I bought a black Nano last spring. Today I understand that Apple charged me a premium for the color. Black suits me. I am not a white kind of guy, though I am a white man. But I don’t go for that white look that Apple has carved out over the years. So, when the Nano came out, I bought a black one. Black makes me happy. Black is why I like my Thinkpad. It isn’t silver. It isn’t purple. It’s just functional.
Apple’s introduction of a black MacBook is leading to some discussion on why there is a premium being charged for black. Would Lenovo charge an extra $200 for a white Thinkpad (ewww, ewww, I have blasphemed)?
This whole “what color is your laptop” thing makes me think of a nasty comment made by Bill Gates around the time Steve Jobs introduced the Next workstation in the late 80s. I have to paraphrase, but he said something like: “You want a black PC? Get a can of spray paint and I’ll make you a black PC.”
Okay, so I am not the kind of consumer who buys different faceplates for my cellphone. I don’t reskin my applications. I screw up my WordPress theme everytime I get artistic. I earned an “F” in first grade for coloring outside the lines. I think less is more when it comes to design. If it’s classic, if it looks like it will endure, then I will buy it.
So Apple climbs on the black bandwagon. That’s cool. First they climbed on the Intel bus, then they climbed on the Windows bus with Bootcamp. Now they are on the black bus. I wouldn’t buy one for obvious professional and legacy reasons (working for PC Week in the early 80s made me highly allergic to the Mac, and I still, try as I might, lack the Mac chromosome). But welcome to the black camp Apple. Hope you offer a bottle of windex to every owner, I had to sink my Black nano inside of a leather “incase” to stop the scratching and pigging it up with finger oil.
Shiny black apple notebooks will not look good…defintely will need to be fingerprint proof. I had a black nano…sold it, too many scratches. Got the 5G “video ipod” … invested in a clear plastic case.
On the price points, I caught a CNET article today, someone did some research comparing the price differences between macs & pcs.
http://news.com.com/Researcher+Macs+not+as+expensive+as+thought/2100-1041_3-6072837.html
I am also a black kinda guy. I love my new Lenovo T60 (need the big screen as a Creative Director) 🙂 When I got my video iPod, I got a black one and was so disappointed when the headphones were still white. Apple is white and dabbling in black. Kind of like saying you like Johnny Cash but not owning any of his music.