More of an issue where you get a combined savings from the SSD and a slightly smaller battery it allows. This is also part of the do you go ULV or LV approach...
I don't expect SSD adds to much to battery life, but 10% on 5 hours is still an extra 30 minutes...
I don't think Apple would have gone for the smaller battery, they would have gone for the extra 15 to 20 extra minutes of life.
The actual battery life you save depends on what you do. If you watch long video's on the machine, then it will mean a lot, but if what you do uses the drive little, it won't mean much at all.
If Apple went for a ULV, people would be complaining about that.
If they didn't backlight the keys, that would be an area of complaint, etc. Where does it stop?
This opens up the same option with any potential battery replacement. Hopefully this is longer lived than some others. I just fear the hastle for people in some non-urban areas.
I think the battery is a non issue. I've never had to replace the batteries on my smartphones, or most any other thing i own.
By the time this battery works down, taking it to Apple to replace won't be a big deal. There are advantages to a sealed in battery, such as size and?yup, weight.
They cut some interesting things here. No computer lock? Mono speaker? Analog audio only?
Otherwise, everything seems executed with characteristic boldness. Well done.
yes, and no firewire. It has the price of a 'pro', but you can't connect professional devices. It is indeed a beautiful, light, thin and expensive computer with amazing engineering. But, I rather have a heavier one with all the necessary ports for actually being able to work. It is definitely a secondary computer. You need to have a 'real' one at home, because it is not good enough for being your only computer.
I think there are a number of interesting points here - the big thing, as has been pointed out, is that rather than trying to make a machine that was consciously smaller and better in every way from the competition, Apple have taken an 'average' weight of 3lbs and used that as a starting point, as well as a desire to have a 'full size' display and keyboard.
As for what ports/devices it does or doesn't have - this is largely a personal opinion. I think only 1 USB port is a little odd, but that's nothing a hub can't solve.
I like the look of it. I don't need a laptop - my old windows machine does just fine for those few times I fancy computing while not being sat at a desk - but I would like one! I can't quite justify spending the same amount as my iMac plus £50 2 months after said iMac was bought!
Or buy the same config as you. Wait 1 year, have a third party replace the HDD with an SSD when its cheaper or with a 128gig. I live in NYC and so can take it to tekserve.
Excellent point. I also hope the third-party market responds positively to this (i.e., they predict it will be a hit and therefore a viable market) and offer:
1) an external battery pack (preferably using off the shelf batteries) for emergencies. How long could you power a notebook with 4 AA lithium batteries? An hour? 5 mins?
2) ... hmm, I guess there is no number 2; there are already tons of USB port replicators if you need one.
I spend a third of my life in airplanes, airports and hotel rooms. I carry a late model PowerBook G4 with one extra battery, an Airport Express, a bluetooth mouse, headphones, a 60 GB older iPod and a small digital camera. When I get home, I dutifully plug in a 500 GB FW 800 drive to back up with, plug in an external 20" monitor, a nice set of speakers and an external bluetooth keyboard. So far, so good. I'm not going to switch to a windows machine, I like my "Apple Experience" quite well, thank you, so comparisons of whizzy Sony's and Dells will do nothing to sway me. I like my computer to just effin' *work*. But it is getting old, so...
Time to upgrade, it's been a couple o' years, so I've been looking forward to this new Power, er, ah... MacBook. How's this going to affect me? Let's see...
Currently I have ports in this Mac I don't ever use, a card slot, old firewire, S-Video and audio *in* are all useless to me. I rarely use the CD/DVD whatever burner in there - it does double-sided DVD's or somesuchthing, but it don't matter because I don't use it. Looking at the MBA all I'd lose is the FW 800, and that can be addressed by plugging in my 500 GB external to my older, round Airport Base Station via USB. Oh, right, that feature isn't supported. Darn you, Apple. Maybe have to buy one of those new integrated airports with disk. Not a deal breaker.
