Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 24-odd hours, you will have heard about the new Macbook Air ultra-slim laptop from Apple. Reactions seem to be falling into two categories:
Since everyone else is talking about it, I thought I would join in the fun.
In Web Worker Daily, Judi Sohn wonders whether the Air will suffer the same fate as the G4 Cube (remember those?). No beating around the bush for GearCrunch, who think that it "is bascially useless". At CenterNetworks the “common man” take is that it has just enough bang for the buck. Stuart Colville is pondering (what I’m pondering) whether the Air will fly?.
I’ve skipped the “must have it” links because they’re plentiful and subject to the infamous Reality Distortion field.
In a nutshell, I think the Air is a fantastic design, but I’m not sure what market Apple is aiming at.
I think the price (sans solid state drive) is too close to the MacBook Pro, and the killer feature (its slimness) combined with its shortcomings (1 USB, new connectors, no optical drive) don’t make the deal any more attractive. I suspect it will only be bought by poseurs and people with too much money (i.e. multiple machines) – basically Apple die-hards.
Feature-full or feature-less?
Lets talk about those shortcomings for a minute. A common thread I’ve picked up on in the other posts is that it is just not a serious laptop with no optical drive nor audio input ports and only one USB port. Now I may be biased due to using Linux, but I can count the number of times I use my optical drive in a month on one hand (and occasionally no hands). Is it really that important? Audio input for me means one thing – Skype (or any other VoIP) – and having compared a USB headset to a standard Line-In, there is no comparison so the lack of audio input doesn’t bother me either. As for the single USB, have people not heard of USB hubs? I rarely use more than one USB device at a time, if at all. The simple fact is that the Air is not a MacBook Pro or desktop replacement, but many seem to be missing this important point. The final nail in the coffin for the Air though is its size. It is just too big. No, I’m not confused – it’s lack of, er, depth cannot be ignored – but the footprint is too big for an ultra-portable.
Remote Disk, meet apt-get
Apple are trying to compensate for the lack of optical drive by giving us the software to turn any nearby Mac into a networked drive. Nice feature (as long as you remember to carry around the Remote Disk media with you), but I think I’ve been spoilt by years of Linux use where software is only an click or a command away. Even when I used Microsoft Windows we could just share our CD drives with a couple of clicks, and most software (excluding games of course) would be happy to install. These days though if I want it, I just apt-get it. Why bother with disks for software at all?
If Apple is serious about digital distribution (and everything indicates they are) then they need to address this shortcoming.
Putting my money where my mouth is
…or rather back in my wallet. If I were to be given an Air (or a very significant discount on one) I’d be quite happy, providing it was running Ubuntu of course! However if I were looking for a new laptop today then for that sort of money I’d probably get a MacBook Pro, but if I was looking for an ultra-portable then I would look elsewhere. Give me something the size (and ideally the price) of the EeePC but with better performance and I’d be sold. If they’d priced the Air between the MacBook and the MacBook Pro, I would be tempted. As it stands today, I do think it is a fantastic design, but that alone is not a good enough reason to buy one.
Maybe it is the next G4 Cube after all…
What do you think?
Tags: air, Apple, Linux, macbook, macbook air
Of course the true MacFans will be putting their money right in Steves pocket, lapping up the early adopter price tag. Remember the iPhone price drop recently? It’ll come down in price, but like you, it still wont make me buy one.
The lack of optical drive strikes me as a clever mechanism to further strengthen iTunes’ dominance in the "legal MP3 sales" market, and to further drive Apple customers to rely on the iTunes music store.
I know a lot of people purchase iTunes songs, burn them to CD, then re-rip them to MP3 format for use on non-iPod devices. The Apple Air will effectively put an end to that practice for its users. Certainly not the biggest deal in the world, but I think it’s a sufficiently interesting wrinkle to merit a comment.
No optical drive is not bad, and not new - the smaller members of the Panasonic Toughbook line have never had one (and I’ve used one as my primary machine for four years now). One USB port also not bad - use a hub. Slimness, probably not bad, but not important - and again, not new; Sony had/has an insanely thin subnotebook in carbon fiber for the executive who has everything (except a sense of value for money).
