KEY POINTS:
Apple confirmed its impressive design credentials with the arrival of the ultra-thin MacBook Air in San Francisco yesterday, but the laptop's hefty local price tag is unlikely to make it a big seller here.
The world's thinnest commercially available laptop debuted at Apple's annual Macworld conference when Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder and the man credited with resurrecting the company's flagging fortunes in the late 1990s, slipped the 1.4kg device out of a manila folder.
With a 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and full-sized screen and keyboard, Jobs was keen to point out that performance was not compromised in getting the laptop so thin.
But priced from $3000 locally, it will also be a luxury item, entering the top of the fast-growing laptop market where Toshiba and Sony dominate with high-priced, lightweight models. The MacBook Air is on sale for US$1799 in the US ($2281).
According to research company IDC, growth in laptop sales in the last year have been strongest in the sub-$1000 category. In the first nine months of 2007, laptops at $1600 or less accounted for 60 per cent of the laptop market.
Apple increased its market share in the first three quarters of 2007 to five per cent from 4.4 per cent in full-year 2006.
"We've seen Apple growing faster than the market and therefore increasing their share in New Zealand," said IDC market analyst Liam Gunson.
However, the modest increase came as local Apple distributor Renaissance moved to buy the Magnum Mac chain of Apple-centric stores and prices for Macs were cut, suggesting bigger inroads against HP, Acer and Dell could have been made.
"They could go after market share but it's not the thing Apple does. They don't play in the volume part of the market. It's like Ferrari, they leave the mass market to Toyota," said Gunson.
Renaissance managing director Paul Johnston was at Macworld yesterday and unavailable for comment. But in the Renaissance half year report to June 30, 2007, the listed company flagged supply shortages which would hit the bottom line.
"Our sales increased year on year but our margin on two major product lines decreased, In recent months, sales have been limited by availability. Some products have been in short supply in June, July and August," the report read. The shortages are understood to relate to Apple products.
Apple's laptop business is stronger than its desktop computer business by market share in New Zealand, but Gunson said the iMac all-in-one range, where the computer's components are housed behind the screen, had created a valuable "point of differentiation" with desktop PC makers.
Sony's Vaio Panel PC and the recently announced Dell XPS One follow the all-in-one theme made popular by the iMac.
"What's coming through in the consumer PC space is style and design," said Gunson, who regards price drops as the biggest factor in the growing popularity of laptops.
"Price has been the big thing. It's opened new markets not available before because notebooks weren't affordable," he said.
"The low-end is now really all notebooks. The desktops sold are generally mid to high-end."
Laptops accounting for 52.2 per cent of computer sales in the three months to September 30, 2007 and laptop prices dropped 24 per cent last year according to IDC.
Gunson saw new ultra-portable laptops, such as the $599 Asus Eee PC as showing promise. "It's an interesting form factor, a drive to try and create a new market segment," he said.
A move towards solid-state drives in laptops, replacing larger and less efficient hard disc drives, would accelerate this year, he added. As a major purchaser of flash memory for its iPod and iPhone products, Apple would be in a good position to negotiate down the prices of solid-state drives.
Said Gunson: "If anyone can get good pricing through bulk orders, it's them."
Mac users, well known as a fiercely loyal and discerning community, have given the MacBook Air their seal of approval.
"The big question is how will other laptop manufacturers react," said James Wigg, a 37-year-old Auckland postman who owns a Mac and an iPod.
"My guess is frantically but not nearly as well. The nearest small laptop on the market right now is the Asus Eee PC which looks downright primitive next to the MacBook Air and I don't see any laptop manufacturers beating Apple's design any time soon."
AIR UP THERE
Apple's MacBook Air goes on sale in New Zealand with a price-tag of $2999. Apple's standard MacBook models are priced from $1848.
Laptop sales accounted for 52.2 per cent of total computer sales in the third quarter of 2007.
The iMac's iconic all-in-one computer design is taking off, with Dell launching the XPS One.
Laptops dropped 24 per cent in price last year.
