The MacBook Air turns four years old today, noted TUAW, and I will also congratulate.
Today I've ordered my wife the new MacBook Air 13. I've the 2010 version. Every day I'm surprised of how good, fast, silent it is. My Air has in fact the same specification as my wife's old HP NX7400 from 2005. While my wife hate her HP, I love my Air. And now she's getting one herself. It will be the first time my wife has a better PC than myself. I don't know how I will handle it. While writing this some ideas are popping up; I will try to get the iPad 3. I think that will calm me down until Summer 2013. And I recently got the 4S, and I'm still in awe using that.
But why is the Air so good? Is it possible to draft some thoughts based on the work on disruptive innovation theory I'm dealing with these days?
I think so and here are some points:
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| Photo from tuaw.com |
- The original MacBook Air from 2008 was the lightest and smallest in the market. That attracted non-comsumption. People who couldn't use notebooks because they were to heavy. It was also quite exspencive.
- My 2010 Air had only a tiny 128Gb harddisk. But the iCloud made harddisk storage way less important. And the SSD made the system extremely fast. See my post Notes on recent hard-disk industry disruptions, where I discuss this in depth. 11' and 13' are quite small screens, but the OSX Lion inclusion of iPad technology, has also made the screensize less important.
- The increase in processor speed on the 2011 version made the Air to an unbeatable portable. Apple has maintained the prize and removed the white MacBook, while increasing storage and processing power.
Intel are said to poure US$300M to help Apple competitors create something similar called Ultrabooks. They will have a long way to go however. 4 years experience, a brilliant iPhone, iPod and iPad business, an Air-optimized OS and portables growing about 40% is quite difficult to beat.
So happy birthday MacBook Air! You're the best portable I've ever had!
