How about MacBook Express[1]? - ARM based, Mac App Store only for applications[2], no touch screen[3]. Users can be given a trojan free experience and Apple gets a big stick to nudge developers into the Mac App store?
This would rule the casual, unsophisticated user market. HN readers might have one as a second machine, but would probably get a "real" MacBook with the x86 and the freedom to code.
[1] Initially I thought MacBook Light, but then that's why I'm forbidden to name products. Express is already in the Apple product vocabulary and doesn't carry a negative connotation.
[2] Require a cryptographic signature from the Mac App store before any code can be executed. Remember, this gets complicated when you have interpreters on the platform, you have to control the input to them as well or only permit them in sandboxes. (Developers get some sort of testing exemption.)
[3] I don't think touch screen is a part of it. As great as it is for things on a tablet, the ergonomics on a laptop are awkward, and you need to design the application UI twice for people with and without.
This was my thought as well. Recompiling your application for ARM that has already been accepted in the Mac App Store would be pretty straightforward. It would also mean that the only productivity applications on the device would be new ones - Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite would probably never qualify.
This would rule the casual, unsophisticated user market. HN readers might have one as a second machine, but would probably get a "real" MacBook with the x86 and the freedom to code.
[1] Initially I thought MacBook Light, but then that's why I'm forbidden to name products. Express is already in the Apple product vocabulary and doesn't carry a negative connotation.
[2] Require a cryptographic signature from the Mac App store before any code can be executed. Remember, this gets complicated when you have interpreters on the platform, you have to control the input to them as well or only permit them in sandboxes. (Developers get some sort of testing exemption.)
[3] I don't think touch screen is a part of it. As great as it is for things on a tablet, the ergonomics on a laptop are awkward, and you need to design the application UI twice for people with and without.