Nvidia CEO: In 2014, PC laptops will look like Apple’s MacBook Air

“Nvidia’s CEO added his two cents to an increasingly popular theory on laptop design: that is, the MacBook Air as a template for all future designs,” Brooke Crothers reports for CNET.

“In case you’re wondering where the laptop is headed–circa 2014–Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang offered what could be considered a highly educated guess in response to a question I posed to him in a phone interview today,” Crothers reports. “‘You’ll have trouble finding one that doesn’t look like the MacBook Air,’ he said. ‘I think the Macbook Air is a good mental image of what a clamshell laptop will look like.'”

Crothers reports, “Nvidia chips have played an important role in the MacBook Air. Apple chose Nvidia graphics silicon beginning with the second-generation Air. And its role eclipsed that of Intel in the 2010 MBA (third generation): Nvidia’s GeForce 320M graphics processor is the only major logic chip to see a significant upgrade in the Air (Intel’s silicon changed very little from second- to third-generation).”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Apple leads. The rest follow at a great distance.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dow C.” for the heads up.]

24 Comments

    1. It’ll have a multi-touch keyboard with haptic technology that will give you tactile feedback on top of all kinds of gestures.
      We can expect all Macs to go that way. OSX will merge with iOS and unify everything. Lion is already giving you a glimpse of that.

  1. Hate to say this MDN, but I’m not so keen on the overlarge headlines and spikey typo of the new look.

    It’s not impossible to use or anything uber-serious, just not quite as user-friendly as the old style.

  2. To see the future of personal computing, look at what Apple did LAST year. For 2011, I think that statement will be even more fitting regarding the release of iPad, compared to the release of the latest MacBook Air.

  3. … that laptop makers will give up on making desktop-replacement models? Such as the MacBook Pro? One of the reasons the MBA can look the way it does is because of its lower spec. Think of it as a combo of an advanced iPad and an entry-level MacBook. Not that this is a Bad Thing – not in MY mind – but it is only part of the market.

  4. “…the MacBook Air as a template for all future designs”?

    PC laptop manufactures adopting MAC designs would be a first, and that’s what makes the article so laughable. Not. Gonna. Happen. No company in their right mind would do anything close to what MAC does. They still haven’t figured out a two-button mouse.

    Besides, not even Windows can pretty up the garish and hardly functional MAC Book Air. PC Manufacturers are better off avoiding any semblance of MAC’s unpopular designs. Only 2 or 3 MAC lemmings find MAC Book Airs desirable and they’re lying. Like everyone else who reads MDN I’m looking forward to what Microsoft and their manufacturing partners come up with in the future.

  5. Apple starts out at least several years ahead in most new product releases (e.g., iPod, iPhone, iPad, MBA). Other vendors are eventually able to close the gap somewhat by copying as much as possible and going from there. Meanwhile Apple is refining and evolving its first generation products. Eventually, a product revolution is needed to go beyond the status quo. Each of the products noted above were revolutionary and transformative. So it makes perfect sense that the 2010 MBA is the likely template for many laptops in 2014. The compact SSDs used in the MBA, for instance, are already being marketed to other laptop vendors.

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