But no ethernet? Only wireless? This is supposed to be a travel notebook. Sure, wireless is common, but so are wired ports (especially at hotels). And you may well prefer wired over wireless given the choice anyway; less connection troubles, higher speed.
And as you say, for a subnotebook it’s just too big. My R6 has a 10" screen, making the machine the size of a textbook, and quite a bit shorter than A4. That is a decent size; I would not want anything bigger.
I just can’t stand the fact that any Apple solution is so well behaving within a Mac-only environment (Airport, iTunes, Mac to become networked drives, …): that’s even worse than Win!!
Very good looking laptop, though 
Do I like a fantastic looking, good smelling, very cool crystal cage?? Sure I don’t! Let me live in my dirty Ubuntu (and any shitty hardware that’s not Mac) freedom
When asking about target market I think you hit it on the head with the "people with multiple computers" segment. Personally, my preferred method of computing is to have a powerful desktop for "real" work and play, and then a thin & light laptop traveling. Someone who owns a Mac Pro (or even 17" Macbook) and is fully into the Apple world would see the Air as a godsend. Finally they have a sub-4lb machine that they can feel at home with. It’s shortcomings don’t matter because they can just use their "real" computer for those tasks.
As far as the size is concerned, I think the arguments that it is too big are ill-founded. In my experience, once you get to about the footprint of a piece of letter paper, people stop caring about footprint, they care about thickness. Our culture is so subconsciously built around that dimension, once you hit it, objects tend to effectively disappear because they blend in with everything else you are expected to carry so well. The air gets this balance right. The biggest gripe about thin & lights typically is the keyboard and screen size. The Air gives you plenty of room there because of its’ "big" footprint. I think this is a very smart design choice for a thin & light. I mean come on, they’re supposed to be "thin & light" not "cramped & squinty" right?
Also, Skippy, very astute. I think you’re right on with that point, especially in light of the other announcements that happened at Macworld. I think it was mere convenience that leaving out an optical would be required to hit their size & weight targets.
For myself, it’s interesting, but I think I’ll pass at that price point. That said, I know a lot of people for whom this thing will seem like The Answer. If it comes down to sub-$1500 and runs Ubuntu well, I’ll bite.
Don’t forget that the battery isn’t user replaceable…
I have a MacBook Pro and though it is a laptop, it is quite heavy and big to carry around. Basically, it stays at my work and I only bring in with me when I’m traveling.
The MacBook Air is smaller, and weight less, it is perfect to put in your backpack and bring with you everywhere without annoyances. I know a friend who had an older mac laptop, 12" and he was so happy with it because of this reason. It is not an Eee or something similar but a real laptop that you easily can bring around.
It is exactly what I need and want, and well, I won’t really miss the disc drive. I think I used the disc drive in my mac around 4 times the last year and just to copy a few photos… today it is a lot more attractive to buy a small usb harddrive for this usage.
Hi Dave
When Ferrari brings out a new model, do you hear people complaining that it has no towbar, or that you can’t use it for work if you’re a bus driver? Apple have brought out a computer that’s the equivalent of a Ferrari: it’s very sleek and expensive and is most likely to be bought by a wealthy middle aged bloke who doesn’t get laid very often and wants to impress his peers, . If someone has to have a laptop with an optical drive, or with a FW800 port, or with a 120GB HD, there are plenty alternatives available, but they are less likely to make people go "Ooooooh".
So, if it doesn’t have an optical drive nor an ethernet port, then if you were to get one for free how would you go about putting Ubuntu on it?
This is a mix of the never-released Palm Foleo and Intel’s "Metro" super-thin laptop. Both were poor ideas. Palm just didn’t have enough rich Fanbois to make it work.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/palm-foleo-hands-on/
"Is it just me or does that computer only have one USB port?"
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/24/intels-metro-laptop-prototype-is-worlds-thinnest/
"The 0.7-inch thick 2.2-pound Metro [...]"
I don’t get that mentions of USB microphones/headsets for VoIP. Is there anyone using those? With a laptop? Bluetooth headset is a way to talk! Cheap, no wires, doesn’t block USB port. When someone buy laptop for $2k, shelling another $30 fo BT headset is a no brainer.