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Wednesday, January 16, 2008

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Apple's MacBook Air Promotes Anorexia

Thin may be in and beautiful but the compromises one has to make to be ultra-thin and beautiful can lead to some pretty tough and perhaps unhealthy lifestyle choices for fashion models and now mobile users. While the MacBook Air may indeed be the thinnest portable yet and quite pretty to look at, this fashion show stops dead on the runway for me with the the non-user replaceable battery.

I just don’t think the folks in Cupertino really thought this one through. Batteries are the food that nourishes our mobile devices and keeps them running. Call me paranoid and old fashioned, but I travel with an extra battery when I’m on the road. (I travel with extra other things as well, having a backup scenario is a key part of my being mobile.) I know others do as well. While five hours might be enough to get a user through most days, my experience tells me it won’t in my situation. A five hour battery life (and we all know that five hours on announcement day usually translates to something less in the real world) would not have sufficed at CES as an example, and I found myself changing batteries each day while there. The same is true for my other travels and on the road work.

I’m a big believer in the WNewquay school of thought on batteries. We should think of them as consumables that will indeed be consumed and need replacing. No problems there. While the offer of free labor to replace a battery is a nice gesture, that is all it is, if like I, you don’t live within shouting distance of an Apple Store. Do you know anyone who is going to be comfortable shipping their mobile precious off for a battery replacement for a few days? I don’t.

This may be an acceptable, although still not a welcome, scenario and business plan for iPhones and iPods, because the thinking goes most users will opt for the newest device when the battery needs a make over. But I don’t think that logic flows through to a $1700 portable computer purchase.

I’ve got to feel comfortable knowing I can keep my portable devices well fed and juiced up when I need to, otherwise the hunger pangs set in and they faint dead away, just when I need them to strut their stuff. Heck most mobile devices start sounding like the plant in Little Shop of Horrors screaming Feed Me with any real heavy usage.

I applaud the pretty design choices and the desire to get thinner and lighter. But when I look at the pretty pictures, it makes me ask the same questions that I ask when I see razor thin models on a runway. Is what you give up to be that thin and stylish really worth the compromise when it comes to practical living?

Tags: Apple, MacBook+Air

Editorials | Warner Crocker | Hardware | Touch

1/16/2008 8:47 AM MST

Apple's MacBook Air Promotes Anorexia Comments [17] | Digg This | del.icio.us | Citations

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 9:27:48 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

You are thinking in the yester years like MSFT & Dell. Remember when AAPL made the decision to axe the floppy drive? Well this case is no different. This is the first rev. of greater things to come in mobile computing. In the future there will be no need for dvds or other types of disk media for that matter. Flash drives will come down in price and have increased capacities. As far as the battery life... it will only get better....Apple is by no means done with this form factor.....this is just the beginning of another something great by a company who dares to Think Different.

ps. Just picture 2 years from now an "Apple&Content Provider" Movie Kiosk that has a usb flash drive port.....getting the picture.... you can insert your flash drive and buy (OR RENT) a movie to take with you .....the technology is there... its just not EASY to use... Apple will change the movie landscape just like it changed the music landscape. Its already happening.....MSFT can only now dream of having something so insanely great as APPL's iMachine.

iJah420 out

iJah420

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 9:36:49 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

Actually, I've got no issues with the other compromises like no optical drives, only 1 usb port, etc... just the non-user replaceable battery. You'll need an extra battery when you start using those movies on a flash drive.

Warner Crocker

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 9:38:11 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

pss. Are you aware of the third party offerings of external USB battery pack chargers...? What's the difference between carrying around an extra battery or extra USB battery pack charger? For crying out loud they already make an.....

Apple MagSafe Airline Adapter

With a MagSafe Airline Adapter, you’ll never again worry about losing power while on long flights. Just plug it into your airline seat power port and keep your MacBook Air powered up for the entire journey. DUH makes too much sense... EH?

iJah420 over and out

iJah420

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 9:53:07 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

Nice piece Warner, well written. I agree with you that a battery is a must in those tricky situations, and carrying and attaching a huge usb battery pack which dangles from the side, is firstly not very convenient, and beats the purpose of style and beauty, that the Macbook Air is meant to be. Moreover, more choice for the consumer(to some degree) is always a good thing. And I would not be happy too, sending my Mac with personal info for a battery change, even if its Apple.

