Form Or Function, Which Is More Important
I was chatting with a buddy of mine who is in the marketing industry, and he asked me what I thought about the newly announced Macbook Air. I said it’s completely useless. It’s not much lighter than similar ‘ultraportable’ laptops currently, and actually has LESS ability than others, all in the spirit of ‘how thin can we go?’, and it reminds me completely of the RAZR, which came out several years ago.
It blows my mind that for devices such as cellphones, and now apparently laptop computers, people would want something that’s ‘pretty’ as opposed to something that’s functional. This new Macbook Air offers a slower processor, smaller HDD, and less functions than most of its similar competitors, but hey, it fits in a manilla folder! THAT’S why it’s sexy! This V3 RAZR doesn’t have EDGE support, has a crappy VGA camera that (originally) doesn’t record video, but it’s thin and sexy! We’ll pay gobs of money for it! This iPhone is a music phone without stereo speakers, a standard audio port, or stereo Bluetooth, doesn’t record videos, and doesn’t have 3G, but you can touch it, and it’s sexy! We’ll pay gobs of money and gush over it constantly!
I wonder why there is this perception, in the mobile industry, that a handset has to be either good-looking OR functional, but not both. I’ll be the first to confess that Nokia’s Nseries, while packed to the hilt with features, aren’t the best looking phones on the market. There’s also plenty of extremely stylish handsets that don’t have much in terms of features. Why is that? Why isn’t there a happy medium, or a few fashion phones that look incredibly good, and also pack enough features to keep power users satisfied?
On the Macbook Air, I would have been MUCH more impressed if it was an inch thick but only weighed 2lbs or less. Now THAT would be an ultra-portable laptop. It’s not like you’re going to get a new laptop bag just because you got an Air. You’re still going to transport it in the same bulky bag, made bulkier with all the add-ons you need for the dumb thing. However, you WILL notice if that bag is lighter on your shoulder.
