The MacBook Air: Wastefully Expensive
The headline of this post sums up what a group of Japanese engineers had to say after taking apart and examining a MacBook Air:
“Can we say that the MacBook Air has a perfect, sophisticated external appearance, but its insides are full of waste?” asked Mayuko Uno, a squad member, as if speaking for the engineers that had finished the teardown process.
[...]
“The total number of screws in the MacBook Air was several times the number used in a PC we make,” one of the engineers said.
Looking at the hinges connecting the upper and bottom units of the PC and at the inside surface of external components, the engineers pointed out the possibility of additional cutting work.
All of the engineers found the structure hard to comprehend. The screws that attached the keyboard might also prevent the keyboard from bending when being pressed, but it seems like there must have been a better solution.
“If I proposed such a design, our company would never approve it,” said one of the engineers. “I can’t find anything that is technically superior. We can make the same computer at a lower cost,” said another. Did the MacBook Air’s internal structure represent the immaturity of Apple’s design skill?
[hat tip to Akihabara News]
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; with your educational level – you just...
“Wastefully Expensive”. ha, I say that about a ton of things in Japan.
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Were these engineers from Toshiba? If so they might want to learn a bit from Apple’s design. Toshibas are the most unreliable POS I’ve ever seen.
Do a few extra screws really increase the cost that much? The MacBook Air is about the same price as competing (as in form factor) laptops anyways.
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It is always impressive how people dismiss other work and always think they can do better job. If they really can, they should just do it.
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I don’t think it was built to superior to any other machine on the market and I don’t think it needs to be. 1.6GHz cure 2 duo is a very decent machine for what this is intended to be – a secondary computer for a person on the move. It’s not designed for high end graphics/video processing, but it is powerful enough for your average user and is a load more portable than a 2 or 3KG brick of a pc. It’s a choice the consumer can make, paying for mobility or extra grunt.
I say let sales show what the public wants/needs rather than this publicity driven ‘our machines are better, we would have less screws’ BS.
(i’m not a mac fan boy btw, use + like both OS’s)
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“We can make the same computer at a lower cost” yes please do so;
how about your marging?
and do you really think that Apple has its built-in factories knowing that ipods are built from Taiwan?
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In Taiwan?? All iPods are “assembled” in China. Along with everything else. Sony .. everything is just made in China now
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“We can make the same computer at a lower cost.”
Less talk, more work, please.
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I hate to defend Apple, but the “wasteful” design may be that way for servicing convenience. A computer with less screws but cannot be taken apart for repairs/upgrading is poorly designed.
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The amount of bias in this article is much too high for me to take it seriously.
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Why don’t they just come out and say it?
“We hate the more creative Americans.
Everything foreign is inferior, even if it isn’t.
If we can’t understand it, it must be bad.
Innovation is bad.”
But, yes, Apple is good at using image and advertising to sell things at a good markup over the technical costs. Sounds like jealousy in addition to the xenophobia.
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I disagree
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LOL @ “Innovation” and Apple in the same sentence.
Apple is the epitome of “Style over Substance.”
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75% of the MP3 market disagrees with you. So does most of the design industry.
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I hear this argument all the time, but ask these people if they really believe Vista is more reliable, secure, or comes with more free software than BSD…
You can almost hear the crickets. You get what you pay for, or in Vista’s case, you overpay.
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They’re so small! I think the smaller ones are ultra portable, but the price tag is pretty hefty for what’s inside so it’s hard to justify the purchase.
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I dislike Apple a whole lot, but I’d really like to see Japan make a better computer.
Then again, maybe these engineers could make a better computer, but the levels of ignorance they would have to pass through to get the project greenlighted would make a lot of screws, shall we say, loose.
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I’m sorry, but no. I bought one of these machine week for my girlfriend on week one, and I can say with confidence there is no machine like the Air. The industrial design of this machine is pretty much perfect for her; all the sacrifices are made in the right places.
However, this article is just culture-baiting. The Air of Japan is a smart phone, meaning the Japanese and American laptop markets are just different. The average Japanese will read a lot more into specs, whether they need the features or not.
Make no mistake, this machine is more LIGHT and THIN than anything in its class. It’s something you can only experience by holding one.
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just out of curiosity do you ever feel like it would break easily? seeing as its quite light.
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Not really, it’s study. Because it’s so light, don’t think there would be as much shock to the components, in comparison to a full-size laptop. It could probably take a few drops, the whole casing is made of aluminum.
Not to geek out too much on this, but this thing is so small she just carries it around in her bag as if it’s a small textbook.
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R.O.F.L
too much bias and too much money spent on something that shouldn’t cost nearly as much.
The price i paid for my sony vaio was alomst half the cost of the macbook air. It does a hell of alot more and i even use widows vista which works quite well.
Having said all of that, myself and other members in my universities technology department were actually disappointed with this latest apple model because we thought their previous laptops were efficient and well made.
this just seemed like one of those paying for convience models, which in about a couple months time they recall becuase of some grave error somone made and then they have to extend everyones warranties etc etc
lesson here is don’t always pay for convience pay for substance.
Apple you’ve lost some support here in oxford
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You are so correct. I have lost my respect for apple, when they release this over-priced junk. I bought a $800 laptop with the same specs as this macbook air, and it comes with a DVD Drive.
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Doubtful. How much does it weight? What is the thickness?
People, this is NOT a normal laptop we are talking about here, it’s a whole new category of portable computing.
Just because you can buy a Palm Treo for half the price of the iPhone, can you really compare the two? I mean, technically the Treo does more the iPhone does (it can use 3g, gps, tons more apps), but one must admit their is just something special about the iPhone.
Or if this makes it easier… Compare moped to a full motorcycle. They are in completely different classes.
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Some people just don’t get it. I doubt that it’s even the same specs. I mean … an ultraportable laptop for $800?? What kind of crap is that?
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You are missing the point entirely. For some people, convenience IS substance. Some people have portability as their number one criterion when buying a laptop. Clearly this is the market Apple is going after with the MacBook Air.
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Comments on an innovative corporation coming from a country that is notorious for copying and not being original!
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which country?
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Just wait two years then the price will be less.
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But then it wont be trendy anymore, so you’ll have to buy the newest one which will be at full price. And as we all know the life blood of Mac is trendiness, otherwise how could you explain selling inferior computers for twice the price of regular ones.
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People are stupid. 99% of Mac/Apple fans have merely been sucked in by the marketing. The other 1% perhaps (but probably not) have legitimate technical reasons for preferring Mac to PCs.
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I’m a mac user, better Japanese language support = win, but… the MBA is way too expensive, pointless. It’s still too big.
I’m currently waiting for my backordered eeePC to come from Yodabashi. eeePC plus emobile = glory. Cheap glory.
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