“The imminent launch of an upgraded MacBook Air, complete with Sandy Bridge chipset and Thunderbolt connector, is about is about as open as secrets get where Apple is concerned,” Kenny Hemphill reports for MacUser.
“It seems, though, that we may have to wait just a little longer. AppleInsider reports that Apple will wait until Lion ships before releasing the new Air,” Hemphill reports. “That makes perfect sense to me.”
Advertisement: Students, parents and Faculty save up to $200 on a new Mac.
Hemphill writes, “If the first batch of MacBook Airs shipped with Snow Leopard, two things would happen. Potential buyers would delay their purchase, leaving Apple with unsold stock which would need to be upgraded to Lion, and those who did buy a Snow Leopard Air would be angry at having an out of date machine so soon after they bought it.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, some might delay purchase until OS X Lion can be preloaded, but, no, there won’t be “angry” customers: Apple’s OS X Up to Date program will take care of new Mac buyers just like it has with every major OS X release.
Hemphill writes, “A solid state, low storage-capacity, notebook with no optical storage is the perfect showcase for iCloud and some of Lion’s new features, such as the new Recovery mode, and multi-touch gestures. It’s not by accident that Apple uses an Air on its website to show-off Lion. It’s saying: Lion and ultra-slim notebooks, this is the future of the Mac.”
Read more in the full article here.
Wrong on this one MDN. Many people will feel that they didn’t get the latest if they find out a few weeks later that they could have had Lion on it out of the box. Even though it’s a free update, some just don’t feel that way.
You are right. A few Windows switchers will think they have an arduous task ahead of themselves, upgrading the OS.
The other 90 million Mac users are laughing at you.
If there were 36 million more Macs out there than the number Apple reported at WWDC, perhaps 90 million would be laughing.
You Are Just Counting the Macs online. Everyone has 2 or 6 in a closet, basement or storage locker they can’t bare to part with.
That would make more Macs, but not more Mac users…
“can’t bare to part with”
It’s Mac OSX Lion not Ooh-a Sex Loin. 😉
I use my hand-me-down Macs to convert pc users. They become Mac fanatics, then new customers.
Wow! You’re so cool!!!
I personally have 3…
G4 Mac mini, yes the first one…
PowerMac g4, may never sell it.
PowerMac g5, I should sell it.
I use the g5 as a server for my house (media/etc) tempted to sell it and just grab a new shiny mini.
My younger sister (an avid Windows supporter) bought her graduating daughter a new MB Air on 6/5/2011 – the day before Apple’s Keynote for Lion. She was so POed she took the MB Air back to an Apple Store and demanded to return it because she wouldn’t have the most up to date OS. The Apple Store told her she could return it for a restocking fee (I think 10%). So she stormed out of the store with the Air still in hand, even more POed. When she called me to start slamming Apple, I told her Lion would only cost $30. Then she calmed down … until I told her the new Sandy Bridge / ThunderBolted Airs were right around the corner … HAHA! That’s what she gets for not consulting me first. I would have told her to wait for the upgrade, which would have Lion preinstalled as well.
you sound like a vindictive arse!
How dare ANYONE not consult you…..
Sounds like a guy who actually does his research on products before he buys them. Sounds like she got duped.
When I go out to invest that much money in something I’m not knowledgeable in I tend to consult other people who do have that knowledge. When I screw around and don’t get that knowledge before-hand they have every right to mock my stupidity mercilessly.
Really? I don’t think so. I think those buyers would have bought anyway, either due to need or want, and would be happy that Apple offered a free upgrade to the latest, greatest OS X version. If they feel they were getting something out of date (which the hardware is going to be out of date if new MB Airs come out), then they should have waited. That’s the way technology works.
i have to agree with you and Apple. People always want the latest and greatest. If they bought a MacBook Air, and two weeks later a new OS was released, the buyer wouldn’t feel that he/she/it bought the latest and greatest. It would create a negative feeling, not a positive one.
95% of the people waiting to buy an air… Know lion is next month.
They wouldn’t care about the update, it would be free for them and they know it.
The people that would be mad… Would be recent windblows converts.
If I were buying an air today, it wouldn’t bother me. Would give me the option to run snow leopard if lion isn’t 100% to my liking yet.
I can understand if apple is waiting, but they don’t have too do so.
And not just that. Some customers won’t know of it because they may have misheard, and when they later hear that they’ve missed out on the cut off date… they’re even more pissed and it’ll end up costing Apple even more when you count the hrs they call to Tech and Customer relations.
Been there and done that when I was working in Applecare.
