For a product, MacBook 2016 could be truly definitive. Perhaps reason why Apple has dropped all added monikers - shedding the Airs and the Pros - and settled with but plain MacBook name. Heralding a totally different product, one many may think of as a hybrid but is actually a new product altogether.
It was just early this year in March that the Cupertino-based company re-launched the MacBook as the new MacBook - to serve an emerging market that longs for the portability of an iPad but loathes its limited computing prowess. The end product: tablet laptop.
And never wanting to pass on a lucrative endeavor, the competition is quick to fill this growing market. During the recent IDF Event in Zhenzhen, China, one Intel top executive named Skaugen unveiled the new ASUS Chi notebook hybrid. By far, however, this ASUS is going to trump the MacBook in weight class. It's a cool 1.58 pounds - many times lighter than the MacBook.
However, ASUS is quick to rebut the data as according to the company their ASUS Chi notebook weighs 3.1 pounds.
Yes, it is in this scenario that a new MacBook was born as re-launched in 2015. However, this emerging market could see what could be a new product altogether. At the outset, it may look like a hybrid but actually it's a game changer, a totally different product born of the needs of the consumer. Just as PC's are a totally different product from the large mainframe supercomputers that preceded it.
If there's one thing the current MacBook could give us is it may lend us a clue as to what kind of product MacBook 2016 will be. Given that this market is certainly growing by leaps and bounds.
So first stop. Ultraportability. With its 13-inch, 2.03 pounds weight current MacBook is already a true head-turner. However, recent trends could make ultra portability in the MacBook 2016 even more stunning.
As one pundit reported lately about MacBook 2015: "Yet in some ways it isn't a laptop. At least, it is not a traditional laptop. And despite appearances the MacBook isn't a replacement or an alternative to the MacBook Air.
The MacBook sits between the MacBook Air and an upscale iPad tricked out with a Bluetooth keyboard and running OS X."
Further, he emphasized the ease with which he is able to utilize the keyboard - especially empowered with the taptic technology that Apple has introduced.
Next stop. Greater computing power.
Again, Intel's Skaugen offered a glimpse of the future. This time he used the ASUS T300 hybrid notebook, stating that it offers "twice the performance of an iPad Air for US$699." That should be telling enough.
Currently Apple has offered no data as to the specs of the future MacBook. But if trends are our indication, the MacBook 2016 is a heavyweight in a lightweight class.
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