Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Macworld and the Macbook Air

The Macbook Air was introduced at Macworld today. One of the things being highlighted in this unveiling are the environmental features of the Macbook Air. Apple has been targeted in the past along with other manufacturers about plastics and chemicals used in the production of electronics.

The Macbook Air has full aluminum case to make recycling easier, mercury free display, arsenic free glass, less packaging and different circuit boards.

All of these factors are a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, Apple, and all manufacturers of any product, do not include lifecycle planning and recycling. Apple promotes itself as a different company that is more progressive than everyone else yet they are not taking the giant leaps that would leave everyone behind and force a move. Apple is quite profitable with the ubiquitous iPod and the iPhone is right behind it. They could afford to do something drastic that would put them over the top. They didn't go bankrupt when nobody bought anything they sold so I'm sure now that they have products in almost every household in America they can do something. Sure everyone is a critic but they are not afraid to ride their image to the bank. Either way the Macbook Air is running at $1,799 so I'm not rushing out to buy one. It's already on the Apple site so you can check it out.

1 comment:

BBC said...

I read a while back that they also make some with wood cases. I can't afford the expense though.

I bought a new computer a few months ago as the hard drives in my custom built one was getting very old.

I wanted the computer shop to reuse my old case and new power supply but they said that it would cost me more than just buying one they had ready to go. ?????

So I guess I'll give the old one to someone that can't afford a computer. I use Yahoo Freecycle a lot to pass things on.