I don’t think they’ll be finding out a few weeks later. It’s not like Apple is hiding anything. Anyway, anyone forking out over a grand for a notebook without doing any homework is not the kind of customer you’re going to be able to satisfy, no matter what you do. If you acquire any info on how easy it is to upgrade OS X, particularly on line, there’s no reason to delay your purchase.
Well said, sir.
Any ignorant customer will be more than annoyed at anything you try to do – even if it helps them!
Simple really. It’s to prevent the douches from Samsung from copying the Air and releasing it on their douchey Chromebook.
When you buy a PC, you end up with a lot of junkware, demons, and software that duplicates system features (wifi driver, disk burner, backup software, and so on. You have to figure out which to remove and which to keep, plus you have to purchase a subscription to the demo anti-malware. It can take a day to clean it up.
When you buy a Mac, you just turn it on and work.
Buying a Mac with an operating system that’s going to be superseded in a month is a little too Microsoftish, no matter how easy the upgrade is. Some non-geek computer users are leery of upgrades, and others might forget to do it until they have to pay for it. I have a friend in another state who was still running Leopard because he had not even heard of Snow Leopard. He didn’t know the Apple in the corner was a menu; he thought it was just branding. He’s a church organist, how would he know? He’s the “rest of us” the Mac is supposed to accommodate.
Apple is wise to withhold new hardware until Lion comes out.
Very True indeed!! There’s a lot of people that don’t upgrade! Many are afraid to do so based on crummy PC upgrade experiences.
I said “junkware, demons, and software” but I meant “junkware, demos, and software” I guess it was a Freudian slip. I won’t going anywhere near a Windows machine without garlic and a crucifix.
You got it right the first time. 🙂
I read it as “demons” the first time and didn’t bat an eye because I thought that was a perfect way to describe the evil that possesses a new PC and afflicts the user from the point of acquisition onward.
When people realize the MBA with SandyBridge heats up like a 4th of july grill there will be a lot of holding off for the IvyBridge edition next year. It ain’t Lion people are going to wait for, it’s IvyBridge.
Meanwhile, if you want a thin machine to show off iCloud get the current MBA while they’re available and later upgrade to Lion. They’ll have better graphics than the upcoming new Airs, have plenty of power and run as cool as a cucumber.
Jon_Doh said, “When people realize the MBA with SandyBridge heats up like a 4th of july grill there will be a lot of holding off for the IvyBridge edition next year. It ain’t Lion people are going to wait for, it’s IvyBridge.”
IMHO the new MacBook Air will use a low power version of the “Sandy Bridge” processor and anyone who expects the performance of the “Sandy Bridge” found in a MacBook Pro will be dissappointed. Ivy Bridge with it’s die shrink and tri-gate transistors might solve the problem.
I think Apple want as many people to have Lion as possible because iCloud will only work on that. The big problem for Apple is that current inventory will not SL on them.
A lot of average users never upgrade the OS on their machine after they purchase it. Most are unaware of a new version or just can’t be bothered.
I bet all machines sold in stores will be upgraded by Apple personnel before being handed off to customers. The same for Apple online sales. Only machines sold by third party vendors will still have SL on them until the new inventory is added.
Apple are going out of their way to help you get Lion. $29 downloadable installer that can be applied on any machine you own. That is basically giving it away.
I do not think Apple is updating the MacBook Air with Sandy Bridge, etc.
Too much power, too hot. Not true.
More research and less hype would be good here.
Nothing to do with Lion. Period.
Is it at all possible that something s WRONG with the Air?
Unless they are all sitting in a box, waiting, then something could need improvements.
If Thunderbolt is such a game changer, I would think more people would be upset that they didn’t have that over the OS which can be updated…
True. I have a MBP with Thunderbolt but am getting no use from it (thunderbolt) right now. I will be excited when actual Thunderbolt hard drives are available.
If Apple is truly waiting, I would surmise it’s that they want to get a double kick out of releasing the Air along with Lion –
The first computer designed with the iCloud in mind!
Besides, Apple has already announced that any Mac purchased since the keynote can upgrade to Lion for free. So the cost of the upgrade is moot.
The upgrade to Lion might be free, but the 4gig download will be a PITA for all but those with the speediest internet connection. I think Apple is doing the right thing to wait and release the new Airs and Lion at the same time.
(And I really wish Apple would come up with an alternative to the 4gig download for folks who have limited internet access. They’re the smartest guys in the world, they should be able to come up with a Plan B.)
This is just opinion from a very long-time Mac user.
