Apple Cuts MBA 13" Price to $999, Cuts Specs to same as base MBA 11, Only Bulk Buys for Schools

Apple Offering Stripped-Down $999 13" MacBook Air to Educational Institutions Buying in Bulk - Mac Rumors

I guess this answers the question of what replaces the white plastic Macbook? Would this represent good value for consumers?

 

64GB SSD and 2GB Ram? Icky.

 

The amount of storage isn't all that import. These are school computers after all and not meant for mass consumer purchase. The 2GB of RAM is a little discerning but that is still more than enough to run AutoCAD 2011, Office 2011, and iWork '09. Those pretty much represent the most complex programs students will be running in the classroom. Not really the best value but it is a much smaller package than the white MB's offering better overall performance (the SB ULV processors trumping the C2D CPU's, SSD>HDD, faster RAM, etc.).

Either way it doesn't really matter since consumers cannot buy these, they are only being sold to schools.

 

How can it represent good value to consumers when it isn't being sold to consumers?

If it was sold to consumers, I think it'd represent good value, but not necessarily the best value in the class. It looks nice, it's got a very nice screen and great build quality and a good trackpad, but for people who aren't locked into one OS, it's hard to ignore that you can get an even-lighter Toshiba Z830 from Best Buy with twice the ram and twice the storage for $800.

 

i would love to have 64gb ssd instead of 128gb so when i replace it with 250gb on day 1 i dont feel like i am throwing money away. 128gb = ~100gb real space not enough anyway

 

I agree about the 2GB of ram being decent enough for Office 2011 and iWork...bit AUTOCAD?? Uh I don't think so Korn, it runs sluggish on some of the beefiest PC's and Macs.

 

It will run fine. I am not talking about advanced modeling, 3D rendering, or anything else like that. Just simple 2D drawings, something that you would encounter in high school. I currently have AutoCAD 2012 running on my work computer. It has Windows XP, a Pentium processor (dual-core), 2GB of RAM, and ATI HD 2000 graphics. It runs just fine without issues and the specs of a mid-2011 MBA (even with 2GB of RAM) far outpace what I have at work.

Then again, classrooms may have changed since I was there and they might be doing 3D modeling and rendering in high schools now. If that were the case, even a MBA with 4GB of RAM (or even a MBP with 8GB of RAM and quad-core processor) would not be enough to perform such tasks. I don't think that is the case though as those topics aren't covered until undergrad college.