[FoRK] my MacWorld predictions

[Adam L Beberg]

Eugen Leitl wrote on 1/15/2008 11:27 AM:
> On Tue, Jan 15, 2008 at 12:04:37PM -0600, Jeff Bone wrote:
> 
>> I'm going to claim victory on the AppleTV refresh...
> 
> All in all, rather a downer. At least Mac minis are
> still with us, and I presume there will be a bump up
> to Santa Rosa eventually. But, no headless mid-range 
> Mac.

No refresh on:
Mini - lagging for something that is such a sweet server
Displays - 50% over priced
Xserve RAID - drives are 1/2 size
iPhone - crap until 3G

You still HAVE to go 3rd party for RAM(10x!), drive(1.5x), and 
displays(1.5x) due to their pricing to avoid getting screwed.

And the laptop lineup with 3 models is really awkward. The Air is 
clearly a shrunken (how do you possibly avoid damaging something that 
thin???) less powerful MacBook for more money - but as I spec it the 
lowest macbook it's only about 400 less. Thus the awkward - the high 2/3 
macbook models and the lowest Pro are silly now, the high Pro is still a 
powerful laptop with tons of pixels, but heavy. So of the 3+2+3 models, 
4 are cost-ineffective, 1 is marginal (the mid-pro), one is a ego trip 
ripoff (the SSD air), and only 3 are really viable:

1. Lowest Macbook for the low cost (but still not cheap).
2. Low Air for the masses.
3. High Pro for the road warrior.

My bet is the Macbook will go away soonish.

-- 
Adam L. Beberg
http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/