Apple Discontinues the $999 White MacBook

woo the changed from a notebook u could sorta upgrade (HDD & ram) to one you cant do shit with.

"However, if you were looking for a 13-inch notebook instead of an 11-inch, your only option now is the 13-inch MacBook Pro, which retails for $1,299."

That's not really true. There are lots of options if you are happy to look at other brands and OS.

So the entry-level is a grand? Holy hell! That's like buying your first car, but it has to be a new BMW.
(Ugh, I just compared an Apple product to a BMW. I'm going to be sick)

You should really compare them to VW or hybrid cars. For some reason, that brand and those vehicles always stand out to me as Apple users' mode of transportation. Not sure why...

for 1299 I can get a really nice Dell laptop too. At least will will come with a better warranty and service plan.

And twice the cores, DDR3 RAM, and probably double the hard drive capacity.

I just bought an HP dv7-6195us for $1140 (Sandy Bridge i7-2630QM, 8 GB of RAM, 1 TB of hard drive, AMD 6770M), and it'll do WAY more stuff than any Mac within $500 of that.

The only apple user that I know, rides Nissan x-trail.

As someone looking to buy a MacBook in the near future, this came as a disappointment. Granted, the new MacBook Air out preforms it, $999 is too much for something with such limited hdd space and no optical drive. I would have liked to see an update with an i3-23XXM or even a new AMD APU. Apple's unwillingness to provide a true entry-level notebook solution just seems selfish and greedy at this point.

Comeon haters, don't try to deny the power of unix.

People don't buy macs for the hardware. Hasn't that always been clear?
(Although I'd rather have a mac that rarely breaks to a dell laptop in which the screen, hard drive, and mother board all go bad within a couple years; personal experience).

lol so you think spending that much money to get a bad version of BSD is better than running one of the free Linux variants eh? Yep you sound like one of the usual crApple sheeple. PS: I work at a tv production studio with 50/50 Mac and PC and the Macs break WAY more than the PCs and guess what.. no onsite warranty with crApple.. take it to the Idiot Desk at the crApple store and leave it there for 2 weeks since their staff are morons and unskilled... awesome compared to the same day 4hr service I get from my PC vendors.

I really don't understand all of the Mac hate, I use both quite regularly and I don't get why it has to be one or the other.

Let's be more open mind, I like to try all OS out there including Mac OSX.

With that said, I'll be getting the 13" MBA tomorrow my first Mac

Please don't tell me it's not worth it, I've done my research.
13" of amazing screen with less than 3lbs uni-body Aluminum metal and 7 hours of battery at $1300, it's a steal. At least comparing to Vaio Z and Samsung Series 9.

There is certainly the Apple tax being applied. However, I can say from experience that Apple when they construct a laptop, uses the best materials. It was not surprising that the white macbook was discontinued as I found it to be not worth the price with its plastic construction, lower quality keyboard, lower quality hard drive, etc..
All of their Macbook Pro lines are of equal quality.
While it is beyond certain, that for the same price you can get more "muscle" from a regular PC laptop, the quality is in fact not on par with the higher priced apple product.
I've bought and deployed thousands of laptops for various places I've worked for, ranging from low end netbooks to high end workstation replacement laptops. It wasn't until one of the VP's in my company demanded a Macbook Pro I ever even gave it a second look. So when he did, we ordered up a 17" and I had to load it up with software so he could use it. Once I got past the fact it was an Apple and was something I was used to hating, I discovered that this unit was made very well. The screen was noticed first, hinge quality second, and obviously the all metal construction. All in all, I can say that to get a laptop of the same quality, you are going to spend *about* the same amount of money from PC manufacturers. So for a change, I replaced my 5 year old laptop with a new mid 2010 Macbook Pro 17 just like the one the VP demanded, and have been using it ever since.
Apple usually has the most annoying users, and they are delusional because they typically swear the products are perfect.. but I find that when looked at objectively, the line apple puts out it of a quality that justifies the price.
Does it justify for the enthusiast? probably not. Can you buy an equal quality PC? Absolutely, For about the same price, is my only point.

Compare to HP dv6/dv7 series. What you are buying is a steal my friend, except that it is a steal for Apple, not you!

Apple.com:

11-inch : 64GB
1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
processor
2GB memory
64GB flash storage1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
Ships: Within 24hrs
Free Shipping
$999.00
financing available

Sorry, but I couldn't copy the "I'm a moron!" button underneath that you click on to buy it.

One more thought for those considering a Mac:

Sure, a Mac has a nice aluminum body, "it doesn't get viruses," and its more secure because it has double firewalls {hehe, a guy at the apple store told me that ;-) }. Macbook Air has the highest margin of all the Macbook line, so naturally they would release it as an entry level. Google "Macbook Air Margin" and look at all the articles.

The hardware is just silly. My little cousin's Leap-Pad has more hardware than that (kidding).

Justifying buying an Apple because of the aluminum body is like justifying why you are dating a girl with 38 DD and 0.7 hip-to-waist ratio but she can only read at the same level as a 3rd grader.

Paying a thousand dollars plus for minimal hardware and thinking you're coming out on top is like going into a billion dollar casino hotel and thinking you are gonna walk out with some cash. Apple is one of the most profitable companies on the planet (if not the most).

In case no one knew: Microsoft bailed out Apple from near collapse in 1997 with a $150 Million fund (http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/08/opinion/the-apple-of-microsoft-s-eye.html).

I'd be willing to bet that most of the investors in Apple are from Microsoft anyway so they don't really care which platform you buy. In the end we're all just pawns in the game so the dichotomy that has been created is pointless. Get the most for your hard earned money. With Apple, it just isn't going to happen.

