Apple’s Latest Betrayal

(GNN) - “Seriously, fuck them,” read the tweet by M.J. The person was speaking about Apple and the new MacBook the company recently announced.

There are countless other tweets and comments with the same sentiment. Right now there’s visceral hate directed at the company. A swath of consumers feel betrayed by the stark design of the new MacBook. Our original post on the topic was shared over 25,000 times. For good reason, too.

The new MacBook thinks different. It has more in common with a tablet than most laptops. Think of it as an iPad that has a keyboard and runs OS X. And like the iPad, it only has one port, which is the cause of the outcry.

Most computers have several ports scattered around the frame. There’s usually one for charging, a couple USB ports for various tasks and some sort of port to output video. The new MacBook combines all three into a lone USB-C port. This means users will not be able to, say, charge the laptop and an iPhone at the same time. Or input data from a flash drive while outputting video to an external monitor.

This is Apple’s world and we just live in it.

To Apple’s credit the company must see a market for such a computer. The low-power Intel chipset that powers the computer likely doesn’t provide enough oomph to play computer games, but it should render GIFs just fine. This is a couch computer. It’s a Facebook and Twitter machine. It even looks like a great programming computer. Watch the Apple event yesterday. The company didn’t demonstrate any of its new software on the new MacBook including the Photos app. Simply put, the new MacBook isn’t for photo editing.

Expectations are high for Apple. Had a different company like HP or Lenovo released a watered-down computer like the new MacBook, there likely wouldn’t have been an outcry, but rather a collective chuckle. For some reason, a swath of Apple fans expects the company to build every product to meet their needs. If it doesn’t, feelings of betrayal sneak in. This happened with the original MacBook Air.

Apple released the first MacBook Air in 2008. It cost $1,799 and, like the new MacBook, was a svelte wonder of technology. But it lacked ports. The industry cried foul, pointing out that it only had a power port, a single USB port and a Micro-DVI port. There wasn’t a CD-ROM or Ethernet port.

And in 2008 this was a big deal. Software was still shipped on disks and Wi-Fi was hard to find.

Apple fans felt betrayed. They felt forgotten. If a customer wanted Apple’s latest and greatest machine, they would have to buy into interacting with a computer without a CD drive or wired Internet.

Eventually, Apple dropped Ethernet from its entire MacBook line and the MacBook Air is now the least expensive laptop Apple offers.

The new MacBook joins the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. It’s not a replacement for either – at least not yet. But it bears a nameplate previously retired: MacBook. It’s not an Air, it’s not a Pro. It’s just a MacBook, which was long the company’s stalwart against Microsoft.

It’s highly likely that in a generation or two, Apple will drop the price of the MacBook to under a thousand. Will the MacBook Air survive? Maybe not. Apple is steadily making the MacBook Pro smaller. It’s easy to see a future where the MacBook will be the company’s only inexpensive laptop and a slightly slimmer MacBook Pro will be the other option if you want silly things like multiple USB ports, SD card slots and a MagSafe power adapter.

Until then, a 13-inch MacBook Air is a better buy than the new MacBook. The battery lasts nearly as long, the computer is more powerful and it has plenty of ports. Plus, nobody has ever said that they wished their MacBook Air was just a bit thinner.

The Surface Pro 3 Is Microsoft’s Answer To The MacBook Air. Again.

Microsoft just announced the Surface Pro 3 and a new direction for the Surface line. Microsoft is no longer looking to counter the iPad. The Surface Pro 3 is Microsoft’s answer to the “heavy” MacBook Air.

This argument is not new. Microsoft touched on this with the Surface Pro and then the Surface Pro 2. The value proposition is simply more clear now. Instead of muddling the argument with examples of how the Surface Pro can be an iPad and a MacBook Air and then an iPad again, Microsoft is now simply saying the new Surface Pro is better than the MacBook Air.

To be honest, it’s the Windows world’s best answer to the fantastic MacBook Air yet. It’s seemingly more powerful and versatile than anything from Samsung, Lenovo or HP.

The Surface has always promised a tablet could replace a laptop. But through two Surface generations, that has so far failed to materialize. The Surface Pro 1 and 2 were too heavy and thick. The screen was too small and the device didn’t work well while on a lap. The Surface Pro 3 answers all of that.

The screen is now larger at 12-inches and sports a higher resolution than the MacBook Air. The Surface Pro 3 with a keyboard is thinner than the MacBook Air. There’s 4g built-in. And for better or worse, the Surface Pro 3 is a touchscreen and has novel OneNote features such as a mode that instantly lets users jot down notes even when the device is turned off.

Still, it’s no MacBook Air.

I once wrote an article comparing the first generation Surface Pro and the MacBook Air. I was mostly wrong. I used the original Surface Pro as a daily driver for several months. The relationship didn’t work out. Microsoft’s promise of a dual function device fell short in real life. The original Surface Pro just didn’t have the chops to hang. I couldn’t use it in my lap, the device wasn’t powerful enough to smoothly run multiple applications over several monitors. The experience was frustrating.

The MacBook Air is the best laptop on the market, bar none. There’s no argument. Apple has progressed the MacBook Air to near perfection. Microsoft knows that, which is why it so directly targeted the device in today’s unveiling.

At this point in the storyline, specs are meaningless. It’s about the experience and with the MacBook Air, Apple created and evolved the computer to truly mean personal. The MacBook Air is not the biggest or baddest laptop available, but it’s the most personal and that’s what makes it sell.

The Surface has always promised to be more personal. But the experience was still lacking. As I found during my time with previous Surface models, the form factor and platform just didn’t mesh.

But Microsoft kept at it and pushed the Surface larger and thinner. Meanwhile, Windows 8 evolved since its release, carefully blending the old Windows with the new Windows. Microsoft might have finally hit a point in both the software and hardware’s life where the Surface can finally be a Windows user’s MacBook Air.