“It’s 1998 all over again. Like the original iMac 10 years ago, Apple’s MacBook Air is simultaneously prompting gasps of astonishment at its industrial design, and sneers of derision at its missing features,” John O’Brien reports for The Courier-Mail.
“While the original iMac controversially dumped the floppy disk drive — a bold move that PC makers eventually followed — the MacBook Air does away with an internal CD/DVD drive, Ethernet and Firewire ports, all but one USB2 port, large hard disk capacity, removable battery and upgradable memory,” O’Brien reports.
“But when you hold it in your hands, none of that seems to matter. The razor-thin form factor is a thing of beauty. It’s 19.4mm at its thickest point and 4mm at its thinnest,” O’Brien reports.
“And when you use it, you realise just how dispensable many of those features are, for the sake of the ultimate in portability. ‘Less is more’ might be cliched these days, but Apple has again shown that it’s what you don’t include that can make the most elegant products,” O’Brien reports.
“What the critics don’t seem to get is that the MacBook Air is targeted at a specific class of user. Those for whom raw power and specs are all-important should look elsewhere, such as the MacBook or MacBook Pro. But for those who want the ultimate in portability and style, the MacBook Air is the answer,” O’Brien reports.
“The MacBook Air is truly a revolution in portable computing, and the increasing popularity of Apple’s laptops shows the company is making all the right moves in an increasingly mobile computing world,” O’Brien reports.
Full article — recommended — here.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, O’Brien gets it.