I've been waiting for something "much cooler" than a replacement for the the 12, 15 and 17 inch Powerbooks ever since the introduction of the 15 inch MacBook Pro in January, and unless rumours of the "real" video iPod and the supposed Mac tablet turn out to be a range of Newton style replacement devices, it looks like I'm in for a disappointment. It currently doesn't look like there isn't going to be replacement, "cooler" or not, at all...
Which is confusing. I've talked before about how the core demographics of the laptop market is splitting into two with the road warriors, who would kill for another half hour of battery, or half a kilogram less of laptop, and the power users who desperately want another couple of inches of screen real estate, and another hundred gigabytes of hard drive.
But Apple no longer offer something for the road warriors, who are unlikely to want to settle for a MacBook instead of a MacBook Pro. Surely Apple must be planning something in the new line up to fill the gap?
Update: It's official, there will not be a replacement (via TUAW) for the 12 inch Powerbook. So, where now for the road warrior?
Update: Some of us aren't waiting for something much cooler, but instead something insanely great. It looks like I'm not the only one disappointed in the new laptops. I guess I just expected more from Apple, something truly innovative, something that persuaded me that I wanted to sell a kidney to poses it...
I jumped on board the 12" PowerBook G4 bandwagon back in 2003 when they first came out and to this day it's my newest computer and only Mac!
ReplyDeleteGreat little machine, underpowered for desktop work but just perfect for the mobile stuff I actually use it for, and the firewire is my get out clause whenever I run low on hard disk.
Using it out in the cold and in the heat (mostly it's own overworked little 867MHz G4's) I managed to push the original hard drive over the edge after about 2 years. I did the replacement myself and know first hand what a huge improvement the new MacBook's design is when it comes to replacing drives. My 80gb upgrade is also making odd noises and refuses to cooperate when too cold ... which gives me an idea.
Next year or sometime when 16gb compact flash cards get on the market and I can grab one, I'm putting one of those in an IDE adapter and using it for my hard drive. Count it as an experiment in flash based 12" Mac with OS X! It's either that or do the hard drive cha cha once again when my demands have gotten the better out of this 2nd drive.
Of course I agree completely that something much cooler needs to come out. A persistent daylight viewable Mac Tablet would suit me to a T. A flash based 12" laptop with low power consumption processor so I could squeeze 8 or so hours out of it a go would be great too. But in the meantime I will experiment with what I have. Knowing I'll get my day eventually!