“Apple Inc. unveiled new additions to its line of laptop computers Tuesday, including a model targeted to the lower-priced, sub-$1,000 market that could be a popular draw for consumers in a slowing economy,” Dan Gallagher and John Letzing report for MarketWatch.
“At an event at the company’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters, Apple said it will cut the price of its cheapest MacBook model to $999 from $1,099, while introducing two new MacBook models that will sell for $1,299 and $1,599,” Gallagher and Letzing report. “New MacBook Pro models will sell for $1,999 and $2,499, according to Apple.”
Gallagher and Letzing report, “The new models feature ‘unibody’ designs, crafted from a single block of aluminum, which the company is touting as thinner and more durable.”
“Gene Munster, an analyst who covers Apple for Piper Jaffray, [said that] the latest releases could prove to be a catalyst for Apple’s stock, which along with the rest of the tech sector has taken a beating over the past few weeks due to the ongoing credit crisis,” Gallagher and Letzing report.
Full article here.
For all intents and purposes, the omission of FireWire 400 from the new MacBooks probably won’t make much of a difference to most laptop customers (who don’t own movie cameras or even do their computer maintenance and troubleshooting). And that USB-to-FireWire cable is a significant find. It mitigates SOME of the problems created by dropping Firewire (assuming it works reliably).
However, this change does amount to a Pro tax, since advanced users and digital cinematographers and movie editors do require Firewire (and Target Disk Mode is awesome for troubleshooting). These customers will be forced to move up to the entry-level MacBook Pro at $1,999.
With the radical new video capabilities of those machines, who wouldn’t be tempted to do this anyway? Given the new macBook Pro models, I’d think long and hard before trying to do video editing on a MacBook.
I love the look of these new machines, but I love my Matte Finish too much.
“probably won’t make much of a difference to most laptop customers (who don’t own movie cameras or even do their computer maintenance and troubleshooting).”
I see your point, but don’t forget the education segment Apple is targeting. Schools use MacBooks to enable kids to do video projects, and a MacBook is plenty good enough for this level of editing. In fact, it works great. What I’ve read about that adapter is that it is not at all reliable. We’re looking at buying 1,400 laptops within two years, and with the firewire gone and the price a good chunk higher, the MacBooks going to lose their lead in the mindshare category.
What really gets me is that Apple has promoted Firewire for 10 years, and it’s really started caught on. Every Mac in the past 10 years but a low-budget iMac G3 has had a Firewire port or two. When Apple pulls a feature, it’s usually because there is something better to replace it. USB 2.0 is NOT better, nor even as good.
No matter how you cut it, this sucks for many of us.
Magic word: idea, as in “I had no idea Apple would drop Firewire.”
@hSNetwork
I know you may feel betrayed right now but this is the way I see it. Firewire was a niche product. Although it initially was faster than USB 2.0 that distinction is dependent not on the respective media themselves but on the hard drive interface in the local machines. Early iterations had Firewire with a slight edge over USB 2.0 in sustained data rates, but that has since disappeared with newer machines and equipment that are directly connected. Firewire still has the edge when daisy-chaining equipment.
As much as firewire has a migration path to 800Mb/sec and then 1200 Mb/sec, USB 3.0 is around the corner and promises theoretical max rates of 4.8Gb/sec. expected arrival time next year or the year after. Like USB2.0,USB3.0 will be backward compatible. When creating a stylishly thin notebook port spaces are critical to your sight lines. Fewer ports therefore are better. So if you are Apple do you hold on to legacy equipment that you invented with higher overall cost and limited benefit, or do you you adopt a cheaper more ubiquitous standard that is about to leap frog the best efforts of your own invented standard by 3 times the performance of your third generation product which is still a 1/2 a decade away from being reality?
Intel created USB and as such has the resources to get it out there faster and grow the interface capabilities. I haven’t even mentioned Gbit Ethernet which all of these laptops have. and wireless broad band is about to another 5 fold improvement in speed and reliability. Whit this information I think you ‘ll find that Apple made the right decision eliminating Firewire in all portable devices. I have a bunch of Firewire drives that I no longer use. I’ll probably upgrade the drives with increased capacity for archival storage.
As for your cameras, look for those that have built in mini hard drives or flash drives so that you can edit the video still in the camera. Any high end camera should have had both interfaces otherwise it wasn’t worth the price you paid. Either that or there is probably a retrofit kit that allows for USB 2.0 installation. Failing that conversion devices can only get better in the future.