This just out – the world’s thinnest notebook – Macbook Air! By the time Steve’s MacWorld keynote speech was finished, there were 100s of discussions in the net across the world – by the time the day finished and we saw the sun of another day, the number of blogs, diggs, newsarticles and comments reached 1000s. Some praising, many criticising! But does it really matter? Comments say “only mindless mass is really moved by Apple’s new gimmicks” all the time. But who is writing it? And does he really think that those mindless mass will read his writing, and change their opinion about Apple? Well, who knows. But the fact of the matter remains that the mass is impacted by what Apple does and releases. They buy it. They enjoy it. They curse it and buy a newer version of the their poison anyway.
About a year back, when I was thinking about buying a Mac, and almost fixed my choice to a Macbook, I started reading the pros-and-cons of it in various forums. I saw people’s comments about “it gets so hot”, “i cannot find suitable softwares”, “it costs a fortune for repairs”, “apple service is not good in [some] city” etc. – and then I saw experts answering like “there is a firmware update available now that takes care of the heat”, “download your softwares from here”, “buy applecare protection plan”, “apple service is good enough, you moron!”. I saw just the same thing again here – and before even 24 hours were passed: Someone complained that the macbook air did not live upto his expectations and someone came along the line and called him a moron!
So what is this stuff called macbook air? Well, if I go by the guided tour posted in the apple website, I will have to say it’s a notebook that is world’s thinnest (no portion is thicker than 0.8 inches). The cheaper of the 2 available models has a decent processor speed, and 80 GB hard drive, fantastic display, backlit keyboard, a trackpad that tracks various special movements of your fingers like pinch, swipe, rotate etc., some fancy softwares that lets you do everything wirelessly – even watching a DVD that is actually spinning in a optical drive of a Windows PC sitting in another room (called “remote disc” access), has Leopard version of OS X and iLife 08. So all in all, takes care of most of your day to day need of computing, more than your need of wireless computing, and sets you freeeeeee….
Now that’s apple’s understanding of how people wants to go wireless – which may be right, may be wrong, and I, certainly, am not going to judge them. What I will judge is my position in this ladder of evolution of Mac and prospects henceforward.
Question: Do I like the Macbook Air? Answer: I love it!
Question: Do I like all the things in it? Answer: Perhaps no. It doesn’t have a optical drive, which is unthinkable these days. I don’t want to go to the next room every time I want to change a disc! Doesn’t have sufficient amount of ports as well! Hard disk is too little – today we even get 32GB pen drives cheap, for crying out loud!
Question: Do I need it? Answer: I always wanted a Mac (always is not from birth, but a long time nevertheless). And last year after not buying one, I wanted one even more dearly. So answer is yes, I do need a Mac, but not sure if I need this one yet.
Question: Can I afford it? Answer: It’s flaming costly! Well, if I look at the pricing in UK, the minimum off-the-shelf price for Macbook is £699, Macbook Air is £1199, Macbook Pro is £1299. And I can customise my Macbook to meet my exact requirements by running upto £1024 – and I get a fantastic machine that way, which is just 1.08 inches – little thicker than Macbook Air, and perhaps a little heavier. Do I mind? I guess not much.
Question: Will I buy it? Answer: I can certainly buy some Mac, may not be Macbook Air – not just yet. Let it have a run though the market, let people find faults like “it gets hot”, “the display is too fragile”, let apple make it a better sturdier more powerful and cheaper (how can I forget!) product. Perhaps then. But if everyone takes this attitude, how will we reach that stage?
So, please go and buy a Macbook Air, and tell me how do you find it. I’m all ears! 😉
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