With a five hour (claimed) battery I can make it across the country on a single charge. I hope I don't have to sit on the tarmac in Newark for three hours waiting for the weather to clear so we can fly for three more hours to Denver. Sure wish United business class had power outlets in their seats.
Time to move my files over. Uh oh... On my current 80 GB drive I only have 1.49 GB free. Yeah, my iTunes library is up over 60 GB but I like my music and I have a handful of TV shows. I'd like to be able to have a larger hard drive, because let's face it, I'm just too lazy to spend a few hours and clean out some files I don't need.
Darn it, if it wasn't for the 80 GB drive this would be the perfect computer for me. I was looking forward to a disk *upgrade*. That's a deal breaker. Looks like I'll be back to another, reliable old aluminum PowerBook. MacBook. Whatever.
-Gator
External usb drives are getting dirt freaking cheap now. I saw a 2TB drive at Best Buy for $599. Two terrabytes. Now that's a looooot of porn and CSI Vegas on that.
From what I can tell the Panasonic something like $800 more with only 512MB of RAM and a 60 gig drive. Apple really did price the MacBook Air aggressively.
The most important aspect of the Air is the 3 pound weight. However they wanted to be the "worst _____est" something, so they are trumpeting the thinness. The thinness is cool, but's it's the lightness that I'll appreciate.
I suspect that the engineers were told "make it the thinnest" and keep it to 3.0 lbs. It must have been a tough call not to budge on those constraints to allow a 160gig option for an extra $100 (like the 2 versions of the iPod Classic). 80 gig is barely adequate I'd say. Whoever suggested a 32 gig SSD option would have been good hasn't really thought it through. You'd be hard pressed to install the OS and a set of basic apps on 32 gig and then where is your VM swap space that OS X is addicted to?
It's amazing at how many computers people are quoting as being lighter, cheaper, or otherwise, are really not, once the actual specs are looked at.
I would have liked this to weigh a bit less, but it is what it is.
One reason is that the die cast aluminum case weighs a few ounces more than the plastic used by others, even those that have incredibly thin metal structures inside that parts are screwed to.
The Panasonics use Magnesium cases - lighter and stronger than aluminum. Dont forget - they maintain an ultralight laptop (sub 3lbs for 12" screen, and 3.3 lbs for 14" screen) while shock-armoring them. All Steve wants is to make them purdy.
Maybe you could define who YOU think the target customer is for this, since you can not handle anyone questioning it. I have exclusively bought ultralights for the past 10 years for myself and my team. I know in the real world how ultralights are used and what features make "bare minimum" for the average traveling businessperson.
Since this product is clearly not targeted at the design-crowd (RAM, HDD, video limitations) I am assuming that it is targeted at those who use ultralights, which demographically tend to be people who cherish light weight and form factor over features - businesspeople who travel a lot and use the laptop for their work. But Apple (IMHO) dropped the ball with two critical features (from conversations/usage from many people that I have talked to/worked with over many years) - larger HDD, and replaceable battery.
You can retort with "then go buy another computer" and I might end up having to do that. My point here was to vent my frustration that I have wanted to switch for the past year and was waiting for this machine to answer my needs. So yes, I might end up having to stay with another Windows machine against my wishes.
Well, the MacBook Air fits my home usage to a tee. I'd use it as a seconday computer in the living room, bedroom, kitchen, dining/breakfast table, even in the closet, etc. It fits me to a tee. So, way thumbs for me!
The size compromises (and resultant features) they made are classic Apple, and in the direction I think it an ultra-portable should go.
They chose thinness over footprint: thin objects are more comfortable to transport in bags and such because we are already used to carrying 8.5 x 11 paper-sized or 9 x 12 folder sized things. A thick object (1+ inches) can easily stretch a bag. All other features cascaded from there. 1.8 inch single platter drive instead of 2 platter (though they maybe leaving this as an upgrade path), no SO-DIMM slots, enclosed battery design. I think they could have added at least another USB port on the other side, and possibly a line-in. A full sized Firewire port looks out of the question as is an Ethernet port.
