When the MacBook Air came out, most people hated it. They barked at the price and the specs. Not only was it $1,799 but it didn’t have an ethernet port, a firewire port, a disk drive and only had 1 usb port. It looked cool and felt nice, but if it doesn’t have the essential things a computer needs like an ethernet port, than it’s not good enough.
After thinking about the MacBook Air for a while, I have come to a conclusion. Is it possible that the MacBook Air is the step forward for Apple and shows exactly where Apple is going in the upcoming years. Maybe, the MacBook Air is Apple’s plan for its future computers.
I think it was pretty clear to Apple that people were going to not like some things about the MacBook Air. They knew that it was going to get a lot of criticism, but they did it anyways. The question is, “Why?” Why would the release a product that they knew was going to get hate and not sell nearly as much as their other products. I really do not think it was only to set a record for slimmest laptop. Apple doesn’t make things unless they know it’s going to sell, and if they do, they say it was a mistake (Apple TV 1.0). The MacBook Air was made so it could move us to a new world of computing. Everything that was done with the MacBook Air was done for a reason and with a plan.
Let’s look at some of the faults of the MacBook Air. 1) No ethernet. Why would Apple do this? They did it because they envision a world without ethernet cords laying around. With free wifi everywhere and with net neutrality. Isn’t this what we all dream of? You have to remember, Steve Jobs is a visionary and he loves thinking about the future. Steve Jobs hates wires and wants a world without wires. This brings me to my next point.
Some other flaws about the MacBook Air, 2) Only 1 USB port and 3) No firewire port. Why did Apple do this? Again, Steve Jobs hates wires and envisions a world where all your peripherals are wireless. From your mice to your external hard drive… everything. It is not too hard to imagine because we are almost there. The technology is much closer than a lot of people think…
Number 4 and 5 both have to do with storage. 4) No superdrive and 5) small storage capacity. Other than the fact that it was impossible to put these things in without making the MacBook Air much thicker, Apple did this for a reason. First of all, CD’s are becoming extinct. Almost anything on a CD can be found online. All commercial software and games today can be downloaded online as a demo. There is no reason that these should be distributed at a store, on a disk, if you can easily go to a website and download it in 30 minutes. When ever you want to give some music files to someone, you don’t burn them a disk anymore, thats old school. Today, you either send it to them online or put it on a flash drive. As for only a 80 GB hard drive or a 64 GB SSD, Apple is trying to move us to a world, where most of our files are online. .Mac is something I am guessing will improve greatly in the next few years. Imagine .Mac being your Time Machine Drive. Imagine .Mac having all of your applications and having it be open all the time on your computer. This also must come with open wifi everywhere or else you wouldn’t be able to access your files offline. Think about DropBox, a folder on you computer that is connected to a 2GB server. Imagine instead of the 2GB, it was 300GB. The point is, Apple plans to not have to use your local hard drive nearly as much in the future. It really should only be needed for your OS and critical files.
With all of this planned out, out laptops can be cleaner, lighter and sexier while still being able to do the same things we can do now. Unfortunately for Apple, our world is not ready for the MacBook Air because we do not have any of those things that I have been talking about and that is why the MacBook Air completely sucks.
You must realize that the things I said was Apple’s plan is total speculation and will most likely not happen. These things are far fetched, but it does make sense. Now you may have a new understanding of why Apple did some things with the MacBook Air. Maybe, just maybe they did these things not just to make it sexy….
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June 2nd, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Nice writing style. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Chris Moran
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I think the main problem with the Macbook Air is the price. You pay nearly 400 dollars more for a lot less. Does that make sense? I also find that not many people need a laptop THAT SMALL. Laptops nowadays are pretty slim as is and aren’t too hard to carry around via backpack or what not. This is just my 2 cents though
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:42 am
You obviously haven’t used one. This is the best thing since sliced bread! Soo light, looong battery life. A thing of beauty. Sorry if I come up like a fanboy… I am sold!
Don’t just talk about it. Try it, and this tiny little thing will change your mind.
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:54 am
You have a good point E. Polysson, but the thing is, I have used a MacBook Air and I did really like it when I used it. It was think light and worked well. The thing is…. I could NEVER use that as a primary computer and if your not rich, you cant afford to by a mac for over $1000 that is not going to be your primary computer.
My point is, soon, I think apple will make it so we can use something like that as our primary computers. This post wasn’t meant to hate on the Air, just to rant about what Apple could be doing in the future….