I do not believe that when all the dust settles, the only way to install Lion will be by downloading an online updater. As many have pointed out, universal high speed internet access is far from reality.
What I think will happen is this: 1) There will be a standardized way to use a previously downloaded updater (on either USB flash drive or DVD+/-R) to install after logging into or opening an Apple account and paying the cost of Lion; and/or 2) A way to obtain an Apple supplied DVD (for perhaps the cost of postage) where installation of Lion will be the same as (1).
For example, I have three Apple notebook computers that I use and I don’t want to have download 3 separate 4gig files in order to install on these 3 computers. On the other hand, I love the idea that I can pay one time and then install Lion on each of my computers. My wife has two Macs and the same applies to her Apple account. Because I administer her Macs, I definitely want to be able to use a previously downloaded Lion installer and, after paying the $30, install Lion on her computers.
Apple is simply too smart to not have thought this through. I truly believe there will be alternative installation methods.
@Jack
I have friends in rural Canada whose internet connection won’t accommodate a download that large within a human lifetime. So they are going to take their Macs to the Apple distributor to download and install Lion there. Then of course I don’t know this from personal experience, but I’ve been told that most people have friends. Some of those friends may have faster internet connections. Maybe they’d host a Lion upgrade party!
In my area, a person could simply sit at a Starbucks table near the Apple store and upgrade there.
There are lots of ways of doing this.
How about Apple makes a print run of DVDs and sells them to people who don’t have access to high speed Internet and be done with it instead of going through all that convoluted shit.
Sometimes those doofuses in Cupertino just don’t have the ability to think straight.
How about a jump drive rather than a DVD which is out board on MBA’s . All MBA’s have a USB port, oh doofus slayer.
Another reason would be apple wish to wait for the reviews of the latest laptops with the new AMD vision chipset, comparison of battery life and so on …… Given the reviews by anandtech and other , the battery life is 100 % over sandy bridge while running HD video .
Nobody seems to realize that new hardware always ships with a special flavor of the OS.
To say that these machines are now being held up so that they can ship with Lion is kind of false.
If they are to ship with a Lion based OS, that decision would have been made early in its development and would not be some last minute decision to show off the cloud or Lion.
I guess technically they could be waiingt for Lion to ship, so that these machines don’t release before all the other customers can get Lion for themselves.
Not everyone is going to want Lion right away. Many users will wait until 10.7.1 is released.
Not all potential buyers of the MacBook Air will prefer to buy one with a brand new, untested version of OS X installed. Most average users wait awhile before upgrading to a new operating system. Many don’t even know that OS X Lion is coming down the pike. And of the many people who buy a new MacBook Air equipped with OS X Lion, many will be very unhappy when Apple’s latest and greatest operating system doesn’t “just work” 100% of the time. OS X Lion is a more radical upgrade than Mac users have seen in quite some time, and there will be issues.
So some customers may be unhappy no matter when Apple ships the new MacBook Air. It’s a major transition time for Apple, and for Apple customers. There are bound to be a few bumps in the road.
If you are running a business or using your Mac for work, you may want to wait until all your critical software is pronounced Lion ready.
Otherwise, you might find yourself in a nasty position of having to perform a clean install which can take some time just to move all your files around.
I’m very tempted now to get an Air because of iCloud. I just hope that it will support up to 8 GB of RAM.
Don’t forget that Apple Is proud of the of it’s high battery life . If it makes a big hooha about the MacBook air only to be trumped one month later by Dell / HP or others , would a real downer Eh. For ultraportables battery life is the most important.
When the SandyBridge MBA ships, I’m buying. Who cares if Lion OS is ready?! It’s only $30 and downloadable.
Personally, I will buy a MBA (to replace my 2006 original Macbook) as soon as they come out with the new models, regardless of when Lion might ship.
What is the big deal? If the MBA ship before Lion, it will be a free download to upgrade.
I also suspect that most people who would buy a device like the MBA would also have some other computer (presumably with larger storage capacity). The Lion upgrade is the same price no matter how many computers attached to the same account you put it on (like any other app on the Mac App Store), so getting the upgrade for free would also save you the cost of upgrading those other Macs as well…
Asked that from my FoxConn dude and he said: “Hardware comes out when it’s ready, we don’t wait for something that can be easily upgraded later. OSX Lion can be pre-installed even it’s not the final version, its’ components can be updated as needed, no new OS needs to be installed. There is also a possibility to install SL and L on the HD and let you decide which one to use”.
No word if the new MBA’s are in production.
