“Mac OS X 10.6.2, the forthcoming update for Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system, is reported to disable support for the Intel Atom processor, preventing unauthorized PC netbooks from running the operating system,” Sam Oliver reports for AppleInsider.
“Users at OS X Daily claim that Mac OS X 10.6.2 prevents Snow Leopard from running on systems with Atom processors. No official Apple products use the low-cost, low-power chip from Intel. For now, users on unauthorized Atom machines are recommended to stay with Mac OS X 10.6.1,” Oliver reports.
“‘You can’t help but suspect this move is Apple’s attempt at shutting down the growing and popular Hackintosh Netbook community, since Apple has no product line that runs the Atom itself,’ the report said,” Oliver reports.
More in the full article here.
So? Just don’t update to 10.6.2 or stick with Leopard.
Apple won’t separate OSX from its factory hardware because it’s afraid of having to support the near-infinite number of hardware combinations that Windows and Linux desktop users have.
It’s fair to want to control the final outcome of your product, and I don’t blame Apple for refusing to build netbooks.
It does seem petty, though.
I’m not sure who this really is going to affect, though. Those people with “hackintosh” netbooks will simply refuse to upgrade to 10.6.2 It won’t prevent people from making “hackintoshes”. I’m sure it will be a matter of days before some Finnish or Swedish hacker figures out a way around it, anyway…
Apple gained a wealth of incoming customers due, in part, to Vista and its many, many imperfections. With Windows 7 performing significantly better than Vista and rivaling XP, I wonder what will happen to the flow of customers. I assume many of them will be willing to stick with Windows, since they no longer have the “Vista Blues”
I like my Macbook just fine, and probably will continue to purchase Macs as notebooks, but using Windows 7 at work and at home has given me hope that people like me will have several good options to choose from.
R&D that goes into Mac OS X, iLife and other software that comes with every Mac is not a proportionate component of a price of a Mac. Regardless of the retail price of that Mac (be it $500 Mini or $3,500 MacPro), same software goes on each of them. Therefore, each sold Mac is expected to recover equal proportion of the R&D budget (actually the part of it spent on Mac OS and other Mac software development and support).
As we know, Apple’s profit margins on these tend to be in the 30s. Therefore, for a $3,500 MacPro, they are recovering some $1,200 in profits. However, a Mac Mini will only fetch around $200. A $500 netbook would have to cost $300 to make in order to get the nominal profit, which is literally impossible to do with Apple’s manufacturing and design standards. Not to mention the amount of damage it would do to the $1,000 MacBook sales.
Netbooks are a fad with a high rate of return. Sure, they work for some users who understand and accept the performance and feature limitations of netbooks. It’s people who purchase netbooks thinking they will replace their full-featured/performance computers who are in for a jolt… and return the things.
Even putting aside the low-to-zero profitability of netbooks, Apple specializes in and sells user SATISFACTION. They are not interested in selling products that frustrate and infuriate their end-users.
Many Mac users, myself included, had no idea of what type of potential was hidden away in their Macs. The fact that Apple has always designed and built machines that have the expansion potential to do almost anything (with third-party add-ons) via built-in FireWire, USB, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, high-quality displays, full-sized keyboards, etc. is a very real part of the Mac mystique.
Selling cheap, underpowered machines that would detract from Apple’s reputation is something Apple is not interested in doing. The netbook makers have that segment of the market fully covered. Even Microsoft appears to have has little regard for netbooks, citing them as profit killers.
@R2:
You’re not only an idiot you’re an ignorant one. Apple has since it’s breakout maintained an unrivaled and rapidly growing “core base” of loyal customers that is the envy of every company in the world. They are all individuals who appreciate the trouble free, transparent, user friendly and superior computing experience Apple has to offer them above any other available.
These loyal customers all appreciate Apple’s new innovative offerings and willingly embrace them by purchasing them, no one forces them to.
Since Apple always leads the industry with it’s new hardware offerings and there is never anything comparable to these new products they certainly are never overpriced.
Apple is a choice never a trap.
