Apple’s new MacBook Air is “the Cube 2.0,” according to CNET executive editor Molly Wood.
Wood writes, “The Air has no Ethernet port (!), no optical drive, no removable battery, and requires a micro-DVI connector for output to an external monitor.” In addition Wood bemoans the MacBook Air’s 80GB drive, which she calls, “hilariously, half the capacity of the largest iPod Classic.”
MacDailyNews Note: The so-called battery issue is way overblown by MacBook Air naysayers and the fact that users have to use the included Micro-DVI to DVI adapter or Micro-DVI to VGA adapter for an external monitor is a total non-issue. Also, for US$29, the MacBook Air has an Ethernet port. Shocker. For US$99, the MacBook Air has a physical optical drive, a SuperDrive, in fact. Or for no extra cost, the MacBook Air can use the optical drive of a nearby Mac or PC via the included Remote Disc software. Double shocker. If the MacBook Air’s internal drive sizes are an issue for you, then you either don’t understand the intended use of the MacBook Air or you need to carry along some additional storage (for example, an iPod in Disk Mode) or the MacBook Air isn’t for you (please see take below).
Wood writes, “I think in the future, I’ll be able to update this post with one more important comparison: the Cube, although a stunning piece of industrial design, was a commercial flop, and I think the MacBook Air will be, too.”
Wood writes, “The top-of-the-line black MacBook offers the same sized screen as the MacBook Air, a more powerful processor, twice the hard-drive capacity, and with 2GB of RAM to match the Air’s, still costs $150 less. And your tradeoff is what, 2 pounds and a little bit of baby fat?”
“So that leaves you in Cube-land again: with a very small and well-heeled potential audience willing to spend $1,800 or more (or just over $3,000 if they opt for the 64GB solid-state drive for maximum tech-forwardness) simply to bask in the glow of outstanding design,” Wood writes.
“Let’s hope they’re not cranking out MacBook Airs by the hundred-thousand, because I just don’t think they’re going to need them,” Wood writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Okey Dokey. Wood has been iCal’ed for future use, right or wrong. One thing to remember is that people who are outside of a product’s target market often have difficulty making accurate predictions about that product’s viability. People who see Apple’s MacBook or MacBook Pro as preferable to the MacBook Air are simply not in the MacBook Air’s target market. We’d venture to guess that Apple will be just fine with those people choosing MacBooks or MacBook Pros instead.
Those who critique MacBook Air as if it’s designed to serve the entire portable market are fools.
Most pundits thought the iPod nano was overpriced and would be a flop because a full iPod cost just a little more. Time will tell!
The Air is designed for ONE THING: To fit in the folder fold of a briefcase! For wall street and other business men, that would be very attractive.
For the right people, this will be the right machine. Glad you iCal’d her…
and where’s the floppy!!! Can’t Apple get it right!
too crippled to fit into my briefcase!!
Who cares if it’s any good. We’re Apple Fanboys. We don’t care about functionality. What’s important is that it is gorgeous, elegant, and sexy – and we’ll gladly pay whatever Steve is asking, no questions asked…
This laptop was designed for a very specific market. Whether or not the market is large enough to sustain its development remains to be seen.
Either way, the technology used here is sure to make it into other Apple products, so it’s time well spent whether or not the Air is a success.
Sometimes Steve gives us what he wants us to have instead of what we want.
Cube 2.0? I hope not.
This is for road warriors. This is for people who hop on a plane, fly to Tokyo, ride a subway, walk several blocks, give a presentation, spend the night and do work using the hotels wifi as well as accessing files and data from work and home computers. This is for a person who is carrying their work on their shoulders for several hours while they are traveling. It is not like everyone just throws a laptop in a car and carries it in. Every pound matters when you are (actually traveling).
Awesome design.
I demand ADB ports, serial, PS2 and SCSI goddammit!
Oh, and a modem port and a fake pussy port. It’s just too sexy not to have one, the tease.
For what it’s worth, I’ve heard lots of chatter, from Mac & non-Mac user alike that they are considering this device. As for myself, I admit I like it, and will consider it. So I sincerely doubt it will be a flop. I’d consider it a “must have” once it gets built-in 3G broadband at a reasonable monthly subscription price.
