The Most Amazing Notebook Yet

It is possible that for many tech industry enthusiasts and followers that by my title alone you know what product I am talking about. In case you don’t know I am talking about Apple’s newest hardware innovation released today at their annual WWDC. This product is the MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

Apple pushed the envelope in engineering design for size and weight for a 15′ notebook. The new design alone would have been enough to impress but Apple didn’t stop there and added what is the best display on a notebook I have ever seen.

When I first saw the MacBook Pro with Retina Display, I had a similar experience to when I saw the Retina Display on the new iPad. I simply couldn’t stop looking at it. With the Retina Display on iPad, Apple set a new bar with the visual experience on a tablet. They have now done it again and set a new bar for a display on a notebook.

It is significant that this display innovation on a notebook comes to the MacBook pro line. Creative professionals are among the group that Apple has always had loyalty with. And it is with this group who tends to value performance more than mobility. The customer for the MacBook Pro wants performance in a portable package but doesn’t desire the tradeoffs in performance that need to be made for the ultra-portability offered in the MacBook Air.

Apple has delivered to this audience not only an extremely thin and light machine with all the performance for a creative professional but they added to it a display they will truly appreciate. Creative professionals look at things like graphics, animation, video, pictures, etc., all day and desire extremely high resolution monitors in order to do their work more efficiently. Many in this segment use a notebook or a desktop paired with an external monitor that is capable of higher resolution than can be offered on a notebook. With the MacBook Pro with Retina Display, creative professionals can now take that high resolution display that they need for their work with them.

I am confident that this new MacBook Pro with Retina Display will draw attention and turn heads. The whole notebook is an impressive piece of work. I am also confident that those in the market for a performance machine will seriously consider this new MacBook Pro. There is however, something perhaps even more interesting that may arise.

With the arrival of the Retina Display on iPhone and iPad, we saw a dearth of new software get created that took example of this new higher resolution display. I assume the same will happen now with the emergence of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

It is no coincidence that Apple released this new product at their annual developer conference. It is the third party developer community who contribute such value to the Apple ecosystem. I can only imagine the next generation of software experiences that will be created with what is clearly becoming Apple’s high resolution revolution.

My guess is this is also just the beginning. I think anyone who believes that Apple is not innovating in Mac hardware would be incorrect. Like the first generation MacBook Air, I believe Apple will bring these innovations downstream again to more notebooks over time. Again keep pressure on the competition and continuing to make some of the best engineered notebooks on the market.

Published by

Ben Bajarin

Ben Bajarin is a Principal Analyst and the head of primary research at Creative Strategies, Inc - An industry analysis, market intelligence and research firm located in Silicon Valley. His primary focus is consumer technology and market trend research and he is responsible for studying over 30 countries. Full Bio

4 thoughts on “The Most Amazing Notebook Yet”

  1. Apple clearly believes that there is a place in this world for the Mac as well as they iPad:

    – They’re synched their iOS and OS X development cycles and made them annual;
    – They’re making everything “Retina”, one device at a time;
    – They’re making everything mobile.

    Look at the New MacBook Air with Retina display. It’s unibody, it’s thing and light, it’s a MacBook Air on steroids yet it’s not all that far in size and weight from the iPad. Apple clearly thinks that thin, light and powerful is the future of computing and they are leading the way.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *