Who will buy Apple’s new expensive, ultrathin laptop? It doesn’t even have a CD drive! This post gets it exactly right:
… [T]his notebook will be Apple’s next step in a strategy to infiltrate the enterprise.
[. . .] [T]he MacBook Air is aimed at a narrow upscale segment of the market. These customers care about style and what that style says about them. It’s all a part of their personal brand.
. . . When they open this machine at a meeting, it may say more about them than a $300 haircut, or a bespoke suit.
Will these users worry about connecting FireWire for digital video or external storage? They may worry more that a heavy briefcase filled with a heavy notebook could wrinkle their suit before a meeting. Listen, if one of these persons needs an power outlet because the battery is heading towards critical, someone will find them an outlet. And besides, there’s plenty of juice for notebooks and mimosas in the first class cabin.
What’s great about the MacBook Air is that this machine appears to be a new twist in Apple’s stealth campaign into the enterprise. The MacBook Air is all about switchers.
Who will be customers of this classy machine? Captains of enterprise and commerce. Traditionally, these customers have been Windows users. But now they will buy Apple’s new ultralight and join the ranks of switchers.
Yes, that’s me all right.
But I do want one.
But Apple has always been a company peddling appearance and status at a (super-) premium price. From the first day of the Mac.
It’s interesting that Steve Jobs has so much to learn about markets and products from people who in many cases wouldn’t buy his products if they cost the same as whatever commodity junk they really plan to buy. And he made Intel design super-small versions of their dual core processors and spent who knows how much on the industrial design to make the whole small enough to fit in an inter-office envelope.
What a dope 😉
And actually, what Apple has peddled is a different experience, since Day One, not necessarily status or appearance (using those terms says more about who uses them than about Apple or it’s customers).
The fact that a post about a computer that no one needs is on a political blog is interesting in itself. Covet much?