I don't think this is a new Cube, either. I rather stick with my iMovie08-allegory, although you don't have the price as an important factor in the case of iMovie08.
In the case with iMovie08, it can be quite handy for people who just want to throw together a shorter videoclip for YouTube or similar purposes, but for people wanting more control over the editing, it is not an option.
In the case of MacBook Air (Why not just Mac Air?), I can see that it will be a group wanting exactly what it can offer and technically, it isn't a bad offer at all. I've been lugging around with my iBook some kilometres and with a light scanner in addition, paper and a pencilcase and whatnot, it is a heavy load after a while.
But the price is a little too much for me.
And I am afraid that is the case for many others.
And that will be even more the main obstacle when you come outside the US. You may have to add a few per cent to the 1799, but it is nothing like 20-25% which we have in Europe - and when it is added another few hundreds of dollars to that, you exclude a lot of potential buyers, who are not after a cheap solution, mind you - but there are limits.
No matter what reasons Apple may defend their European prices with, they cannot get around the psychological effect of people here looking at the American prices and then comparing that to what we are charged.
That is what is happening to the slower sales of the iPhone here, compared to US.
When Apple will realise that they need to do something about that psychological effect, their market share will go even more up.
And the Air won't ever become a Cube.
We are willing to pay more for less, but not that much.

Jason, would you agree that the Air is a niche lifestyle (i.e. halo) product? By that definition, it's appeal will be quite limited, as are many other ultra slim notebooks. I recall a comment earlier from someone who said he would buy the Air also owned a $700 Nokia phone. That is Apple's customer for this product. There's not a lot of those folks out there. Since Apple has not yet been effective at marketing to enterprise customers on a large scale where many of the consumers for this type of product exist, this really is a halo product. Maybe that's the intent here - a low volume halo product. That would be puzzling though... all those resources required to make the Air would be dedicated to a low volume product.

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?

Just sayin'.

Hmmm.. so Apple has dusted off the Duo concept.

Why was the original Duo withdrawn?.. because it was too expensive for what you got in the basic package and because owners discovered they DID need the accessories not included because of lack of space in the design.. This meant a very, very limited market and the model was not economically viable.. I know because I used to sell them.

OS X is more reliable than the old Apple OS but it is not bullet proof, if the OS implodes (as Duo owners discovered to their cost) how are you going to access the 'Air' to reload it, without an external optical drive?

So how have Apple learnt from these mistakes?.. it looks as though they haven't and they have added some new ones -

Ram and Hard Drives should always be upgradable.. its better to have the potential and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

The average lifespan of an Apple portable computer battery is approx. two years, after which a significant deterioration in charge holding is apparent.. If the battery in this new model is not user replaceable, that is an insanely dumb move at this price bracket.

The port access is in a drop down module?... that IS going to get broken.. by ALOT of users.. another insanely dumb move.

I like Apple's products and I still sell them but both the Duo and the Cube were insanely great designs with an insanely small potential market place and the 'Air' appears destined to join them.

Sounds like you think it needs FireWire as well.

...

Can the 'Books boot of USB yet?

The macbook air's design is undoubtedly one of the coolest I have ever seen, so are the new touchpad features, but I am very disappointed that they did not include an optical drive in the computer. It was probably to thin to have a disc drive so they just invented some other way to load discs onto the MB air. This computer is pretty much for for looks and weight. What's it going to be next? a paper thin MB that only has two small features on it?

Booting from an external USB drive should be possible (though this means you are going to have to carry an extra accessory and choose a drive that takes its power from the port to ensure power is not a problem while on the road.. while hoping that the System crash has not nerfed your USB port control) -

'Yes, your drive needs special formatting. When you do this, you lose everything that is on your USB drive now.
Open your Disk Utility, and click on your USB drive (the manufacturer's info line, and not the line with the name of the partition), and click on the Partition tab.
Click the Options button at the bottom of that window.
Click GUID partition table (needed for booting on an Intel Mac.)
Click OK
Click on the Volume Scheme, and choose 1 partition from the drop-down list (or another choice if you think you need more than 1 partition.)
Click the Format drop-down, and choose Mac OS Extended (journaled)
Name your drive whatever you like, and click the Partition button.

That USB drive should now be selectable if you boot to your installer disk.

In the past, no Mac could boot OS X from a USB drive. That changed with the Intel Macs, and USB certainly boots an Intel Mac. But, you must change the type of partition, as listed above, or the installer ignores the USB drive.'
Posted by DeltaMac. 09-03-2007, 08:58 AM.
http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-77649.html

I wonder what OS rev the demo units are running? Maybe the awaited 10.5.2?