MacBook Air or MacBook Bare?

In the battle to make the thinnest ever laptop notebook Apple seem to have won. But are they sacrificing functionality to do so?

The new MacBook Air is certainly a beautiful site. I have yet to touch one but it looks like a work of art which is what you would expect from Apple. It's so thin that you can cut yourself on it. The big question, however, is will Apple's 'thinnovations' be enough to convince people to buy it? It's lacking one distinct feature - a CD drive.

This is a bold decision, and one that could start a new wave of user habits. We are increasingly keeping our data online rather than on hard drives or CDs. Our emails are on mail servers, our photos on Flickr, our videos on YouTube. Apple is starting the push to make machines into more of a portable interface to an online world rather than a physical workstation and ultimately as broadband and WiFi become more commonplace this will be the way we work. The Air, with it's double meaning name, is not only light and portable but is also encouraging data transfer over wireless networks.

Personally I admire the way Apple is going but I also think that right now this laptop would have to be a secondary machine for people who already have workstation. Good for you if you can afford two computers. People who just go for this machine on its own might feel a bit stranded at times or even more frustrated by WiFI blackspots. Nice screen though.

Comments

[David Brain]

great post...sums up my initial thoughts too, though difficult to judge too harshly until one has been seen in the flesh i guess.