Apple recruiting Sony VAIO engineers to build the first Intel PowerBook?
posted July 30th 2005 1:39PM
Will the first Intel PowerBooks be designed by a team of ex-Sony engineers? Could be. A reliable source tells us that Apple has been "having trouble playing catch up with the learning curve for designing using the Intel platform" and that in order to have an Intel-based PowerBook out by next year they've been scrambling to recruit an engineering team with some experience building light and thin Intel-based laptops. And how are they going to do that? By poaching from Sony apparently, by hiring a headhunting firm in Japan which has been trying to recruit as many current Sony VAIO and ex-Sony VAIO engineers as they can in order to have a team in place as soon as possible. Sounds a little crazy, but it wouldn't be the first time that Apple's turned to Sony for assistance — you might recall that they had Sony help them design the very first PowerBook way back in 1991.
Apple always makes overpriced crap, doesn't matter PPC or MacTel.
I agree, it was. It hadn't been, and recently it looks better.
Experienced engineers with good Sony's experimental data worth a lot of bucks for consumers' satisfaction, which will really count a lot for the Intel powerbook. Apple really needs a good launch.... Mr. Jobs will do a better greater job covering himself, just, this time around, I think. Since Jobs came back, there are such many hurtful mistakes... to users' feeling.... It is funny, though fun experience with products, I think the degree Apple and Sony hurt their fans are quite comparable.
HELLO!!! do you think apple would really drop there design etc to start looking like sony vaios???? NO! They are trying to hire engineers to keep its thin and lightweight design not change its aesthetic appearance.. apple's designer is jonathan ives and there is no way he would move towards ugly vaios
I agree sam.
Products of Sony and Apple are looked as better crafted; but design students can tell they are different horses. It is good for consumers over all though. I don't want the same thing, but more better choices.
:-) Perhaps Sony could hunt for Apple industrial designers (ha ha). Nowadays both companies should overhaul their customer services! Their stuffs break easier, faster, costlier.
"Others notables include IBM/Lenovo, Fujitsu, Samsung, Toshiba, Sharp and Panasonic who still produce their own designs but are not as groundbreaking."
STFU man..not as ground breaking? Riiiight. Go to Japan and look at what kind of lapttops Fujitsu, Toshiba, Sharp, Panasonic, and NEC are selling.
You guys are all so intresting. Puking up old tech crap and socially isolating nerd jargon will not make PC laptops any more reliable or MACtOPs any better lookin'.
If you are trying to convine me that the Apple design team cannot put together a powerbook Intel machine, well we all better switch to windoze, believeable no, laughable yes. If Apple has been running all it's OS on an intel for the past 5 years, you would think that the design team would be looking at it too.
I doubt the basis of this story. Japanese employees still don't just switch companies after an approach from a head-hunter. My own students still dream of entering a company at 22 and staying there until they retire/die -- and the rare, lucky ones do (although thankfully few deaths as yet, I've seen a dozen or so nervous breakdowns by people getting jobs at certain companies).
If Apple is really trying to 'head-hunt' existing employees from a Japanese firm, they're shooting themselves in the foot because only the crap ones will ever move. It isn't a question of money in Japan at all, the whole loyalty to the company and live to work ethic is still much stronger.
This is all not even mentioning what it would do to any potential business tie-up with Sony.
In any case, I don't see why Sony should be seen as 'that much better' than any other. It's not something I know anything about, but Is the internal architecture really so much better than anything else in the Intel world? Does Sony really do more than re-engineer and stick nice (for Japanese electronics firms) covers on things?
That doesn't sound crazy at all. The Vaio is one of the few notebooks in a class of design comparable to Apple's, and it uses an Intel processor. Vaio expertise and experience + Apple styling and ease-of-use culture would potentially be a mighty powerful combination.
Lets hope their new Powerbooks don't have the problem of burning the logic board out so only 1 RAM slot is recognised... Just like their current ones do.
Jay says: "bunch of apple loving idiots here."
But many more prejudiced Apple hating worms out there.
"IBM thinkpads are utilitarian. They are excellent notebooks, extremely reliable and utterly boring."
They're no more or less boring than the Powerbook's brushed aluminum or the iBook's glossy white. They're matte black, yes, but so are the SR-71 Blackbird and the Stealth Fighter, and nobody would call them "boring". The Thinkpad T23 I'm using for work is a really nice looking laptop, at least as elegant as the 'books and a whole lot more solid and comfortable to use.
If there's any truth to the story it might be Apple wanting to hire some engineers with experience in building carbon fiber cases. Sony's slimmest notebooks use carbon fiber casings that are far more rigid and much lighter than their older magnesium casings or nickel plated carbon fiber casings. Apple uses aluminum for their cases because it provides very nice heat dissipation but isn't nearly as tough or light as carbon fiber.
Should hire Fujitsu engineers. Pretty solid+thin+ligth machines, excellent performance like the former ThinkPads.
My First Sony Laptop
Yes, Sony did help Apple built my PowerBook 2400c.
It's nice to hear that history will be repeating itself--for the better--this time.
so the mac at the keynote was a fake?
