Within minutes of the Macbook Air being launched, I thought Apple had another Cube on their hands. Here's a good article discussing that very thing in a good amount of detail. It's an interestingly article that has the same title as my post:
Is The Macbook Air Another Cube.

It's a good read for those who care.

Me, I'm so over the Air. ;)

So I was all pumped to get a new Laptop. I've been using a 12 inch G4 for over 3 years now and want to upgrade to the new Intel chip MacBooks.

About my needs:
I'm an executive so form is really important to me. I like stuff with a small footprint and that looks cool.
Rich media authoring apps are not important.
I like a snappy machine. I have a lot of apps open at the same time. I try out a lot of new apps. (I am not going to change).
I travel a lot.
I do a lot of media presentations and video conferencing.

So, MacBook Air seemed right. I was about to place my order for the new MacBook Air and everyone in my office was - "I wouldn't buy that. It looks nice, but it isn't worth it at that price."

Immediate flash back 7 years to the Apple Cube. I was in the market for a new desktop and was about to buy The Cube and everyone in my office was - "I wouldn't buy that. It looks nice, but it isn't worth it at that price."

Now people in my office are smarter than me in most things, but especially when it comes to computer hardware. I thought the Cube made sense for an executive desktop, but in the end I still appreciate value. The price of the innovative design versus functionality was a bit unrealistic - I bought a tower. I am now leaning toward a MacBook.

It makes me wonder if Apple has another "Cube" on their hands.

Who's buying the Air?

Update (Jan 15, 19:10):
I just made a similar comment on Ethan Kaplan's post.
The more i think about it the more I am pretty certain that Apple will not have a hit with Air. I truly think Apple may have another Cube on their hand.

This is form at the expense of function at a higher price point. Just like the Cube.

Unlike the original iMac, which dropped the floppy drive, also provided smaller foot print with the all-in-one design, had colours instead of beige, had a firewire port for video cameras, and USB ports. It wasn't functionally neutered for the design. Had Apple just dropped the optical drive in the AIR fine, but not being able to upgrade the ram or change a battery and no ethernet which is still needed in many hotels is severly limiting and I have to pay more.

As the target demographic for that laptop - I’m giving it a pass. I fear others will, too.

Update (Jan 16)
Although the comments so far do not share my opinion, I hold to it. I think the Air is not going to be a winner in its present configuration and/or price point. Darek K Miller has balanced and informative review.

In 1998 I was living in Singapore working for a bank trading exotic foreign currency options. At the time I was using a Macintosh at home running Office 98. Our trading model at the time was Excel based, so I actually caused quite a stir when I order Office for the Mac. I had to run hundreds of simulations on our Excel program running on my Mac before it was approved. Trust me when I tell you that it was an enormous headache to get that approval.

After we had a couple of virus scares at the bank, I realized that my Macintosh might "save the day" if we were victims of a successful virus taking down our systems. I wrote a memo to my boss and to the IT department informing them of the high risk that we were taking relying on only one OS. We were professional risk managers but we were not "seeing" the risk to our systems. Needless to say my memo got pretty much ignored.

When I started my Web company in 1999, I was pleased with the mix of Windows, Mac, and Linux computers in our office. Everyone had their favourite and we would rage after work in Quake III battle after Quake III battle to settle the score. The general break down was: designers were Mac, business admin was PC, and Programmers were Linux.

However, something has happened in the last 24 months in my office. We are 75% Macintosh. Programmers and business admins are switching to Macs as we hire new staff and purchase new equipment. Today I asked Mandy to start pushing people toward PCs and Windows in the office much to the surprise of some of my staff and especially anyone who knows how hard I fought for my Mac while working at the bank.

The issue is entirely about risk management. We need to ensure that we are not dependent on any one operating system, plus we need to actively keep in mind that Windows is still the dominant OS. If everyone has a Macintosh at our office it is easy to slip into the sense that Macs are the dominant boxes.

How weird to start asking the team, "Was that tested on IE?" rather than "have you tested it on Safari?"

UPDATE: September 14, 2007

Jay Savage as always has an insightful response to this post. Though I do think he has my opinion slightly out of context. I will make a reply in his comments.