Waleed

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 10:04:35 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

Thanks Warner,

BUT this machine are not meant for geeks like us and those people who travel with ten or more pounds of equipments on our bag. This thin notebook is definitely appealing for those who only use computer casually. Come on, what programs do you find in OS X? Virtually nothing but almost everything for the casual users. Even Kevin Tofel was wisen up to carry only one UMPC on his trip to CES.

You know there are many many people carry their notebook to their trips without using them on the road. They use them in the conference room or hotel room or thier vacation room. Honestly, who wants to carry a 4+ pounds of brick when they walk around and do thier works. Why not carry a paper notebook or a Livescribe notebook (if it comes out) and takes your notes : )

CSL

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 10:09:41 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

I am a big Apple fanboy and I loved the MBA. Before this I never liked notebooks simply for their weight(MPCs are much lighter). But MBA changes all that. I agree with iJah420 on replaceable batteries but I did thought that 5 hours on a notebook was quite low but then MBA uses LEDs and yes its just a first generation product. So I am sure with LEDs and no HD or optical drive, 5 hours will be quite enough and this will only get better. And now a days who travels with just one portable device?, the workload does and will, get divided.

Fahad Fateh

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 10:11:43 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

I have to agree with you, Warner, and I would make one more point. Other than the style points (and I admit it looks cool), what does thinner really get you? I would much rather have a thicker but lighter laptop (and there are any number that fit that bill).

For many years I used a Motion slate PC which was also 3/4" thick. As a tablet, this was important. However, when carrying it and using it with the detachable keyboard, its thickness was immaterial.

Dave P

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 10:15:44 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

To some degree I agree w/ the need to have a replaceable battery.

However the decision was made i ponder due to a longer term outlook of extended battery life in the future..... Maybe? I duno for a fact just a guesstimate.

I do however have a question 4U... What would be the consumers optimum... minimum battery life for both charge (ex. 8hr?,10hrs?,24hrs?) w/o recharge.....also the need to replace ie. EOL...of said battery? 2yrs?, 3yrs?..... And plez do not give me some FLUX Capacitor Battery never have to charge never have to replace runs on pure Yellow Cake Uranium answer.....;)

thanks.. Ijah420

iJah420

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 11:38:17 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

Warner, what about external universal battery which plug-into the power plug? I recall that Electrovaya and others make these!
Does thi solve your problem? even better, if you carry more than one computer!

For me, Thin & Light is the way to go !!

everbrave

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 11:46:34 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

My guess is that Apple has found that most people toss their iPods when their battery dies, and statistical data probably shows a number of laptop users upgrade rather than investing in a new battery, which generally clocks in around $150. By making the battery non-replaceable, in a couple of years, when the battery no longer holds a decent charge (or, however long it takes), and users see the shiny new laptops on display, a larger percentage will upgrade rather than repair, deciding it not wise to invest in "old" equipment. I don't, for a moment believe that the engineers at Apple couldn't come up with an elegant solution to hiding the battery compartments on iPods so they could be easily user replaceable. The idea is to get people to upgrade sooner than they may have, and give them an excuse for doing so. While a $2000 laptop is not the same as tossing a $99 iPod, I think the number of people who will do just that would probably be significant enough to impact Apple's bottom line.

It's capitalism. It's irresponsible. It's up to us to control our gadget lust (:

FeralBoy

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 1:41:59 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

hell, it could be that in a couple of years time, apple comes up with a trade in deal, they will even transfer you data over onto the new machine before handing it over to you? (or just "time machine" your stuff back onto the new one?)

still, yet another nail in my "macbook as overgrown pda" box i guess...

turn_self_off

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 2:20:14 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

It's fun to see the Apple fanboys run to the defense of Apple's errors here. This isn't a case of "thinking different". This is a case of just plain stupid decisions, much like those that Apple corrected with last year's initial pricing of the iphone and bad software design for AppleTV. On both of those Apple made errors -- after all, they're human too -- and on both of those, people and the market pointing out the errors led to improvements.

