MacBook Air a balanced package

Stephen Withers
Friday, 18 January 2008 05:21

Opinion and Analysis

Getting back to the battery, the fact that there's only one USB port means you're less likely to attach several power-sapping devices at once, helping each charge to last longer. The absence of an internal DVD drive also helps save power, as you're unlikely to use the external drive during a plane trip, relying instead on content stored on the hard disk or a USB flash drive.

The fact that the hard disk isn't very big means a MacBook Air is unlikely to be your only computer, so many people won't need the optical drive at all thanks to Remote Disk.

Something I think is missing is a system for treating iTunes on the MacBook Air as if it was an iPod or Apple TV - for example, to sync only selected playlists and podcasts. iPhoto syncing would also be useful, so you could transfer your new photos from a camera to the MacBook Air while you're away, then have them slide automagically onto your main Mac when you get back. At the same time, any new photos in specified albums (eg, pics of your kids, grandkids, or significant other) would be copied onto the notebook. Address Book syncing without .Mac would be welcome, and I'm sure you can find some other similar ideas.

The MacBook Air is what it is, and does what it does. I couldn't imagine anyone buying an iPod when it first came out. It was too expensive, for one thing. A lot of other writers thought the same, and boy, were we proved wrong! And how could anyone have even considered buying the first iMac when it didn't have a floppy drive?

As I wrote earlier in the week, just because a product isn't right for you, that doesn't mean the company was wrong to introduce it.

The real question is how many people will buy a MacBook Air. Has Apple put together a package that will resonate with buyers, especially among the general public rather than the more geeky types? Or is it another Cube? No amount of navel gazing or prognostication will answer that. Quite frankly, those of us who comment on Apple don't have an outstanding record when it comes to tipping which products will or won't be big sellers, so let's wait and see.