Macopinion

Why Can’t Apple Build A Laptop Like This? - Perhaps They Will

How come Lenovo can build a $400, sub three pound netbook with an ExpressCard 34 slot (in which you can use a FireWire adapter card) and a card reader, while Apple supplies neither, with no FireWire workaround whatsoever available on the new $1,300 unibody MacBook? Just asking.

The excuse has been floated that there simply wasn't room for FireWire or an ExpressCard slot in the slimmed-down unibody case, but I find it difficult to buy that. Of course the old school MacBook had no ExpressCard slot either, and the preceding iBook no CardBus slot -- more a matter of market placement than lack of room. I also suspect that removal of FireWire from the MacBook's port array has more to do with some perverse desire in Apple's planning to kill off the high speed interface they invented in favor of the inferior USB 2 and the still unproven USB 3, and convince us that less is more.

One reason why I'm an as-yet vicarious fan of PC netbooks is that the orientation of their designers and manufacturers seems to be to pile on as much value and as many features that people want as they can while still selling an attractive package at an affordable, even commodified, price. That's a business and marketing strategy that appeals a lot more to me than Apple's typical aloof snobbery, superciliousness, and elitism.

I love the Mac OS, which is head, shoulders, and torso above anything else in the personal computer operating system category, so it keeps me coming back, and Apple hardware, such as my fleet of old PowerBooks, can be quite sublime, but Apple appeared to stop trying to give us the full laptop feature set serious users want after the Pismo in 2000, instead orienting toward a fixation on making laptops thinner and thinner (both in form factor and versatility). Of course it's hard to argue that this approach hasn't been a success for the company, with Apple's laptop sales now representing over 60 percent of the strongest general CPU sales picture the company has ever enjoyed, but it is an ongoing disappointment for us veteran Apple portable fans, and I do have to wonder how far they can push the envelope, especially in this toxic economy.

As for that little Lenovo netbook, a tip of the hat to CameraHacker.com's Chieh Cheng for bringing it to my attention. Cheng maintains that "Netbooks are photographers' and cinematographers' dream. For four hundred dollars, you can get one with a decent processor, lots of memory, 60 GB of hard drive space, memory card reader, USB ports, and WiFi.... in a Netbook weighing less then three pounds..... and for photographers and cinematographers who like to travel lightly, this kind of notebook computer is a highly desirable travel companion.

Cheng's only complaint was that the critical element missing netbooks was a FireWire (IEEE 1394 in PC-speak) port, which he considers essential for serious photographers, but then discovered the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-1208U netbook, which he found available at TigerDirect for all of $399.99, and which does have an ExpressCard slot.

A nice little piece of kit it is too.

The IdeaPad S10-1208U weighs 2.76 lb. including battery, is a sensible 1 inch thick, has the usual netbook 1.6 GHz Intel Atom Processor, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 integrated graphics support, an 80GB HDD, 512 GB of DDR2 memory upgradable to 1.5 GB, a 4-in-1 media reader, 802.11 b/g wireless, a 10.2-inch screen with 1024 x 600 resolution, 2 USB ports, an ExpressCard 34 Slot, a VGA video port, audio in and out jacks, and an Integrated Webcam, plus a swappable battery and easy access to the battery bay and RAM slot.

If only Apple would build a small laptop like this.

Well, perhaps they will. Last week, Computerworld's Gregg Keizer reportedthat Technology Business Research Inc. analyst Ezra Gottheil is saying that the tanking economy will oblige Apple to introduce a lower-priced and lighter-weight laptop in the first half of 2009 to compete in the netbook category.

Gottheil doesn't think Apple will try to compete directly with netbooks on price or form factor, but does need an "entry-level notebook" that could sell for $599, and probably be be more like the MacBook than the MacBook Air.

Cool, if it happens, but while I'm an as-yet vicarious netbook fan, one contrarian argument that I think holds a lot of water is that the best value in an inexpensive laptop is still a used or refurbished older Mac 'Book. For example, as my friend and fellow columnist over at PB Central Joe Leo observed in an essay on Friday, "Anyone currently looking for a Mac that's small, 'cheap' (in the $499 to $699 range), and still does pretty much what you need and has high-end processing power, need not look anywhere else but eBay or Craigslist, since the 12-inch PowerBook G4 is the king of that hill," and that's of course the price range those higher-end PC netbooks are selling for.

I pretty much agree. As one still using a semi-elderly 1.33 GHz G4 PowerBook as a production platform running OS X 10.5 Leopard, I can attest that these older Power PC Macs are still formidable performers that offer a lot more power, capacity and features than a new netbook at those prices.


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cmoore@macopinion.com

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