Well that didn’t take long. We are 15 days into this year and I already have a product to obsess about for irrational reasons. Girls and boys, easily the biggest news out of MacWorld 2008, the MacBook Air:

[source: apple.com]

I’m not going to waste my time typing or your time reading by listing its feature set. You can find that elsewhere. Now, I have never loved the word “fanboy”; I think it implies a lack of impartiality. But I will say that I am an Apple enthusiast. I love their products, their positioning and their focus on avoiding the also-ran territory controlled by the other big players in the space. But no one is perfect. Steve Jobs’ ability to bend space-time is, unfortunately, finite and you can’t expect him to fit everything in a package as diminutive as the housing of the MacBook Air. Regardless, when a product like this enters the market, people like me across the interwebs respond with fanfare. It is a largely involuntary response, kind of like an aluminum-induced gag reflex. An $1,800 one. Instead, let me tell you what’s wrong with the MacBook Air:

• Remote Disc nonsense. The MacBook Air offers an optional external optical drive and the ability to access optical drives on other computers via software included with the machine. But the software comes on, wait for it, DVD. Maybe there’s something I’m missing but it feels like having to pay to open a safe that contains all your money. Why not just ship the MBA with the software pre-installed or release it as a software update?
• There is a singular USB drive. This single drive is meant to handle everything from the external optical drive and ethernet connectivity to printing and anything else you might want to plug in. Yes, one could always buy a USB hub, but after spending $1,800 on something that fits in an envelope, one would like to close their wallet until the MacBook Air Nano Classic comes out for a while.
• Despite its svelte form factor, this is truly not the machine of a real road warrior. For starters, internet connectivity depends on wi-fi which, for most people, requires you to be either at home, work or near an unsecured network. The first two probably mean you’d have internet access anyway and the third is a roll of the dice, at best. With no card slot, you can’t add a wireless card from your cellular carrier of choice. This will severly limit its functionality on the go. Stick a 3G radio somewhere in this thing and you’ve got a real category killer out of Cupertino. But at $1,800 without, it would probably also be a real wallet killer too.
• The battery is not user-replaceable. This is a computer, not an iPod. It is also a computer aimed at those with manilla envelopes as laptop cases busy, mobile lives. Having to send your computer in for a battery replacement, even with free installation, is going to be a real disruption for those people who this product is meant for.
• Black keys. Sorry Steve, I rarely disagree with your design choices but this just doesn’t jive with me. I think it’s a bit too reminiscent of the Titanium Powerbooks circa 2002 and I feel like we’ve made so much progress since then. Sorry, not for me

Now, the great part for Apple. None of these gripes matter, even if I’m not alone in them. These things will sell like hotcakes (I’ve always wondered how well hotcakes actually sell). In two weeks, when they ship, I’ll see them peppered about my classes in the same hands of the kids who came back from summer break with iPhones. Here’s why the MacBook Air’s shortcomings won’t matter:

• It’s damn thin. Like really thin. Like will-probably-at-some-point-be-used-as-a-ninja-murder-weapon thin.
• It’s pretty.
• It runs OSX.
• Multi-touch, it’s what’s hot in the streets.
• 64 gigabytes of SSD love (for a price).

None of this is an indictment of the product or of Apple’s prowess. They have made a significant achievement with the MacBook Air’s release today and I am confident that a lot of these things will be fixed or made unimportant in future updates. No product is perfect in its first iteration (except this). It’s okay, Steve Jobs, after all, I want one.

Filed under: Computers, Gadgets | Technology — Roy @ 1:21 pm