With Intel announcing a new 160 Gb SSD drive, with a 100Mb/ sec transfer rate, due to come on line in Q2, i.e. from March onwards, Apple could easily offer a revised MacBook Air within a month or too. Whether they will actually do this, however, is another question.
Even if they don't, you could buy any existing MacBook Air model and upgrade either type of hard drive with a larger capacity one as soon as they become available. You might prefer to buy the less expensive 1.6 Ghz model with the 80 Gb HDD and replace this with the Intel 160 Gb SSD when it launches. There are other SSD offerings in the pipeline from Samsung and Toshiba, all of which should help to drive prices down.
I would expect Apple to offer a 160 Gb SSD model for the same price as the 64 Gb SSD model and to reduce the price of the 64 Gb SSD model.
Willl they upgrade the capacity of SSD-equipped MBAs soon? Hmmm. Given that disk capacity is such an issue for both MBA models, the answer could well be yes. But I doubt we'll see anything within 6 months of launch. So my guess is June at the earliest. June is also the time when Centrino 2 chips will be avaliable. Add a lower power chip that is slightly faster with slightly improved battery life and you make a good Mac even better.
I have to say though that a MacBook Air with a 160 Gb SSD is a very attractive exciting. If I knew for sure that it would arrive in June along with the new Centrino 2 chip, my advice would almost certainly be to wait before buying. Unfortunately, revised MBAs could arrive much later in the year.
In the final analysis, if you need a new Mac now, buy it now...
With Intel announcing a new 160 Gb SSD drive, with a 100Mb/ sec transfer rate, due to come on line in Q2, i.e. from March onwards, Apple could easily offer a revised MacBook Air within a month or too. Whether they will actually do this, however, is another question.
Even if they don't, you could buy any existing MacBook Air model and upgrade either type of hard drive with a larger capacity one as soon as they become available. You might prefer to buy the less expensive 1.6 Ghz model with the 80 Gb HDD and replace this with the Intel 160 Gb SSD when it launches. There are other SSD offerings in the pipeline from Samsung and Toshiba, all of which should help to drive prices down.
I would expect Apple to offer a 160 Gb SSD model for the same price as the 64 Gb SSD model and to reduce the price of the 64 Gb SSD model.
Willl they upgrade the capacity of SSD-equipped MBAs soon? Hmmm. Given that disk capacity is such an issue for both MBA models, the answer could well be yes. But I doubt we'll see anything within 6 months of launch. So my guess is June at the earliest. June is also the time when Centrino 2 chips will be avaliable. Add a lower power chip that is slightly faster with slightly improved battery life and you make a good Mac even better.
I have to say though that a MacBook Air with a 160 Gb SSD is a very attractive exciting. If I knew for sure that it would arrive in June along with the new Centrino 2 chip, my advice would almost certainly be to wait before buying. Unfortunately, revised MBAs could arrive much later in the year.
In the final analysis, if you need a new Mac now, buy it now...
I'll start with adressing the Montevina (Centrino 2) part: What should be available in June are the regular parts of Montevina (25/35W cpus and some chipsets) not all models/families will be available in June. Small package, low-voltage, ultra-low voltage and quads will be available in Q3 (july thru sept) and last time I checked it was leaning towards september. So, IMO, no revised MB Air (or Quad iMac) before september. Nonetheless, MBP, MB, iMac & Mac mini could be updated to Montevina during the summer (june thru august) and september could see the update of the MB Air and the launch of the quad option for the iMac (at least).
We have very few details about Intel's offerings on the SSD front yet: all we know is that there will be 1.8"/2.5" drives ranging from 80GB to 160GB and would use a SATA-II interface (while the current storage interface on the MB Air is PATA...). So don't hold you breath on a quick availability of Intel's SSDs on a MB Air. But I am confident that we may see them later this year when the MB Air gets montevina'ed. And If Intel is true to its claim of lowering the prices of SSDs... good for us, but I don't think you'll get 160GB for $999. IMO, the best we could get this summer/fall is $800 for 80GB to $1600 for 160GB ($10/GB instead of $15/GB today).
About a bigger standard HDD: there are no other 5mm 1.8" HDD (yet) and I don't think much development is spend in that direction, we may see a 100GB model this year (200GB for 8mm) that could be used in the iPod Classic too. But again, no manufacturer has announced anything like that (yet).
