Most of these people are just rich people who paid good money mostly for the Pro name rather than for any real need they have. To me the 13" MacBook Pro is a great idea. It's an admission the 13" Unibody MacBook had some serious failings for a full-featured computer. Like the lack of FireWire. FireWire is back and it's good to go. It also has a much better screen, an SD card reader, and a standard backlit keyboard. The "Pro-haters" are complaining a Pro system shouldn't have shared graphics, but why? The nVidia graphics system (and I still dislike nVidia because of what they did to us 3dfx owners way back when they bought 3dfx and promptly discontinued even basic driver support for 3dfx cards) is excellent, and certainly good enough for any normal use. Pro photography and video editing don't even use the graphics card for much. The discrete graphics card is actually only really important for 3D games (hardly a professional use) and 3D modeling. The new 13" MacBook Pro is wonderful for creative professionals on the go. And the price is right and competitive in todays economy.
Apple also has the MacBook Air for a modern "MacBook" line computer, now at a dramatically reduced price, the MacBook Air is wonderful for anyone putting size and convenience over value and functionality. Just like Dell's Adamo... which is even more crazy overpriced.
But I think people's big complaint is what about the normal plain old MacBook. Is Apple abandoning that name? Are they keeping the 13" white MacBook forever? I think neither. I predict the demise of the 13" white MacBook when a new aluminum MacBook comes out. I expect thicker than the Air, but small and light with a 10" or maybe 12" screen. And a price under $800 (maybe substantially under $800 but I doubt it). Yup, a souped-up Apple netbook. Which will be the new "MacBook" and it will meet the needs of almost all computer users who aren't creative professionals. And in this product lineup, the 13" MacBook Pro makes total sense...
This is all total speculation on my part, but I hope I'm right :) Oh, and I ordered my 13" MacBook Pro yesterday...
Mark
