Understanding the Post-PC Phenomenon: Apple iPad versus 11-inch MacBook Air

This...

...or this.

This post was inspire by Joanna Stern and Kevin Tofel's discussion on Twitter.

The worse than expected decline in the sales of traditional desktop and laptop computers has spurred a lot of debate on the Web recently. What is the culprit? It really is not too hard to understand. A comparison of two products will explain this phenomenon easily enough. Lets compare the Apple iPad 64 GB with the 11.6-inch Apple MacBook Air 64 GB.

Price. The iPad WiFi 64 GB will cost you Php33,900 at the local Apple Store. The 11.6-inch MacBook Air 64 GB will set you back Php46,990. In this first round, the iPad wins the day by a cool 13K.  The question is, can the 11.6-inch MacBook Air 64 GB make up for a 13K deficit?

Winner: iPad

Display. The iPad 64 GB has a 9.7-inch display as opposed to the 11.6-inch display, and following the bigger is better theory, the 11.6-inch MacBook Air wins that aspect of this category. But this is only part of the story. The smaller iPad display has a sharp 2048 x 1536 resolution display, against the 11.6-inch MacBook Air 1366 x 768 display. Overall, I think most of you will agree, the higher resolution gives the iPad the edge. 

Winner: iPad

Portability. The 11.6-inch MacBook Air is "razor" thin being just 0.67-inches at the thickest point. It is also terribly light at 2.5 pounds. Still, this feels thick and heavy compared to the iPad's 0.37-inches and 1.44 pounds.

Winner: iPad

Battery Life. The 11.6-inch MacBook Air has a battery that will last up to five hours. The iPad will run up to 10-hours on a single charge.

Winner: iPad

Apps. The iPad App Store has over 300,000 dedicated iPad apps. Apple does not post on its website how many apps there are in it MacBook App Store. Two years ago, there were 30,000. I think it is fair to say, the iPad has more available apps.

Winner: iPad

Keyboard. The MacBook Air has a nice keyboard. The iPad has none out of the box. You can add a keyboard to the iPad, but it still wont be as nice as the keyboard on the MacBook Air.

Winner: MacBook Air

Score: 

Apple iPad 64 GB: 5

11.6-inch Apple MacBook Air 64 GB: 1

Many of you will point out that there are other things I should look at like USB or Thurderbolt ports. Other will see I should give the iPad another win for having more and better cameras or having an LTE option available. I think, most of the market sees it my way, with the six categories I selected being what most buyers will consider.