Calling out Mr. Jobs - Apple had better deliver soon
jafoca | August 19, 2008
Apple currently holds the number 1 position when it comes to luxury laptop computer sales. It isn’t hard to see why either, the computers are almost literally seamless and the operating system works without nearly as many compromises as windows machines require. OSX has all the shine of Vista without any of the nightmares. Apple is just on top of things at them moment, with their market share “exceeding that of google” (via slashdot).
There is one looming issue however - Apple has yet to release a successor to the MacBook Pro, or even an update to the recently launched Intel Centrino 2 architecture.
The MacBook Pro lineup of laptops was last revised in February, 2008 when the whole lineup had processor upgrades to the new 45nm intel “penryn” dual core mobile processors. This was a relatively minor update with only the added bonus of increasing battery life and performance marginally.
I personally have been looking to get a new 17 inch macbook pro ever since I observed them in action at my ruby on rails training. The ruby guys seem to really like Apples and OSX for working with rails, and now that VMWare is supporting a new mode called Synergy you can run windows applications along side mac ones pretty seamlessly - which is brilliant.
The problem is that the update to Centrino 2 was looming all summer, and now that it has hit Apple still has not updated.
On the other hand… Dell has just released a new line of business laptops that have exclusive features that have gotten my attention again. The new Dell Latitude E-Series features some pretty groundbreaking technology such as Latitude ON which is going to (hopefully) shake up the laptop industry. Latitude ON is an instant on linux based operating system that uses an embedded ARM coprocessor to give users instant access to email, the internet, and more. While ASUS has been using a similar Splashtop solution in its desktops and more recently laptops, the dell technology is the first to use an additional processor to alllow for “multi - day battery life”. The dells do lag behind a bit from other standpoints, only now adopting backlit keyboards and allowing for colors to be added, but it is a major step in the right direction.
I guess Latitude ON is not quite ready for release yet, so I will be waiting to hear about how well it works. This feature, combined with new docking options, is making me even more impatient while waiting for Apple to do something with it’s powerbook line. Decisions decisions…
