The MacBook Air Is a Sign of Things to Come
The MacBook Air has, unfairly in my opinion, had quite a bit of criticism heaped on it. I think a good deal of this was bitterness from those suckers* who actually thought a tablet of some sort was going to be released and then got their panties in a twist when Apple didn’t oblige them. But that is what happens when you let wishful thinking take the place of rational thought. However, we are not talking about Apple’s imaginary tablet, we are talking about the very real MacBook Air. More specifically, we are talking about what this product means for Apple as a whole. I think it is yet another signal of what direction Apple is moving in. Here are some of my thoughts.
This is just the beginning of Multi-Touch
Expect every Mac laptop to have this feature inside of six months. The MacBook Air is just a pretty way of testing out the initial bugs that the Multi-Touch interface will have. Undoubtedly there will be many hiccups along the way as a result of the expanded capabilities it will be expected to handle. This is why Apple didn’t add this feature to the MacBook Pros. They wanted to test this feature, they just didn’t want too many people to be affected if things don’t quite work initially. If you are going to buy a MacBook Air, consider yourself a volunteer beta tester, you lucky dog.
However, Apple will improve this technology so that when it goes into the rest of its machines it works flawlessly. When 3rd party developers really start to develop unique ways to use this feature, you can take that as a sign that the rest of their laptops are about to be upgraded. In fact, I think Apple will have a special application waiting to be released when Multi-Touch is available on all its systems. Much like PhotoBooth solely exists to make use of that nifty camera, expect something similar to prove that Multi-Touch is more than just a gimmick.
Apple’s focus is shifting away from desktops
If you haven’t noticed lately, Apple has been diversifying its interests. They have already begun to move away from computers and yet, even within that market they are moving away from desktops. Notice, please, that the updated Mac Pro was quietly announced prior to MacWorld while the laptop division got center stage for its new product. For the foreseeable future, all innovation on the desktop is going to slow to a crawl. Apple will continue to update its machines no doubt, but don’t expect anything new for a while. Clearly their focus is on the mobile sector and so the specs, models, and form factor for their desktops won’t change for a long time. Does anyone remember how long it has been since the Mac Pro looked different? I believe its last major change was back when it was in a plastic case and still had a G4 processor in it. Don’t expect things to get better anytime soon either.
Apple is done with discs
Having always been several years ahead of the curve, you can chalk “no disc drive” up on the list of trends they are starting. Give it a year and every laptop they sell will be without a disc drive. Give it maybe another year after that and you will see flash storage become the standard option. Apple is moving towards a completely solid state solution for mobile computing. They are moving towards their goal of no disk drives, nothing spinning internally, and instant-on access. I can virtually promise you that Apple’s goal is to create a laptop that turns completely on in just an instant. I’m sure they are just waiting for the memory capacities of flash to increase a bit more before they really start pushing this, but they are definitely chugging along in this direction. Wait two years and you will see Jobs walk onto stage with a laptop that powers itself on remarkably like an iPhone.
* [If you are one of these unfortunate people please understand that you are very gullible. If someone offers to sell you a bridge, don’t buy it, it’s a trap.]
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James, to quote one of my fav CEOs, “and one more thing!” Add a quasi-subnotebook for road warriors to Lotus Notes for the Mac, Lotus Notes and MS Exchange capabilities for the iPhone, more powerful XServes. The consumer market isn’t the one interested in most of this stuff. I believe Apple is posed to make a run at the enterprise market.
as provoking as this article is positioned among the many opinions I don’t quite see any sense in using the kind of strong language You do in this article to discriminate the subjectively good from the bad…
The directions You are pointing at are very well observed, alas, I don’t think that things will move THAT fast… Apple is keeping technology at the edge in their equipment BUT they also want to sell a lot of solutions to the customers- what customers do not take any joy from is playing beta tester for sth that is ripe in about a year- take the iphone- they spent three years refining the whole thing, and that was almost not enough time…
So as for Your statement that disc drives get obsolete I say “HO, Fury”... this still is a very convenient and cheap way to save Your data and let’s not forget what we still MAJORLY are exchanging our music with… so in spite of all this music jingling in my ear, it is quite far- off from the here and now I’d say…
But for the macAir… I was, am and probably will be stunned and amazed by this piece of art and well thought of solutions… cheers!