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Even if they don't, you could buy any existing MacBook Air model and upgrade either type of hard drive with a larger capacity one as soon as they become available. You might prefer to buy the less expensive 1.6 Ghz model with the 80 Gb HDD and replace this with the Intel 160 Gb SSD when it launches. There are other SSD offerings in the pipeline from Samsung and Toshiba, all of which should help to drive prices down.
I would expect Apple to offer a 160 Gb SSD model for the same price as the 64 Gb SSD model and to reduce the price of the 64 Gb SSD model.
Willl they upgrade the capacity of SSD-equipped MBAs soon? Hmmm. Given that disk capacity is such an issue for both MBA models, the answer could well be yes. But I doubt we'll see anything within 6 months of launch. So my guess is June at the earliest. June is also the time when Centrino 2 chips will be avaliable. Add a lower power chip that is slightly faster with slightly improved battery life and you make a good Mac even better.
I have to say though that a MacBook Air with a 160 Gb SSD is a very attractive exciting. If I knew for sure that it would arrive in June along with the new Centrino 2 chip, my advice would almost certainly be to wait before buying. Unfortunately, revised MBAs could arrive much later in the year.
In the final analysis, if you need a new Mac now, buy it now...
With Intel announcing a new 160 Gb SSD drive, with a 100Mb/ sec transfer rate, due to come on line in Q2, i.e. from March onwards, Apple could easily offer a revised MacBook Air within a month or too. Whether they will actually do this, however, is another question.
Even if they don't, you could buy any existing MacBook Air model and upgrade either type of hard drive with a larger capacity one as soon as they become available. You might prefer to buy the less expensive 1.6 Ghz model with the 80 Gb HDD and replace this with the Intel 160 Gb SSD when it launches. There are other SSD offerings in the pipeline from Samsung and Toshiba, all of which should help to drive prices down.
I would expect Apple to offer a 160 Gb SSD model for the same price as the 64 Gb SSD model and to reduce the price of the 64 Gb SSD model.
Willl they upgrade the capacity of SSD-equipped MBAs soon? Hmmm. Given that disk capacity is such an issue for both MBA models, the answer could well be yes. But I doubt we'll see anything within 6 months of launch. So my guess is June at the earliest. June is also the time when Centrino 2 chips will be avaliable. Add a lower power chip that is slightly faster with slightly improved battery life and you make a good Mac even better.
I have to say though that a MacBook Air with a 160 Gb SSD is a very attractive exciting. If I knew for sure that it would arrive in June along with the new Centrino 2 chip, my advice would almost certainly be to wait before buying. Unfortunately, revised MBAs could arrive much later in the year.
In the final analysis, if you need a new Mac now, buy it now...
I'll start with adressing the Montevina (Centrino 2) part: What should be available in June are the regular parts of Montevina (25/35W cpus and some chipsets) not all models/families will be available in June. Small package, low-voltage, ultra-low voltage and quads will be available in Q3 (july thru sept) and last time I checked it was leaning towards september. So, IMO, no revised MB Air (or Quad iMac) before september. Nonetheless, MBP, MB, iMac & Mac mini could be updated to Montevina during the summer (june thru august) and september could see the update of the MB Air and the launch of the quad option for the iMac (at least).
We have very few details about Intel's offerings on the SSD front yet: all we know is that there will be 1.8"/2.5" drives ranging from 80GB to 160GB and would use a SATA-II interface (while the current storage interface on the MB Air is PATA...). So don't hold you breath on a quick availability of Intel's SSDs on a MB Air. But I am confident that we may see them later this year when the MB Air gets montevina'ed. And If Intel is true to its claim of lowering the prices of SSDs... good for us, but I don't think you'll get 160GB for $999. IMO, the best we could get this summer/fall is $800 for 80GB to $1600 for 160GB ($10/GB instead of $15/GB today).
About a bigger standard HDD: there are no other 5mm 1.8" HDD (yet) and I don't think much development is spend in that direction, we may see a 100GB model this year (200GB for 8mm) that could be used in the iPod Classic too. But again, no manufacturer has announced anything like that (yet).