If it is too expensive – don’t buy it. Does the ‘Macs are overpriced crowd’ go to Black Bird and demand lower prices their dinner, complain because Hugo Boss charges too much, want Ferrari to drop an engine in their Fiesta, moan about the price of a 3 bedroom condo because they can only afford a one bedroom apartment?
Apple can charge what they want to. Obviously the market is telling Apple they can or they would be going out of business. The ‘…overpriced crowd’ are not Apple’s market. If you want something save up and buy it or join the rest of America and charge it and pay it off. Quit whining about why you can’t have something and do something about it. Get a temporary second job and sock the price of a used Mac away then buy it. Do something about your situation.
Oh wait – it’s easier to complain. Complaining and being a victim have replaced baseball as America’s national pastime.
I know that if I sent one of these complainers my MBP they would complain that I missed a finger print when I cleaned it up or it was shipped standard and next day. Life may not be fair but who mandated it had to be. Every day I become a bigger fan of Larry Winget.
…and NOT next day.
Apple never “supported” the Atom processor — the Atom was a happy recipient of compatibility with Intel’s other chips. Also, we all know Intel has been lobbying Apple to adopt the Atom on some of it’s future product offerings. Perhaps this is simply confirmation that Apple has closed the door on the Atom in favor of other chip designs?
I can’t believe some some people have the temerity to bitch because a product won’t work in a manner for which it was never intended. Remember, the only legal way to get a copy of Snow Leopard without buying a new machine is to purchase an upgrade copy for $29. How many of those Hackintoshes are running legal copies of Leopard (or Snow Leopard, even) to begin with. Methinks not many at all.
@ R2
lol bro… you’re “evil & fascist” post is snagging them just as fast as a Zune Tang thread, good job.
It’s in Quotes for a reason people…
and the crying has begun………
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> Evil Apple is only interested in profit margins. They should give their OS away and destroy their current business model. As a shareholder, I am sure glad they don’t listen to the idiots.
OT, but I received my Magic Mouse over the weekend. Absolutely the best mouse that I have owned.
Smart marketing, tease them by allowing them to play with the Mac OS then get feed back by percentage of users. That give a view if who will use it and then add in Microsoft Bob’s that will switch.
No put the brakes on it, create a noise, and pop there on version of the net book and sell the Hell out of it.
Smart!
Did anyone see that one?
Right move, Apple. If users want to experience the crappiness of Netbooks, then let them suffer with an inferior OS as well.
There are plenty of used iBooks for sale that are more cost-effective than buying a new piece-de-merde netbook.
So much BS from people who don’t know what they are talking about. Kind of like Windoze users dissing Macs.
1. I can afford my and my family’s Macs. We own an iMac, an Air, an MBP 15, two MacBooks, two Minis, and two Apple TVs, several iPhones, etc. Much as I like my wife’s MacBook Air, it is substantially bigger when open on an airplane lap tray than the Dell Mini; that’s why I wanted to try this.
2. I bought a Dell Mini 10v, in part because I wanted the fun of doing it, and I wanted something small to carry around for short trips.
3. I own a 5-pack of Snow Leopard and two individual copies [for my office machines: the MBP and the Dell]. Granted, even though I bought the license for a copy of Snow Leopard, that doesn’t necessarily give me any right to install it on an unsupported platform. I am simply responding to the broadside, specualtive allegations of piracy some have leveled here with zero proof.
4. Installation on the Dell had its challenges, but it was pretty rewarding to get Snow Leopard going.
5. Apple has the absolute right to cut off Atom support, just like it has the right to block Palm from using iTunes.
6. I don’t think Apple products are overpriced. That’s not why I tried this little experiment. I think they are oversized. There’s a difference.
7. While the Mini is cheap, it is most definitely not underpowered for its intended use. On my “MacBook Nano,” I have a 120gb iTunes library, including movies I watch and over 7000 ALAC tunes and about 2000 iTunes+ tunes. I have a 40,000+ iPhoto library, I run VMware Fusion 3.0 with XP, etc., etc. Fusion is a bit slow, but it works. I run Pages, Numbers, Mail, iCal, & MS Office.
8. It’s not pretty but it works. And everyone who sees it in action says one word: “cool.” I would gladly pay 750-1000 for an Apple version.
