Saturday, June 29, 2013

MacBook Air rules thin-and-light laptop market, says NPD Apple's MacBook Air dominates the thin-and-light market in the U.S, CNET


MacBook Air rules thin-and-light laptop market, says NPD

Apple's MacBook Air dominates the thin-and-light market in the U.S. And its momentum shows no signs of slowing down with the well-received 2013 model.
by 
MacBook Air, 2013: It's by far the most popular thin-and-light laptop in the U.S., said NPD.
MacBook Air, 2013: It's by far the most popular thin-and-light laptop in the U.S., said NPD.
(Credit: Apple)
The MacBook Air all by its lonesome has captured the majority of the total thin-and-light laptop market, according to data from NPD.
The MBA grabbed 56 percent of U.S. thin-and-light laptop sales in the first five months of the year, Stephen Baker, an analyst at the NPD Group, told CNET.
The remainder, 44 percent, was captured by ultrabooks from various PC makers.

Related story

If reviews of the 2013 MacBook Air -- announced this month -- are any indication of future sales, the situation could become even more lopsided this year.
CNET Reviews had a lot of good things to say about the new MBA.
"Intel fourth-gen [Haswell] CPUs help the updated MacBook Air achieve amazing battery life. The multitouch trackpad is still the industry's best, and even better, the 13-inch MacBook Air now starts at $100 less than the previous model," CNET Reviews said.
Regardless, the Windows laptop camp is hardly standing still. When speaking at the company's Build conference this week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer claimed that new Windows 8/8.1 hybrids with touch screens obviate the need for both a tablet and a laptop.
Microsoft expects a crush of thin-and-light "2-in-1" hybrid designs to hit the market in the coming months.
Apple believes the touch experience is best left to its iPad. And so far a lot of consumers seem to agree.
Topics:
Mac
Tags:
thin-and-light laptops,
MacBook Air
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Norseman
"Microsoft expects a crush of thin-and-light "2-in-1" hybrid designs to hit the market..."
Perhaps "crash" would be more accurate than "crush". Tim Cook was right about hybrids.
myles taylor
I thought Steve Ballmer's comments were hilarious. ""How many of us have gone to a meeting with somebody who brought a tablet and then when it comes time to actually take notes, writes them down on pencil and paper,” 
My answer is...I've never had that happen. It's seeking a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. I know tons of people with tablets, both iPads and Android and almost universally they love their tablets and do everything on them. I've never had anyone complain that they couldn't take notes or open a spreadsheet. 
Gordio283
@myles taylor Maybe if you're using Ballmer's RT tablets, yes.
JustmyOp
That's what the Surface Pro is for...forget RT. I can do anything on my Surface Pro any tablet or laptop can do and most likely faster and easier.  
Sejjady
@JustmyOp @Gordio283 @myles taylor yes but it is more expensive and not as easy to use. Just because it has a touch screen doesn't give it the good qualities of an iPad or android tablet like simplicity and the OS. A regular laptop would likely be much faster than  a surface pro and you could probably pay less for it. If you are doing things like video editing or photoshop, a surface couldn't handle that easily
natal108
I read somewhere that some people are finding their new MacBook Air has the tendency to inexplicable drop WiFi connections.   If it's prevalent I guess I won't be buying one now. 

myles taylor
@natal108 Yea it seems to be happening to a few of them. Of the few dozen we've sold since launch we've had one come back with that issue and that's too many. I believe it will be able to be fixed in a software update. 
JustmyOp
Sorry but it's a hardware issue. Apple jumped the gun on 802.11ac and most routers drop it because of rapid packet explosions. Very widespread. High quality Apple at its finest. Of course if you buy an ac router, you shouldn't have a problem. 
wolf7052
@natal108 right after the lion update was done , yes. 
but they got that straightened up a while ago. my late 2010 13' with all the upgrades hasn't ha a problem with connections in the us, poland, lithuania or germany, the only places I'v been. at 2 colleges, coffee shops, stabux, home, airports, hotels,malls, state sponsored wi fi in cities, or anyplace i've been. no problem.
Gordio283
You have to really hate Apple to get  a windows ultrabook.  The MBA beats the competition in ever variable, including price.  
elgugui
@Gordio283  how is that SDcard working there
Mode1Bravo
@elgugui @Gordio283 If you have a SkyDrive, Google Drive or even Apple's own iCloud why do you really need an SD card?? Your point seems a little lame. 
Sejjady
@elgugui @Gordio283 the 13 inch has and sdcard and you could use a flash drive or external HD. I also never use sd cards in the first place because most of my pics are on my phone. It has comparable quality to my point and shoot
sy224048
@Gordio283 I wouldn't say that the macbook air beats all of its competitors in terms of price. As soon as the competitors get haswell upgrades they will all be superior in pricing and features. The Yoga 11s, for instance, is $999 at launch with i5 and 256gb SSD. The Macbook air is $1199 with i5 and SSD. The dell XPS 12 with Haswell will get up to 10 hours of battery life on a 1080p screen at the same price as the macbook air. While the macbook air is in the same price range, it certainly isn't in the same feature range.
roar500
Im sure were going to get a lot lot troll comments about how bias cnet is, but seriously, EVERYBODY gives the macbook air good reviews. PC Mag and Engadget actually rate the macbook air higher then cnet does. Even AnandTech really likes it. It is by any definition an incredible laptop.
elgugui
@roar500 indeed MBA is a great computer.  but come next Saturday at this time and you will find almost the same article by the same author on the same site at this same time.
gzjr
@roar500 We don't criticize the articles signaling facts, we criticize the authors of CNET that write their articles very biased. I remember an article Lance wrote talking about Android and the very last paragraph he threw in a bunch of random iPhone comments.. no reason at all just random comments
ksmm
Apple seldom loses their first-mover advantage in any market (music, smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc) so I don't expect to see them slip away anytime soon, but I do hope that good alternatives spring up on the Windows side of the fence as well.  If the MacBook Air serves as a catalyst to push PC makers to improve their designs, then the MBA will have been beneficial to us all.
Gordio283
@ksmm The problem for PC makers is the MBA actually costs less while offering more.  Typically there is that "apple tax" to sway ppl to consider the PC option.  They don't have it here.
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