I don’t plan on making tech a regular topic but this just made me laugh.
I don’t yet have a MacBook Air but I’m about 90% sure it will be my next machine (replacing a 2009 MacBook Pro 13″). It’s light and has all the processing power I need for my job. I’m totally sold on the form factor.
Reading PC World’s interview with Intel it seems that the reason people buy MacBook Airs is because of OSX.
…it’s a great choice for someone who wants to invest in the Mac operating system
I do like the OSX but really I can’t think of a single person that is non-technical who has switched because of the operating system. They switched because of the great service their friends got with their Apple products.
They were tired of having issues with a computer only to have Dell (HP, Acer, fill in your computer) tell them that there was no support and they could buy a new one.
Further when people ask me about Operating Systems (and that rarely happens), I tell them I’m way more excited about the inovation in Windows 8 then the next version of OSX.
They go on to site price as a differentiator.
And they want to do all this at mainstream price points, which is where we think one of the biggest key differentiators is, and the biggest value that Intel can bring to this space.
So lets go to Dell and spec out something comparable to the MacBook Air. Well all three of the XPS machines cost just as much as a MacBook Air and if we add 3 year total support (the closest thing in my opinion to AppleCare) we are looking at a price differenc of around $100. I fail to see how this hits a price point that Apple is not and my experiences with Dell support have been nothing but terrible.
There is more places in the article where Intel is totally missing the boat, but I can only rant so long. Yes they need to talk up the offerings their other partners are doing but at least it could be in a way that is believable.