9. I remember my original Duo machines. They were very compact and had a nice dock to go with them. I took them everywhere. I wish Apple still made something like that.
HEY! Apple waited until Windows 7 was out.
Quit your bitchin’.
You want cheap, go to the dollar store. Or e-Bay. Or Apple Store refurbished. We don’t need no stinkin’ netbooks when we have the iPhone and iPhone touch. Might as well get last generation’s Macbook, or iBook, even. Netbooks are for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
I agree with cogitoergomac. I have a iMac, Quicksilver G4, iPhone, iPod Video, iPod Nano and a Apple TV. I was always a Mac user and will always be. The HP Mini I have was the first PC ever I bought because I love computers and I wanted a challenge and feel the gratification in hacking the Mini to run OS X. I wanted to see what it was all about. I even took it a step further, and it not only boots into OS X, it even boots into Windows XP, Windows 7 and Linux. It quad-boots. It was a great project. But to tell all of you, like the iPhone, there will be a work around and someone will be able to put 10.6.2 on a netbook and post it on the web how to do it.
I always find it interesting that the people who yell the loudest about Apple’s “high prices” and “ridiculous profits” are perfectly willing to bend over for Microsoft’s nearly 80% profit margin on Windows, Windows Server, and Office.
Os X Netbooks are cooooolllll! Tiny, fling-it-in-your-bag kit. Cheap enough not to be the end of the world if stolen and… powerful enough to watch movies and run pretty hefty Photoshop jobs with speed and ease.
Apple’s missing a trick here and is clearly worried all its ‘loyal’ fan base are so loyal they’re falling over themselves to get kitted out with mini Dells, HP’s and Samsungs
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I agree completely with cogitoergomac. I have been a Mac user since the original 1984 128k machine, and have a house and office full of them. But when I travel, my MacBook Pro is simply too big to open in a cramped airline seat. I love my iPhone, but it is not suitable to actually doing work (e.g. writing) on a plane. I have toyed with the idea of a Hackintosh netbook computer just to have a small “Mac” to take with me on the plane. Apple has nothing like that and has stated that they have no interest in making such a device.
@Predrag: Well said! Impressive analysis of the business model Apple has created.
@KingMel
Apple may be losing some valuable good will from people who enjoy tinkering with new things like MacOS X netbooks, and who might come up with some useful upgrades in the open source software world.
Can you put a headcount on this? And then flow through to calculate (using probabilities) the number of useful upgrades you feel Apple has somehow deprived the open source software world of? And on that point, since when (and more specifically how) has anyone been entitled to benefit off the success of Apple?
@R2
What he really meant was that they can’t build one for $99 while jacking the price up to $399 in order to make a fat profit.
Please can you offer some information of substance in support of you claim? Can you the cite source(s) of cost accounting information on which you base the $99 figure? In the absence of third-party sourced that can be independentaly verified, it is hard to take you seriously so get working mate!
@Yakov
Apple won’t separate OSX from its factory hardware because it’s afraid of having to support the near-infinite number of hardware combinations that Windows and Linux desktop users have.
I don’t think Apple is afraid at all. They are just smart enough to compete while not competing. They have defined their market sweet spot and serve it very well without competition which explains why “Once you go Mac, You never go back.”
If Apple reads these comments, then I think they should take notice. I was hoping that the new macbook was going to be a Mac Book Air – LCt. Same design as the air, but in polycarbonate. and come in at the $699-$799 range. They could do this. And it would sell This is almost twice the price of other netbooks,, but half the cost of the pro air, which would get a corresponding performance boost and maintain its price. This would truly be the laptop ‘for the rest of use” as it would maintain a usable (for writing /spreadsheet/ presenation, photos, etc.) screen size. Heck even a movie is enjoyable at this size.
I know you can get an Air refurb for a reasonable price, but a MBA LC for $699, is the compliment to ones Ipod or iphone when traveling…. Or for student on the cheap.
Not sure a tablet would fit the bill here.
If they do this they better make their own netbook for $499 in January , damn bastards, I don’t care what anyone says they need to make cheaper laptops!!!
@grognard: I agree. An even airier Air would sell well, I think. Side by side, my wife’s Air is way more attractive, though it still takes up more room than my Hack.