Highlights from the Apple notebook event
- US retail market share grows from single digits to 17.6%
- From 15 - almost 50% penetration at Universities
As Jobs begin talking about notebooks, Jonathan Ive (SVP Design) comes out to discuss the previous MBP design and the new "Brick" fabrication technique where they start with a 2.5 pound block of aluminum whittle it down to around a quarter of a pound. Ive calls them "uni-body" enclosures.
"We discovered if we started with a thick piece of aluminum we could make a lighter and stronger part. So we make it from a solid piece of aluminum."
Steve comes back to discuss Nvidia and their new NVIDIA GeForce 9400M GPU.
- Chipset and GPU on one die
- 70% of the die area is the GPU
- 16 parallel graphics cores
- 54 Gigaflops of performance
- up to 5 times faster than Intel integrated graphics
New Multi-touch glass trackpad
- 39% larger area
- Multi-touch for gestures
- Glass surface
- Entire trackpad is the button
- Multi-button via software
- Four-finger gestures
- Precision aluminum body
- LED-backlit display
- Nvidia GeForce 9400M GPU
- Multi-touch glass trackpad
- Mini Display Connector port
- Environmentally responsible
- Backlit keyboard
- Magnetic latch
Nvidia GPUs:
- GeForce 9400M - Integrated, 5 hours battery life
- GeForce 9600M GT - 256/512MB GDDR3, 32 cores 4 hours battery life
Slots & Ports:
- Slot loading super drive on right (No Blu-Ray)
- Magsafe connector
- Ethernet
- Firewire 800
- Dual USB
- Mini Display Connector port
- Expresscard 34
- Battery indicator is now on the side
Jobs on the Mini Display Connector port:
So let's get back to this mini display port -- we can drive any display we could before, but at a fraction of the size -- we're building this into everything we make.
SSD
This is the first MBP that Apple will offer SSD on, and you can access the drives from underneath the battery.
One more thing...
- Precision aluminum unibody enclosure
- LED backlit display
- Faster Nvidia graphics
- Multi-touch glass trackpad
- Mini Display Port connector
- Environmentally responsible
- Shipping today hits stores tomorrow
MacBook US$1,299:
- 13.3-inch LED-backlit display
- 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / 3MB L2
- 2 GB 1066MHz DDR3 memory
- Nvidia GeForce 9400M
- 160GB HDD
- Slot-loading SuperDrive
MacBook US$1,599:
- 13.3-inch LED-backlit display
- 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / 3MB L2
- 2 GB 1066MHz DDR3 memory
- Nvidia GeForce 9400M
- 250GB HDD
- Slot-loading SuperDrive
- Backlit keyboard
Upgrades and Accessories:
- 4GB DDR3 memory
- 320GB 5400RPM HDD (what? no 500GB?)
- 128GB SSD
- DVI, Dual-DVI and VGA adapters
Q&A sessions with Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller and Tim Cook:
- No matte finish for the display - BIG bummer!
- Apple is the first taking the new Nvidia GPU to market, but it's not an exclusive.
- Q: Why no HDMI? A: Steve: HDMI is limited in resolution. Phil: for typical computer use, display port is the connector of the future.
- Steve: "Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It's great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace."
- 17-inch MBP being refreshed today as well.
- Q: Glossy screens?
- A: Steve: We're going all glass -- we won't offer another version. Phil: You offset the reflection by the brightness, and consumers love it. One of the great things about a notebook is you can turn it however you want! (I think that I'm going to puke)
- Q: netbook? A: Steve: In terms of netbooks, that's a nascent market that's just getting started.
- Q: touchscreens? A: Steve: so far it hasn't made a lot of sense to us.
(Photos: Engadget)