Methinks Apple's brilliant insight (other than profound supply chain management) is: specs shouldn't matter. Specs are an excuse for underwhelming performance.
Author touches on the point with “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.” Apple is doing what it can to ensure that users don't care about specs; the just want X done. Retina is a good starting point: the resolution is now so high that nobody will ask about pixel count - whatever it is, it's better than users' eyes. Likewise with other specifications which Apple is straining or succeeded at making irrelevant: iPad battery life is "charge at night, use all day", MacBook Air size/weight so low it fits in a manila envelope, pervasive use of wireless so cable compatibility is nigh unto a non-issue, progressive elimination of files & filesystems, instant-on behavior ... all vs. competitors' "no, really, it's good enough" specifications of "5 hour battery life if you're careful, 6 pounds and hope there's enough space in your briefcase, USB/Firewire/Ethernet/PS2/Centronix/RS-232/eSATA/XYZPDQ/OMGWTFBBQ ports, don't forget to put double quotes around the file path, 90 second startup..."
Users don't want to ask "is X compatible with Y?" and have to learn technical obscurities about what that question means. They have X, they want to get Y, and put together they should just work. Forget specs - if my mother-in-law has to know about technical specifications, the manufacturer did something wrong.
> vs. competitors' "no, really, it's good enough" specifications of "5 hour battery life if you're careful, 6 pounds and hope there's enough space in your briefcase, USB/Firewire/Ethernet/PS2/Centronix/RS-232/eSATA/XYZPDQ/OMGWTFBBQ ports, don't forget to put double quotes around the file path, 90 second startup..."
Not to mention the PC MacBook Air clones, which in addition to questionable battery life, screen resolution, etc., ALL fail to have an actually usable trackpad. They've tried to emulate various multitouch gestures, but it all feels absurdly clunky and impossible to actually use. I tried one in a store and every time I tried to scroll with two fingers, it would intermittently zoom in like crazy. When it did actually scroll, it was laggy and choppy.
I know this is a bit off topic, but seriously, does anybody know what is up with PC track pad drivers? Why are they so laughably bad. Actually, it's not even laughable it's so pathetic... I'd cry (if I was a PC manufacturer).
Seriously though, I'm genuinely worried/curious about this. I am still looking for a Windows laptop that rivals the MacBook Air, because I do programming both on Windows and Mac (I by no means have an emotional attachment to any OS or HW vendor, so I'm pretty unbiased when it comes to these things). I'm still confused as to why this does not exist in any usable sense.
Author touches on the point with “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.” Apple is doing what it can to ensure that users don't care about specs; the just want X done. Retina is a good starting point: the resolution is now so high that nobody will ask about pixel count - whatever it is, it's better than users' eyes. Likewise with other specifications which Apple is straining or succeeded at making irrelevant: iPad battery life is "charge at night, use all day", MacBook Air size/weight so low it fits in a manila envelope, pervasive use of wireless so cable compatibility is nigh unto a non-issue, progressive elimination of files & filesystems, instant-on behavior ... all vs. competitors' "no, really, it's good enough" specifications of "5 hour battery life if you're careful, 6 pounds and hope there's enough space in your briefcase, USB/Firewire/Ethernet/PS2/Centronix/RS-232/eSATA/XYZPDQ/OMGWTFBBQ ports, don't forget to put double quotes around the file path, 90 second startup..."
Users don't want to ask "is X compatible with Y?" and have to learn technical obscurities about what that question means. They have X, they want to get Y, and put together they should just work. Forget specs - if my mother-in-law has to know about technical specifications, the manufacturer did something wrong.