AirHead

It's always interesting to see tech reviews by technologists or power users who don't understand markets.

CrunchGear has a review of the new MacBook Air that claims its lack of optical drive, its slower processor, lack of inputs and its thinness (!) are all "impractical" flaws. And Devin ends with an insightful analysis that "a lot of people will buy this laptop" even with its flaws.

So who will buy it any why? This is the real question, and one that CrunchGear unfortunately misses entirely because they are focused on the product and not the customer and the market.

So who is not going to buy the Air? Clearly people that use their laptop as their only machine and who do processor intensive work (video and photo editing, music production, graphic design, etc.) are not going to buy the Air. These users should buy a Mac Pro anyway because the power/$ ratio is much better. If a you are a professional and using your MacBook Pro as your main graphics machine, you are probably losing businesses to your competitors who can work faster and more productively on a Mac Pro.

Who will buy the MacBook Air? In short, me and people like me. My job is 100% communications (email, chat, contacts, calendar) and analysis (spreadsheets, presentations, documentation). And travel to and from the office and meetings every day. I absolutely never need a USB port because I have wireless printing. I definitely never need an optical drive unless I am installing software, and then I am happy to plug the optional drive (or use remote disk, of course). I suspect the processor and 2 GB will be plenty quick for my needs.

Finally, does it need to be that thin? Absolutely. The debate about thinness reminds me of ultralight backpacking. Until you have tried it, you won't believe how much better it feels to lose every ounce of weight.

There is one thing missing on the MacBook Air: a built-in 3G card. It is strange that my iPhone is always on a network, but my Mac is not. It would have been nice to see a Bluetooth connection between the Air and my iPhone to keep my Mac online on the road. I suspect we will see something like this in the near future.