14 DAY TRIAL // Browsing the web I came across this piece entitled "Apple's MacBook Air love affair." Eric Benderoff believes the MacBook Air is perfect as a secondary computing machine, because of its lacking storage space, optical drive and the only USB port available, a topic we've also covered a while ago (a bit negatively though).
It fills my heart with warmth to see that Apple's Air, although lacking a lot of stuff, manages to make its way into people's lives for being light, conformable to use and downright beautiful. Benderoff offers two scenarios in which the Air fits perfectly as a natural choice:
Scenario 1 - "You already own a Mac with a bigger hard drive, but you need a laptop for business trips or to transport to a client's office. This scenario is an ideal one for the Air-Mac users needing a secondary computer, not a primary device. A feature that emphasizes this is a 'remote disk'; it lets the Air tap into another computer's disc drive (Mac or PC) to wirelessly install software."
And isn't it true? As a machead using an iMac, Mac Pro or even a Mac Mini at home, why would you need more than 80 gigs of storage space, more USB ports and an optical drive on the go? OK so the optical drive would be appealing, but clearly you can do without, on the go.
Scenario 2 - "You completely rethink how you use a computer. Do you really need a disc drive? Do you need a lot of storage? Maybe you could use an external storage device to hold your growing collection of digital stuff and just tap into it when needed? What can you purge?"
Does it hurt to carry a flash drive with you? I suppose not. Given that you wanted the thinnest and the lightest laptop out there for computing on the go, it shouldn't be too hard to keep some of your music, pictures and videos on an external storage device.
Eric Benderoff claims he falls in the second category. I'd say he who falls in one of the categories fits the other scenario too. And since pretty much everyone buying a laptop already uses a computer at home, or at work, the Air sounds as a very good choice for everyone. Admit it, you too would buy it in a jiffy, had it been cheaper! It's too sexy to resist, plus, you don't necessarily have to run Apple's OS on it.
The man also makes reference to Apple's acknowledgment that the Air's limitations might turn off some buyers: "For computer users doing the basics and not building up huge masses of data, the Air could be perfect," said Todd Benjamin, Apple's director of portables marketing. "But if you're a heavy user, it might not be right."
Apple is indeed straightforward about its MacBook Air, emphasizing looks, size and weight, but admits it had to compromise to achieve all with the release of one notebook.