Apple Computer's stock fell sharply after last Tuesday's Macworld press conference, during which Steve Jobs unveiled the company's supposed "next big thing" - the new, ultra-thin MacBook Air laptop.
At first blush, it's easy to see why financial analysts and stock traders were somewhat disappointed with the Air. Unlike last year's announcement of the iPhone, this new computer doesn't open up any new product categories for the company, and the overpriced and underpowered system isn't a must-have item for consumers.
In fact, the technical press - including some long-time Apple fans - offer harsh criticism of the MacBook Air is drawing the most criticism from the technical press, even from long-time Apple fans. Not only do the Air's processor and memory numbers leave something to be desired, but the system is sorely lacking many input/ouput devices that most people would consider vital.
The Air lacks a CD/DVD optical drive (although it does offer an external drive option and a mechanism for importing such data wirelessly from drives on other computers), as well as an Ethernet port, Firewire and microphone jack. Additionally, the Air has only one USB port, and in an age when virtually everything imaginable plugs in to a USB port, this single port promises to be an excruciatingly painful bottleneck for anyone who wants to charge their iPod at the same time as they copy data from a friend's thumb drive.
If the MacBook Air has such obvious flaws, then why was Steve Jobs - a man generally credited with having great insight into the future of computing - so excited about it? It's because Steve Jobs has an excellent idea of which groups of consumers will buy this machine, and he knows that the number of potential customers will be skyrocketing in a few years.
While many tech-savvy users will stay away from the Air for the reasons listed above, plenty of Mac fanatics will gladly throw down any amount of money for the newest, shiniest, sleekest Apple design.
Likewise, there are plenty of regular consumers, such as the thousands of laptop users on UT campus, for whom weight and size are more important than technical superiority. And while some might find a better bargain by shopping around for slightly less-sleek, Windows-based machines, many students may not be able to resist trading an extra few hundred dollars for a cutting edge status symbol.
But most importantly, it's because the MacBook Air is designed with a new idea of computing in mind: cloud computing. In cloud computing, distant servers carry out most data- and processor-intensive operations, and only results the user is actually interested in are sent to the user's machine. Google Maps is a perfect example of cloud computing, but it's far from the only one. Oher types include online worlds such as World of Warcraft and Second Life, photo- and video-sharing services such as Flickr and YouTube and peer-to-peer file exchange services such as BitTorrent. In all of these examples, the main engines of computation exist only as a distant cloud of data and processors, and the user need only to reach out with a simple network connection to get what he or she wants.
The MacBook Air, a machine that's little more than a keyboard, touchpad, display and high-speed wireless network connection, encompasses these cloud computing aspects. Possibly influenced by Google (Google CEO Eric Schmidt is on Apple's board of directors), Steve Jobs has created a perfect laptop for the day when the bulk of your computer won't be on the desk in front of you, but in servers thousands of miles away.
Of course, that assumes cloud computing takes hold the way its promoters say it will. It's worth pointing out that similar paradigms, such as "thin-client computing," have failed in the past. Microsoft, among other companies, has enormous financial incentive to keep people invested in having stout personal computers on their desks.
Right or wrong, the MacBook Air is a far more significant product than most people give it credit for, even if the future of the clouds and Airs remains as unknown as next year's weather forecast.
Jones is an electrical and computer engineering graduate student.
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