I was reading an article on Macworld UK this morning about the flood of Ultrabooks being released at CES this year and how Apple would respond. The answer is very simple — they won’t.
According to the article, Ultrabooks are “lightweight notebooks that rely on solid-state storage (SSD) in lieu of a traditional platter-based hard disk drive and forgo an optical drive.”
In other words, it’s a MacBook Air.
Why would Apple need to respond to its competitors releasing a lightweight notebook to compete with one of its existing computers? Apple is the company that started the category, much the same as it started the modern version of MP3 players with the iPod, the modern smartphone with the iPhone, and the modern tablet with the iPad.
Would anyone expect Apple to respond to a new tablet copying the iPad? No.
The difference between Apple and its competition is simple. Apple takes a concept, improves it and releases a product that consumers understand and want to purchase.
Apple’s competition sees its success with said product and copies it.
There will be more than 75 Ultrabook models released at CES this year and they are all in response to the MacBook Air. Yet another product category that Apple is leading.
Interesting that the analyst quoted in the Macworld UK article suggests that Apple should be concerned that PC manufactures will offer real competition in the ‘ultrabook’ market, and that Apple should counter this by adding;
“more functionality, more features, higher resolution screens, faster processors and more ports” to the MacBook Air”
but then adds that;
“Frankly, it’s tough to see how Apple can make the Air all that much better,”
He is in effect suggesting that Apple should make the MacBook Air ‘better’ in case the competition can compete with them. Analysts have predicted the same thing in the table and smartphone markets for the last five years, and yet Apple seem to be getting along fine without heeding this advice.
Which begs the really important question, where can I sign up to be a analyst?
You already are. Just find a platform to post and people to complain about what you write.
Apple will continue to improve its Macbook line (including the Air) as they have with all their products. Except these so called analysts will frame these improvements as “Apple responding to competitive pressure from Ultrabooks.”
If Apple improved things in response to competition only, then iPods would’ve never become thinner, better, etc. year after year where there was no competition worth mentioning.
One last point: I recall how Apple was ridiculed when they released the first Air in 2008. The competition waited for Apple to spend millions (or billions) to continually improve that design, to make it finally a breakout hit and then they just started their copiers.
They are like leaches just sitting around waiting to see what Apple does next and then rip it off. I guess it would be ok if they left it at that. But no, then they have the gall to go about bad mouthing Apple “as the Big Brother” or “doesn’t innovate, just sues”, “Close ecosystem”, “Hipsters”, etc. etc. Rinse, repeat.
Truly sad (and evil) if you ask me.
75 ultrabook models? Holy crap. How could a consumer choose a product from a sea of ultrabooks if, for some reason, they weren’t going to get a Macbook Air? Too many options.
There will be more than 75 ultrabook modelss released? Or announced?
The key is,”The difference between Apple and its competition is simple. Apple takes a concept, improves it and releases a product that consumers understand and want to purchase.Apple’s competition sees its success with said product and copies it.” you always be ahead if you have a creative team who likes to sharpen the cutting edge.( DON’T COMPETE CREATE) it’s an offensive strategy.
Wow. 75 models. I’d love to line them all up and have a judge ask each lawyer representing the manufacturers to identify theirs.
Did this sort of thing happen as blatantly in previous decades with, say, household appliances?
Apple is just as evil with their ridiculous lawsuits. Apple suing Samsung over their tablet and phone designs is comparable to Sony suing Toshiba because their TV’s look alike, or Ford suing all other car manufacturers because Ford made cars first, and all cars are based off Ford’s invention. Apple also does not have a “clean slate” for innovation either. Their operating system is based heavily on Unix. Does Apple pay any rights to the creators of Unix? No, the software is under open license, but the way Apple talks, you would think they thought it all up on their own. And they have the nerve to call all the other manufacturer’s “evil” for stealing and copying their ideas.
What a load of hooey. Apple sues people because they have to protect their IP. Sometimes they win and sometimes they lose, and that is the nature of the patent business until something changes in the laws. Where were all these cries about evil when Apple was the one (and still is) being sued left and right? You anti-Apple lawsuit folks have a double standard.
The UNIX licensing stuff is also b.s. According to the FreeBSD license, anything based directly on it needs to be open as well, and Apple does give the Darwin kernel out freely just as the license requires. If the FreeBSD people wanted money, they would have written that into their licensing.
And actually, I might even be wrong about that. According to their website and a list of FreeBSD ports, there are restrictions allowed on redistribution of the projects that bild on the FreeBSD base. http://www.freebsd.org/copyright/
“more functionality, more features, higher resolution screens, faster processors”
And they will.
But NOT because they are responding to the Ultrabooks.
they will do it because that’s what Apple always does with their products
Dumb Question possibly: Isn’t there a big difference between an Unltrabook and MacAir, which is that they are convertible? Or is that not what an Ultra is? Being able to turn the laptop into a tablet is very versatile. Apple doesn’t have one right? Thanks
FreeBSD’s license is highly permissive and does not require source code to be “given back” in return. That is one of the reasons why it is used by Apple, Sony, and others.
It is true that some parts of the userland might be based on more restrictive licenses, but most of those parts are being phased out of the OS (especially GNU tools).
yes, the ultrabooks, have dual processors and you can detach the entire screen and use it as basically a 13″ ipad running a full o/s of windows 8. apple is really behind in technology, always are. I actually prefer OSX slightly, but their technology is soooo limiting to me. phones are too small, ipads too locked down, no combo laptop/tablets, desktops are outrageous prices and hard to customize…