Dear Steve Jobs, I think I am going to buy a Macbook Pro
Thursday, May 17th, 2007 at 5:49 amDear Steve Jobs:
I’ve known of Apple since I was a child. One of the first computers I used was an Apple //e with it’s little monochrome screen. I’ve watched Macs come into the world, I’ve watched PowerMacs come into the world, and I’ve watched iPods and the new Macintels come into the world. I am now watching the iPhone take it’s first baby steps into the world. I have even written about Apple, both positive and negative, on my blog. Last but not least, I have seen people enjoy Apple products.
I’ve seen other companies fail where Apple managed to pull it off. I’ve seen Apple create new products that no one has produced before, or at least, didn’t get right before (the iPod wasn’t the first, but it was the first that actually got it right). And in my entire life, I’ve never owned an Apple product.
So, I’ve decided that I want to finally join the Cult of Mac and buy a Macbook Pro sometime in the next 6 months. Please release a model that contains the following items and/or features:
- LED-backlit LCD to improve power efficiency, lower heat output, increase color vibrancy and brightness, darken blacks, and increase contrast.
- Said LCD panel should be available in 1920×1080/1920×1200 resolution. I do not care if it is 15 or 17″, however manufacturers are currently shipping panels with that resolution in both sizes.
- Either Intel’s new solid state cache module, or a hard drive with built-in hybrid technology.
- A large 5400 or 4200rpm drive as an option, which in theory should boot faster than a 7200rpm drive without a solid state cache, yet use far less power, make less noise, and be less expensive.
- Intel’s new Santa Rosa platform.
- The option of 4 gigabytes or more of 800mhz RAM to go with said Santa Rosa Core 2 Duo.
- A WiFi chipset that can be software upgraded to spec-N when the 802.11N specification is finally released sometime next year; this does not, however, mean I want a new chipset if the current pre-N ones now shipping will work properly with spec-N.
- A 3D accelerator that, on a PC, could be described as DX10 compatible: Nvidia’s, ATI’s, or even Intel’s if their new DX10 chip doesn’t suck.
- Leopard.
- Even after all these features, I also want a total powered-by-battery time longer than the previous Macbook Pro model; however, this should be easier due to the backlight using less power, the CPU being able to idle more efficiently, and the optional slower drive using less power when spun up.
You may consider my request odd and specific, however I would like my first real Mac experience to be enjoyable and fruitful. Please consider my request.
However, do not misunderstand: this is not an ultimatum. Even if the Macbook Pros coming around the corner do not include all of these options, I will still consider one as my next laptop. I am simply giving you first chance at my business before everyone else gets a chance.
Signed,
Patrick McFarland
It seems as if all your wishes have come true now.
i could just imaging their faces when they read this letter. Some good points but im happy with apples products the way they are.
Some good points made throughout the letter, would be interesting to see if you got an official response.
you should send a hard copy to a few of apples offices
Some of you all are killing me. If you read the post, he clearly said these aren’t demands. He is just making a wish list. What is wrong with dreaming, and letting Apple know what us users want? The Mac faithful truly slay me sometimes. I love my Mac, I don’t worship Steve. Oh, and Apple is light on memory resources my backside. Once a week I was slowing to a near halt with 2GB. The overhead just from start up is around 800mb of memory in use. Swap file is SLOW, active memory fast. 4gbs to avoid page outs is well worth the $200 in my mind.
[...] I said in my open letter to Steve Jobs and my previous posting, I finally went out and bought a Mac: an Apple Aluminum G4 Powerbook to be [...]
Welcome to the Cult of the Mac.
To be honest, if they could pull all this with a 12″ I’d probably build one of those Steve Jobs Altars that I’ve read so much about.
And I’d buy it of course.
I ‘ll bet Mr. Jobs spending his waking hours desperately trying to meet your specifications. I can hardly wait. I agree about the 4 GB though especially when I run Windows in a VM.
