The Price Has Come Down

Perhaps the best reason now to buy a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air is that the price for both products has come down. As noted, the MacBook Pro with Retina display now starts at $1,499. The MacBook Air goes for $1,399. Granted, that’s still considerably more expensive than the typical Windows notebooks on the market. But many customers were already buying the Apple products despite the higher prices. Now that the price is lower, they’re even more attractive.

The nice thing about both the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air is that they deliver mobility. Both devices are lightweight and thin and easily fit into a bag. The Air is especially thin and is capable of fitting into a simple legal envelope. In the computer world these days, you can never be too thin or too mobile. Apple already has these features locked down.

Design is an extremely important consideration when deciding to buy a product. And Apple has capitalized on that more effectively than any other company in the marketplace. The MacBook Air and MacBook Pro are downright beautiful products. And they’d look good on any desk or Starbucks’ counter.

The MacBook Pro’s Retina display is a huge selling point. The display is capable of presenting more than 5 million pixels on the 15-inch model, ensuring the highest quality visuals. The display is thin enough for Apple to continue to find ways to reduce its MacBook Pro’s footprint. What’s not to like about the Retina display?

With the release of Mountain Lion last year, Apple proved that it can deliver a better operating system every couple of years. The latest launch includes iCloud support, social-media integration and an enhanced Mail to appeal to enterprise users. Add that to its stronger security and it’s easy to see why so many folks are opting for a Mac.

It’s important to point out the trouble Microsoft is having getting Windows 8 off the ground. Some consumers and enterprise users find that Windows 8, with its revised interface design, hurts productivity because they have to spend some time learning to use it. But that’s the Windows version shipping with all new PC models this year. That’s bad news for Microsoft—but good news for Apple.

The addition of Thunderbolt to Apple’s Mac line is something that can’t be overlooked. Many industry observers believe that Thunderbolt is the key technology that will carry the industry into the future. With Thunderbolt, users can transfer data and display information over the same cord. Better yet, users can daisy chain Thunderbolt-equipped products, allowing for storage drives and displays to connect to one another through a single port. Thunderbolt is a major Mac selling point.

Apple has made the smart decision to link its two operating systems—iOS and OS X. Now, when updates are made on a Mac, they’re copied over to an iPad or iPhone. The same happens on a Mac when changes are made to an iPad or iPhone. Plus, iCloud is supported on OS X and many of the same touch gestures found in iOS are available on the touchpad.

As anyone who owns a Mac knows, the devices tend to last a long time. In fact, recent surveys have shown that customer satisfaction with Apple products is higher than any other company in the marketplace. That matters greatly to customers looking to buy new products.

The nice thing about MacBooks is that they can be used for both work and home activities. Apple has come a long way in making its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro appeal to enterprise users, and that they can create their own applications for employees is a major selling point. Employees can then go home and use the products for their own purposes without companies worrying too much about the security implications. It’s quite nice.