6 comments

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  Achilles

  1 year ago

  It's easy to agree with the thrust of this article - at the current prices Mac Air is destined to be a niche product - but it does break some new ground. The idea of relying entirely on the air interface (wireless) is new for a notebook. By doing this Apple has done away with the the optical drive as well as Ethernet and Firewire interfaces, A single USB is retained as a means of plugging in an external Ethernet, optical drive or flash drive. These are just fall-back items if no wireless network is available. It's an interesting concept, though it is market-limiting. Freely accessible WiFi may be ubiquitous in the US, but that's not neceesarily the case elsewhere in the world. Two other innovations are noteworthy: solid-state disk (but at a hefty price premium), and the enhanced trackpad. Mac Air seems to be a testbed for the last two features which we will presumably see in other Macbook products. My biggest disappointment is that Macbook Pro is so long neglected - no security devices, no SSD, no Blu Ray drive - it's being eclipsed by the latest Windows notebooks.
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  billiam

  1 year ago

  i think everyone is missing the point. if you want a portable desktop- buy a macbook pro. if you want a real laptop- buy the macbook air. this (like all laptops) is not designed to replace your desktop. playing games, ripping dvds, and holding onto 500 gigabytes of music and movie is not for a laptop. buy a desktop. the size is the best part. everyone was upset with the iphone- not enough memory, too big, i can't control my garage door opener with it, i cannot open tins of tuna with it.
  name another company that has a phone that does what apple's does. you cannot. name another company that made a very portable laptop. you cannot. i think that people just want to be able to do the same with a laptop that you can do with a desktop. nothing is ever good enough. buy a macbook pro if you need a portable desktop.
  
  and you can get to the battery very easily if you have a torque bit and five minutes.
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  Hobbs

  1 year ago

  Right on the money!
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  AM

  1 year ago

  I think its you who are "perpetuating the myth".
  Apple never makes products for the "masses" - if it did it would be killed by the Asus's and Lenovo and other mass producing PC companies. I buy Apple products because each product is extremely functional and does "just enough" for the target market.
  Thats why there's no $100 iPod's with crappy screens and menu's (BUT oooh I got an FM Tuner - which seems to be what every crappy mp3 payer under $100 seems to be sporting)
  Thats why there's no $30 Airport Base station or a $300 Apple Desktop.
  Apple can never survive making "me-too" products.
  Each feature Apple ha dropped from the Air is something I have not used in the last 6 months on my PB: Ethernet port, Modem (over 2 years!), Firewire port, DVD Burner - its impressive how Apple can "guess" what technology is going to be obsolete and move on... remember the floppy?
  
  Having tried out the Air, I can say that this is one heck of solidly built portable for the size. This is targeted as a accessory TO the iPod or iPhone.
  
  They did not discontinue the MacBook or the MB Pro - so why do you think there will not be an update?
  
  And finally to those who say SSD is at a "hefty premium" - go ahead and find another laptop with an SSID that is cheaper or is as well designed - SSD is simply expensive - dont you get that?
  
  Yes, the Air is not for you and me - but there are millions of computer users who do not want a MacBook or MBPro and just want to use the Internet, send e-mail, watch a few movies bought/rented over the Internet - thats the direction with the Air - its just a beginning!
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  ScottMac

  1 year ago

  AM: it's one heck of an expensive accessory, which is kind of my point: spending way too much for way too little gives credence to the elitist view of Mac users.
  
  I'll be frank: if I had the extra money for something like this, I'd like to have it. But if it's just for casual use, I'm perfectly happy with my EEE and the extra cash.
  :)
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  ASgiov

  1 year ago

  I agree that the Macbook Air is a bit much for what your getting for right now.
  
  Trying to think about why Apple priced this the way they did though, I think they did it because they didn't want to alienate their other notebooks, having everybody just buy the Air and ignore the Macbook and Macbook Pro. I also believe that at the current price point, not a whole lot of people will be buying the air and therefore Apple will have time to ramp up production on the product.
  
  Honestly. I'd have to say though, one of the biggest factors Apple probably looked at when pricing the notebook is looking at competition, namely Sony's TZ series notebooks, of which are slightly more expensive than the MB Air. If all you wanted was a featured notebook that was 3lbs and you looked at Sony's TZ and Apples Air, then it would all just come down to which compromises you wanted to make for that 3lbs.
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