[kwill]

Why doesn't Apple include 8 processors and 16GB of RAM in the MacBooks with say, 18 hours of battery life -- when maxing out all processor cores -- for under $1000? I am surprised there aren't at least 4 cores in the Mac mini. These low-end machines are so underpowered.

[Moof_in_Charge]

Yawn ? Do you always start to belittle people who bother to refute your statements or was that a slip-up?
I have heard this from 99% of the people who envy the black but fight themselves over the price difference. People who must have the black see a value in it, whatever that value is and whatever it is worth is not up to you or me to decide. It's what the market is willing to pay for and in this case that's the price difference between the white and the black. So to callously label it a "tax" is a disservice to anyone who sees value in the product's aesthetics.. and yes it does count, that's why some people pluck down $150 to buy a pair of designer jeans instead of a $30 pair of Levis.
The point is, you have an option to buy the black, an option that was not available to you previously. That merits a price difference regardless of what you think. Something that seems to be working itself on to the iPod line and I applaud it. Apple should charge more for products that have more appeal. Exclusivity is an attribute and in a supply/demand market, attributes garner higher prices. Get used to it!

[kyle988]

Solid update. All models now with 4MB L2 cache. Thats 8x the 512KB cache of the G4 iBook im typing on,here is a question:
Which is faster the GMA950 or the Mobile Radeon 9550 in my iBook?

[PSM]

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Dang. I was hoping for an update to the MacBook Pro. I'm ready to buy.
Hmm...Well, I will give myself a one-week window. If no update is announced, then I need to move ahead and get my new 17".

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If you can wait a week, why not wait until WWDC on June 11, as that's the most obvious date for a major announcement? Unless you have a concrete reason you can't wait any longer, it's well worth a few more weeks. I'm leaving for my summer job on 5/28, and of course it would be easier to take a new MBP with me rather than lug my PB and then have to switch machines mid-job and lug both back home. But there's no way I'm buying anything until I see what comes out at WWDC. Your needs may be different, but I'm willing to greatly inconvenience myself by waiting a few more weeks to ensure that the machine I'll be using for years is the best I can get.

[d00d]

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I have heard this from 99% of the people who envy the black but fight themselves over the price difference. People who must have the black see a value in it, whatever that value is and whatever it is worth is not up to you or me to decide. It's what the market is willing to pay for and in this case that's the price difference between the white and the black.

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It is not up to us to decide? Sure it is. We're the market. I'm voting with my pocketbook. I'm saying this is one of the reasons I'm flat out not buying a MacBook.

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So to callously label it a "tax" is a disservice to anyone who sees value in the product's aesthetics.. and yes it does count, that's why some people pluck down $150 to buy a pair of designer jeans instead of a $30 pair of Levis.

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"Callously label it a 'tax'". I'm not sure what you're problem with calling it a tax is. It's a monetary burden associated with a color.

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The point is, you have an option to buy the black, an option that was not available to you previously.

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And prior to that, there were color options that were taken away. What's your point?

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That merits a price difference regardless of what you think.

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Why? So far, other than the fact that Apple can charge more for it, you haven't explained why they should. Shouldn't they charge more for things like iLife, or price Macs themselves less aggressively by that logic?

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Something that seems to be working itself on to the iPod line and I applaud it. Apple should charge more for products that have more appeal. Exclusivity is an attribute and in a supply/demand market, attributes garner higher prices. Get used to it!

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Nah. You get used it. You pay for it. I'll wait until Apple offers me a value proposition that makes sense to me. I'm certainly not going to support this policy by giving them money.
Here's the bottom line. The black color has an extra cost associated with it that's based solely in aesthetics (that, oh noes, I like to call a tax). I think that's a poor policy (I'm not alone by any stretch of the imagination). I'm not going to support it monetarily. I really wish more people would treat it this way. If they did, color would be a free option like the matte/glossy screens on the MBP.

[sandbagger]

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I'll wait until Apple offers me a value proposition that makes sense to me. I'm certainly not going to support this policy by giving them money.

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Bingo! Welcome to a real-life lesson in market economics. If enough people join you in that wait then the market will change. If they don't, it won't. And as frustrating as it may be at times, that's how the market SHOULD work.
btw - there has been an assumption all along that the COST for the black case is the same as white. But is it? (no, I don't think it's $100 more)

[robco]

I checked the Apple Store and the black iPods cost just as much as the white iPods. Even the 8GB nano comes in black and red and they cost more because they have twice the capacity.