The MacBook Air has, unfairly in my opinion, had quite a bit of criticism heaped on it.
What a surprise. You think that all criticism of every Apple product is unfair.
Having always been several years ahead of the curve, you can chalk “no disc drive” up on the list of trends they are starting.
Sure, if you don’t count, as just one example, the optical-driveless Toshiba R500 with 64GB SSD, weighing in at 1.72 pounds and costing about $400 less than the SSD Macbook Air. Then there’s Fujistu, Sony, and, well you get the idea.
Because I thought that “ahead of the curve” meant that they were, you know, ahead of the curve. But of course, this is James’s deluded Apple fantasyland where Steve Jobs invented fire, the wheel, and electricity.*
*[yes, James, you are exceedingly gullible to everything Jobs tells you; he’s not only sold you that bridge, but all the cars on it as well]
I haven’t perused this particular group for very long, but I get a distinct sense that Beeblebrox has a bone to pick with Apple (lost stock options perhaps?) Certainly any feedback, positive or negative, is essential & welcome for proper dialogue. But your constant accusations that Apple users are “exceedinlgy gullible to everything Jobs tells you” is equally balanced by your obvious biased distaste for everything coming out of Cupertino. Once again, challenges to users’ comments are certainly welcome, but do they need to keep on taking the form of personal attacks?
P.S.—I also can see many potential drawbacks of the MacBook Air design, but that shouldn’t necessarily take away from its promising aspects. I also don’t feel a strong need to belittle those who may have similar nice things to say.
But your constant accusations that Apple users are “exceedinlgy gullible to everything Jobs tells you” is equally balanced by your obvious biased distaste for everything coming out of Cupertino.
I have SUCH a distaste for everything coming out of Cupertino, that I own two Macs and an iPod and am currently saving up for a Macbook Pro.
That could only qualify as “obvious bias” to a blindingly ignorant Apple fanboy - my disdain for whom you have me dead to rights and which I do not deny one iota.
As for personal attacks, our illustrious James here belittled ALL Windows users as “stupid” in one of his recent articles.
But I guess that’s okay.
The thing is you can criticise Beeblebrox, but he’s not the one making things up here, this article is just ridiculously ignorant of everything else out there, implying that Apple are leading the way in losing optical drives and using SSD memory.
They are leading the way in expecting users to survive on very few ports on their computer (ie one!), that is the real trailblazing in this product.
They are leading the way in expecting users to survive on very few ports on their computer (ie one!), that is the real trailblazing in this product.
Hasn’t that always been Apple’s definition of “ahead of the curve.” Getting people to pay more for less?
Beetlebrox: “Hasn’t that always been Apple’s definition of “ahead of the curve.” Getting people to pay more for less?”
And yet, you allegedly “own two Macs and an iPod and am currently saving up for a Macbook Pro.”
I call bulls**t on this.
And yet, you allegedly “own two Macs and an iPod and am currently saving up for a Macbook Pro.”
No, I don’t allegedly own them. I do in fact own them. And yes, I paid more and got less (with the exception of the iPod). I know it’s hard to believe that an infidel blasphemer like me, who doesn’t suckle at the teet of every word that comes out of Jobs’s mouth like you do, would be even be ALLOWED to purchase a Mac, right? But I needed them for the work I do. Otherwise, I wouldn’t own a computer that cost more than $500, let alone one that cost $1700 (my iMac at the time I bought it).
Beeblebrox: “who doesn’t suckle at the teet of every word that comes out of Jobs’s mouth like you do”
What evidence do you have of this? Of course, you have none. You don’t even know who I am. My comments on this blog have been far more balanced and analytical than yours - almost equally critical as much as laudatory. Seems to me that such inflammatory statements are nothing more than a desperate attempt to get attention.
Beeblebrox: “No, I don’t allegedly own them. I do in fact own them.”
Based on almost all of the comments you’ve ever left on this blog, you would be accusing yourself of being an idiot for owning them.
It’s too bad the comments are being allowed to diminish the editorial on this site.
I noticed that lots of people like the fact that the keyboard was back-lit.
I think this is an Apple thing because Apple’s keyboards are traditionally hard for people who touch type. I thought my wife’s year-old iMac was hard to type on, but my new iMac is much harder. I expect the Mac Air continues this trend.