[cmdahler]

This thing will be just about as popular as the 12" Pro was. There just isn't much of a point to this computer. At the listed price points, it is clearly targeted at the pro user, and what pro user is going to seriously be interested in one of these? No optical drive, no firewire, small screen, etc. This is a consumer laptop with a pro price. So what if it's a little thinner than the other Pro offerings: jeez, it's not like the MacBook Pro is three inches thick and weighs 20 pounds, after all.
Bottom line is simply economics: anyone with half a brain and capable of doing basic math who is interested in this computer is 90% of the time going to pick the Macbook over this computer, because you GET MORE COMPUTER FOR YOUR MONEY. Any Pro user is going to take one look at this thing and say, "That's cool. Can I have a 15" Macbook Pro, please?" Heavens, for that $3089 price point, you could get a 17" Pro and save a few hundred dollars!
I agree with the first poster, and so did Wall Street today. Worst product intro ever. Stock plunged after it (and it's ridiculous price point) was announced, especially combined with not meeting iPhone sales targets. This computer will quietly die the same death as the 12" Pro. Sad.

[warlock7]

buuuudy said:

Are any of them as fast as putting the disk in my drive?

No.

buuuudy said:

Conversely, wouldn't I need a drive in order to put them on my HDD?

That's what the external drive and the mountable option are for. But, you already know that. Feigning ignorance is so unbecoming of a troll.

buuuudy said:

Thirdly, won;t my 80GB HDD fill up pretty quickly if I'm cramming it full of DVDs?

That all depends on how much you compress it when you copy it over, right?
Heck, if you're more worried about having lots of films on the machine all the time you could remove them if you're not going to watch them on that trip. There are plenty of ways to do this without wasting too much space. Sad response and a desperate attempt to hold onto the losing end of an argument you made up.

buuuudy said:

Movies aren't the only reason not having an optical drive is, um, stupid. If this is a professional-on-the-go machine, what do you do when you get to an office or location and there have been changes made to your presentation that are waiting for you on disk? What happens when you're done the presentation and the client wants a copy of it? The obvious answer is, "plug un your external drive and burn it, stoop." Awesome, just what I want...another piece of hardware to cart around with my ultra-portable laptop. NICE.

So, a USB thumb drive wouldn't server every singly purpose you just mentioned? Come on, you're just being silly now.

buuuudy said:

Not in the kind of gig where you need to give presentations? OK...what about tech support? What happens when you need to install a driver you have stored on your machine? What happens when YOU need to install a driver? (Assuming it can't be downloaded, of course.)

Wow, you do presentations? So, that's why you need all those movies, you don't really use your machine for much.
Wait, I thought you had an iMac. You're apparently suggesting that you would carry around drivers for your Mac. Then when was the last time you needed to get a driver for it, much less install one. You don't sound like you are very familiar with the Apple platform. More like a windows sort of troll. Perhaps you should stick to what you know.
There's a simple answer to all of these software concerns, of course: a USB thumbdrive. At sizes ranging up to 16 GB (without becoming stoopit expensive), they are way more useful than a disc...provided you don;t have to leave anything behind. And your one and only USB drive isn't already connected to something vital.
Oh, look, you did answer your own complaints. So, why did you make this post then? To troll?
Silly machine. SILLY I SAY!!
Silly troll. The MacBook Air is obviously not the device for you. So, why make such a stink about it? Couldn't just make a non-flaming post and be done with it? Couldn't handle that your opinion isn't valued and your arguments don't make any sense? Oh, well. That's a shame.

[MWorldSanDiego]

Clear to me that many of the negative commenters don't spend lots of time on planes traveling all over the world (I haven't been to Antarctica, but have been nearby). 3 lbs. <1" thick. Instant on. I can tell you, that's nifty! And, it runs both Leopard and Windows. Lemme think. Who is this sliver being marketed for? D'oh, all those people who DO travel in planes and don't need any extra ounces or lost space. And, it looks damned good! Love it.

[buuuudy]

warlock7 said:

Touche troll.

Firstly, please quote me when you respond, because I have no clue to which posting you're referring.

Secondly, Option+E will get you that accent you;re looking for. "Touché".

Thirdly, everything you say and believe is wrong.

Finally, I wasn't trolling, but you're just too much fun. If you take the time to read these boards, you'll see that I'm trying to discuss this über-thin waste of Euros with everyone here, like-minded or otherwise. I'm not here to say "Your opinion matters to no one. By the way, I don't think I'll be buying one."

Except to you, because your opinions smell like...like they've been hiding...under a bridge...

Tosses Warlock a cookie and +10 hitpoints for being so cool

[buuuudy]

MWorldSanDiego said:

Clear to me that many of the negative commenters don't spend lots of time on planes traveling all over the world (I haven't been to Antarctica, but have been nearby). 3 lbs. <1" thick. Instant on. I can tell you, that's nifty! And, it runs both Leopard and Windows. Lemme think. Who is this sliver being marketed for? D'oh, all those people who DO travel in planes and don't need any extra ounces or lost space. And, it looks damned good! Love it.

Fair enough, by all counts but one: The Air has a significantly larger footprint than the Macbook. But the same size screen. And fewer IO. And no OD. And is, what, .125" thicker? I just don't see the advantage.

I have overlooked the multitouch pad. That thing is sweeeet. And it will be just as sweet on the MBP...in March.