For price, I'm not quite sure yet. For business, it's truly great price. For consumers, well, this is where Apple is testing the waters I think. Apple is a consumer company through-and-through, and the MBA will live or die based on consumers willing to be a second laptop.
Did I read something different there? HE simply doesn't understand the priceing which is different.
$3,000 for that laptop is way too high. It should sell well in Neiman Marcus though and be a big hit in Dubai!
THat's what SSD's do to a computer these days. It wasn't long ago when 32 GB SSD's cost more than that. You want a 128? The SSD alone is $3,000.
I'm just disappointed that bigger 1.8" drives weren't made available. It's been said that Apple gets a very good deal on the 80 because it's in the Classic, which is selling pretty well, but not on any other size.
You don't have to buy that version though with the SSD, unless it's just for bragging rights. no other laptop that uses one will be much cheaper, and if it is, it's because the computer IS cheaper, if you know what I mean.
The Panasonics use Magnesium cases - lighter and stronger than aluminum. Dont forget - they maintain an ultralight laptop (sub 3lbs for 12" screen, and 3.3 lbs for 14" screen) while shock-armoring them. All Steve wants is to make them purdy.
Maybe you could define who YOU think the target customer is for this, since you can not handle anyone questioning it. I have exclusively bought ultralights for the past 10 years for myself and my team. I know in the real world how ultralights are used and what features make "bare minimum" for the average traveling businessperson.
Since this product is clearly not targeted at the design-crowd (RAM, HDD, video limitations) I am assuming that it is targeted at those who use ultralights, which demographically tend to be people who cherish light weight and form factor over features - businesspeople who travel a lot and use the laptop for their work. But Apple (IMHO) dropped the ball with two critical features (from conversations/usage from many people that I have talked to/worked with over many years) - larger HDD, and replaceable battery.
You can retort with "then go buy another computer" and I might end up having to do that. My point here was to vent my frustration that I have wanted to switch for the past year and was waiting for this machine to answer my needs. So yes, I might end up having to stay with another Windows machine against my wishes.
Since most of us here question your statements, you can direct it to everyone.
Those mag frames aren't cases. The cases are rubberized plastic. The frame is a thin metal casting that averages less than a mm thick in most places, and is what the internal components are screwed to. It doesn't cover anything, just holds them together. I discussed this earlier.
I don't know how you define ultralights, because by todays standards, they didn't exist ten years ago.
The market for any new product is always hard to completely define. we can look at the iPhone for that. It was though it would not get into business, but the reports are that it is pushing its way in very well.
I suspect that people who would spend $1200 to $1500 will move their price to cover this. Business people will buy them, despite the lack of a separate battery (which someone will quickly come up with a solution for). Journalists will love them. Students going to college will buy them (yes, I know, poor students won't, but they couldn't afford a MacBook either). Peope who just must have a really obviously tinner mchine will buy one.
And, of course, a lot of Apple customers who don't necessarily fit any of those categories will also buy one.
This machine can actually do more work than you might suspect. I certainly don't expect heavy duty users of PS or video to use this, but it can do graphics nicely and publishing as well. With ultralight screens being smaller and having less resolution, by todays standards, no ultralight is ideal here, but when on a trip, this could work pretty well.
It seems to me that Apple is directly going for the women and/or gay community here. They have to expand market share somehow, right? Truthfully, and objectively, ask yourself, what is the advantage to buying the Air? This machine is exclusively for checking desperate housewives blogs, nothing else. Another underpowered, overpriced, underwhelming hardware release. Are you guys really so wimpy that you need to have the lightest notebook on earth? Was that Macbook really that heavy? Keep buying into the "design" of Apple. Staring at the shiny outside, you will never realize that computers are only tools, not fashion statements.
No need to dis women and gays, just act like the governator and call it a girly machine. It may be overpriced, weak and anorexic but it definitely makes a fashion statement!
Here is a good read on the MacBook air by Wil Shipley.
