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Apple Nails It: New Notebooks Spot On

Apple’s new notebooks, which were unveiled earlier today, are absolutely spot on. While some are claiming the new notebooks still to be too expensive, the new technology unveiled today has far surpassed our expectations. From the unibody enclosure to the built-to-order SSD options across the board, Apple’s new line of notebooks is clearly in a league of its own.

Apple has always been good at listening to its customer base. Devotion and brand loyalty are something that Apple prides itself on as a company. The fact that thousands, if not millions of us will be plunking down over $1,000 within the next few months, in the face of an economic catastrophe is what separates Apple from its competitors. With its new notebook line unveiled earlier today, Apple has set an immensely large gap between its new products and the rest of what the marketplace has to offer.

In a League Of Its Own

At an entry level price point of $999, Apple’s intention of delivering these things to the masses holds true. And at a $1,299 price-point, Apple’s first level aluminum Macbook is nearly impossible for the competition to stack up against. Apple is delivering aluminum enclosures, LED screens, a superior backlit keyboard, and custom upgradeable options that other PC makers simply do not offer. Not to mention an integrated NVIDIA graphics processor aimed directly at increasing the gaming experience.

In late July, Macblogz heard information, regarding the possibility of Apple including a built-to-order, solid state drive option in all of its upcoming notebooks. This turned out to be accurate. Apple is now offering consumers extremely high-end machines, with even more expandable options than ever before. If somebody has a smaller budget, but has really been itching for that lightning fast SSD experience, Apple is set to deliver that with their new notebooks. Allowing built-to-order solid state drives in their consumer level Macbooks is a major step forward. Overall, Apple is not holding out on features with their entry level notebooks.

Internal Architecture and Multi-touch Trackpad

Apple explains that “the internal architecture has been reengineered from the silicon up. There’s a new logic board. A new chipset. And a new graphics architecture — a feat of engineering in itself.” The large, smooth multi-touch glass trackpad was in development for months before Apple was able to perfect the sensitivity and pressure triggers. By eliminating the physical button, Apple has made the entire trackpad one large button. They’ve added more multi-touch gestures, and increased user input from two finger gestures, to new four finger gestures.

Pricing

Many analysts were clamoring about the introduction of a new notebook model specifically priced at $899 or lower. Many pundits went on record prior to the event as having detailed information about Apple’s unreleased inexpensive notebooks. They were all wrong. The major pricing move Apple made today was slashing its entry level Macbook from $1,099 to $999. “This could very well be an integral move in the face of today’s sluggish economic, despite recent upward movement. Offering a sub $1,000 MacBook will help Apple reach a larger demographic, while more affluent consumers will still have higher end models with great configuration options,” MacBlogz previously explained.

By offering the market a notebook as feature-rich as the entry level Macbook, consumers will react to the sub-$1,000 pricetag extremely positively. The play to seduce consumers over to the $1,299 Macbook, which sports a new striking metal enclosure and more professional features, with a mere $300 price increase, is a highly strategic one. Early statements and predictions about Apple releasing extremely competitive products at highly aggressive price-points turned out to be true.

Exterior Design

The new Macbook and Macbook Pro exteriors are far beyond what any of the competition can offer. Apple is using a new manufacturing process to craft a unibody enclosure for the new notebooks out of one piece of high quality aluminum. They are eliminating the need to combine many parts into one piece of machinery, thus increasing the overall performance an stability of the machine and its parts.

Apple’s new notebooks are sleeker, sexier and even more high quality. Major inspiration has been taken from the Macbook Air and iMac, with two tone black glass and sleek aluminum. The Macbook Air remains the thinnest notebook on the market, and is priced accordingly. But by spreading design aesthetics from the Macbook Air across both the Macbook and Macbook Pro, Apple has taken the next, natural step in their notebook family’s evolution process. It just so happens that nearly everything consumers wanted to see, Apple was able to deliver. The new Macbook and Macbook Pro’s are thinner, lighter, more durable, robust and overall more stable.

Apple’s new family of notebooks has begun shipping today, with the exception of the Macbook Air, which will be shipping in early November. Most of the pre-configured notebook setups should be available at Apple retail stores tomorrow. MacBlogz will be providing in depth coverage of all of Apple’s new products in the following days.