The new Macbook Air finally hit the market last Wednesday, fully equipped with OS X Lion, which was also released that day. The totally functional laptop that weighs about as much as the human brain (fun fact!) has received an anticipated makeover, and Mac users are, well, walking on air.

A Grim forecast for the MacBook

“The Macbook is Dead. Long live the Macbook Air,” proclaimed TechCrunch contributer MG Siegler. Siegler gushed over the October 2010  flagship version of the Macbook Air, claiming that it should replace the regular Macbook altogether.

The Air’s Awesome Features

The new version of this barely-there MacBook is supposed to be twice as awesome as its predecessor, according to Siegler. The Air’s new features include a Thunderbolt Port, new Intel CORE i5 chips, and the much-envied back lit keyboard. Mission Control and Launchpad keys have replaced Expose and Dashboard keys to correspond with fancy new OS X Lion features. The new Air’s all-flash storage makes it run super fast and even the higher end 11” model comes with 4GB of Ram, standard. The new MacBook Air can be connected to the new Thunderbolt Display which, according to Apple, “doesn’t just give you more pixels. It gives you more possibilities.”

R.I.P. Macbook

As Siegler forecasted, Apple has indeed stopped selling its regular Macbooks, which are about as cool and efficient as beepers these days. If, in less than a year, the Air has managed to bump out the Macbook, then what lies ahead for the Air? Let’s make our predictions now so that we can gloat like Siegler when another Apple product is made obsolete.

The Future of Compact Computing

My bets are on the iPad, which is already 33% thinner and up to 15% lighter in its second iteration. Only about an inch and a half shorter and exactly half as thick as the smaller Macbook Air (though with .6-.8 GHz less processor speed) who’s to say the iPad won’t become just as powerful as a regular laptop in the future? As I tote around my giant antique Macbook, I will comfort myself with the thought that Air owners may shortly find the two-piece notebook model becoming a thing of the past.

Conclusion

Whether the tablet replaces the lower-end laptop or not, it is a known fact that whatever Aple device you have just purchased will be old news in about a year. So try to control your consumer impulses, Apple enthusiasts. No matter how tempting the "newest version" of these tech toys may seem, we don’t want the contents of our bank accounts vanishing into thin air as quickly as outdated technology.