MacBook Air Haters: Suck My D!@k
I thought of a lot of titles for this post, but, really, the first one that came to me seems the best.
I've read nothing but whining about the MacBook Air on Mac news sites since it came out this morning. Honestly, I just want to shake these people. Not, like, shake some sense into them, but shake them like you're not supposed to shake a baby.
The criticism all basically goes like this: "It's not like a MacBook Pro!"
No, really? Seriously? I mean, they introduced this new product, and it doesn't have the same specs as the MacBook Pro? God, that is bizarre. I wonder why they gave it a new name, and continue to sell the MacBook Pro, then, if it's not going to be exactly the same. I mean, that hardly makes sense, does it?
The Panasonics use Magnesium cases - lighter and stronger than aluminum. Dont forget - they maintain an ultralight laptop (sub 3lbs for 12" screen, and 3.3 lbs for 14" screen) while shock-armoring them. All Steve wants is to make them purdy.
Maybe you could define who YOU think the target customer is for this, since you can not handle anyone questioning it. I have exclusively bought ultralights for the past 10 years for myself and my team. I know in the real world how ultralights are used and what features make "bare minimum" for the average traveling businessperson.
Since this product is clearly not targeted at the design-crowd (RAM, HDD, video limitations) I am assuming that it is targeted at those who use ultralights, which demographically tend to be people who cherish light weight and form factor over features - businesspeople who travel a lot and use the laptop for their work. But Apple (IMHO) dropped the ball with two critical features (from conversations/usage from many people that I have talked to/worked with over many years) - larger HDD, and replaceable battery.
You might have a point on the battery, but I don't think on the hard drive, I'll call BS.
Comments
More of an issue where you get a combined savings from the SSD and a slightly smaller battery it allows. This is also part of the do you go ULV or LV approach...
I don't expect SSD adds to much to battery life, but 10% on 5 hours is still an extra 30 minutes...
I don't think Apple would have gone for the smaller battery, they would have gone for the extra 15 to 20 extra minutes of life.
The actual battery life you save depends on what you do. If you watch long video's on the machine, then it will mean a lot, but if what you do uses the drive little, it won't mean much at all.
If Apple went for a ULV, people would be complaining about that.
If they didn't backlight the keys, that would be an area of complaint, etc. Where does it stop?
This opens up the same option with any potential battery replacement. Hopefully this is longer lived than some others. I just fear the hastle for people in some non-urban areas.
I think the battery is a non issue. I've never had to replace the batteries on my smartphones, or most any other thing i own.
By the time this battery works down, taking it to Apple to replace won't be a big deal. There are advantages to a sealed in battery, such as size and?yup, weight.
They cut some interesting things here. No computer lock? Mono speaker? Analog audio only?
Otherwise, everything seems executed with characteristic boldness. Well done.
yes, and no firewire. It has the price of a 'pro', but you can't connect professional devices. It is indeed a beautiful, light, thin and expensive computer with amazing engineering. But, I rather have a heavier one with all the necessary ports for actually being able to work. It is definitely a secondary computer. You need to have a 'real' one at home, because it is not good enough for being your only computer.
As for what ports/devices it does or doesn't have - this is largely a personal opinion. I think only 1 USB port is a little odd, but that's nothing a hub can't solve.
I like the look of it. I don't need a laptop - my old windows machine does just fine for those few times I fancy computing while not being sat at a desk - but I would like one! I can't quite justify spending the same amount as my iMac plus £50 2 months after said iMac was bought!
Or buy the same config as you. Wait 1 year, have a third party replace the HDD with an SSD when its cheaper or with a 128gig. I live in NYC and so can take it to tekserve.
Excellent point. I also hope the third-party market responds positively to this (i.e., they predict it will be a hit and therefore a viable market) and offer:
1) an external battery pack (preferably using off the shelf batteries) for emergencies. How long could you power a notebook with 4 AA lithium batteries? An hour? 5 mins?
2) ... hmm, I guess there is no number 2; there are already tons of USB port replicators if you need one.