Good analogy. You might look like a player walking in to a party with that girl, but the second she opens her mouth, everyone knows what your game is. 10-years from now, she's on her third boob job, has so much collagen and botox injected into her face taht she looks like a burn victim, and no one envies you anymore.

Same with an Apple. Sure, you may think you look cool with that fancy apple logo and all-aluminum design, typing away on your screenplay at the local starbucks, but everyone knows how much you paid and how little you actually get out of it, you aren't fooling anyone. 2 years from now, you can't unplug it from the wall because the non-user-replaceable battery is dead, and you really wish you had sprung for the 4GB of memory instead of the 2GB, and 128GB SDD instead of 64GB, but those are not replaceable either.

I am a mac user and not only do i find the build quality of my MBP a lot higher than any other PC laptop i have had, I also find that the OS is at a much higher standard than anything microsoft have made with windows.

To clarify, I have a 13in MBP and an Acer Aspire 6920G.

The acer has never worked properly. It has always had serious hardware and OS software issues since day one. I have never been able to trust it to work for what i needed it to do (lots of design work).

I paid £800 for it, and it was honestly the biggest waste of money i think i will ever experience. Utter garbage. On paper it is amazing though. It has 2xmore HDD, RAM and "cool features" than my mac, but at least my mac works properly and is fit for purpose.

Every member of my family has owned (and binned) numerous dell computers for multiple hardware and software meltdowns. They are garbage.

I can run 10 applications simultaneously and my mac never breaks a sweat. If i open 3 programs on my acer, all hell breaks loose and mr gates falls to his knees (so to speak...yes i know he doesnt own microsoft anymore btw...its called "having a sense of humour"...or something along those lines...)

I know macs are pricier than pcs, but you pay for what you get. That it a fact. You can call me a "mac fag" or a "moron" as much as you like, but i'd rather line the pockets of mr jobs for a product which actually works, as opposed to lining the pockets of mr dell-computers for a product which really doesnt.

Thousand dollar for a 11.6 inches laptop... Apple makes me laugh at them ^^

i get where you are coming from, build quality on macs... are better than many laptops (no the pc side, and you can pay for really nice cased or realy cheap ones, its your choice)

but lets look at it this way.

does it matter if the body of the laptop gets scratched?
is the screen THAT much better? this is important for mulitmedia, but not so much for getting s*** done

in my experiance, laptops can "feel" like they are lower quality, but it comes down to do they preform lesser than others? and really, unless the screen is crap, or you bought something that is 500$ and you know the parts are worth 700 and it wasn't a sale, you dont get many problems with pc style laptops.

and lets be honest here. if you are dropping a laptop from a hight great enough were the aluminium body REALLY makes a difference, the internals are f***ed anyway (screen, hdd, and possibly a ssd though they are more resistant to falls)

wow, acer and dell, two of the worst computer companies, and you are supriesd that the mac is better?

i have a... not sure what the laptop is... and i have 8 windows of firefox running on it with 200tabs between them all, chrome with 6 tabs opera with 20, alog with a 1080p video playing to the right hand side (its nto playing at 1920x1080, closer to 535x301), all the while playing terraria. ram is almost all used, processor and its 3 cores are used fairly well, but its still running with no problem.

its all about the brand you get with a laptop. this one was 600$ christmas amd build.
dell doesnt get good till you are in the 2000$ range, but with laptops 1500+ and they are ok out of the box. acer has so many problems its funny how they are still in business.

Good analogy. You might look like a player walking in to a party with that girl, but the second she opens her mouth, everyone knows what your game is. 10-years from now, she's on her third boob job, has so much collagen and botox injected into her face taht she looks like a burn victim, and no one envies you anymore.

Same with an Apple. Sure, you may think you look cool with that fancy apple logo and all-aluminum design, typing away on your screenplay at the local starbucks, but everyone knows how much you paid and how little you actually get out of it, you aren't fooling anyone. 2 years from now, you can't unplug it from the wall because the non-user-replaceable battery is dead, and you really wish you had sprung for the 4GB of memory instead of the 2GB, and 128GB SDD instead of 64GB, but those are not replaceable either.[/quote]

FYI: Having a girl with a 0.7 Hip/Waist ratio will NOT make you look like a player.

though he does have a good point, i got both but im selling the mbp atm i do love the look and the way its made but my hp just does everything perfectly, sure the battery doesnt last as long and looks ugly but as a pc it does its job well.

Why are Apple users sooooooooooooooooooooooo dumb??????????????

Nice to hear that the iAmtoodumb crowd is getting milked all over by Mr Jobs. They deserve it.

"People don't buy macs for the hardware. Hasn't that always been clear?
(Although I'd rather have a mac that rarely breaks to a dell laptop in which the screen, hard drive, and mother board all go bad within a couple years; personal experience)."

Using Assus, I have never had that problem. As a rule, in two years time I am ready to replace my laptops and get the latest specs. I am too smart to be seen with a iGotcrappedon product.
Apple is for dumb dumb people.

So a formerly premium product (MBA) is now positioned as both an low- and high-end contender?

That's sure to cause some confusion among the less-educated crowds that buy a Mac.

Because you pay twice as much for a Mac and get half the PC. Like the operating system? Go download Ubuntu and put KDE on it. Like their desktop cases? Get yourself a Lian Li, Silverstone, or Corsair case and be happy. Oh, but I forgot that their laptops are so slim. Get out of your chair, go to Best Buy and look at a few Asus or Dell laptops and see that the 0.002" isn't worth shit. Like the hardware they use? There's something wrong with you.

That just about covers it. Absolutely NO reason whatsoever for the price, except for the Apple logo you get. And if you want to pay $500 for a logo (it lights up, OMG!), be my guest.