Absolutely. I work somewhere that sells macs, and I’ve personally dealt with customers outraged that they were sold an “out of date” computer because it needed the update to 10.6 (which was free). Several ended up returning the computer entirely (we have a 15-day no-cost, no-questions return period), and saying they’d never buy another computer from us or Apple, etc.
What many people here seem to fail to understand is that to an ignorant computer user, the distinction between the hardware and the software is not something they readily understand or appreciate. To them, if something isn’t fully up to date they won’t get it.
This really hurts us sometimes, because whenever a new Mac OS comes out, we are stuck with a bunch of stock which doesn’t have the new OS preinstalled, and there’s a lag before we start getting stock that does. And short of cracking the seal on every machine, there’s no way to remedy that. And of course, Apple has always done the up-to-date by mail-in, which isn’t the greatest for customers in terms of hassle.
For snow leopard, since they were only $30, we actually just ended up eating the cost and giving everyone the retail DVD for free. Sadly, with lion we do not have that option. Will Apple provide an update solution for people who don’t have a credit card or a good enough internet connection? What about 10.4-5 users? The silence from Apple is deafening. I can’t inform my customers, because Apple hasn’t released the info we need, despite it being only a month away from Lion.
these are the people that if you go to their windblows PC… it has 8000 updates ready for them in windows update, a few thousand virii/malware and complain that the PC should just work. Ask them which Service Pack they have installed, 99% have no clue. Hell, ask them what Version of Windblows they had before the Mac…. 95% i bet wouldn’t know that. “the one that came with it”
I went to a co-workers house to fix her PC a month ago. I sat down and asked her when the last time she ran the windows update… wasn’t sure what it was. Showed her the Icon in the taskbar said it had multiple updates ready to install, she said “oh that. I keep dismissing it, it’s annoying”
If it’s not done for them… it’s Apple’s fault, or Microsoft’s fault.. or Dell… etc.
these people are idiots, you can’t please them they know everything and it won’t matter what you do.
and for your upgrade problems, read…
you MUST have SL to get Lion. if you are running Tiger, guess what?…. you’ll first need to upgrade to SL before you can get Lion (legitimately)
Granted we are able to get Lion put on a DVD/USB stick… but will we be able to do so on the release version? not sure.
What Apple should do, since it’s on the app store… Drop registered recent Mac purchasers an E-Mail with a $30 iTunes code. (or a direct code for Lion)
Or make them register on the up to date page to verify, then send them the email. Cheapest, easiest way to handle it.
Microsoft did a similar thing for buying a Vista disc, you had to register the sale and do a bunch of crap to get Windows 7 upgrade free.
it’s an OS upgrade… and a major one, not a minor tweak. If apple makes me jump through a few hoops to get it FREE…. I think i’ll just shoot myself instead. a lot less hassle. lol
Some people need their hand held all their F’N life.
“To them, if something isn’t fully up to date they won’t get it.”
How hard is it to tell the customer that the new mac may need to update to the latest security patches and OS updates. it’s free, and oh BTW… WE CAN OPEN THE BOX AND DO IT FOR YOU….
and explain to them that EVERY OS IN THE WORLD works the same way, they need to be updated/checked for updates from time to time. (preferably on a regular basis)
It’s not like they are getting 10 year old hardware… just a OS that isn’t updated fully.
When i got my 2011 iMac, (released May)It ran 10.6.6… And i ordered it BTO and on day 1. while it made me think that was odd it needed the 10.6.7 update (released in March..) I didn’t go ballistic… I just updated it.
I’m drawing a blank here… even though i just did this 2 weeks ago on a Mini… But doesn’t the Software update run once the system finishes the initial registration and account creation?
I’m 95% sure Windows does this… and pretty sure OS X does also.
also how hard would it be to explain/teach the customer to USE the software update regularly or how to setup a schedule for it so they are always up to date?
SL doesn’t have built in protection for SSD drives and SL performs a lot of maintenance that eats them alive. Lion is SSD aware. This is why they are waiting.
In other words, they are waiting so they can advertise the hardware performance of an Air running Lion vs advertising current hardware performance Running Snow Leopard?
This makes the most sense to me.
Not performance per se. You see, you can only write to each sector a finite number of times. SL performs a significant number of writes during maintenance cycles. Lion will see that the drive is an SSL and will not hammer the drive because of it. It’s actually a feature that was requested by Microsoft to save the SSD drives from abnormal wear and tear (once in awhile they actually have a good idea).
I just really hope that they fix the Macbook air’s trackpad. I mean, Its so stiff compared to the one on my pro. That is literally my only complaint about the macbook air. Once that is taken care of, I can happily recommend it to my friends.