Now that the announcement has been made and we all know what these machines offer there has been the usual wave of reactions, both positive and negative. I think that there are a number of things that should be clarified with the disappointment evoked by various folks in the Mac and IT blogosphere.
Matte or glossy
The first one is the lack of a matte screen option. Personally, I’m more comfortable with a matte screen, but the latest generation of LED backlighting appears to be capable of pushing enough lumens such that even in bright environments, the screen is still more than readable. I’m not too concerned about that part.
I’m more concerned about glare and reflection but again, this is usually manageable by repositioning the screen.
For the folks that are concerned about color accuracy I think that argument needs to be taken with a big grain of salt. Anyone who’s truly serious about this works with a color calibrated screen in a work environment that takes this requirement into account. Controlled lighting, up to and including screen shades etc. You’re never going to get color accuracy on a notebook screen in multiple environments with varying types of lighting.
I’m sorry to see this option go away, but there’s already a flourishing market in anti-glare films for all sorts of monitors and with the more powerful LED backlighting, the reduction in luminosity should be manageable.
Where’d my Firewire go?
This is the one thing that I will miss the most. Now, remember that it’s only the MacBook that no longer has a Firewire port - the Pro model comes with a Firewire 800 port that’s backwards compatible to the 400 standard.
It’s worth spending a quick moment here to identify the market segments that Apple is targeting with each model. The MacBook is their entry level machine aimed at the affluent1 mass market. In this market, USB is the predominant interconnection protocol. You have to look hard to find portable disks with a Firewire interface, and the cost of the controller chip and licencing is such that these drives are notably more expensive than the equivalent USB models.
Most of the blogosphere pundits are, at the very least, prosumers. They don’t buy entry level models and we’re hoping to have their cake and eat it too with a cheap MacBook Pro.
Those that are complaining that Firewire is the preferred video transfer protocol are correct - in the professional and prosumer marketplace. But in the general consumer space, USB is making massive inroads with cameras like the Flip Mino.
What will be sorely missed is the Firewire target mode. But I suspect that this loss will be mitigated by the ease of access to the hard disk. Swapping a hard disk is now the work of opening a latch and unscrewing one screw. Well within the skills of almost anyone. Popping the drive into a cheap external USB box doesn’t demand any huge technical skills either. I will miss the Firewire target mode more for troubleshooting - without removing the drive, I can plug the machine into another and run my disk utilities against it.
DisplayPort vs. HDMI
Another recurring point is the lack of direct HDMI. Apple is doing what they always do and pushing the newest, most open standard technologies out into the marketplace. HDMI has a number of technical limitations that make it less than ideal for offering a maximum of flexibility to a maximum of users with varying requirements. Currently, the DisplayPort can be used with a direct connection, or a DVI or VGA adaptor, and it’s easy enough to connect DVI to HDMI2. To the best of my knowledge there are no portables on the market that offer onboard HDMI out - there are a few desktop motherboards that do, but nothing in the portable market.
I’m of mixed feelings on the fact that you no longer get all of the adaptors out of the box, but this reflects the reality of usage. The majority of users connect their portable to one screen via one technology and will buy the appropriate adaptor. It’s the road warriors like me that use VGA with projectors on client sites and DVI at the office who get the worst deal. On the other hand, I have a drawer full of adaptors from all of my old machines that I’ve never used.
Summary
I think Apple has a fairly good idea of the markets they’re targeting and needed to find a way to differentiate the two models. I also know that every time you send a crash report back to Apple it includes the System Profiler dump which includes a list of everything that’s connected. I suspect that they have some some statistical analysis on this information, plus user interviews to determine that the majority of current MacBook owners use few, if any Firewire based peripherals.
It’s only people like me who have a foot in both the “personal consumer on a budget” and “demanding power user” camps that are now forced to make a decision on just how much that additional port and screen real estate mean to me.
Recently, I’ve been evaluating how I use my current MacBook Pro, and I’ve discovered that for mobile use, I only use USB peripherals3. Now I have the choice between a MacBook Air and a MacBook for a powerful, lightweight computer.
My desktop machines however, have multiple daisy chained firewire drives and there I do want and need the additional performance and flexibility.
A MacBook for the road, coupled with an iMac or Mac Pro seems to be the ideal way to go right now.
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It’s worth recapping the points made by Tim Cook regarding where Apple positions itself in the market. They don’t aim at the ultra cheap bottom scrapers.↑
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Although I’m told there is some minor signal degradation.↑
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I currently don’t do any video outside of the odd recording with the built-in iSight. I’d probably feel this issue more if I had a SONY camcorder with Firewire.↑