Oskar, draft 802.11n is /not/ 802.11n final spec. Hardware produced now under the draft may or may not properly function under the final spec.
Mac Pros aren’t laptops, thus thats a silly suggestion.
802.11n is already out, my macbook has this type of connection albeit that this is only draft type (not FCC-approved perhaps?), but surely the 802.11n is already out.
And if you really do need to do those heavy lifting (that justify the 4GB price tag), why not do it on Macpro? You’ll get better deal with the same price. It makes a lot more sense.
I think Apple will be very happy to make this laptop for you. Of course, you didn’t mention a specific price point. So long as you are willing to pony up the required $100,000 for a custom-built Apple laptop of this nature, I don’t foresee any problem….
Siren, Patrick is correct. I use Photoshop, InDesign, Final Cut Pro, and other similar software professionally, and for heavy use of these applications (even just one at a time), 4GB is definitely recommended. Not necessary, but recommended. If you upgrade to 4GB, you will notice a difference.
Siren: I run Linux as my primary desktop, and have done so for the past ten years. I regularly hit swap with just 2GB. So yeah, I’d really prefer 4GB.
Maybe its just because you are now recently thinking about joining “The Cult of Mac” but 2GB of RAM is most certainly alot. My MBP with 2GB is used for not only photoshopping large files, but also for Edititing and Compressing video in HD, and I have rarely used the whole bit. I guess its just old habit, thinking that more RAM would make a wretched OS(XP/Vista) better..but in Mac land..we get along just fine with 2GB.
Dude, looks like you’re getting a Dell. There is no chance of all those specs in a MBP.
na: The 4200 RPM drive won’t beat a 7200 RPM on pure sequential reads, but combined with a solid state cache, it will beat it on often ran random reads (such as booting, starting often used apps, on disk caches/memory (ex: virtual memory, Photoshop’s disk swap), etc)
Jesse: I left those out for a reason. I won’t buy any HD-DVD or Bluray equipment (not even players the TV) until one or the other format dies. I refuse to get screwed over in what seems to be yet another VHS vs Beta war.
Mark: As 802.11n is not out, no machine in existence has a 802.11n chipset. People can only hope their non-spec N chipset can be firmware upgraded or physically replaced.
4GB of RAM does make sense if you have a specific use for it. I often compile large software or run Photoshop so I legitimately have a need for such RAM. I may also want to run Parallels or Xen as well.
On 2GB, Photoshop for large images requires swapping occationally, and Xen on 2GB kind of sucks if you want both VMs swapping on large work sets.
Hybrid disks are not useless, however a separate SSD/cache may be more useful.
Yes, DX10 chips are currently shipping in most if not all Santa Rosa laptops.
e:leaf: They’re not really demands, just suggestions. If Steve misses one or two of these, I’ll still consider a Macbook Pro as my next laptop.
Dude. Good luck with that. Making these types of demands and being part of the “Cult of Apple” are not rally all that compatible. Yes, we Mac users are finnicky and want what we want, but one of the biggest reasons we use Macs is that we have faith that Apple will get the configuration right. They generally do, and we don’t have to worry about the nit-picks because we have some of the best engineers worrying about them for us.
Just sayin’
Well..
I agree on the LED-display, but current MBPs already DO have a 802.11n-chipset (upgradable, upgrade costs like $5 or so). 4 GB of RAM does not make that much sense. I currently have 2 GB and it is rarely completely used — and I really push my MBP (Can be seen in Activity Monitor). Hybrid disk is quite useless. However.. You can get yourself an ExpressCard SolidStateDisk and install OS X on that.
A DX10 chip.. well.. are they aviable yet?
You forgot to mention the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Reader/Burner.
“A large 5400 or 4200rpm drive as an option, which in theory should boot faster than a 7200rpm drive without a solid state cache, yet use far less power, make less noise, and be less expensive.”
What magical theory is this?
And while I’m at it, I’d like a pony too.