Finally my holiday has started. After spending the first part of the week with one of my accounts here in the Bay Area, starting today and the whole next week I will take a break.
Before heading up to Napa Valley, this morning I visited 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino – in other words I went to Apple headquarters. It was just a private visit, nothing related to my job and of course I ended up buying a bunch of Apple T-shirts and mugs at the Company Store.
While I was there I noticed the number of young employees walking around the campus. It’s just amazing how low the average age at Apple is. Quite a few of them looked at tourists like me with a mix of amusement and annoyance for standing in the middle of the sidewalks connecting adjacent buildings.
What really caught my attention being a blogger of all things Apple was the laptops that these employees were clutching under their arms.
A good 2/3 of them were carrying standard old-style MacBook Pro 15“ and the rest the MacBook Air 11”.
I was really surprised to see the high number of small Airs around. If you watched the WWDC 2012 keynote, Phil Schiller said:
First, let’s start with the MacBook Air. As you know, the MacBook Air has revolutionized the very idea of the modern notebook. With its all-aluminum enclosure, its incredible unibody architecture, it is a breakthrough and everyone is trying to copy it. But they find it’s not so easy. Our customers love how thin and light and capable this incredible consumer notebook is, and it has really changed the consumer notebook market.
Twice in two sentences he pronounced the words consumer notebook. In my opinion if the MacBook Air is a consumer notebook it is only because of its price.
Since I bought my MacBook Air last week I’ve been amazed by its speed and sturdiness. The fact that notable bloggers such as Shawn Blanc and Federico Viticci have been using exclusively the MacBook Air speaks tonnes about this notebook.
Now that we have the proof that Apple employees use it too, we can be assured that even inside Apple they are of the same opinion.
Well I was thinking Apple people’s first choice would be a MB Air (either 11 or 13 in) and few of them would need the extra bulk and/or quality of the MB Pro Retina. Hm.. Apple gives away older models in their employees?
I wouldn’t worry about it. Like all multinationals, Apple employees get new laptops every two to four years.
MacBook Retina are likely only being issued only to employees who are at the end of their laptop life cycle.