Apple have announced their new ultralightweight Macbook Air today at MacWorld. Whilst it's hard not to be dazzled by shiny things, I'm personally not that impressed. Given that the cost of the basic spec model is £1199 in the UK this is a significant premium to pay for a lighter machine with a backlit keyboard and LED backlit screen. I'm looking forward to seeing one in the flesh for myself but I can't help wondering if the thin chassis will make this machine more vulnerable to being damaged? I'm pretty sure I'd buy a macbook over one of these for sure.
Having had a brief play with Christian's and Ed's EEEPCs I was hoping that the Macbook Air was going to be more along similar lines. Naturally some compromises have to be made when you make the physical size of a device smaller and screens and keyboards are going be most affected so apple chose to just make it thinner rather than truly smaller. Comparing the two devices which are clearly at the opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of price, at around £240, I think the smaller EEEPC is best suited to being a hackable, portable device for geeks and children alike (sure it's not OSX but it's a grand less) whilst the Macbook Air will become the plaything of teenagers with wealthy parents, Pc Pro's Jon Honeyball, well-off business types and a few geeks who cannot resist the lure of Apple's new precious.