Creaking at the seams
John Gruber yesterday published an excellent piece entitled Listen to Tim Cook, in which he exposes some of the characteristics that underlie Apple's uniqueness and explain their ability to withstand market seizures by moving in unique, brand-specific directions.
As often, I find myself in agreement with John's piece, and I could not encourage you enough to give it a read. Yet, I disagree on a single, but crucial point: the low quality of cheap notebook PCs.
Apple has certainly never competed on price. Despite their claims of having made pro technologies affordable in the new MacBooks, $1,299 is, by today's standards in the computer industry, anything but. Of course, affordable is one of these neat elastic terms favored by marketers. As a Parisian, I find a 4 euros cup of coffee to be affordable, while the same amount would appear prohibitively expensive to many.
Apple, however, does shine in innovation, design and differentiation, the three factors that have saved their proverbial bacon repeatedly over the years. As John points out, no computer manufacturer has ever managed to put out machines that are as sleek, as cool and as desirable as Apple's. Apple is also all about Mac OS X and other aspects of hardware integration that are beyond the reach of others.
Yet, it would be remiss of us Mac users to discount the quality of other manufacturers. For all its sleek design, its innovative engineering and its overall excellent performance in terms of quality control, Apple's quality is not in the same class as their design. It's good, but it's certainly nothing to write home about.
The wildly popular Asus Eee PC 1000-something may not use precision unibody construction but they are made of high-quality plastic that is near-impossible to break, damage or unsettle. They may be slightly uninspired, slightly clumsy but they fare much better than a MacBook Pro or a plastic MacBook over the course of the day. In fact, my experience is that Apple's laptops take a sharp turn for the worse after about a year of use: dirt gets into the plastics that cannot be taken out, keyboards take on a yellow tint and subtle defects appear everywhere seduction has been favored over usability.
An Eee PC is no MacBook Pro in terms of technology and sex appeal. In terms of construction, however, they give Apple a run for their money. More remarkably, Asus manages such quality at a very low price point. In fact, it is quite amusing that an Eee could be better built than even Asus' own high-end machines or a high-end Sony laptop.
If Apple does not compete on price, it is not that they have higher standards to adhere to. They simply use price as another differentiating factor in their marketing and brand positioning, like so many other brands in so many industries.
I do not believe Apple should lower their prices and I won't even say Apple's machines are comparatively more expensive than their competitors' because they bring things that are not quantifiable to the table, little touches that make a computer much more useful and much more enjoyable over the years — despite the aforementioned cosmetic issues. A Mac is doubtless worth is price.
We should not, however, believe Apple when they say they do not compromise on quality. They most certainly do, like other companies.
They may use stunning aluminum unibody construction where other companies use uninspired plastic, but the day Apple will stop compromising on quality is the day gray cables will stop turning yellow over a couple years and the day matte MacBooks — if such machines ever make a comeback — will be made of a plastic that is actually washable. Quality is not only in the bold statements, it is also, and mostly, in the little touches, something Apple knows and plays with whenever necessary.
Quite frankly, quality is dull. Quality is what you do not notice. Quality is what works in the same dull way over many, many dull months. The quality of a computer, and of any system in general, is measured by the quality of the cheapest component it contains — its "weakest link" if you will.
The reason Apple chose not to enter the notebook market is certainly not that they could not produce a cheap and well built machine. What it really is only they know, but I agree with John's view that they probably want to make more of a splash and feel introducing a shrunk, stripped-down MacBook Air would not really bring anything new to the table.
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thank you for this post.DIGITAL
You forget to mention that the Asus Eee PC 1000 has only an 10" screen, is nearly 20% thicker than a MacBook and weighs considerably more. (A whopping 7.6 pounds versus 4.5 pounds!)
It easy to make something that smaller and thicker seem well-built. Case in point - my 8" portable DVD player seems built like a tank - all for US $88. It's a brick, but it's solid. Weighs a ton, too. It's also not less than 1" thick. Proper comparisons, please.
Quality is not dull - millions have said so with their wallets.
While I agree with most of the blog, I think that APPLE laptops are put together as well as the ASUS 1000H. I am writing this on an eeePC-1000H, which I have been using since August, and I have been an APPLE user since the LISA. I also do repairs and many other makes as part of my job at a US university.
What I think APPLE brings to the table in their products is the following:
1-very good, but maybe not the absolute best available, manufacturing quality and high reliability
2-reasonable price for the level of performance and manufacture and support
3-product "pizazz", usually in terms of a niffty package and some leading-edge technology
4-probably the best available operating experience, mostly because of their hw/sw integration and controls on user-interface
One thing they do not provide is a really solid low-price option in laptops. That is why I have the eeePC and am working on putting OS X on it either virtually or native. The mac mini though is a pretty good low-price non-portable product; I have a couple doing very nicely as Windows servers and one as a home entertainment center controller.
A Mr Clean Magic Eraser does wonders for the surface of white MacBooks. I bought 33 MacBooks for the kids in my class and the Magic Eraser is amazing in keeping the MacBooks looking pristine.
At first, I struggled to understand the logic behind the choices Apple made with the laptop redesign.
What they accomplished (I think) was to open the door for a lower-cost line of laptops that have decent specs, but are not necessarily cutting edge. The MacBook (unit-wise) is their bread and butter and now they can pull some of the pro line down and the consumer line up into the new high-end prosumer segment and keep the cachet.
Keeping the old MacBook model is a marketing test. If it takes off, they have solid proof for a low-end segment. Eventually it could be updated to 13 & 15 inch models with Nvidia graphics and middling processors. Who says the same Aluminum frame couldn't be molded from composite? Also the new design took away 60% of the parts and probably simplified the construction greatly. Once the process is worked out and the price comes down that's bound to save money vs other laptops.
I do think they made some missteps though, not having a matte screen option for the MacBook Pro and leaving Firewire 800 off the MacBook are decisions they will eventually have to rethink (January revision?).
Seems like alot of semantics. Of course Apple compromises on "quality". Everyone does. What Gruber was getting at, was that Apple's tolerance for compromise was far from the norm in the computer industry.
"Wildly Popular" must be another one of those elastic terms.
Yes, it's a popular topic in tech-geek circles and in the tech-geek press, but Asus has yet to sell 800,000 units TOTAL.
That's fewer sales than the Zune!
I guess if the EEE PC is "wildly popular" then the Zune must be a blockbuster... either that or you just need some perspective.
Whatever past flaws Macbooks may have had regarding durability, it seems to me that Apple's radically new Unibody design will likely improve the situation.
No longer is there plastic to crack, peel, or yellow, or a thin aluminum shell to dent, flex, or become misaligned.
I'm not saying the new Macbooks will survive a drop to concrete, but I suspect they will hold up nicely to average wear and tear.
My Mercedes Benz gets dirty, it gets finger prints on the windows, collects dust everywhere, the tires wear out, and the oil needs changing regularly. They even recall them from time to time. But it's still a Mercedes, and as such, is one of the most beautiful cars on the road and a complete joy to drive. I would never consider buying a Toyota Camry in a million years simply because my Mercedes gets dirty or is recalled for some minor issue.
With that said, doesn't the Acer get dirty, crack, run slow, and simply provide an inferior user experience?...... Yes it does. The Acer is nothing more than a cheap toaster that happens to run the worst OS on the planet. Where is the "value" in that?
Nothing in this world is perfect, and expecting such is unreasonable for anyone. But I am always willing to pay a premium for a superior user experience even if I can't use it in a hermetically sealed room.