Expanding Apple's Pro line of 'Books

Long ago, before Intel had stolen Apple's heart, there was a time when a certain company's line of "Pro" notebooks consisted of three model lines. These three PowerBooks were differentiated by screen size and, at the time, they were 12-inches, 15-inches, and 17-inches.

Fast forward a few years to Monday's WWDC '09 keynote, Apple surprised us all and moved the 13" aluminum MacBooks up a few notches in the product line. As we reported Monday, the 13" aluminum MacBook now has a little "Pro" attached to the end of it. Thus, the differentiating factor between the MacBook and MacBook Pro line is (again) based on building material (plastic or aluminum). With the disappearance of the ExpressCard slot from the majority of the Pro line (except the 17"), even the expandability story becomes similar across the model lines.

Some will try to tell you that Apple has muddied the waters and tarnished the "Pro" branding by re-badging the 13" aluminum MacBook as a professional model. I, however, disagree; I believe that up until yesterday, the MacBook waters were muddy and Apple has finally cleared things up. It makes perfect sense that Apple would include the 13" aluminum MacBook in the Pro line -- it fits right in with the Apple "rule of threes" -- given that there were previously three models of professional notebooks.

It has been said that one of the differentiating factors between the professional and consumer laptops was the presence of a dedicated graphics card. If you'll recall, however, the 12" PowerBook G4 actually featured an NVIDIA graphics processor with shared virtual memory from the main system. This is extremely similar to the 13" MacBook Pro and the entry-level 15" MacBook Pro. These two models also feature NVIDIA processors with shared virtual memory, although they do lack the dual graphics chip capabilities of the higher-end models.

My belief is that Apple was wrong for ever releasing the 13" aluminum 'Book as anything other than a professional model. Ever since the Intel switch heralded the death of the 12" notebook, I have longed for Apple to provide a replacement. When the unibody line of notebooks was first released, the 13" MacBook Pro of my dreams had been born. It may have been missing a few important letters at the time but Monday's WWDC keynote address rectified that problem.

As Christina so eloquently put it, "It used to make sense to differentiate between a consumer-focused laptop and a laptop aimed at professionals... Continuing to brand nearly-identical products differently doesn't make a lot of sense." I agree with her on this, which is why I believe the re-branding of the 13" MacBook is a good idea. In my opinion, the white, plastic MacBook and the aluminum MacBook falling under the same moniker was a little non-sensical. Moving the aluminum MacBook up to the Pro line was a logical step for that piece of hardware.

Further, I think the fact that there is only a single model in the MacBook family points to the possible release of a future product slotted below the current 13" MacBook. Whether that is the fabled Apple netbook or the iTablet is yet to be seen. It is simply my opinion that the single consumer product rationale in the MacBook line is not going to last.

When you're out there mulling over the question of whether Apple's professional products have any significance in their name or not consider this: it doesn't matter. That's right, at the end of the day it all boils down to choice. Whether you think Apple made the right call or not is pretty insignificant in the face of having several different options from which to choose.

Update: As noted by commenter Tom , the PowerBook G4 never used shared system memory in any model. It had a dedicated GPU and dedicated VRAM whereas the "entry-level" MacBook Pros feature only a dedicated GPU and shared RAM. It is worth pointing out, though, that the iBook G4 also featured a dedicated GPU/VRAM combo which made the iBook G4 and entry-level PowerBook G4 very similar in terms of graphics-processing power.

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Source: http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

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Analysis / Opinion Macbook Pro

Long ago, before Intel had stolen Apple's heart, there was a time when a certain company's line of "Pro" notebooks consisted of three...

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SSteve

Just got my wife's 13" MacBook Pro. Now that there's no battery compartment, there are no easily-accessed RAM or HD slots. The bottom is one big piece, no access doors. It'll be interesting to find out how hard it's going to be to put in two 4Gb cards in a couple years.

June 12 2009 at 1:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

max Walker

The 13" MBPro is the first portable computer since the great 12" Al PB G4 that combines a neat size with firewire hook up for video and 'enthusiast' level specs ie. not exactly pro but better than consumer level.

I'm still using the 12"PB G4 - but admit to being tempted to upgrade.

June 10 2009 at 4:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to max Walker's comment

drew

I to still have a 12" PB, along with a 15" MBP and an Air. All serve a distint purpose. The 12" is probably gone now with the new 13" MBP. Deleting FireWire from the MBs simply never made any sense. It was an incredibly odd move that I suspect was met with such push back it resulted in such a quick revision.

June 10 2009 at 6:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

SusanS

Dang, doesn't it figure. I just received a MB Unibody at work, the only nice one in my department budget range. If my boat anchor Dell desktop had waited another 2 months to die, I would have ordered a Pro!

June 10 2009 at 2:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

tzohar

I agree with the post. However, since I have a now-discontinued 13" unibody Macbook that I bought three months ago, I wonder if I should feel duped or not. Logically I feel like I should, since I paid the same for less features, but at the same time those features are not even remotely important to me (I'd never use Firewire or SD cards, and I personally hate the look of illuminated keyboards) and the computer inside is identical. Also there's something kinda neat about owning a product that now doesn't exist anymore but is still basically as good as the current one.

June 10 2009 at 2:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to tzohar's comment

nakago5000

This comment annoys me. If you feel "duped" because you purchased something three months ago and now it is obsolete, then you should never purchase any computer or other form of technology.

