There’s no doubt that Apple manage to create a dramatic stir with product announcements, and it is always thrilling to watch the news articles roll in during a MacWorld Keynote. The MacBook Air was undoubtedly the most exciting announcement yesterday, with some expected features and some not so expected. The main question in my mind is who the laptop is aimed at, and who’s likely to buy it.

No optical drive?

At present, there are three ways to get music on your laptop - legal (downloading via iTunes), more or less legal (ripping from CD’s), and completely illegal (downloading from Bit-Torrent or elsewhere). Apple have more or less taken the middle ground out of the equation yesterday in the MacBook Air. People moving to Mac for the first time, planning on ripping their library of CD’s into iTunes to use on their iPod/Apple TV etc are going to be a bit stuck!

£1,199

That’s just ridiculous. Really. If Apple chose to equate the pricing to that of the USA, it should cost £900. That’s a perfect price point - smack between the MacBook and MacBook Pro. As it is, for £100 more than a MacBook Air you can get a base level MacBook Pro. For me, the decision would be a categorical no brainer. Whilst the thinness and weight of the MacBook Air is a huge bonus, it just doesn’t compare in any way to the power and features of one of their Pro laptops.

So, who will buy them?

First of all, I’m sure this laptop will be successful. Not on the scale of their existing notebooks, but certainly to some extent. I think the people who will fork over £1,200 will fall into two categories:

1) Business users, who need a second machine for traveling and working on the go. This is absolutely perfect, has great battery life, and will fit their needs to a tee.

2) People who just love style. Let’s face it, the laptop looks amazing. If you love being the centre of attention and crave others wanting to get their hands on your latest gadget this is perfect.