I'm always very excited when the Apple store goes offline and Apple is presenting its new products but on Tuesday I was even more since I was really curious to see what Apple would have offered after the Greener Apple statement. They disappointed me last May 15th when they updated the MacBook without adding anything relevant for the environment, but I was sure that this time Apple would not have failed to show that they really care to change their environmental policy.
At nearly 14.30 Apple Store went on line, I ran to the Apple site and at the front page I saw the new wonderful MacBook Pro. WOW. Have they launched the first toxic free laptop on the market? Are this new MacBook PVC free or BFRs free? Are they using the mercury free LED display?
The first thing that I noticed is the new advertising banner with the cryptic message: “Vroom with a view”. It looks like a citation from the famous James Ivory's movie “A Room with a View”, but what does it mean in this contest? Ok, vroom probably means that they are incredible fast, good. But with a view? New display, probably. Or it's linked with the picture used in the MacBook desktop: an Alps view with bright green grass and blue sky. It's definitely not the best picture Apple has used so far (it looks like a seventies postcard), but it gives an idea of peace and nature. That with a view could mean a new vision of the world, more attention for the environment... Let's have a look at the specs.
I went all around the specs pages, but the only new I could find about the environment it's the new LED display. It's not what I was expecting, but it's something, it can be a first step, a new view that Apple will give us a Green Mac soon... wait... what is written here:
The new MacBook Pro is available in 15-inch models with a new mercury-free, power-efficient LED-backlit display and a 17-inch model with an optional 1920-by-1200 pixel display.
and in the graphics page:
More than beautiful. The new 15-inch MacBook Pro is better for the environment, thanks to its new mercury-free display.
So, the 15-inch only has the LED display! And this information is really dug in the text. You will not notice it unless you read all the text and nothing is written about it in the technical specs. It doesn't sound serious if you use the display to advertise your new environment policy, and then you do only half of the job.
Apple is not an environment leader launching a LED laptop: Sony launched the “Vaio T-series” with LED display 1 year ago and Dell did the same just the day before yesterday. But Apple missed a good chance to fill the gap with their competitors launching a complete series of new LED mercury-free display laptops. Including the smaller MacBook last week.
Come on Steve, you can do more for the environment: show the world that your statement is not only words and give to all of us a real new view of the computer industry
If you want to help Steve and all the CEOs of the most important electronic companies to take the right decision, sign the Greenpeace challenge: Who will produce the first Greener computer?
Goina