No, this isn’t going to be another blog post talking about the latest product Apple has recently launched. Ok, I lied, maybe it is. Last Wednesday, October 20, 2010, at their keynote presentation Apple announced their next generation models for the Macbook Air. At only 0.68 inch at its thickest point, 2.3-2.9 pounds depending on the model, and priced starting at $999, Steve Jobs referred to it as “the future of notebooks.” Well, for others, that “future” was six years ago. Yeah you read right, the number 6. You see, in 2004 Sony released a laptop that had, for it’s time, really great specifications. It was 0.84 at its thickest point and only had a 10.4 inch display, but it was only 1.85 pounds. Although it was amazingly thin for its time, it did not really receive the same amount of “awe” that this year’s Macbook Air did. The main difference? Sony’s Vaio x505 was priced at $3000, compared to Apple’s Macbook Air price of $999, around a third of the price.
But then again that was 2006; laptops have gotten considerably cheaper since then. Now $999 is still a lot of money in my opinion, but why does Apple succeed where certain companies don’t? Well, besides their price being considerably “low” (*cough), it’s because of the brand name they have built for themselves. Apple has built not only a name, but a culture that when people see their products, they know it was made by Apple. It helps that their devices are all consistently designed too, albeit being overpriced. In the end, Sony wasn’t able to offer their Vaio X505 at a competitive price back then, while Apple has with the Macbook Air today, using its simply designed products, brand name, and reputation to keep on fueling its fire.
Click on the image below to read the article I referred to:
Here’s a summary of Apple’s keynote presentation on October 20, 2010.
Want to learn more about the new Macbook Air?