Then you don't understand the point to ultralights. If it means nothing to you, then none of the others will either.
Did I read something different there? HE simply doesn't understand the priceing which is different.
$3,000 for that laptop is way too high. It should sell well in Neiman Marcus though and be a big hit in Dubai!
Panasonic is 1.74" thick. Uses 1.06GHz CPU. Intel GMA965. No LED screen. Costs $2199
Toshiba is 1.57" thick. 1.2GHz CPU. Intel GMA950. No LED screen. Costs $2149
MBA .76" thick. Uses 1.6GHz CPU. Intel X3100 GPU. LED screen. Costs $1799.
Sorry, we don't allow facts here. This place is for general pussy moaning about Apple and Steve Jobs.
If three fucking pounds is too much, then go to a fucking gym.
I'm exactly the person the MBA is marketed at.
I spend a third of my life in airplanes, airports and hotel rooms. I carry a late model PowerBook G4 with one extra battery, an Airport Express, a bluetooth mouse, headphones, a 60 GB older iPod and a small digital camera. When I get home, I dutifully plug in a 500 GB FW 800 drive to back up with, plug in an external 20" monitor, a nice set of speakers and an external bluetooth keyboard. So far, so good. I'm not going to switch to a windows machine, I like my "Apple Experience" quite well, thank you, so comparisons of whizzy Sony's and Dells will do nothing to sway me. I like my computer to just effin' *work*. But it is getting old, so...
Time to upgrade, it's been a couple o' years, so I've been looking forward to this new Power, er, ah... MacBook. How's this going to affect me? Let's see...
Currently I have ports in this Mac I don't ever use, a card slot, old firewire, S-Video and audio *in* are all useless to me. I rarely use the CD/DVD whatever burner in there - it does double-sided DVD's or somesuchthing, but it don't matter because I don't use it. Looking at the MBA all I'd lose is the FW 800, and that can be addressed by plugging in my 500 GB external to my older, round Airport Base Station via USB. Oh, right, that feature isn't supported. Darn you, Apple. Maybe have to buy one of those new integrated airports with disk. Not a deal breaker.
With a five hour (claimed) battery I can make it across the country on a single charge. I hope I don't have to sit on the tarmac in Newark for three hours waiting for the weather to clear so we can fly for three more hours to Denver. Sure wish United business class had power outlets in their seats.
Time to move my files over. Uh oh... On my current 80 GB drive I only have 1.49 GB free. Yeah, my iTunes library is up over 60 GB but I like my music and I have a handful of TV shows. I'd like to be able to have a larger hard drive, because let's face it, I'm just too lazy to spend a few hours and clean out some files I don't need.
Darn it, if it wasn't for the 80 GB drive this would be the perfect computer for me. I was looking forward to a disk *upgrade*. That's a deal breaker. Looks like I'll be back to another, reliable old aluminum PowerBook. MacBook. Whatever.
-Gator
External usb drives are getting dirt freaking cheap now. I saw a 2TB drive at Best Buy for $599. Two terrabytes. Now that's a looooot of porn and CSI Vegas on that.
In defense of the naysayers, those other machines typically are thicker but have a smaller footprint as they are 12" models.
An inch makes that much difference? The naysayers also completely miss that those other ultra lights are slower and have poorer specs but cost more.
$3,000 for that laptop is way too high. It should sell well in Neiman Marcus though and be a big hit in Dubai!
That is with the SDD. Dell and Sony laptops cost more if you include an SSD.
From what I can tell the Panasonic something like $800 more with only 512MB of RAM and a 60 gig drive. Apple really did price the MacBook Air aggressively.
The most important aspect of the Air is the 3 pound weight. However they wanted to be the "worst _____est" something, so they are trumpeting the thinness. The thinness is cool, but's it's the lightness that I'll appreciate.