Barring 3G wireless service in a laptop, I wish they’d released an iPhone-like internet tablet with a 10″ screen running a full Mac OS.
I think i’d rather spend my moolah on an 8-core mac pro desktop, but, admittedly, they’re harder to squeeze into a manila envelope…
only 1 usb port is pretty lame.
You think these guys would have learned by now not to underestimate Steve Jobs. As if all the blood on the iPod’s click wheel was not enough, and Apple’s stunning growth in 2007 was a fluke, these morons continue to pronounce Apple a blind slave to fashion. I wonder if they’ve even noticed all the iTunes Store wannabes that have gone out of business?
Thanks MDN, for iCal-ing this obviously short-sighted, but not unexpected, article from cNet. I will enjoy the schadenfreude when this buffoon is proven wrong.
I’m not sure I’m representative of the general population, but the Macbook Air caused me to buy two Macs. I had been using a current model Macbook Pro. But I decided to buy a Macbook Air to use as a portable e-mail and web tool and to get an aluminum iMac for my home office. They’ll be networked seamlessly with my new Time Capsule (when it arrives). The relatively smaller 80GB won’t matter to me because my iPhoto and iTunes libraries will now be on my desktop. These pundits fail to see the Macbook Air for what it is: a niche-product that will enhance adoption of other product lines.
Many companies are not allowing personal files to be placed on work computers and vice versa. They are finding it to be too big of a risk. They are starting to ask to keep work and play on seperate machines as they don’t want you to infect the company with what ever internet VD someone picked up off of the net. This is a work machine that has plenty of Disk space for what ever job you are going to do. You can return to the office or home and pick up what ever files from an external HD for the next mission.
This is exactly what I though when I saw the MacBook Air.
Great design, ahead of its time, but you just don’t get enough bang for the buck to make it a mainstream success.
I do think it will spawn into more products in the future, the same way we see the cube in AppleTV and the new Time Machine back up.
The Macbook Air is now the bestseller on the Belgian Apple Store: What a failure. tsssss…
They forgot that you can add an ethernet through a dongle if needed. I think we are going to look back on the MacBook Air as the dawning of a new era. This will be the era of the fully wireless computer. Disks days are numbered. In the future, software will be installed through a USB thumb drive or over a wireless network. Optical drives won’t be necessary because wireless sharing of disks are now possible. Insert a disk in one machine and all machines can download from it.
I’m surprised Leopard wasn’t shipped on a USB thumb drive.
I agree that hard drive space could be improved, but I don’t think the MacBook Air’s market is concerned about hard drive space. They aren’t going to be editing video all that much.
Yeah I agree, I won’t be shelling out for one, but it is a cool glimpse into what’s to come in future Macs.
People’s personal opinions about how it fits or does not fit into their own lives is generally of zero value.
Apple is targeting a niche comprised of users in a number of use-case categories. They have done their homework, but it is difficult to measure a niche that has never been served by a ground breaking product.
Air could fail or succeed. The writer could be right in his analogy to the Cube. The point is that the writer is writing about the wrong things, as most tech writers today (especially Ars Technica) are clueless dumbasses.
A 12″ Powerbook G4 1.5GHz currently sells on eBay for close to A$1,000. Since the release of the Air, the price of these old machines has gone up, not down.
The notebook market is very important to Apple – and they need a better range. The Air is still too big for those of us looking for a compact notebook for travelling. My 17″ G4 is too big and too slow to be practical for any use now – I spend my time staring at spinning beachballs and, most of the time, I cannot even load the pages on this site in Safari (Firefox seems more tolerant but it is still super-slow). The Macbook is too big and too heavy, ditto for the Pros…
I have to replace the 17″ G4 – perhaps I will end up with a Lenovo thinkpad and XP – or a 12″ G4 Powerbook if I really can’t stomach a Windows machine…
What I really want is a 12″ Macbook Pro.
Come on Apple…
One doesn’t race in a winnebago and one doesn’t have all of their home conveniences in a civic coupe. Every vehicle and computer suits a different need. Pick the one that is for you and stop complaining about the one that fits someone elses needs.
I think it is Cube 2.0 also. The cube actually made a lot more sense, but didn’t seem to work for people, either. I actually really wanted a cube, but never bought one before they were discontinued. I do not want a MacBook Air at all, though.