"..photoshop...boom... i-tunes... boom... rosetta... boommm.."
ahhaha what a liar.
Apple hiring headhunters to recruit Sony engineers doesn't equate to Apple turning to Sony for assistance. Headhunting is a downright scandalous practice: hiring an outside firm to cold call happily employed engineers and offering them tons of money to switch, all the while shielded from the legal implications because Apple isn't doing the calling. It seems business is business, especially in the PC market.
I'm amazed at people saying they actually like IBM laptops. I have to use one at work. It has no Start Menu button (but it has an "Access IBM" button--WAY more important), it has no right-click button, but there are Back & Forward buttons next to the cursor keys so you can hit them by accident, the volume controls talk directly to the hardware and don't show in the OS (so you can't SEE if you're on mute, duh!), and there's this spastic little white LED above the screen to illuminate your hands while you're typing (can't see the keys underneath, though). These are just the highlights. IBM are moronic.
Sony engineers will help Apple design a FAST, sub-1 inch thick PowerBook to make a great entrance for the first batch of Intel Macs.
Homer: Fake? Developer's have been sent them to use. They were on the show floor. I've used one. They're not fake. This article is about LAPTOPS. Steve demoed a DESKTOP.
I think this is the first time Sony had realy helped Apple!
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Hide_Under_This_Desk.txt&topic=Hardware&sortOrder=Sort%20by%20Date&detail=medium
So Have a nice day!
Apple + Sony = Divinity
I hope they are able to partition the Hard drive precisely in half. Half for XP and half for OSX. That would solve all my problems. I would call it a Smack (Sony/Mack) and would no longer need two computers. And don't even mention Virtual PC...
though at times very arrogant, mac users dont come here to pointlessly bicker about unproven facts (fanboys left aside). lack of understanding about pcs or macs dosent help anyone here. each computer has its purpose, its like arguing which is better coke or pepsi - in the end it comes down to PREFERENCE and what you need. sorry avid fanboys but there is no right or wrong answer for computer choice if you're happy and satisfied with what you buy. Chances are if this rumor is true, it will, as many people have previously stated have to do with internal organization and setup, not cosmetics blended with functionality which is something that apple is recognized worldwide for. the first problem here is that many people pass off rumor as fact. funny, seemed to be a problem in high school.
I noticed in the comments left on this site and on others, numerous times people saying why don't they just have Asus or Quanta do it for them; or why don't they just buy Asus. Heck why don't they hire Asus engineers.
As someone who has been doing product design in this industry, I would like to clarify things a bit for everyone. First, don't mean to harsh on my friends and aquantances at Asus and Quanta; but most of the really difficult design techniques that these engineers have learned, they have learned it from Sony and Apple, and perhaps a few other Japanese companies. They have some great engineers, but they are essentially playing follow the leader. Now if you were Apple faced with some new challenges, would you take it to someone that is just following your design guidance or would you take it to a team of engineers, e.g. Sony's engineers, whom are at least attempting to be one of the leaders in their industry.
What's with all the Macheads saying that the VAIO designs are crap? Granted, they seem to be either hit or miss, but how is 8.5 hours of battery life "shit"? Or 13, if you put a double capacity battery in some models.
Also, as far as design is concerned, certain VAIO models are some of the nicest looking laptops around. http://vaio-online.sony.com/prod_info/vgn-a19gp/index.html?au - In my personal opinion, this laptop (which I have one of) blows the Powerbook designs to Mars and back. Sony's tasteful use silver, black and sleek, sexy curves wipe the floor with Mr Ive's designs.
Also, take a look at the developer interview; You can certainly see how Sony Japan's designers work; The team responsible for the A series (and the Z1 before it) are obsessed with quality and sturdiness.
Quoted: "HK: An ordinary notebook design has a strong body if the side is perpendicular to the body surface. However, with the new curved edge along the side, more screws were needed to secure the body strength. We also came up with the idea of using magnesium to make the body stronger, even where the sides are thin. There are no worries now about body strength."
So I'm sorry to disappoint the deluded Macheads out there... but Sony do put out some beautiful laptops. Compare this to the way the battery juts out slightly on the iBook due to a design flaw. Great design there, guys! And the Powerbook can cook eggs and bacon given a few hours. Even better!
