New Macbooks: brand confusion and overlap

No real surprises during the Macbook talk in Cupertino -most of the material leaked already. On the surface, things are fine, but there are some glitches in what most people seem to consider a great step up. There is *way* too much overlap.

Let's recap

• What's the next reduction from a single button? That's right! None!
  
• Equalized hardware architecture for MacBook, MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. All have the same base IGP solution (G9400M) inside a single-chip mainboard solution from the blood-thirsty demons who bought the demoscene and forgot to tell the world they screwed up a whole generation of graphics cards -Nvidia
• The MacBook Pro has an additional G9600M GT 512Mb.
• New 24" display with iSight, speakers, mini DisplayPort and a MagSafe connector (which I really, really like).
• The oldskool Macbook in white plastic gets a price drop for being such a good sell all these years.
  

Overlap

• Every new MacBook (regular, Air or Pro), now shares the same hardware architecture. You're essentially presented with a number of speed-bumps and additions/reductions at a financial premium. Plenty of the disparity of old MBP with the MB are gone -up to the plastic vs. alu casing and hen you really look at things like an end-user, the difference between the MacBook and the MacBook Air is how much junk can plug into it.
  
  During QA the question was raised whether the new MacBook was going to eat away at the MacBook Pro market. They don't seem to think so, but I have strong doubts there.
• The new 24" display costs twice that of a competing screen. On top of that, it has to compete with the old 20", 24" and 30" siblings in sales. With the craziness for matte screens among professionals, don't think they'll fall from grace just yet.
• Not only does the MacBook Pro muddle affairs with the BTO models of the MacBook, it discredits its big brother: the 17" MacBook Pro (still awaiting the refresh).
• Worse still: the spiffy new MacBook has to deal with its plastic predecessor -with a slight price cut. Apple used to sell EOL overstock through their Apple stores at a cut, but this is a new turn of events. I'm not sure how this is supposed to be an entry-level solution -netbooks sold at half price can (illegally) run OS X just fine.
• No significant design or technology gap sets the MacBook Air apart from either the regular or the Pro model. You're ending up paying way more for slightly less of possibilities and ports to stuff plugs in. I honestly doubt that the e-penis envy of the old Air will work with the new model.

I liked the old proposition: MacBook for regular users, MacBook Pro for professionals (or rubes like myself) and eventually the MacBook Air for people who seriously believe that there is such a thing as an answer to ultra-portable computers from Apple (it's expensive, after all).