another AppleTV, though it is a nice peek at future products. Flash drive and multi touch, and did the guy say LEDs for the screen? OLED not quite ready for prime time?
A solid MPB update. Stale.
I can’t speak for the market, but on my own behalf I can say that I would have bought a more full featured ultra portable IMMEDIATELY. In fact, I’ve been waiting for it over a year, so I could replace my aging 12″ PowerBook.
I want the MBA, don’t get me wrong. I’m drooling over it. But it doesn’t meet my needs as a business traveler; not even close. This is a machine I would keep at home to use on the couch or take to Starbucks or somewhere local. But it’s not priced for that. It’s priced to be a showpiece with adequate functionality for the wealthy, casual user, not for me. I’m a power user.