The MacBook Air's fatal wireless flaw
Apple's MacBook Air doesn't live up to its wireless promise.
To quote an Apple tagline, "without wires, you're free to go anywhere." But the wireless part of the "air" play on words fails to deliver. (The other half its light-as-air weight: here it does deliver.)
As I've written in the past, I like the Air. I got one in February as soon as it was available at retail and have been pleased with the performance, screen, keyboard, build, and, until recently, the battery life (which has dwindled to under an hour). Of course, the head-turning aluminum aesthetics is also a major appeal to many people.
That said, after a spurt of trips including a 10-day stay on the East Coast and a few treks to Los Angeles, the Air's wireless shortcomings have become painfully clear. In a word (or two), no 3G.
Now, before I get slammed, let me say that I fully realize that I'm not the first person to reach this conclusion so I'm not claiming any unique epiphany. There were a number of observers citing this paradox way back in January. Some frustrated users even attempted hacks to shoehorn a 3G modem into the Air. The point is: because of the price and the way it's marketed, 3G should be built in.
But the full brunt of not having 3G hit me on Friday when I made a trip to Qualcomm to get briefed on a new version of the Snapdragon applications processor (more on this in another post). Sitting there in the nerve center of one of greatest wireless companies in the world, I couldn't get a wireless connection. Everyone else in the room had 3G connections of one kind or another. The Air instantly became the proverbial doorstop (or paper weight--choose your simile, or maybe it's more apropos to say it was a dinosaur.)
It didn't take much prodding from me to get the Qualcomm product manager to point out this fatal flaw.
This came after weeks of not being able to use the Air in many situations when I desperately needed a wireless connection. For instance, not all LA airports have reliable Wi-Fi connections. The John Wayne Airport in Orange County being one example. And when I was on the East Coast, one sprawling place I stayed at for several nights had Wi-Fi only in one inconveniently situated area that was inaccessible at night.
In these situations, the Air is nothing more than a slab of beautifully sculpted aluminum.
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Hewlett-Packard Compaq 2510p (L) and MacBook Air. The HP comes with a built-in WWAN option, the Air does not.
(Credit: Brooke Crothers)Which brings me to the cult of Steve Jobs. Apple was brilliant enough to deliver a groundbreaking design like the Air but why wasn't it savvy enough to build in 3G?
Before I get slammed again, let me throw out some reasons (excuses) why Apple didn't build in 3G, based on reports I've read and my own observations. Apple didn't like the fact that 3G modems often made the user commit to one service provider, i.e., Verizon or Sprint or Vodafone. Or, it believed that if users wanted 3G, they could simply plug in a USB 3G modem.
I have serious problems with both of those reasons. Particularly when you're paying typically more than $1,800 (or $2,500, depending on the model) for a notebook billed as a wireless wonder (for Apple ad copy on why the Air is such a wonderful wireless laptop, just cruise over to Apple's MBA page.) And I have even more of a problem when ultrathin Netbooks are coming with 3G at one-third (and potentially a tiny fraction of) the cost of the Air.
For comparison, let's look at another Valley company, Hewlett-Packard. HP has been selling WWAN (Wireless Wide Area Network) modems in its business laptops for at least two years (and probably longer). The HP-Compaq NC6400 laptop introduced about two years ago was offered from day one with WWAN built in.
Granted, the choice of carriers at first was limited but look at HP's offerings today. Models (including those in the EliteBook line) are offered with Qualcomm's Gobi modem. Gobi obviates the need to have unique radios for each carrier. Gobi supports Verizon, Sprint, and others in one device.
Where was Gobi when Apple refreshed the MacBooks in October? I'm sure Apple has plenty of excuses (for example, not enough space in the Air's ultrathin design).
But Apple should have had 3G from the beginning and certainly in the October refresh. In today's 3G world, continuing to call it the MacBook Air brings another meaning to the play on words: lightness of weight with a touch of advertising hot air.
Additional comments::
The point is not that a user can potentially add an external WWAN modem (though
even that's not necessarily easy to do), the point is that the Air should come with 3G capability built in considering how the computer is marketed.
