New Macbook - Deliberately hobbled?

So I've been thinking a lot about a new laptop purchase.

To be honest, there's no point buying a new MBP (I have a 2.33Ghz MBP at the moment) and if I want faster GFX, I use a Mac Pro. Obviously this will be a different decision for different people.

Since getting the MBP, I've been lugging it around as a personal machine, and using it a little for FCP and Motion on the go - it's a great machine for that. It's just a little big, and honestly I don't like bashing around something this expensive (insured though it is).

I've long wanted a portable the size of the Macbook for this - big storage for the music library and photos I take everywhere, screen just right for all sorts of work - I used to have a Powerbook 12" and to be honest I found the screen a little small - I'm not a big fan of netbooks for this reason. It would also mean I could bench the MBP and only travel with it when I needed a mobile edit with my IO HD. Be good for years to come then.

The only thing that stopped me was the Intel integrated gfx on the MacBook. It did not allow you to run FCS. Whilst this would never be a main edit machine, there are always times I want to fire up Motion for a little inspiration and prep - or a home movie for the kids.

So I was thrilled when the new MacBook appeared - looks to be everything I needed. NVidia gfx that (although technically integrated) appears to be compatible with FCS (which pointedly only mentions in the specs that you can't use machines with INTEL integrated graphics). I was absolutely on the verge of increasing the national debt with my credit card when I notice they dropped firewire.

What?

Why?

What purpose could Apple possibly serve by dropping a cheap and well supported port off a $1299 laptop. That's not exactly Dell money is it? The same port they have championed for years and refer to in relation to camcorders all the time? The protocol that gives proper, continuous data transfer for video, unlike USB2.

Two arguments have been put forward: 1) FW400 is also gone from the MBP - but that's covered with the FW800 port - after all, it shared a bus with the FW800 port on the old MBP, so it was pretty redundant anyway. 2) Many modern camcorders use USB. Well, a small but growing proportion of domestic camcorders, especially AVC ones, use USB. But that's still cutting off a lot of camcorder owners - the majority in fact. As well as almost ALL professional and Prosumer cameras.

So why did they do it? Pretty simple as far as I can tell. They just want me to spend $800 more on a laptop I don't yet need. It's a simple fact that by adding decent graphics they opened up the MacBooks to Pro Apps - so they hobbled it by removing the only option to connect a proper media drive. I think that sucks. Steve Jobs made a point in his speech the other day of saying they were offering today for $1299 what they offered before for $1999. No.

This may rank as a low point in the history of Apple and Pro users. Dropping firewire was a deliberate attempt to cajole pros (who like me have a number of FW drives and devices) into purchasing the much more expensive laptops. Thing is - I would have bought both. Not now - so it just cost Apple $1299 (actually £950 over here). I wonder how many firewire ports that is?

Ben

PS - I'm fully aware that this ain't exactly a crisis on a par with the National Debt. Just a little rant...

Edit Out Ltd
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