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Apple Fans Anger Points Out Different Design Philosophies
It's a pretty well known phenomenon in the business writing world that if you write something even somewhat critical of the wunderkinder working in Cupertino, outraged Apple fans will climb all over you. We've run into a bit of that with our MacBook Air teardown article which concludes that it could have had a more efficient engineering design (see http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080220/147736/). A Wired blog picked this up (see http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/02/japanese-engine.html?cid=103849268) and now we're getting some disparaging comments about the article.
First of all, a bit of background. Japanese notebook manufacturers for a long time have created small compact sub-notebook models. Many Japanese consumers place a premium on compactness, so a lot of these have been only released in the Japanese market. For example, let's look at the sub-notebook version of the Panasonic Let's Note series which is popular amongst our editors in Tokyo. According to Panasonic's web site, the latest sub-compact Let's Note Rseries weighs about 940 grams (including battery) and the dimensions are a width of 229 mm ¡ß depth of 187 mm ¡ß height of 29.4 mm (front)/42.5 mm (rear). By comparison, according to the Apple web site, the MacBook Air weighs 1.36 kg and its dimensions are a width of 325 mm x depth of 227 mm x height of 4 mm (front)/19.4 mm (rear). Now the two products are meant for different markets, so it's not really a great comparison, but it gives you an idea of what at least one Japanese manufacturer can do.
The real difference is in the design philosophies between Apple and many Japanese manufacturers. Basically, Apple is the poster child for the school of design called experience design, which, simply put, emphasizes designing for a perceived user experience. For the MacBook Air, it seems the experience being designed for was a notebook with a wide screen and an easy to use full sized keyboard which are features valued in the US market, but is also thin and light and aesthetically pleasing. To achieve this experience, the Apple designers were willing to forego features such as an Ethernet adaptor and PC Card slot that are de rigueur in most other notebooks. Also, after our folks have taken apart several Apple products, the impression I have is that while Apple hardware engineers are certainly no slouches, as long as the hardware can achieve the desired experience, they generally won't perform any technical "heroics" in designing the devices. Basically, from what we can tell, much of the MacBook Air design seems to have been accomplished by reducing the number of components to the minimum level possible. As long as this produces a product that consumers find attractive, this is as valid approach as any other.
On the other hand, many Japanese manufacturers seem to focus on product features and technical excellence in their designs. This philosophy is reflected in some of the comments made by the engineers in our article. The emphasis on features here in the notebook case means that no one could imagine leaving out a PC Card slot, since there are peripherals still out there that use it, and certainly no one would ever think of leaving out an Ethernet connection (heresy!). The idea behind emphasizing technical excellence is that consumers will somehow understand the value of this in using the products..
Apple also seems to be a disciple of Don Norman (who used to work at Apple before Steve Jobs came back), who created the idea of "emotional design" and basically argues that designers should aim towards creating an emotional bond between the product and the consumer. If you succeed in this, the consumers will forgive various faults of the design. Steve Jobs vision for the MacBook Air seems to have been if you create a "thin light full-sized" experience that delights consumers, they'll forgive the lack of an Ethernet port and other features. He was also willing to get rid of the PC Card slot because he understood in reality USB has replaced this technology and not too many people use PC Card peripherals any more.
In the case of the MacBook Air, if a Japanese manufacturer could have convinced Intel to provide them with a downsized version of the CPU, basically what the engineers quoted in our article are telling us is that they too had the technical abilities to create something like it. What they lacked was Apple's vision and thus didn't create the MacBook Air (or the iPhone or the iPod).
In the end, I can't help but think the Apple design philosophy points to an ultimate truth, which is as long as a product can provide an attractive experience to a consumer at a price they can afford, it really shouldn't matter what the technology used to achieve that is. For the majority of the market, just having cool technology in a product for technology's sake doesn't make a lot of sense.
Posted by Phillip Keys : February 23, 2008 09:49 AM
After using the MBA for three solid weeks, at home and on vacation in Hawaii, I just realized why Apple designed this without even an ethernet port. Because you just do not want to use this machine with wire sticking out of its side. It will just ruin the whole portability experience. The air runs Leopard so smoothly, the multi-touch track pad is a joy to use and it literally spoils you for good. And forget about the mouse. That is the next thing to disappear forever. Multi-touch is the coming hot technology and Apple is poised to leapfrog the rest of the portable manufacturers once again with its cutting edge technology in the MacBook Air. As to those 32 screws, they do not matter a bit. I do not see them and I do not feel them interfering with my daily interaction with the Air. So what is the big deal.
Posted by Viviana Wong : February 24, 2008 04:28 AM
Overall, Apple seems to have taken a sizable risk with the MacBook Air. This is a defining feature of a pioneer. Nothing new for Apple, though, since they foresaw (or helped kickstart) the obsolecence of the floppy disk drive by removing them from their products. I wonder what Japanese engineers' reactions to this was.
Nonetheless, to say that ethernet is on its way out, like the 3.5" floppy was years ago, or that wireless is prevalent enough to be able to comfortably surf the net from almost anywhere, is a far cry from reality...which is why I think Apple took a huge risk, and why I understand the positions of the Japanese engineers who reviewed the Air, if you disregard the hint of jealousy in their criticisms.
Posted by Rubio : February 24, 2008 01:35 PM
Excellent article. This perfectly explains the decline of Japanese designs over the past 10 years. Designers don't think about designing a product which end clients love. They instead design based on what they love, or (in the case of mobile phones) what the mobile phone operators want.
Posted by Hikaru : February 25, 2008 07:27 AM