Brooke Crothers has been an editor at large at CNET News, an analyst at IDC Japan, and an editor at The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, among other endeavors, including co-manager of an after-school math-and-reading center. He writes for the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
I realize that y'all may think Silly Valley to be the center of the civilized world and all, but 3G (then, and mostly now) is not yet useful enough to be worth the effort.
See for yourself: http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/
who wants to trudge along at the speeds of US 3G?
and who wants a modem that does not work in other countries?
hmm.... maybe everything to everyone is not possible.
the fatal flaw is the individual who never read the specs before buying.
or maybe just the usual c|net using apple in a story title to drum up click ad sales...
seriously, you guys write more about apple than any other computer maker.
Apple`s other laptops don`t even have express card slots or card readers built in ! What a joke.
HP and Dell laptops can be ordered with 3G built-in or you can easily add it on with an express card.
So glad to be a PC ! So many options.
or in this case just pure - ignorance...
The one final thing I would say about it is that people do not like service contracts: who here likes paying a cell phone bill? along with cable, satellite, power, etc. Adding one more contract for laptops, unless absolutely necessary, is just another headache to deal with.
Amazing that almost a year after the Air's introduction, you are STILL whining about limitations that are easily addressed with about 30 seconds worth of research. It's not as convenient as built-in, but it saves weight and cost for those of us who don't need it.
So how much does Dell pay you to write stupid, mindless Apple-bashing articles?
Advantages: I can't think of a situation where I would need to be online and not also have my phone with me. I can add Phone as Modem plan to most any carrier. I can (and have) used a cheapie GSM phone with pay-as-you-go in Europe for 3G connectivity, while taking advantage of Sprint's cheapo prices here for their decent EVDO network.
At this point, built in 3G chips are more soon-to-be-outdated marketing ploys for an individual domestic carrier. If it wan't clear from the iPhone marketing plan, Apple tries to stay with standards that are globally deployable or simply leave them out. For the Air, a dedicated chip or swappable bit and pieces would be the sort of cumbersome additions that overcomplicate most tech products.
Bluetooth, phone, 3G. Wifi where possible. Done.
Advantages: I can't think of a situation where I would need to be online and not also have my phone with me. I can add Phone as Modem plan to most any carrier. I can (and have) used a cheapie GSM phone with pay-as-you-go in Europe for 3G connectivity, while taking advantage of Sprint's cheapo prices here for their decent EVDO network.
At this point, built in 3G chips are more soon-to-be-outdated marketing ploys for an individual domestic carrier. If it wan't clear from the iPhone marketing plan, Apple tries to stay with standards that are globally deployable or simply leave them out. For the Air, a dedicated chip or swappable bit and pieces would be the sort of cumbersome additions that overcomplicate most tech products.
Bluetooth, phone, 3G. Wifi where possible. Done.
Good call, Apple.
In any case, I owned a Macbook Air SSD for 2 weeks early this year before I exchanged it for a Macbook Pro (and got $750 back !). The SSD model cost way too much, obviously, but I wanted to see if it would make a difference. And it was damn fast .. certain things took about as long as a regular book, but a few things were blistering. For the most part, the air was a fine machine: fast, extremely light, great wireless performance.
And 3G didn't even enter into the equation. 3G phones generally suck so personally I don't think it's a required feature, and frankly when I need email or web access in a pinch, I just use my phone.
The thing that killed the Air for me was the original embedded Intel graphics performance. The shared GPU would eventually overheat the machine if you tried to play a game.
Fortunately, this has been fixed with the NVidia 9400M in the latest model, but I've already bought my Macbook Pro. Tempted to get the next Pro with the new clickpad and dual GPU setup. (But not that tempted ;-)
Sometimes I feel like CNET just forces its staff to write articles that can have the word "Mac" or "Apple" in the title, only because it gets visitors to click on them.
- by KillersDad December 14, 2008 11:07 AM PST
- Not only has the writer confused his options but if he's killed his battery in 10 months, he hasn't learned how to operate his computer. It's easy to get 2 years out of an Apple battery. I routinely run my battery all the way down, then charge it completely. My original iPhone purchased on the first day it went on sale still gives me 18 hours of service before charging and my MacBook battery purchased in August 07 still lasts in excess of 3 hours.
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