The MacBook Air? Apparently we love this thing, as it accounts for a healthy 28 percent of Apple’s notebook shipments. Pretty impressive when you consider that earlier this year it was a mere 8 percent.
Morgan Stanley, a company that apparently sits around counting awesome thing notebooks, says that the aluminum beauty accounts for over a quarter of Apple notebook sales. The unit is quite a gem in this blogger-who-calls-himself-a-reporter-for-some-reason’s opinion; super thin design, SSD storage, instant-on and Thunderbolt connectivity.
On the other hand, with the white MacBook having been discontinued, and only two models of notebook now being available, it makes me wonder what the sales of the MacBook Pro look like. Never the less, a jump from 8 percent to 28 percent is substantial and indicates that growth is likely to keep happening. Here’s a bit from AppleInsider about it:
NPD’s figures also indicate 11 percent year over year growth in overall PC shipments in October, although retail growth was just 3 percent. Commercial shipments were up 27 percent. Apple experienced 20 percent growth in PC shipments, nearly double the industry at large, while its retail shipments grew by 18 percent, six times the overall retail growth of PC makers. Among commercial shipments tracked by NPD, Apple grew by 34 percent year over year. Apple’s share of PC unit shipments for the month was 17.3 percent, with a 23.9 percent share of retail sales and a 5.7 percent share of commercial shipments.
Rumors abound that the MacBook Air may be renamed just “MacBook”, now that the previous MacBook has been discontinued and the entire Apple consumer laptop space is occupied by the Air. More rumors suggest that the MacBook Pro will also be redesigned without an optical drive to mirror the ultra-thin design of the MacBook Air. Other rumors also suggest that monkeys may fly out my butt, so you never know.
Source: AppleInsider
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in other words, to still call it a MacBook Pro, it's going to have to have a pro-speed processor, and that means more battery and possibly fans.
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Likei've got an 11" i5 and i've been able to run both versions of Final Cut, Photoshop, etc. since i have a quad-core i7 iMac at home, i don't use the MacBook Air as my main machine, but i'm still able to run all of those programs just fine.
RAM really isn't the issue. the machine feels faster than my iMac for a lot of tasks, just because of the SSD. the real issues start with processor speed.
this MBA uses a 1.6Ghz i5, presumably to offset the costs of the SSD as well as prevent serious drainage on the battery. a MBA-style MBP would conceivably have a serious processor, but what that will do for heat and battery is tough to say until Apple officially says "yes, we're making this."
all that to say that USING Final Cut Pro is just as fast as using it on my iMac, but RENDERING (processing, crunching) on the MBA is without a doubt MUCH slower.
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LikeI'm planning to buy a Macbook Air for quite some time now and I'm pretty much excited about this news.
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LikeAs a "power user" (I kind of hate that term) I find that the Air shipping with a dual core i7 and Thunderbolt was finally convincing enough to swap out my yearly MacBook Pro purchase for an Air. I love how little it weighs. My computer bag was getting dangerously heavy and I needed a break. That said, if I could get a 15" that didn't weigh too much more, I'm in.
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