I suspect that the engineers were told "make it the thinnest" and keep it to 3.0 lbs. It must have been a tough call not to budge on those constraints to allow a 160gig option for an extra $100 (like the 2 versions of the iPod Classic). 80 gig is barely adequate I'd say. Whoever suggested a 32 gig SSD option would have been good hasn't really thought it through. You'd be hard pressed to install the OS and a set of basic apps on 32 gig and then where is your VM swap space that OS X is addicted to?
Oh I forgot the link for the Panasonic: http://www.icube.us/product_detail.c...odel/CF-Y5.cfm
That is a 2-generation old Panasonic.
It's amazing at how many computers people are quoting as being lighter, cheaper, or otherwise, are really not, once the actual specs are looked at.
I would have liked this to weigh a bit less, but it is what it is.
One reason is that the die cast aluminum case weighs a few ounces more than the plastic used by others, even those that have incredibly thin metal structures inside that parts are screwed to.
The Panasonics use Magnesium cases - lighter and stronger than aluminum. Dont forget - they maintain an ultralight laptop (sub 3lbs for 12" screen, and 3.3 lbs for 14" screen) while shock-armoring them. All Steve wants is to make them purdy.
Maybe you could define who YOU think the target customer is for this, since you can not handle anyone questioning it. I have exclusively bought ultralights for the past 10 years for myself and my team. I know in the real world how ultralights are used and what features make "bare minimum" for the average traveling businessperson.
Since this product is clearly not targeted at the design-crowd (RAM, HDD, video limitations) I am assuming that it is targeted at those who use ultralights, which demographically tend to be people who cherish light weight and form factor over features - businesspeople who travel a lot and use the laptop for their work. But Apple (IMHO) dropped the ball with two critical features (from conversations/usage from many people that I have talked to/worked with over many years) - larger HDD, and replaceable battery.
You can retort with "then go buy another computer" and I might end up having to do that. My point here was to vent my frustration that I have wanted to switch for the past year and was waiting for this machine to answer my needs. So yes, I might end up having to stay with another Windows machine against my wishes.
all i require it for is university stuff n stuff like that?!
i know the air is'nt worth the Uk price of £1200 but im considering it?!
wat should i do...hmmmmmmmm!!! lol
The size compromises (and resultant features) they made are classic Apple, and in the direction I think it an ultra-portable should go.
They chose thinness over footprint: thin objects are more comfortable to transport in bags and such because we are already used to carrying 8.5 x 11 paper-sized or 9 x 12 folder sized things. A thick object (1+ inches) can easily stretch a bag. All other features cascaded from there. 1.8 inch single platter drive instead of 2 platter (though they maybe leaving this as an upgrade path), no SO-DIMM slots, enclosed battery design. I think they could have added at least another USB port on the other side, and possibly a line-in. A full sized Firewire port looks out of the question as is an Ethernet port.
For price, I'm not quite sure yet. For business, it's truly great price. For consumers, well, this is where Apple is testing the waters I think. Apple is a consumer company through-and-through, and the MBA will live or die based on consumers willing to be a second laptop.
Did I read something different there? HE simply doesn't understand the priceing which is different.
$3,000 for that laptop is way too high. It should sell well in Neiman Marcus though and be a big hit in Dubai!
THat's what SSD's do to a computer these days. It wasn't long ago when 32 GB SSD's cost more than that. You want a 128? The SSD alone is $3,000.
I'm just disappointed that bigger 1.8" drives weren't made available. It's been said that Apple gets a very good deal on the 80 because it's in the Classic, which is selling pretty well, but not on any other size.
You don't have to buy that version though with the SSD, unless it's just for bragging rights. no other laptop that uses one will be much cheaper, and if it is, it's because the computer IS cheaper, if you know what I mean.
The Panasonics use Magnesium cases - lighter and stronger than aluminum. Dont forget - they maintain an ultralight laptop (sub 3lbs for 12" screen, and 3.3 lbs for 14" screen) while shock-armoring them. All Steve wants is to make them purdy.
