The Setup
This is becoming an all-too-frequent occurrence these days:
I was minding my own business, relaxing at the Alexandria Starbucks (yes, it’s somehow managed to turn into the Javamancy Annex over the past several weeks), when a person would sidle up next to me, look lustfully at the PowerBook (PB), then say something like, “Er– so, how’s your Mac working? Pretty good, right?” Then there was the awkward attempt by the other party to continue the “conversation” with something like, “So I hear they’re kinda expensive… that true?”
Once I set the person straight on the reasonable affordability of the PB at the time I’d acquired it, the next thing I tend to hear strongly resembles, “Really? Where do I get one?”
This is where/where it gets a bit sticky. First, I gently recommend either the Apple online store or the local Apple Store; but then I have to warn them that the PB is no longer available, but there may be other models that may fit her needs. It’s usually about this time that the person’s facial expression starts to change: I start to see the eyebrow-furrowing and the worry wrinkles around the eyes and the sides of the mouth. At this point, I have to take the person by her hand so she doesn’t immediately burst into tears, and then I launch into the history of Apple Mac notebook production evolution, and the differences of the current generation compared to my PB.
Has this happened to you?
The Premise
Admittedly, I’ve been planning on ranting about this particular issue for quite some time: the lack of a suitable successor to the 12″ PB.
Several people who somewhat know me have asked, “Steve, why aren’t you getting a MacBook Air, or a MacBook Pro to replace the PB?”
Several other people, who know me significantly better than the previous forementioned horde, have asked me, “Huh? What are those other people talking about?!? Don’t they know the problems with the MB Air and the MBP?”
The 12″ PB is a smallest pro-level form factor in the PowerBook line, sporting a color-matched keyboard to the aluminum shell and comfortable keyboard and touchpad. The PowerBooks had more powerful G4 processors than the consumer-level equivalents, the iBooks.
However, once the PB’s were discontinued in favor of the new Intel Core Duo designs, the MacBook Pros, they had thinned the notebooks even further but somehow shipped only 15.4″ and 17″ form factors. At first, people thought that the consumer-level Intel designs (the MacBooks) were intended to replace the 12″ PB, but although the 13.3″ size was popular with new Mac owners, it lacked the comparable CPU computing power and enough RAM expandability and graphics performance and storage capacity seen in the MacBook Pros.
So, while the 13.3″ MacBooks are cutesy, they’re a little too large for mobile dev warriors, as well as being underpowered and under-capacity and not as aesthetically pleasing as the clean lines seen in the original PB’s and continued in the MacBook Pros.
But What About the MacBook Air?
My counterquestion is naturally, “Oh yeah, what about the MacBook Air?”
While there is a target audience for the MBAir, it certainly isn’t the mobile dev warrior types of the world. The custom Intel CPU of the product is a bit underpowered, the hard disk is the same PATA type found in the iPod classics (and somewhat slow, performance-wise), there is a decided lack of useful connectors and optical drive, and yet the 13.3″ size is still too large compared to the smaller, compact 12″ (well, actually the 12.1″) PB. Oh, and let’s not forget about the non-removable battery.
(Granted, if somebody gave me a free MBAir, I’d accept it, but I’d end up using it predominantly around the LAN, where the WiFi is free and plentiful…)
The Action
There have been several Mac rumor sites which have tossed around the now-perennial favorite of the 12″ MacBook Pro that reincarnates the 12″ PB, essentially upgrading it with an Intel Core 2 Duo (or better) CPU, an updated graphics adapter, an improved touchpad, a higher capacity hard disk, and the improved SuperDrive.
For now, I’ll just have to keep waiting and hoping for Steve Jobs & Co. (Apple, Inc. [AAPL], ‘natch) to consider creating the successor to the 12″ PB as the newest MacBook Pro. In the meantime, I’ll have to stay put with my humble 12″ PB.
And whenever I need to cart around some bigger metal, I’ll have to drag around my 17″ MBP. 
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