Agreed. But Apple has never been punished in the (recent) past by its customers. And we also have Microsoft to blame for not giving us a more compelling alternative.

If you don’t want to mess with Windows (and I certainly don’t) then you have to pay whatever it takes to get the Apple alternative… Or become expert enough with Linux to get it to do what you want it to do. I personally have better luck with Linux, but only after a few years of fiddling with it and I fully appreciate the desire to have something that “just works” when you take it out of the box.

More seriously though, I am doubly glad that the new machines are highly environmentally-aware, but the plain truth is there are so few performance enhancements that the differences are superficial at best. Gestures on a new trackpad are great as are the new graphics chipsets but, prima facie at least, there’s very little else of any ‘real’ significance i.e likely to make a real difference to the way you work with your Mac.
The processor speed is the same, the memory capacity is the same, the number of ports is the same, and aside from the graphics, compared with it’s earlier siblings, the new Macbook performs like it’s elder siblings. And when real change isn’t self-evident the best way to convince people of significant change is to keep repeating what’s changed. So, to watch Apple labouring these new superficial changes in the tediously repititive October Keynote event is disappointing.

The seams of Apple’s seduction techniques are also starting to show. Just as you discover the secret to a magic trick, the illusion is a little drab. The art of distraction is key to shrouding the truth.

Take the new price for these new features, for instance. According to Apple, the 3 most sought-after features from the Macbook Pro that are now available on the Macbook include the aluminium casing, the backlit display and better graphics, all of which are now part of the new Macbook. These new offerings are touted as a feature-set that is $700 cheaper than if you bought the current machine offering these options i.e. the Macbook Pro. But let’s call a spade a spade and undress that marketing ploy for what it is – a shabby deception. You can’t escape the irrefutable fact that the Macbook only offers these tangible differences, but costs a whopping £250 more than it’s predecessor.

So, surely the question facing customers at the moment is are these aesthetic and superficial changes worth £949 (£230 more than a machine that performs just as well)?

Surely the answer is a resounding “no”.

Have Apple learnt nothing from the lessons over the pricing of the iPhone? Groundbreaking it may have been, but Apple’s subsequent embarrassing price reduction (bowing to public demand) revealed that they’d originally over-priced it. You’d think Apple would know better this time.

Especially in these troubled financial times, Apple’s price setters need a good kicking.

It was too bad to see the new MacBook without the firewire connection. I am feeling forced by Apple to go now to the MacBook Pro in order to get the firewire port again. This means much more money I will have to spend.

There are lots and lots of people not happy with what Apple did.

I love Apple ! I have two Macbooks, one MacMini and my wife has an iMac.