Apple will sell at least 3 MacBook Air’s in Japan
We have no idea what they’re saying, but it appears from their inflections that these 3 Japanese morning show hosts are fairly impressed with the MacBook Air. Of course, maybe they are laughing at its price and lack of ports… it’s hard to tell. But one thing comes through loud and clear; they seem to like that it is thin and shiny, two highly favorable attributes in Japanese gadgets. Perhaps the Air will lead Apple’s invasion of Japan in 2008.
I doubt it. Even if Apple somehow gets past Godzilla, Japan’s giant mech robots can repel ANY invasion.
Everything in Japan is better. Even this news clip. I’m sure if I understood the language I wouldn’t think so, but I could watch Japanese TV all day.
LOL. The girl in the middle says it’s lighter than her cosmetic bag. Now “that” is a selling point to the ladies!
Apple (Japan) just has to change their marketing methods.
QP
I don’t think the MacBook Air will do well in Japan. Sub-notebooks in Japan are all a lot smaller, making them more portable. Twelve hours’ battery life is also common, compared to the underwhelming five hours for the Air.
Considering the underwhelming battery life, it’s very surprising that Apple didn’t consider swappable batteries a necessity.
Also, why not a docking connector? What if you want a full complement of ports? You’re pretty much screwed.
They are explaining the features mainly the thinness of the notebook. Is your source of the videos the same as where I found them?
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/macbook-air-promoted-on-japanese-tv/
I don’t know what they were saying (except that they said “yes” a lot), but it sure sounds like they were enthusiastic about it. The real question is, did Apple address the needs of subnotebook users? If so, they will probably do well in that market segment. The iPhone has picked up 20% (?) of the smartphone market, not of the entire cell phone market, and it’s considered a huge success (selling 4 million units is pretty good, regardless). Apple goes after a segment and then expands that segment. A year from now, all of Apple’s laptops will be thinner and SSDs will be less expensive. I think that Apple knows what it’s doing, even if they’re not doing what I want them to do.
They’ve got 20% of the smartphone market in the US. This is just a small fraction of the global smartphone market. Europe is the big one here. Apple has hardly made any impression at all in Europe. They won’t make a major splash in Europe with the iPhone until they realise that people don’t like predatory contracts, and they really do value the ability to unlock a handset and change carriers. They’ve only done so well in the US because people are already so used to taking crap from the wireless carriers.
I’m not impressed by the macbook air either.
Like the Japanese girls though.
5 Hours of battery life is pretty damn good considering i get about 1 hour on my macbook pro. Ive also read the apple actually has a very large market share in Japan with their computers.
What’s with the Japanese ladies and super-slutty looking fake nails lately? Even normal girls over there seem to like Pornstar-grade fake nails.
I think the iPod Touch will be scratched in less than one day with those.
@jimmy: what makes you actually believe you’ll get 5hrs from a MacBook Air? Remember they advertise the MacBook Pro as having “up to 5hrs” battery life as well. So if your usage pattern gets you 1hr on a ‘Pro advertised as having battery life of “up to 5hrs”, it would probably get you the same 1hr on an ‘Air advertised as having battery life of “up to 5hrs”. As for Apple’s market share in Japan, it doesn’t seem to be that different to their market share anywhere else – small but still significant.
They were just impressed how great,thin and light it is. Good free promo for Apple , its funny how much people are watching this news , even my father in law knew about the Air.
Apple has a lot of market share in here . it will sell well in japan thats for sure. Probably people think that japan has this great portable this and that ..to be honest not really. So many crapped as far as i know. I mean people ,Apple alway set the standard in design and the industry regardless…we should be happy about it.