[bigpics]

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According to what I've read, the new chips are both better and cheaper than the old, so unless Apple's using older chips dumped by Intel at fire sale prices, they're back to playing their old games with us. They're crippling their low end to push more ... Macbook Pros out the door. Everyone else will have less-expensive machines with Santa Rosa but not Apple.

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I think Apple made the right move here they need to hold the line on price. Had they Santa Rosa equipped their low-end machines, theyd overrun their price targets for sure and cannibalize sales from the Mac Book Pro.

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Cannabalize, shamanabilize: this is the old Apple gaming their loyal customers. The new Apple at least for about 15 minutes seemed to realize that their target market is all computer users, and that they should add as much power to every segment they were in and let the market decide how many of which machines sold to whomever. "Old Apple" felt its customers were all die hard Mac fans and they could do as they wished to them to maintain the margins on their shrinking market share.
That attitude towards customers is exemplified in the post below, where the poster pretty much defines choosing any non-Apple solution for anything as a form of some kind of sacrilege.
I'll probably get a Mac no matter what, but I don't recommend them to all my friends who trust my tech expertise (and know I know their budgets) -- when I can see that someone can solve their mobile computing needs for less than the cost of a MacBook. And will probably continue to have a Win Machine (at least a virtual one) just to be conversant in the major computing platforms.

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I was planning on upgrading, but now I guess I'll either wait or consider a Windows laptop.

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You maybe a PC switcher because no true Mac User will ever consider a Windows machine over a Mac OS X one.

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And all of them will love the perfection of the baby Steve whom all know can never do any wrong....

[MacGeek1955]

I'm sure the Core2Duo iMacs have decent graphics cards. The only iMac with the Intel integrated graphics is the really low priced Student model which is not available to the public. The Mac Mini has integrated graphics, but iMacs have pretty good graphics, not great by gaming junkie standards but even high end Mac Pro cards would be kind of average for those people.

[bjewett]

OK, I'm pretty disappointed Apple stuck with the 950. I am glad they at least have 1GB memory to limit that hit... but the X3000 would have been preferred..
So my question to the all-knowing audience is: forget games (have a desktop Mac for that) -- what about video import (ie running FCP or FCE or ScopeBox to import / monitor camera input, and/or multi-channel audio import) with the new MacBooks? This is a very different issue from 3D graphics.
Is the 950 even an issue [well, driving the waveform/vectorscope displays may be], or is that (5400 rpm $%&!) disk and bus speed more important?
Out in left field,
Brian

[Dan Frakes]

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I checked the Apple Store and the black iPods cost just as much as the white iPods. Even the 8GB nano comes in black and red and they cost more because they have twice the capacity.

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Keep in mind that the black iPods are made of identical material to the white (in the case of 5G) and other-color (in the case of the nano) models. That's not the case with the black MacBook, which uses a different case material than the white model.
That said, like sandbagger, I doubt the black MacBook case costs $100+ more to manufacture than the white one /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[steve333]

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To be fair it's $200 for black paint AND a 160 GB HD. Since Apple charges $100 to increase the HD from 120 to 160 GB, it's technically a $100 premium for black paint. Unfortunately, if memory serves me correctly, black paint was only $50 above the HD price differential on the previous MacBook... so this represents a step backward for Apple's black paint pricing.

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According to Apple's web site, upgrading the $1299 white MacBook from 120 to 160 GB HD costs $75. So the black paint is actually a $125 premium.
For the price premium, the black MacBook should have included 2 GB memory standard.

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And how about a 14 inch screen? I find the 13 inch to be too small.

[MacGeek1955]

Why complain about Mac Mini? If they haven't upgraded much it means your old sytem has better value. Nothing is more irritating than spending a bundle on a machine and then finding out that some newer better computer has just come out. An example is when I bought my Quadra and 3 weeks later Apple came out with Power Macs for the same price. The guys who got really burned were the ones who bought the 2FX for about 10 Gs and faster cheaper Quadras replaced them for half the price.

[LinuxMacGeek]

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However Apple's continued use of the integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics chip in the MacBooks, is at the point of being an embarrassment.

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I agree. I remember that when Apple released the first (G4) Mac Minis, they said how much better the Mac Mini was than low end PCs that had integrated graphics.