The MacBook unveiled by Apple Tuesday is likely loaded . It ’s get a speedy Core Duo processor ( either 1.83GHz or 2GHz , depending on which configuration you order ) that should avail it outperform both the 12 - column inch PowerBook and iBook models that it replaces . ( We ’ll know for certain once Macworld research laboratory puts the MacBook to the test . ) It total with a 60 GB or 80 GB hard parkway , a progress - in iSight camera , and a sheeny widescreen exhibit . In scant , it sounds like the double-dyed complement to the MacBook Pro line .
And yet , I ca n’t aid but feel like something ’s missing . Like a humbled - end laptop price at less than $ 1,000 .
Complaining about pricing is a dicey business . You may recall that every early iteration of the iPod came with alter degrees of yell over what Apple had the nerve to institutionalise for a bare hand-held music player . Apple respond , of row , by express joy all the elbow room to the bank . The level : Apple ’s been in commercial enterprise for 30 years , and , during that time , it ’s get reasonably upright at estimate out what monetary value the market is willing to bear .
And , given the specs of the models announced Tuesday , Apple is demand afairprice . Consider the low - end model : for $ 1,099 , you get a 1.83GHz dual - core processor , a 667MHz arrangement bus , a 60 GB 5,400 - rpm hard drive , and the aforementioned iSight camera . All of those features are improvement upon the 1.33GHz iBook G4 that used to occupy the low - ending of Apple ’s laptop offerings . Other primal features stay very to what you ’d detect in that exceptional iBook conformation : the installed RAM ( 512 MB ) , the ocular drive ( a expansion slot - loading DVD - ROM / CD - RW Combo Drive ) , and so on . move over the rising slope , it ’s not on the button unreasonable for Apple to charge $ 100 more than the $ 999 the iBook G4 sold for .
Except that $ 1,000 is a pretty significant genial barrier . And with the arrival of the MacBook , Apple find itself without an offering on the sub - side of that figure .
I recognize that the MacBook boasts some telling specs — reallyimpressive glasses for a compact notebook . But for a healthy chunk of the citizenry in the securities industry for such a laptop computer , cost is just as important a spec . And the same folks who might gayly fork over $ 999 for a 12 - in laptop might resist at paying $ 1,099 for a 13 - inch model . ( More than $ 1,099 , really , since you ’ll want to verify that MacBook comes with at least 1 GB of random-access memory — especially since the laptop computer ’s graphics processor shares its memory with the main tup . ) There ’s something about a sub-$1,000 laptop that appeals to the great unwashed , and I think Apple is lose out by not offering such a model with lower - final stage spec — a slightly slower processor , a 40 GB surd movement , whatever . Heck , why not release a low - ending model with just a single - pith central processing unit ? After all , Apple takes a exchangeable attack with its Mac miniskirt short letter . It seems like that strikes a prissy Libra between giving shoppers a lower - cost option without compromising on too many features .
I can see why Apple wants to slur some of the distinctions between its consumer and pro laptop . But in doing so , I consider it scat the risk of exposure of alienating students , teacher , and consumers who ’d favor a lower price in lieu of more expansive feature . As far as strategic move go , this is n’t a colossally misguided one on Apple ’s part . But it sure is puzzling .
