Dell launches purported MacBook Air killer

http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/03/17/Dell_launches_purported_MacBook_Air_killer_1.html

by snydeq • 17 years ago

6 29 17 years ago

dandelany• 17 years ago

I've seen very little evidence, based on Air sales, that it is popular enough to warrant killing.

unalone6• 17 years ago

Where do you get your sales info from? I've never seen sales numbers for the Air, and I'm curious to see what they're like.

Dell can't use this to compete with the Air. The Air's a luxury product - possibly the only real luxury laptop. It's for people who really, really, really like beautiful things that feel good, and who don't mind the fact that for that you're paying more than you would for a more powerful computer. Dell doesn't make luxury computers. I doubt they're skilled enough to make computers that work beautifully enough to deserve a luxury. Furthermore, you can't "kill" items in the luxury market.

This is more a computer whose form was influenced a lot by the Air. That's it. It's not as pretty but it's still thin, and it's a lot cheaper since chances are Dell will try to sell it to people who aren't rich.

noamsml3• 17 years ago

That's a very nice way of saying the Air is for idiots who have too much money and are more impressed by shiny stuff than by real merit.

axod• 17 years ago

Lamborghini sales are also quite small. The Macbook air is still a great piece of engineering.

LogicHoleFlaw• 17 years ago

It's all about status and marketing. The halo effect is real.

unalone6• 17 years ago

People don't like Apple for their marketing, though their marketing is pretty incredible. The best marketing they have are their actual products. People see people using Apple products, try them out, and fall in love.

Apple doesn't advertise showing people using their products. They don't bandwagon you. They don't tell you you're "cool" if you use Apple. Their competitors do, and sometimes they work. Apple never does. Their advertisements focus on their actual products, and their competitors can't do that because it only works if you make incredible products.

Can you imagine a commercial showing the Zune and nothing but the Zune? It would be horrible. So Microsoft shows people using the Zune so that you can see how cool it is.

Meanwhile, even without a commercial I can give a friend a 5-minute demonstration of cool Mac things and that friend will become a diehard Mac fan. At the program I attended 2 years ago, 12 people, none of them Mac users, spent a month using older iMacs. Within a year each person in the program had bought a Mac. It wasn't commercials. It was product love.

TweedHeads• 17 years ago

The Air is thinner, way thinner. Adamo looks more like a cheap Macbook, therefore it should compete in the lower end segment, and price, specially price.

ggruschow• 17 years ago

Depends on what you consider "thinner".. The Dell would fit in a 3mm smaller slot but won't cut cake as well.

ajju5• 17 years ago

The MacBook air is a so-so piece of hardware with a world class operating system. Dell can easily best the Air at hardware but definitely not at software (unless Apple frees Leopard)

jemmons3• 17 years ago

Looking at its size, weight, construction, rigidity, manufacturing process, backlit keyboard, magnetic power connector, DisplayPort interface, etc. I'd have to conclude that every facet of the Air represents the cutting edge in industrial design. I also must admit that, while clearly subjective, the majority of my coworkers and I find it aesthetically pleasing to look at.

I am curious, then, as to why you would rate it as "so-so" hardware. Because it doesn't have a removable battery? Seriously, what?

ajju5• 17 years ago

Mostly because every other Macbook air owner I know experiences overheating and random shutdowns multiple times a week:

http://blog.weatherby.net/2008/07/cool-air.html

http://paulstamatiou.com/2008/03/20/review-macbook-air

noamsml3• 17 years ago

Why not? Dell sells Ubuntu laptops.

ajju5• 17 years ago

I use Ubuntu myself but I think it's still a year away from my grandma being able to use it.

unalone6• 17 years ago

Ubuntu is not world-class. I think Ubuntu might be close to competing with Windows, though it still lacks a lot of basic stuff. Both Ubuntu and Windows (up to and including Windows 7) are still years away from being on the same plane as OS X. (My policy is, until I see a text editor as good as TextEdit on another operating system, I won't even consider a comparison between the two.)

laut• 17 years ago

This "killer" talk is lame. It won't kill anything.

I remember seeing the Air at the top of the laptops sales charts on the Apple.com store.

bunnyhero• 17 years ago

at 4 lbs it's too heavy to compete with the air.

Dell launches purported MacBook Air killer

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