I would expect an ethernet port and an external battery by this time next year.

Cuhulin

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 2:26:59 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

Great article. Apple got this all wrong, in part because they have no idea who they're trying to please. Everyone goes on about the battery being non-replacable...how about NO ethernet? If you add the fact it has no firewire, no optical drive, no remote (and lots of other things it's not supposed to have) that ONE usb port doesn't look like it's going to be enough.

At first I was amazed. Once you get past the fact that it's wafer thin, you realise it's not even small, because compromise comes in terms of surface area so they could stuff all the pieces in. Anyone who has a tablet knows 13" ain't small. So what are you left with?

An always connected laptop, but only if you connect it wirelessly (forget business users who need ethernet).
A long battery life, until it goes bust (so much for people who travel constantly).
Multi-touch mousepad tailor made for navigating content, except the laptop is underpowered and non-upgradeable.

This will sell like hotcakes on launch day mind.

jta

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 10:44:41 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

I wish we all shared our true thoughts about certain models of the Tablet PC's the same as done in this thread about Apple's effort... perhaps Tablet PC manufacturers might listen and take action.
Instead, we welcome something like the HP or Toshiba as if it broke some new ground in weight, screen resolution, battery life etc... (I know, give 'em a good review so they dont' totally abandon us).

I admire Apple for trying something as risky as air. I applaud NEC for the Versa even though it was not available in the US(maybe it was I could be wrong). Why aren't we as a community comparing each tablet to some kind of reference (excluding ridiculous requirements such as 3.2GHz and 24hrs of battery life).

HP, Toshiba and other Tablet PCs brands still haven't improved as far as I am concerned. Get me beyond this M200, please!!!

jas

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 10:51:03 PM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

By the way, I am not referring to any one individual. But keep it real like Warner...
and that rant and did not intend to rustle feathers... Hmmm rustle feathers maybe that is a good thing to do.

jas

Thursday, January 17, 2008 1:05:26 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

There were ultra-light notebooks years before the Macbook Air (e.g. the Sony X505 in 2004 had 14" screen for the same thickness and less weight!). The Sony TZ that Steve Jobs criticised and compared the Air to weighs less, has a 9 hour battery life, all the ports, etc...

My take on some of the points mentioned:

- lack of optical drive : I have no problem with that. Only my desktop needs an optical drive, anything I carry doesn't.
- lack of user replaceable battery : I'm on the fence on this one (because I always open up my computers myself--breaking the warranty--and fix/upgrade things myself). I think it's a good thing to have it user replaceable, and it need not affect design much. But I also agree that this is the kind of computer that will be replaced in two or three years, i.e. when the battery charge is deemed unacceptable.
- weight : the Macbook Air is not that light. There are lighter similar size notebooks (here in Japan where I live), some with built-in optical drive: for example, the Panasonic Y7 has 14" SXGA+ screen, Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz, built-in optical drive, 2GB RAM, 160 GB HDD, 8 hour (listed) standard battery life and weighs 3.3 lbs (http://www.dynamism.com/y7/main.shtml). The W7 weighs 2.6 lbs with the built-in drive. So these could easily weigh less and outperform the MacBook Air if Panasonic decided to remove the optical drive and most of the ports.

So all in all, Apple haven't really done anything new. But, like I said in one of the forums, people talk about Apple, and their design/packaging/selling/style is new. And Apple slowly, but surely, push the PC and mobile phone manufacturers to improve the looks of their products. And that is a good thing.

BurningOrange

Thursday, January 17, 2008 1:12:34 AM (Mountain Standard Time, UTC-07:00)

@ijah420 re: optimal battery life ?

I think an optimal battery life would be about 8-12 hours at full power and usage (i.e. full brightness, full wifi/bluetooth/wwan, full cpu speed). This would untether us for a full days' solid work, and recharge when we sleep. This kind of battery life would allow much longer life under non-intensive usage, i.e. we sleep/hibernate often. Example: we could take our computer on a weekend somewhere (like we do with our phones) for recreation.

This is a gross average of all the possible usage scenarios of course.

BurningOrange

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