Maybe you could define who YOU think the target customer is for this, since you can not handle anyone questioning it. I have exclusively bought ultralights for the past 10 years for myself and my team. I know in the real world how ultralights are used and what features make "bare minimum" for the average traveling businessperson.
Since this product is clearly not targeted at the design-crowd (RAM, HDD, video limitations) I am assuming that it is targeted at those who use ultralights, which demographically tend to be people who cherish light weight and form factor over features - businesspeople who travel a lot and use the laptop for their work. But Apple (IMHO) dropped the ball with two critical features (from conversations/usage from many people that I have talked to/worked with over many years) - larger HDD, and replaceable battery.
You can retort with "then go buy another computer" and I might end up having to do that. My point here was to vent my frustration that I have wanted to switch for the past year and was waiting for this machine to answer my needs. So yes, I might end up having to stay with another Windows machine against my wishes.
Since most of us here question your statements, you can direct it to everyone.
Those mag frames aren't cases. The cases are rubberized plastic. The frame is a thin metal casting that averages less than a mm thick in most places, and is what the internal components are screwed to. It doesn't cover anything, just holds them together. I discussed this earlier.
I don't know how you define ultralights, because by todays standards, they didn't exist ten years ago.
The market for any new product is always hard to completely define. we can look at the iPhone for that. It was though it would not get into business, but the reports are that it is pushing its way in very well.
I suspect that people who would spend $1200 to $1500 will move their price to cover this. Business people will buy them, despite the lack of a separate battery (which someone will quickly come up with a solution for). Journalists will love them. Students going to college will buy them (yes, I know, poor students won't, but they couldn't afford a MacBook either). Peope who just must have a really obviously tinner mchine will buy one.
And, of course, a lot of Apple customers who don't necessarily fit any of those categories will also buy one.
This machine can actually do more work than you might suspect. I certainly don't expect heavy duty users of PS or video to use this, but it can do graphics nicely and publishing as well. With ultralight screens being smaller and having less resolution, by todays standards, no ultralight is ideal here, but when on a trip, this could work pretty well.
Hmmmm....
It seems to me that Apple is directly going for the women and/or gay community here. They have to expand market share somehow, right? Truthfully, and objectively, ask yourself, what is the advantage to buying the Air? This machine is exclusively for checking desperate housewives blogs, nothing else. Another underpowered, overpriced, underwhelming hardware release. Are you guys really so wimpy that you need to have the lightest notebook on earth? Was that Macbook really that heavy? Keep buying into the "design" of Apple. Staring at the shiny outside, you will never realize that computers are only tools, not fashion statements.
No need to dis women and gays, just act like the governator and call it a girly machine. It may be overpriced, weak and anorexic but it definitely makes a fashion statement!
The Panasonics use Magnesium cases - lighter and stronger than aluminum. Dont forget - they maintain an ultralight laptop (sub 3lbs for 12" screen, and 3.3 lbs for 14" screen) while shock-armoring them. All Steve wants is to make them purdy.
Maybe you could define who YOU think the target customer is for this, since you can not handle anyone questioning it. I have exclusively bought ultralights for the past 10 years for myself and my team. I know in the real world how ultralights are used and what features make "bare minimum" for the average traveling businessperson.
Since this product is clearly not targeted at the design-crowd (RAM, HDD, video limitations) I am assuming that it is targeted at those who use ultralights, which demographically tend to be people who cherish light weight and form factor over features - businesspeople who travel a lot and use the laptop for their work. But Apple (IMHO) dropped the ball with two critical features (from conversations/usage from many people that I have talked to/worked with over many years) - larger HDD, and replaceable battery.
You might have a point on the battery, but I don't think on the hard drive, I'll call BS.
Dell D430 - 40GB hard drive, 80 optional, 64 SSD optional.
Toughbook W5 60GB
Y5 - 60GB
Y7 - 80GB
T5 - 60GB
T7 - 80GB
W7 - 80GB
That's the entire Panasonic "Business Rugged" line as shown on their web site right now. I see no options for bigger drives on any of them.