Apple has dropped the aging and sturdy line of just plain Macbook laptops. You can buy the mobile powerhouse MacBook Pro, or you can buy a MacBook Air. So with the new OS 10.7 “Lion” standard, the addition of the new thunderbolt port, and upgraded processor and RAM, the featherweight MacBook Air is all out of bubble gum.
These changes seem incremental and individually they are. After all, SSDs are not new, low-volt processors and thermal controls are not new, and one can hardly argue that leaving off the optical drive is some sort of improvement. Taken together, they represent most of a revolution in mobile computing. The MacBook Air, once the parlor-trick publicity stunt by an otherwise serious computer maker, has just become the standard laptop offering, and a leap in capability that will leave other companies drooling.
The machine pays its own freight at an increased return by minimizing things you don’t want (mass, heat) and maximizing those you do (speed, reliability, flexibility).
As Reuters says, “The Air, once a novelty, is now the standard Apple laptop.” What they don’t say is that Apple has just re-modeled your whole office with a rocket launcher. The amazing new Thunderbolt Display is everything you ever wanted but didn’t know it. Apple may just have created a whole new way of solving the mobility paradox: the monitor is the docking station, and more. Just how much more is still a matter of some debate. The monitor has an ethernet port , but it is not yet known how much functionality exists without a connected computer. Stand by. If the ability to use the monitor as an unattended bridge between the network and the peripherals (storage, printer, sound gear) is not in this version, I am willing to bet it will be in the next.
Apple has been working on this on and off since their famous “Duo” line of laptops which were designed to jack into a special DuoDock that would not only connect them with all your desktop gear, but beef up the capabilities of the laptop itself when connected.
Apple has a way of dropping things then returning as their undisputed master. I think core mobility just got that special treatment.
