The IC3 Blue Train - A little journal about design, marketing, sales and other matters

The follow-up to my dream and a wake up call to Steve Jobs

After ten years of hard labour on Windows, I’m coming back to Macintosh. I just bought a MacBook and I am fascinated by how easy it still is to do most things without even thinking. Yet I am also impressed by how much the Mac has grown. Do most Mac owners use all the functions offered on the ‘table’ at the bottom of the screen? (I know, it’s like calling a ‘mouse’ a ‘hamster’).

Hence, probably, the wild dream I had recently: a contract from Steve Jobs (himself) to design a  Macintosh stripped of all not absolutely necessary features and weighing less than a feather. I would love to tackle this challenge because it’s time for manufacturers of computers, consumer electronics and other modern life gadgets to realise that more is less.

A recent survey of the British magazine “Which?” indicates that nearly two thirds of consumers said that some technical products have lots of functions they don't understand and never use. And more than three quarters felt manufacturers should be encouraged to make simpler versions. The products reviewed include remote controls, digitals radios, mobile phones, digital cameras and wireless routers. I’m sure that the inclusion of PCs in the survey would have pushed the numbers up.

So, Steve, MacBook Air is very thin, indeed, but is it ‘light’ enough? Time to wake up and discuss this gig with me: the world’s slimmest notebook. MacBook Light. Then we’ll discuss the world’s fastest notebook. MacBook Hot … and its thin version: MacBook Hot Air. :-Q

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