Analysis: What the MacBook Air is and what it isn't

well i want the macbook air and i have heard it is very slow, the only thing i will be using it for is to go on the internet, upload pictunes for webpages, iTunes, and using messengers.

ModBook Air: My Killer Appâ„¢

Have to combined that with a wireless projector adapter and I'm ready to go with one leg of my high tech classroom.

It should be clear to anyone with a bit of imagination that this sleek wafer of sexiness ain't for geeks or paupers. Think of it as a sports car - the De Lorian of laptops. And we all know that the De Lorian was a Time Machine... so it's Back to the Future baby!

Jetsetters, Models, and Designers were the target audience. I agree Apple is setting the bar with all wireless.
But Leopard and Vista are both un-reliable. Until we get serious updates there will be numerous bugs. Watch the apple site get flooded with complaints after people purchase the Air. Having only one broadband connection is ridiculous. Sure you could synch it with your phone but then your wasting more money from your wireless plan.
Given the fact this thing is unupgradeable it does not justify the cost. Even as a secondary laptop. The Macbook is still a better value, portable and 1/4 less in cost. So is the Dell Xps m1330, also 1/4 less in cost and design wise is argueably, still the best looking laptop on the market. I own both the macbook and xps. For portability, value , and features nothing beats these two. And no $1800.00 dollar ,cool looking coaster to put my latte on, will change my mind. If they included some sort of a syncing air dock as mentioned, so you could connect directly to your desktop, Itunes or other folders without third parties.
Added a faster cpu. and trimmed it down to an 11 inch ultraportable. That may have been worth the cost. I hope Apple's marketing strategy pays off. But I wanted something more than an overpriced Frisbee.

The biggest impediment to me buying the MB air is its lack of a firewire port. If I could easily plug in a Firelite drive for backups etc. I would be far more inclined to buy it. For me, most of my work is either writing, light photoshop and about 90% internet usage. In that respect it's a perfect machine and I think that future generations will keep the beautiful and light form factor while adding certain conveniences that would drastically improve its usability.

I second that, MDias.

The price of this portable should be "at the max" $1,000.00, not the whoppin' $1,800.00 that it is.

Apple better get to work on pricing, because this puppy misses the targets for this market.

I second Andres's post about the eeePC. In fact, when reading rumors about the MacBook Air, I was hoping for a small portable Mac. An eeeMac. er... well, maybe not under this name. ;-)

There's something I quite don't get here. I admit I don't own a laptop myself so I only occasionally have to carry one all day. However, what I find boring when having to do so, is not so much about the weight, but more about the size. Indeed, it is thiner, lighter, but it is just as large as a MacBook, isn't it ? Thus it takes almost the same space in a bag, doesn't it ?

Anyway. Just my 2 cents as the MacBookAir will be waaaayyyy outdated when I have 1700€. :-) Even if I never thought I'd buy a non-Apple computer, I may have an eeePC a test.

I think some of you are missing the point. The computer industry is shifting from local storage and the necessity to run physical media to "Cloud" computing.

So i agree with oshawapilot.

For example, in my company we are making all efforts necessary to make absolutely everything web-based.

It increases productivity accessibility and makes software upgrades much more seamless, because it all happens on the "cloud".

I envision that in the next 10 years, we will shift away from having computers with 80+ Gigs of storage to something much more minimalistic, like just a couple of Gigs, just like the eeePC.

We will be able to access our data everywhere and anywhere.

Apple is very smart and intuitive for seeing this tide coming from miles away and is nothing but something that will help as a catalyst for this paradigm shift in computing.

The only real reason I can see for buying this is style. It's very cool, but $1800/$3000 for cool? No thanks. I'd readily consider it at around $800, but for $1000 more? IDTS.

What I don't get is this: I used to run Final Cut Pro on a 800MHz iMac, and worked with professional freelancers who did the same on 12" G4 iBooks (with external screen, keyboard, etc...)

How is this Dual Core 2GB of RAM so much less capable - BESIDES the lack of firewire ports. Which is the ONLY thing I can't figure out about this setup - seems like video editors would be wetting themselves over this thing if it had Firewire.

I've been out of the broadcast biz for a few years, but it worked fine then, it should work fine now - and even if only for home video hobbyists, although I guess may of them use different kinds of cams that work over USB.

And the Solid State Drive should be plenty fast enough for video editing.

So what's the deal? MBA is way more capable than those older machines that performed flawlessly.

Is this software bloat at work?