[Frantish]

Disabled men in wheelchairs.

That does not sound like a huge market compared to the nearly 100 million Women in America.

I said the main customer, the group most likley to buy it, would be women. This is based on historical sales of similar small size "palm tops", and the main reason the female buyers perhased it was due to weight and size.

Given its svelt shape, I would not be surprised to see it on the "runway" at the Paris fashion show.

It is the first Mac since the iMac that did not have either a SCSI or a FW. Sure some will not miss it, but for anyone to spend $1799 for it, they will be wondering how to plug in their HD Camcorder or $1000SLR camera.

(I can go without Optical, ethernet, audio, Express card, even video out, but I rely too much on FW to use USB)

[maxcalvino]

+1 I would had pre-order yesterday if it had a FW port. huge set back :(

[KendallGelner]

My "$1000+" SLR camera works quite well with my Sandisk Extreme USB reader, thank you very much. In fact the only DSLR I know of with a firewire connection is the older Sigma SD-10. ALl the others went USB exclusive long ago.

Firewire is currently only the domain of video camcorders. And I agree it's a loss there, but a very limited loss given most people with an Air would also have a desktop.

[jhorvatic]

The Macbook Air is about ultra portability, not sexuality. It doesn't have an optical drive but most ultra portables don't either in this category. But only Apple was smart enough to figure out how to borrow an optical drive just about anywhere.
None of the others can do this. Drive speed isn't going to be much different than the 5400rpm drives in the others. If you're worried about speed opt for the ram drive instead. Remember it's an ultra portable, not a gaming machine or a regular laptop. But this ultra portable has just about everything you need to be very handy compared to the rest. How do you use iLife 08? The same way you use it on any system. If you opt for the optical drive there is no difference. Oh and there's always portable USB Hubs to solve the 1 port issue. Again, this about ultra portability, it's not intended to be like a desktop. Like some have said already if you want everything get the Macbook Pro for pete sake.
.

[nom]

jedi228 said:

{quote} I just don't get why people continue to whine that the MacBook Air is missing this and that. ......

The MB Air is great. The MacBook Pro is great. Choose the one you like.

I just think that the old 12" powerbook is even greater - so will keep using that for the time being

[darkgoob]

I can't believe they let you pre-configure it with Final Cut Express. Exactly what are you supposed to do with Final Cut if there is no Firewire port?? LOL

[Lady_in_Stilettos]

Check the Apple Store Site:
http://store.apple.c...&node=home/shopmac/family/macbookair

Why is it that the low-end version of MacBook Air costs $1,799 while the high-end costs $3,098 which is priced higher than the most expensive MacBook Pro? Is the price supposed to be just $2,098?

[serendipity]

Hello,

I use a Verizon wireless moden which goes into the USB port. Is there any reason to question if this would work. This is the UM150 which just came out this month. Can anyone test the car charger or plane charger to see if these work well. My only reservation is the battery length. Has anyone tried a third party external battery extender. Have you heard if Mac is making one?

Thank you

Barbara

[TalkinMan]

Yes, it has non-replaceable parts. Who's going to send in their computer for a battery replacement?

It is also practically unsupportable by an IT staff.

No Firewire Target Disk Mode
No removable HD
No high-speed imaging option (NetBoot would be an option, but it has a lot of limitations)
One USB port - USB ports are relatively fragile

When I got to see one at MW yesterday, I realized that it has the same wide bezel border that the MacBook has. So they could have reduced the physical dimensions by another inch.

Plus, it's $200 more than it should have been. This is like the PowerBook 2400 all over again.

[MacCheetah3]

Hi
It's the 64GB Solid State Drive current price compared to that of the 80GB 1.8" Hard Disk Drive prices. A little bit of the added bit of the added cost is the little faster CPU but the SSD is very much the most.

[Jason Snell]

jkross22 said:

Jason, would you agree that the Air is a niche lifestyle (i.e. halo) product?

Yup.

Quote

My point is that as a mass marketer, would it not have made more sense for the big new product introduction this year been an iPhone flip, redesigned MacBook Pro, mid level desktop below the MacPro, etc?

If you don't have it, you can't introduce it....

Some might argue that the "mainstream" announcement Tuesday was the Apple TV/movie rental piece. I think that will affect far more people than the MacBook Air.

[Iruka]

I can't believe some of these comments. Did people seriously believe that this was going to a wafer-thin, top speed, all-singing, all-dancing, Blue-ray equipped workhorse?
Duh - it fits a perfect niche.
I need a machine that it is portable (i.e. lightweight) and can deliver quality presentations, with good battery life AND access my apps back in the office while I'm on the road.
I don't want a machine which is heavy when I'm lugging it from continent to continent. Even my trusty MacBook is a little heavy for that.
I don't need high-powered video editing capability. I want something that I can use to create and deliver presentations, access email and write reports, oh, and while I'm at it surf the web, email photos back home, and listen to iTunes while I work in a hotel room.
Perfect!
A

[scriven]

Lady in Stilettos asks why the top price for a MacAir is so high. Answer: because that configuration includes something you can't buy on any other Mac, whether it's a laptop or a desktop---a 64GB RAM disk. This costs a thousand bucks, which is about the going rate for a huge RAM chip, and it eliminates all moving parts from the computer, so that it should; (i) last much longer, (ii) be silent, (iii) generate less heat, (iv) be less vulnerable to damage from dropping, (v) weigh less, and (vi) be much faster on any task that requires access to stored programs or data, e.g. starting up, bringing up art or photos or big docs. At $170 per advantage, that's a good deal for many users--and for those who value the (fetch) speed plus the silence plus the durability very highly (or any other subset of these virtues), it's a deal you can't get anywhere else, running Windows or MacOSX, with a full-size keyboard and a 13" screen and less than half the total weight of the smallest MacBook (which I already have, and hate to add to a briefcase with essential books and papers in it, which already weighs more than 10 lbs). Sure you get less total memory capacity than with a hard disk, but as a writer with 400+ publications including several books, I don't need that much to store them all anyway, though of course a photographer would.

PS If you can't afford the MacAir here's a cheap alternative for many people: weigh your handsome, impressive, leather brief case, that you bought with your first paycheck, if that's what you have. Nasty surprise? Most of them weigh much more with a MacAir inside than an elegant ballistic nylon one from eBags WITH A 13" MACBOOK IN IT. So, for the price of a more functional bag (waterproof, more pockets, etc.), you can get most of the advantages of the MacAir. But not all.

Cheers from someone who makes his living as an evaluator, and hence appreciates corrections of his mistakes,

Michael Scriven (Claremont Graduate University)

[hillstones]

Lady

Check the Apple Store Site:

http://store.apple.c...&node=home/shopmac/family/macbookair



Why is it that the low-end version of MacBook Air costs $1,799 while the high-end costs $3,098 which is priced higher than the most expensive MacBook Pro? Is the price supposed to be just $2,098?

The price is correct. Apple is ripping people off by charging $300 more for a processor that is still slower than a MacBook, and a staggering $999 upgrade price for a 64 GB solid-state memory drive. I am sorry, but 64 GB is useless. No one will be stupid enough to waste $3,000 on the Piece of S* AirBook.