The Air is popular among buyers, despite its numerous lacking features

Mar 4, 2008 09:16 GMT  ·  By

Although the Air was met with praising as well as criticism upon its arrival, forecasts of low sales have recently been proven wrong. Sources inform that demand is apparently still high for the world's thinnest notebook, with frequent sellouts at Apple stores across the globe and long wait times for shipping at Amazon and Best Buy.

According to Ars Technica, Amazon MacBook Air orders won't be shipping until March 16, while Best Buy is still waiting to fill its stock with Air units. Needless to say, it should come as no surprise that the respective online retailers are having trouble shipping ordered Air units since Apple themselves are having trouble with filling up its own shelves, as Daily Tech too posts.

The same source informs that one Indianapolis Apple store in particular is quite packed with Air units. Still, Apple retail stores in general are having difficulties in meeting demand, with LA, Chicago and New York city being supplied on a daily basis.

So, if the US gets daily shipments, you can do the math yourself and approximate how many units Apple is selling. However, this heavily contradicts statements coming from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, delivering a keynote speech at a conference focused on Australian broadband, in Sydney.

Expressing his discontent towards certain aspects of Apple's iPhone, Apple TV and MacBook Air, Woz stated that the Air's missing features "bothered" him. Upon purchasing his own, Wozniak found that its streamlined design and full size keyboard offered a "more comfortable, positive experience." But even though he is currently "trying to figure out a way to make the Air part of [his] life, because [he is] a one-laptop-only person," Wozniak doesn't see it becoming a hit, concluding: "I don't see a mass swing over to them."

There is still a lot of room for speculation on this topic. Some go as far as to claim that Apple themselves didn't order enough Air units, making them hard to keep in stock.