MacBook Air - What's the point?

[Qion]

Apple's new machine is impressive for obvious reasons, but does it really fill any preexisting gap in our market? And at that, a gap larger than the difference between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro? (I feel the iMac is in a class of its own and doesn't really compare to either machine. No interchangeable graphics, etc.)

The way I see it, the MacBook Air is slower, less practical and substantially more expensive than the baseline MacBook. In all reality, you're paying an extra $700 to loose 400MHz, an optical drive and two pounds. Both computers' screens are exactly the same size and resolution, and that being so, it's not like having a completely new form factor.

The MacBook Air isn't even a proper multitouch device; the features it has, such as rotating pictures and scanning through Safari tabs, can be implemented in every Apple laptop since the Intel switch.

Can anyone enlighten me?

[bbloke]

Unfortunately, I can't be of much assistance, as I tend to agree with you! When I first saw the MacBook Air, I was impressed by its size. That said, I immediately felt it was not the sort of thing I'd ever buy.

Compared to the MacBook and MacBook Pro, the processor is slower (1.6 or 1.8 GHz), it can have a maximum of half the memory (2 GB), the maximum hard drive size is smaller (80 GB), I expect the graphics hardware to be less capable (than the MacBook Pro at least), it has fewer USB ports (only one), there are no FireWire ports, it doesn't appear to be suitable for Front Row, the audio output is mono, it does not include an optical drive as standard, there is no ethernet port, and it is similar in price to a low end MacBook Pro and beginning to approach double the price of a low end MacBook.

I tend to prefer higher end machines, but would certainly choose a MacBook over a MacBook Air. To me, the MacBook Air looks amazing and is a nice piece of design, but it simply has not got the features I'd virtually take for granted. I hope the MacBook Air is not the new Cube.

[Greg Reez]

When I was going over the specs, it sounded to me like they are trying to get this thing to appeal more to business travelers & executives... Those that don't necessarily have time to mess with CDs, wires, and such. I'm sure they ran the whole gamut about pros and cons, and I'm sure they saw that if you want a little more you'll just go with the MacBook Pro, but for me, I think its brilliant for them to try to appeal to these people. It's lighter & smaller (easier to fit in your lap on an airplane & easier to carry amongst your magazines & newspapers), only one USB port (big deal, most of us who travel frequently for business alot only need one USB when you think about it). Its pretty clear that this system isn't meant to have several laser printers, scanners, dual monitors and such... In fact, as it was going through development I'm sure they wanted to target it to those that move around alot.

As for us, I'm pretty sure most of us are graphic designers like myself, IT Pros, developers, etc. there's is nothing that we can benefit from in purchasing the MacBook Air.

If you ask me, I think its brilliant. May not be very popular on the whole, but I think its awesome. Rather than more technical, it seems like they went more practical for a certain market... I don't think WE are in that market.

[Rhisiart]

The production process and innovation required for development of the MacBook Air may extend to improvements in other existing Apple products in the future. That said, I hope it sells.

[Soulwar]

It is innovation. It has to start somewhere or it will never be.
And isn't that the point?

[Qion]

Greg has a good point; myself and most of the people contributing to this forum are not in the target market of the MacBook Air. A traveling airplane-oriented executive type would buy it all day long I suppose; however, it's not something practical for a majority of we artists and IT people.

I'll admit I had my own idea of what the new MacBook would look like, and it was quite a bit more risqué than the Air. Touchscreen instead of a keyboard, what.

[Mikuro]

The way I see it, the only problem with the MacBook Air is the price. And the same is true of all super-small laptops. This isn't really strange. Most technology starts off being obscenely expensive. I hope that these big flash drives take off and come down in price enough to fit inside the Mini and MacBook. (By the way, they are flash drives, right? They never refer to them with that word, just as SSD drives, so I'm not sure it's the same technology.)

I was excited about the specs, until I saw the price. An extra $999 for a flash drive is shocking.

Personally, I'm not sorry to see the optical drive go. I wish the desktop systems didn't come with them, to be honest! To me, it's a waste of money. I wonder how many functionally-identical optical drives I've bought over the years. I've almost always had a more capable external model. Of course, laptops are a bit different. Apple is obviously pushing their iTunes agenda. The question is, do people need an optical drive on the go for anything besides movies?

[Satcomer]

The only problem I see is the lack of High speed connections throughout the USA & Canada. Just because you are in major city doesn't mean you have access to high speed connections to the net. Even in the US capital of Washington D.C there are large swaths of suburbs not covered by ANY high speed access!

The last i was in Canada when you get away from Toronto (less than 100K then high speed is not available. Contrary to belief the Western Hemisphere is WAY behind the rest of the developed world in access to high speed, especially the USA.