What if Apple released an ultraportable laptop?
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Jul 20, 2007 at 6:18am
Rumors have abounded lately that Apple has an ultraportable laptop in the works and that, in unrelated speculation, the Mac mini’s days are numbered. So let’s play “What if?” (or is it “If … What?”) If Apple were to release an ultraportable, what might it be like? And if the Mac mini were discontinued, what could Apple whip up to take its place?
When it comes to stylish laptops, only Sony comes close to the high standards of Apple (though the Windows inside sorta ruins it all). The VAIO TZ laptop has been available in Japan for awhile, and has now come to the U.S. Sony describes it as a “high-performance ultraportable notebook. It packs an 11.1-inch (1366×768) LED backlit display, web cam, carbon-fiber casing, Core 2 Duo CPU (running at 1.2GHz), 1GB of RAM (which can be expanded to 2GB), 2MB of L2 cache, built-in stereo speaker, built-in monoaural microphone, ExpressCard/34 slot and integrated WWAN (via Sprint), all in a body that’s less than one inch thick and weighs 2.26 pounds.
The standard VAIO has an 160GB hard drive and a dual layer DVD super multi-drive. You can add an optional 32GB solid-state drive that is quicker, more resistant to data loss, and uses less battery power than a traditional hard drive. Or, you can skip the optical drive altogether and have both the 32GB solid state and 160GB HDD in the same machine.
Three battery options include the lightweight battery 6-hour (3-hour real world), standard battery 12-hour (6-hour real world), and enhanced battery 18-hour (9-hour real world). With an optional standard battery, the thickness is 1.17 inches and it adds 0.29 pounds, With an optional enhanced battery, the thickness is 1.67 inches and it adds 0.63 pounds.
Admittedly, the VAIO TZ laptop isn’t cheap. The basic model starts at US$2,299; if you add the optional 32GB flash-based, solid-state hard drive, you’re talking $3,000. If Apple introduced such a critter, I’d expect pricing to be similar. However, I expect a “MacBook mini” (which would be a great name) to have a 32GB solid-state drive, alongside a standard hard drive, as a standard feature. I also think the optical drive would be a separate component.
Of course, that’s assuming Apple even has plans for a MacBook mini. And only Steve Jobs and his inner sanctum know for sure. Monday we’ll play some more “What if?” and ask “If the Mac mini were discontinued, what could Apple whip up to take its place?”
rjschwarz Says:
iPhone fills the ultraportable slot. Future iPhones will expand upwards in functionality but you won’t see an entirely new device. the pad or ultraportable has been the vision of tech pundits for some time but I still don’t see a whole lot of people screaming for such a thing.
If the mini goes away it will be because some of its functionality merged into the AppleTV and Apple didn’t want the mini stealing sales from the high end any longer.
Of course Im just guessing.
Posted on July 20, 2007
Ken Says:
I used IBM’s 3 pound ultra before switching to Macs and I loved the form factor. I believe it would be a winner for Apple, but probably won’t have the same sales as the other notebooks simply because of price.
An ultra would be a MBP because of the costs involved. If Apple could make both the MB and MBP then I believe the MB would be a best seller on college campuses and a strong seller in the market, while the MBP version took the place of the 12” PB.
On the mini side, I believe Apple has done well with it in terms of being cheap enough for PC users looking at Macs being able to try one. It would be a shame to see that “give a Mac a try” product go, just as it’s a shame that these users don’t have a decent upgrade path if they want to keep their investments in displays, etc. Maybe a new mini plus the long discussed headless midrange Mac. One can always hope.
Posted on July 20, 2007
dick Applebaum Says:
I believe that the iPhone can/will evolve to be an ultraportable or palmtop computer. As technology advances permit, Apple could expand the dimensions to 3x5 inches and it still would fit into a shirt pocket.
I expect:
-- a more robust CPU
-- more storage
-- lighter weight
-- less power/battery consumption
-- the entire front surface as a MT display
-- full (open) OS X capability
The larger display should put to rest any doubts about the viability of a MT keyboard.
Dick
Posted on July 20, 2007
Daniel Says:
Hi..................... I would like to say to you guys can you plaese SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted on July 21, 2007
Viswakarma Says:
Daniel, please don’t join the conversation if you don’t like it!
Posted on July 21, 2007
random8r Says:
No CD? that’s odd - so what do we do if we want to boot off the install dvd/cd that came with the machine? lol.
Posted on July 23, 2007
Dick Applebaum Says:
No CD…
Not every computing device needs a DVD… The iPods, iPhone, AppleTV and the Airport devices al download/install/update their software/firmware/data over a network…
I think the one of the reasons for the iPod’s success is that you need not carry around (and filddle with) your CDs.
I would hope that same applies to an ultraportable… what ever you need is available from the Internet or another local computer on a LAN.
I can remember the uproar when SJ said that computers no longer needed floppies… proved to be right.
Posted on July 23, 2007
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
J. Scott Anderson Says:
In spite of the well covered issues with current NAND Flash memory supplies, I expect that pure flash drive portalbes will be the wave of the future…especially for ultra-portable devices. Personally, I certainly want to see them in my current full-size laptop. Yes, 200+GB of data is nice. However, with faster and faster WiFi connections no matter where I am, I prefer the speed, reduced heat, and longer batter life of pure solidstate drives.
I am currenly running on a 80GB Mac Book Pro. A pair of the 32GB fash drive would be very near to my current capacity. I rarely use my optical drive. Perferring to pass any optically stored information to my desktop for getting off the disk. I then pull the data from the desktop. So, for me, doing away with the optical drive is a fine idea and a place for more battery or flash drives.
Posted on July 19, 2007