According to Seth Weintraub at 9to5Mac, the fabled “Brick” is a new manufacturing process used to make Macbooks. They report that the process is revolutionary, and a game changer, going on to explain that it’s “one of Apple’s biggest innovations in a decade.”
Up until now Apple’s manufacturing process has been outsourced to overseas companies like Taiwanese manufacturers Foxconn. Set out to change that, Apple has been investing in a new manufacturing process powered by lasers and high intensity jets of water to carve notebooks out of a solid brick of high grade aluminum. “Yes, this sounded a bit crazy to us as well. But our source is adamant so bear with us. He says Apple has built a manufacturing process that would make Henry Ford proud,” Weintraub explains.
A few advantages to the new Macbook manufacturing process:
• A solid piece of aluminum eliminates the need to bend the metal, which creates weak spots, microfolds and rifts.
• Absolutely no seams in the final product, completely smooth
• Screws aren’t needed to fashion the final product together
• Shell is one piece of metal, light, strong and cheap
• Without being restricted to a machine, Apple can be more creative with design
Weintraub goes on to correlate this new information to Apple CFO Peter Oppenhiemer’s statements during Apple’s Quarter 3 Earnings Call. Oppenheimer referred to a “secret product transition” that “Apple’s competitors won’t be able to match,” for time to come. “We expect the process to drive down the prices of MacBooks over the next few years and at the same time allow Apple to continue to lead in the innovation department. Design changes should come much more rapidly.”
As we’ve reported before, these new aluminum notebook rumors are not a surprise. We’ve reported about a confirmed Macbook Air-like keyboard in the upcoming Macbook Pro, and a new case design from leaked supply chain photos has also been confirmed, as well as some rumors regarding a glass trackpad that were announced.
Rumors pointing to another Special Media Event to be held by Apple on October 14th have already begun circulating. Steve Jobs and Co., would use the event as a showcase to explain and release the much anticipated notebooks. Additionally, we’ve heard some rumblings about the iMac getting a speedbump before the holidays.
5 Comments to “The Brick: One Piece, High Grade Aluminum Notebooks”
To put a visible watermark on what is essentially a generic picture of a block of aluminum, is astounding lame. Not to mention that making a shell out of a single piece of aluminum is unlikely, as there are a lot of parts and fittings inside that would be extremely difficult to access. And each half of my current MacBookPro certainly appears inside and out to be made of a single, unfolded piece of aluminum…
Reply
Skeptical huh?
I would like to see how the battery is addressed if this holds true. If they eliminate a swappable battery from Macbooks, people’s heads are going to explode.
Reply
LOL at that watermark on the image. What are they thinking? People are dying to steal this image? Ridiculous.
Although I appreciate that you guys didn’t post some Google Image piece of aluminum. This definitely adds a level of hilarity.
Reply
It’s October 14th now. The bottom half is one piece aluminium. Pretty cool lineup, but not what I really wanted. The wide multitouch trackpad was awesome though, and how it can support up to four fingers is great.
Seriously, I wanted an ultraportable, cheap Mac, like a big iPhone with a 7 inch display.
Reply
But why? Apple is nowhere near ready to unveil something like that. How could you not be hapy with today’s announcement ?!?!?! THAT”S CRAZY !!!
Reply