[fenderplayer96]

Macbook Air? What is this going to do for me that my G4 12" macbook pro doesn't do?

surfguitarshredder, if you have a G4 12" MacBook Pro, I don't see why you're complaining about the MacBook Air. Just make up a version of the MacBook Air that you do like (even a tablet version), at whatever price suits you, and use that instead...

Hints:
Smallest MacBook Pro screen: 15.4"
Smallest MacBook screen: 13.3"
All MacBooks and MacBook Pros I've ever heard of used Intel - not G4 - chips.

Somehow this makes me wonder about the value of the rest of your analysis...

cheers,
Dave

[buuuudy]

buuuudy said:

...Are you suggesting that CDs are being faded out?

Sort of but I don't think it will die for a long time.


Huh...never really thought about it...U're right, of course. CDs are losing ground and are increasingly unnecessary. I suppose it's because in my work, I am often supplying monster files (3, 4+ GB) to service bureaus, and disk is often the most reliable way to deliver them. That also works both ways. (of course, many of the times I'm forced to supply a disc are due to user ineptitude, but that's a WHOLE different rant :P)

Of course digital media is ruling the roost, especially music (and video will catch up as soon as the hardware becomes affordable enough.) But I think the digital video disc medium is far from dead. Blu Rays can hold, what, 16 GB? (someone correct me...can't remember #s at the moment). To deliver that amount of data over the air, or the internet, would be ridiculously time consuming...and once you;ve got it, it hogs up your expensive hard drive space. Discs will die, just like Laserdiscs and VHS, but not until a compression method omes along that retains HD quality, is lossless, and above all, easy. Seems like easy is key.

With that rant in the can, this is all in the time of the Jetsons. Sadly, we live in the now, and as such, need a laptop that can be relied upon to do everything that is expected of a mobile computer. That includes easy Internet access, even in places where WiFi is but the fevered dream of a Madman, and an internal optical drive. There I said it.

LOW TECH RULES (not really).

[hydrantinco]

ridiculous ........ don't buy this .... buy a mac book pro instead

[buuuudy]

kelake said:

Who travels with a bag full of dvd's anymore?

Like other notebooks in it's class, to get small something has to be removed, and the least often used component in a modern device is the optical drive. Now if only it was as cheap as the Asus eeePC :)

LOL...OK, the MBA is WAAAAYYYY more functional han the WeePC. :)

[DJRizzo]

buuuudy said:

I have overlooked the multitouch pad. That thing is sweeeet. And it will be just as sweet on the MBP...in March.

Agreed. Especially when 3rd party apps develop for the multitouch trackpad.

Two little new features on MBA that I really like is the green LED when the iSight is on and the new magsafe. Hopefully they'll be on next MB's, too.

Funny thing of it all is I'm still happy here on my PowerBook G4. I keep waiting for the right time to upgrade to a MBPro but dammit if there isn't always something else on the horizon I'm content waiting for. I still love this PBG4 and I don't need to upgrade anytime soon! (Most of my friends with brand new Vista notebooks still covet my PB!).

[Rokcet Scientist]

YAAAYYY!
I already promised my mum (79, 20" iMac owner/operator, an avid websurfer, and a 16 year Mac veteran) that I'll get her a MacBook Air the day she should get bedridden.
Sweet & sour.
That would be a MacBook Air with 256GB SSD, 'Remote Disk' (I'm her SysAdmin anyway with a MacBook Pro) and Airport Extreme. Ideal!

[lightsong]

Good point...

Got my black MacBook a month ago. Best laptop I've had in 20 years...

I'm thinking that the MacBook Air will become the MacBook Error.

[jgraham]

The leds for back lit lap tops aren't cheap.
That's why all Mac Book Pros are not LED lit.
Look at the Adobe color rated NEC monitor. $4,000 for a 21".

[People_Eater]

@ cmdahler

"I agree with the first poster, and so did Wall Street today. Worst product intro ever."

How old are you? You must be pretty young and/or inexperienced to say something like that. There have been some pretty damn awful products introduced over the years, and there have been some pretty disastrous intro events.

Even if this isn't the world's greatest product, there are thousands that are worst. As for the introduction itself, it seemed to go pretty smoothly - unlike many introductions which have been met with serious technical glitches or other problems in the presentation. Steve Jobs' hair didn't catch fire, like Michael Jackson's did when he was promoting Pepsi.

As for the quality of the product, how could it be anywhere near as the following?

* Circuit City DiVX
* Web TV
* Microsoft Bob
* Mattel toys with free lead poisoning

As far as the launch aspects go, only recently we've seen such aborted attempts at capturing the imagination of the audience as:

* Microsoft's Zune with the "Welcome to the Social" slagan, and software that didn't work.
* HD-DVD with no marketing to combat Blu-Ray, and very few movie studios on board.
* Sony PS3 with very poorly judged marketing and pricing.
* Palm trying to release irrelevant products to sighs of frustration. Destroying their once monopoly on PDAs.
* Many online MP3 stores trying to make a splash, e.g - the "new Napster" and buymusic.com - with the abysmal promotion by Tommy Lee, and an even worse product.

Sure, the Macbook Air probably won't set the world alight. But just doesn't even begin to qualify for "worst product launch ever" - even if you restrict that to only recent releases in the tech industry.

If you don't restrict it to the tech industry or recent times, you get hundreds of years of failed products which are much worse than this. At least this product is useful, and doesn't injure people.