http://prometheus.idea-digital.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=214
Bite me :P
I own a powerbook and a sony vaio the s series> I can say that the powerbook is a better design. first of all sony's notebook is quite messy, in that there are buttons and lights, that shouldn't have to be there like a wireless switch... wtf is that all about, if you can switch it off with the software. They hide their ports under cheap plastic covers, i prefer mine tastfully exposed,they make it easier to reach, no dvi just vga which is soooo old fashioned, the underside of the sony is horrific, all the screws and shit are aweful and yes i look at the underside of my notebooks when i need to carry them around. the airflow outlet is aweful (the whole thing runs like a hairdryer and heats up so much plastic curls up), cover doesn't have a latch and it doesn't close properly so if you are carrying it around it will snag on any loose clothing. the touch pad feels like a file. horrible drive, not slot load. stupid model name on the top left of screen, why the hell would i care about the model i'm using... not like most people will know what a VGN-S3XP will look like. shitty nividia, microsoft and centrino stickers round the whole thing off, which i tried to remove thats when i found out the undercoat is cheap. i do like the curve at the back of te lid but the hinges could have been hidden, the screen is reflective sooo any colour accuracy is thrown out the window. Frankly the powerbook is a better breed compared to the sony, apple is good at all the details, sony tries to make their products look cool, but end up with something that looks generically cool, but totally unrefined. obviously software wise do i even have to say that osx is better, apparently i do. sony has given us some good things like cameras and consoles and they are still really good at design compared to other pc manufacturers, but they are no apple. as for the sturdiness mentioned in post 75 the battery is loose it shakes, it also lasts slighlty longer than a powerbook. the speakers sound really bad when turned up although they are louder than the previous vaio i had, which lasted a year before it pegged. the chrome vaio label and mouse buttons are so ipod. the vaio doesn't wake or go to sleep instantly like an apple, which i use a lot since i move around constanly and waiting to sartup or shut down is not productive. Unless you've owned both computers i wouldn't talk because you would know which one has the better design. I use my mac for most of my work, a pc is used for one app (microstation, a cad app, which is the only one i know how to use), which i specifically need to use since they don't make it for the mac anymore since microsoft contacted them and stuck their fingers up their asses. any 3d work, image manipulation, video editing and general activities are done on my mac, as for games i have a sony psp so i still like them but comparing the two is like comparing champagne and cola.
I like the name SMAC for the hybrid. Now where's my pipe...
Anyone that thinks that Apple will change the look of the PowerBooks just because they "Might" have some ex-Sony guys working for them can think again. Do you honestly think that just because they have these guys working for them that they will let them tinker with the design that Johnathan Ive has done, I think he would take a baseball bat to their faces.
So now thats got that straight, I believe that the new Intel Powerbooks, when they come sometime down the line, will be better performace than the original powerbooks out atm that im writting on. As in the WWDC 2005, Steve Jobs was showing everyone Tiger (OS X 10.4) on an Intel G5, which didnt look any different to how it does now, so the powerbooks wont either, its just a "engine replacement", if you will.
It will be like putting a Ferrari engine in a mini.
Anyone that thinks that Apple will change the look of the PowerBooks just because they "Might" have some ex-Sony guys working for them can think again. Do you honestly think that just because they have these guys working for them that they will let them tinker with the design that Johnathan Ive has done, I think he would take a baseball bat to their faces.
So now thats got that straight, I believe that the new Intel Powerbooks, when they come sometime down the line, will be better performace than the original powerbooks out atm that im writting on. As in the WWDC 2005, Steve Jobs was showing everyone Tiger (OS X 10.4) on an Intel G5, which didnt look any different to how it does now, so the powerbooks wont either, its just a "engine replacement", if you will.
It will be like putting a Ferrari engine in a mini.
Well THAT explains quite a bit to me! I have a Sony VAIO laptop that I use only on my office desk - translation - it doesn't get ANY portable abuse, and the lid for the LCD rarely gets closed. It has recently developed cracks at the hinges for the LCD screen. I'm a bit pissed, because I baby this thing to death. And when I do take it off my desk, it is only to sit in a chair or take a poop.
Well, I now know why my Powerbook 190 (circa 1996) had an LCD screen that was built like shit. It TOO developed cracks at the hinges, and was also treated with TLC, and if I remember right, it had a Sony-built LCD, repackaged by Apple.
Seems to me after ten years of failures, Sony could redesign their shitty hinges.
And my battery life is not the 8.5 hours quoted by someone above, but rather LESS THAN 20 MINUTES. Thanks, Sony.
I swore I would never buy another Sony, and now I can add to that blacklist an Apple/Intel machine (which I was quite excited about until I found this bit of info out) until Apple fires all the Sony idiots it hires when the screens all start breaking off and the batteries all die right after the warranty expires.
And Sony won't let you use any third-party batteries when you try to defect from their shitty batteries - you get an error message rejecting the battery on your screen.
I literally just handed the Powerbook to someone at some college in Colorado, just like the story of someone else above. I wonder if that guy went to the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, because I got rid of my shitty screened Powerbook that way... walked into the school library, asked someone if they needed a computer, and when someone said yes, I just handed it to him and left. What a piece of shit. And I was a diehard Apple devotee right up to the release of OS X when I defected to the dark side because my employment required software not yet available on OS X.
The moral of the story - Sony does NOT know how to build a quality laptop, so this is NOT good news. Apple is a great company, but this is not great news.
I really hope either the rumor is true or those engineers left Sony because they were dissatisfied by the company. I (with 2 friends) have bought 3 sony Vaio GRX-316 and they all crumbled down within the first year. Even though it was during the guarantee time sony refused to fix them. I ended up leaving my laptop in a corner and hey... guess what, getting a mac.. I don't want to pay 800$ for a new mobo just to face the same exact problem 10 months later.
I'll never buy any sony laptop again, ever. And if Apple gets any inspiration from them I'll go back to Windows 3.1.