I hardly think dropping the price of a completely over-priced product down to the level of a just barely over-priced qualifies for the description "slashes". Note that they left the base model "over" priced the same -- I know they are in business to make a profit, but how many can they sell to the top 1% of the consumers?

What holiday?
Has Christmas been moved up?

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Guest wrote:
What holiday?
Has Christmas been moved up?

It's a Holiday.

The 4th of July is the next USA holiday, but I guess that would depend on when and where you are reading this; It is already the 4th of July in a few time zones east of me.

Now there is such as thing as Christmas in July, but perhaps John referring to those of us who do our Christmas shopping early or the procrastinators who are just getting a round tuit.

You all have a great 4th of July and/or just a weekend as appropriate

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Anonymous wrote:
I hardly think dropping the price of a completely over-priced product down to the level of a just barely over-priced qualifies for the description "slashes". Note that they left the base model "over" priced the same -- I know they are in business to make a profit, but how many can they sell to the top 1% of the consumers?

Have you ever actually priced SSDs?

And, to answer your second question: enough, apparently, to warrant keeping the product line going.

And before you go spouting on about overpriced, check the price comparisons in this article.

http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9103658&intsrc=hm_ts_head

What they need to do is slash the price of the MacBook Air itself to $999.00..... Then maybe they would sell a few of them. The sales figures for the MacBook Air have been dismal.

And what is your source for those figures? Care to post them?

Anecdotally, I have seen several out "in the wild". Chances of that without a fair amount of sales is pretty low.

And please show me another, comparable, ultra-thin lightweight system at $999.

And, quite frankly, the top 1% of the market is precisely who they are targeting. Businessmen who don't want to haul around a thick, heavy laptop.

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Intruder wrote:
And what is your source for those figures? Care to post them?

Anecdotally, I have seen several out "in the wild". Chances of that without a fair amount of sales is pretty low.

And please show me another, comparable, ultra-thin lightweight system at $999.

And, quite frankly, the top 1% of the market is precisely who they are targeting. Businessmen who don't want to haul around a thick, heavy laptop.

I work for an Apple Specialist. While our sales on all other units are quite brisk... both in Laptops & in iMac's, to date we've sold a grand total of two Air's since they've been released. In speaking with other Specialists, it's pretty much them same, with a few exceptions.

People come in & oohh and ahh, but they see the price point and opt for one of the full featured laptops & deal with the extra few pounds.

I travel quite a bit and have seen very few on the planes.

Trust me, if the product took off, you'd hear about it from Apple and the Analysts.

The product has a very limited appeal at the current price with the feature set it has.

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diverreb wrote:
The product has a very limited appeal at the current price with the feature set it has.

We may see some of those features in future MacBooks, and Macs for that matter. They usually start in the higher end and/or pricer models and then eventually the consumer Macs. But yeah, the AIR is a niche Mac right now.

What does a Macbook Air cost, less than my first Apple II and that was over 20 years ago.

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diverreb wrote:
What they need to do is slash the price of the MacBook Air itself to $999.00..... Then maybe they would sell a few of them. The sales figures for the MacBook Air have been dismal.

I think you mean your sales have been dismal.

Get cracking.

Your MBA sales may be dismal, but it might depend on who you're "Apple Specializing" for. Your mileage may very.

The facts are that most of the MBA features will become standard on other laptops/portables/tablets in the near future. First out of the gate means higher costs, just a fact.

Guys....

This isn't just coming from my area..... We are in touch with Specialists in most parts of the country. There is a very limited market for this particular machine....

I agree the technology is cool & will no doubt lead to innovations in both Apple's line as well as in the PC World. But until that time, at this price point, it has a very limited market.

It's great for someone who needs a lightweight device to carry from meeting to meeting and for a few other mission specific applications. It's a great machine for those who have to have the latest & greatest from Apple. Unfortunately that is a very small market niche of all Apple customers. For the rest of the Apple customer base it's too expensive and does not provide enough functionality.

The feature set I was referring to was specifically, the lack of an interchangeable battery, small Hard Drive, lack of a built in CD/DVD Drive, lack of ports (Firewire & Ethernet) that are found on the other MacBooks.

In the future Apple will most likely add features and lower the price, Then the Air will be a product with a more universal appeal and take off as a hot product.

As I said before, that is exactly the market Apple is targeting with the Air.

If you can get the executives to buy them and those executives like them, they are more likely to work on getting more Macs into the enterprise.

Most of the expense of the Air is the engineering involved in getting everything to fit inside that case. Like all of the other ultra-thin laptops, it drives up the price. Most, if not all, of the comparable systems are in the very same price range.

As someone who travels a lot (I usually log 150-200K air miles per year), I can tell you that, on the road, I rarely (if ever) use the ethernet port as most hotels have wireless (or I bring an Airport Express with me), and most businesses or government offices will not allow you to connect to their networks. Or the location has no network or internet access at all anyway. I haven't used a modem in over 6 years. If I need to do things that way, I can tether to my cellphone or BB (thanks to daemon pointing to a site showing how to do that) Most people transfer files using memory sticks these days, so I rarely burn a CD/DVD ON THE ROAD. That is the market Apple is trying to get with the Air. Is it a small group? Relatively speaking, yes. But it is a group that is usually willing to pay for quality, lightweight hardware and has the money to do it. Taking even 2.5 pounds out of a carryon can make a huge difference.

I couldn't agree with you more.... Well put.

Exactly my point.... Limited market, for now & the over all sales numbers, compared to the other MacBooks is small.

Have a good Holiday.....

As I was sitting in Pravda the other morning, I noticed the chap at the next table had a MBA - with the Caf?net connection, I guess he was doing some web-browsing. Then a colleague briefly joined him and was shown some sort of presentation (the tables are very close). After his colleague left, I asked him if he was enjoying it, and he said that it was exactly what he needed.

Sure, it's a niche market. I presume that Apple has made and will continue to make a profit on it - it's palpably not a stupid company after all. For those that it doesn't suit, there are other options. For this bloke, this ticked the boxes.