The MacBook Air is the Cube 2.0
When I saw the MacBook Air in person this week at Macworld Expo, I was having a hard time figuring out what about it seemed so familiar. Then I remembered. The G4 Cube. "Overpriced and underconfigured" were the words we used to describe it in our review in 2000, and many of the same complaints could be applied directly to the MacBook Air.
G4 Cube: pretty, but dumb
Where the Cube had no PCI slots or additional drive bays, no standard audio input or output jacks, and wouldn't accept full-length graphics cards because of its diminutive size, the Air has no Ethernet port (!), no optical drive, no removable battery, and requires a micro-DVI connector for output to an external monitor. Both offer underwhelming technical specs--the G4's hard drive was legendarily slow, while the Air's 80GB drive is, hilariously, half the capacity of the largest iPod Classic. Even the price tag was the same: $1,799! And I think in the future, I'll be able to update this post with one more important comparison: the Cube, although a stunning piece of industrial design, was a commercial flop, and I think the MacBook Air will be, too.
The more I think about the Air, the less I am able to answer the grammatically torturous question, "Who is this for?" And that's an important question to answer when you're spending money and resources on a new addition to your lineup. Let's look at the Cube again. Most of its features, plus more power and expandability, were available for less money in the G4 minitowers. The top-of-the-line black MacBook offers the same sized screen as the MacBook Air, a more powerful processor, twice the hard-drive capacity, and with 2GB of RAM to match the Air's, still costs $150 less. And your tradeoff is what, 2 pounds and a little bit of baby fat?
No one who looks at the MacBook Air, even those who are smitten with its insane thinness and...well, mostly just that...believe it would function as their primary machine. No, they say, they want it for its portability. But that's a pretty expensive secondary machine, especially when you could have a smartphone or portable media player or Nokia N810 or heck, an iPhone that's very nearly as useful and a whole sight more portable. In fact, you could argue that the convergence of phone and computer is the dominant trend in consumer electronics right now, and the iPhone is one of the primary examples of how good things can get in that field. If you buy that argument, it would seem to suggest that developing an extremely-but-not-ultra-portable MacBook right now is a bit redundant, if not outright baffling.
So that leaves you in Cube-land again: with a very small and well-heeled potential audience willing to spend $1,800 or more (or just over $3,000 if they opt for the 64GB solid-state drive for maximum tech-forwardness) simply to bask in the glow of outstanding design. Oh, and a resurgent fetishist aftermarket capped by a series of glowing mentions in a William Gibson novel. There's nothing wrong with that approach, as long as you know it going in, and Apple certainly got its hat handed to it with the Cube. Let's hope they're not cranking out MacBook Airs by the hundred-thousand, because I just don't think they're going to need them.
For me the regular MacBook/Pro is thin enough and offers so many more options.
OT: Veronica is *still* in that picture?
1) Size doesn't matter much in a desktop, but it does matter in a portable. For some portable users, it's the #1 most important thing.
2) The price is actually quite comparable to the rest of the MacBook product line, and also other similar products in the marketplace.
I'm not claiming it'll be their best selling laptop ever, but I don't think it'll fail miserably either.
(Also the top-of-the-line MacBook Air is just over $3,000, not "nearly $4,000." You may want to correct that.)
I completely forgot about the Cube! This makes me wonder if Apple thinks it can slap some pretty onto a failed project and pass it off to the ogling fanboys. I don't hate Apple, but come on, the Air serves no purpose at all! Anyway, it's good to see that your writing style perfectly mirrors your ranting style. I love it!
Jay
Apple is really positioning itself to take advantage of "cloud" computing. Most of the apps I use these days are internet apps, they make life so much easier when you're constantly moving around from computer to computer.
Clearly, Air is not for power users. It's geared to users such as myself who just need something really portable. Yes...weight really matters.
If I need optical drive or Ethernet it is certainly not for me, but if I need a prestigious laptop to accompany me in conferences or business meetings it surely do the job.
http://decentreviews.blogspot.com/
It could be your only computer if you use it mainly like most people use their computers...to run applications that are not that processor intensive. The shared graphics memory, slower processor and lack of firewire mean you will not be using MacBook Air for running very processor intensive apps, you won't be hardcore gaming and you won't be importing video through a camcorder via firewire. And if it's your only computer, you'll have to spend another $99 on an external superdrive.
I agree with the reviewer in that I don't think the MacBook Air will be a success as it is being sold because it is too expensive for regular consumers and not powerful enough for pro-sumers.
It could be your only computer if you use it mainly like most people use their computers...to run applications that are not that processor intensive. The shared graphics memory, slower processor and lack of firewire mean you will not be using MacBook Air for running very processor intensive apps, you won't be hardcore gaming and you won't be importing video through a camcorder via firewire. And if it's your only computer, you'll have to spend another $99 on an external superdrive.
I agree with the reviewer in that I don't think the MacBook Air will be a success as it is being sold because it is too expensive for regular consumers and not powerful enough for pro-sumers.
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by shane--2008
October 31, 2008 9:08 PM PDT
- haha! this is a funny find.....
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(13 Comments)so, 9 months later the airs are selling very well thank you. i wonder if cnet fired the moron blogger?
oh wait! this IS cnet! they handed out a bonus!