June 10 2009 at 5:00 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

latcam

I'm really disappointed that they took out the Express Card Slot on the 15. With the express card slot you could have the SD card reader and everything else that was possible with express cards.

June 10 2009 at 1:32 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to latcam's comment

Bruce

Yes, with the express card you could do everything else.... like... ummm... use an eSATA card!!!! Which is terrebly bulky and has to be removed each time you want to move the laptop. Why cant someone make a flush mount version? Or you could use the slot for an overpriced flash drive. Or a TV tuner that cost twice as much and is bigger than a USB version, or you could use it as an SD card reader.

Make a long story short expresscard really only has 1 purpose, add eSATA, but if Apple had built an eSATA port into the laptop then there is no point for expresscard. Also unless you have a 15,000RPM drive you cant hit the limits of USB/firewire with 1 drive alone, you would need to be connected to a SATA raid enclosure.

PS apple only gave you an expresscard34 slot before which was even more useless since you physically can not fit a flash card reader in it.

June 10 2009 at 3:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Stephen Lang

Re-badging the 13" unibody as a MacBook Pro doesn't tarnish the line at all, since they already lowered the bar with the 15" integrated graphics MBP.

I personally don't care they call them, they did a great job with changes to the 13" line, the 15" line not as much (which is fine).

June 10 2009 at 1:02 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

lbarry

Now, if only they would make the 7200rpm HDD an option on the 13" and drop the price of the 8GB RAM upgrade I would be very, very happy.

June 10 2009 at 12:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

contact

I'm a little confused. I have an original 1st gen white plastic MacBook now showing it's age. I always saw the major difference between the non and the Pro's being my little thing has an "integrated graphics card" which from what I read presumed wasn't the greatest thing in the world - certainly not the best for games for example, and the Pro's had something spiffier. Is the new 13" Pro got power in that department or still not?

June 10 2009 at 12:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to contact's comment

contact

I mean; I read the graphics card info above I just didn't really understand it as I don't know which referred to is the better.

June 10 2009 at 12:53 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mr kitty

The integrated Intel video solution is crap. It has no dedicated Graphics Processing Unit (using the CPU instead) or Video RAM (uses the system's RAM instead).

The currently shipping MacBooks all have Nvidia chipsets, which, while they still share system RAM, have dedicated GPUs, which will allow them to take advantage of OpenCL in Snow Leopard.

Video-wise the 13" MacBook & (now) 13" MacBook Pro are identical. The difference being the higher gamut display in the pro model.

June 10 2009 at 1:43 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Eric

How many people griped that they needed to spend $2k to get a 15" screen.... the new low end 15" will probably be a easy sell. If I had to fork over my own money that's probably the model I would go for.

I do believe that the new freedom for the MacBook line might yield some interesting developments down the road; I half expected them to rebrand the plastic unit "MacBook Classic" like the iPods.

June 10 2009 at 12:25 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Eric's comment

Nathan Sweeney

I was one who thought it dumb for Apple to make the entry price to a 15" model $2K, 15" being the sweet spot of the market and I would imagine a majority of all notebook/laptops (PC and Mac) sold are of the 15" class.

I still think the price is a bit high at $1699, $1499 15" with the 9400m would hit that magical price point where it's "under $1500" just as the iPhone 3G now has the magical "Under $100" ($99) price point.

The 13" MBP is a good deal now, cheaper with a better screen, better battery, and standard backlit keyboard. I do wish 4 GB of RAM was standard, along with a 250 GB hd instead of the 2 GB / 160 GB.

If I hadn't purchased a 15" HP notebook less than a year ago, I'd probably have one on the way right now. I may even try to sell that notebook and my 20" AluiMac and replace my desktop/notebook arrangement with the mid 15" MBP for $1849 with discount and the bluetooth keyboard and mouse and a nice 20"+ monitor for my desk.

What do you think a 6 month old HP ($800 new) and a 2.4 GHz C2D 20" iMac would bring? Plus I could sell the free iTouch, if I could get $1000 for all that, I'd bite and add it to the cart with my iPhone 3G S I will be buying to replace my original 2G iPhone.

June 10 2009 at 5:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Chromedevil

Yes, the PowerBook had dedicated VRAM; I don't know where or why you made up that bit about shared video ram.

BUT, so did the iBook. It had a ATI card. It was just less powerful.

Look the bottom line is that "integrated" vs "discrete" doesn't mean anything. To the end user, the video cards are all integrated... it's not like you can pull the cards out and swap them.

What does mean something is performance. The only debate is whether the Nvidia 9400M delivers enough performance to warrant a Pro, designation. At a price point of $1,100 and only having to push around 1280x800 resolution, I'd say yes. Plus you get all the same I/O, design, build and other features of the Pro line.

Right now the Pro line means build quality, quality of parts, and I/O. The price differences mean more computational power. But the 9400M as a baseline of the Pro moniker seems apt. For 2D work, the 9400M runs at about 80% of the "discrete" card in the last generation non-unibody MBP. So the 9400M is a pretty good chip.

The lineup makes sense to me.

And finally, "Pro" is just marketing. You can be a pro artist and just use an iPhone; or you can be a rich kid and get paid for nothing and buy a 17 MBP. It isn't like you have to be in some sort of union to buy a Pro machine.

The bottom line is today you get more computing for less price than you did four days ago. That will always be the case, whether Apple names the computers Pros or not.