MacBook Air: Harbinger of Hardware to Come

From the popularization of high-performance media editing machines to current strides in the online storage arena, Apple has traditionally been the company to bring concepts that have long been available to large well-capitalized organizations to the individual. Apple’s recent MacBook Air push shows that the company is dedicated to moving the average consumer closer to a cloud solution. For years, people have relied on desktop and laptop computers to store their data, make their work more efficient and give them access to their media. Processors became faster and hard drives larger to be able to handle the increased loads placed on computers. With the development of cloud computing, however, users have the opportunity to offload more than just web hosting to distant servers. They can store their files, download or remotely access applications and stream media without needing powerful hardware or expansive storage media. While it doesn’t fully rely on the cloud, the MacBook Air is bridging the gap between dedicated hardware and cloud computing, giving users the best of both worlds. People will still be able to store their important documents and media on their computers, but their information will be affiliated with their iCloud account rather than the specific device they’re using. This will free users from the inconvenience of attempting to coordinate their files across multiple devices or forgetting a critical document.
Hardware Shift
With Apple’s elimination of its entry-level MacBook, the MacBook Air line is being set up as its primary computer. This signals an intrinsic shift regarding Apple’s thoughts on computing. The Cupertino computer company is betting that the platform on which people perform their computing will take a back seat to the services and applications themselves. Because of this, having a lightweight, low-power device will matter less than it has in the past, when computers had to perform all of their own storage and data crunching. The Air’s hardware makes it ideal for mobile computing: all information is stored on internal flash memory and there are no optical drives, meaning that the only moving part is the solitary cooling fan. Other manufacturers will assuredly be following suit with thinner, power-sipping computers soon becoming the norm.

Cloud Services
Apple’s iCloud, which will be rolled out in the fall, will allow users to effectively ignore their hardware, synchronizing all of their files and applications across all of their devices. The newly-updated MacBook Air was designed, it seems, to be a cloud-based laptop, relying on an Internet connection to provide its user with the majority of their files and access to their applications. The iTunes service offered through iCloud will not provide streaming of a user’s files, but will allow for synchronizing the files on a user’s computer, meaning that the MacBook Air’s 64 GB of storage space should prove adequate for the average user. Further, iCloud will update files, settings and applications in real-time, meaning that users won’t have to worry about whether or not they have the latest version of their business presentation or if they remembered to copy their flight itinerary from their desktop to their MacBook. Users will undoubtedly be giving up power and storage capacity when purchasing the MacBook Air, but with the services offered by iCloud, it should prove to be a popular choice for the average user and the businessman alike.

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