The MacBook Air is the Biggest Test Yet for Cloud Computing

I can't remember a product since the G4 Cube that has stirred up as much polarity in the Mac community as last week's release of the MacBook Air (MBA). It's either adored or derided. There's no in between. This is not only evident from what I read online, but also in conversations with colleagues and friends.

While some are very excited to finally have a thin, three-pound Mac they can tote everywhere, others are far more cautious. Pundits like Leo Laporte and crew, John Gruber and thousands more cite the following MBA shortcomings: the small hard drive, the price, the omission of a built-in Ethernet port and optical drive, the irreplaceable battery and even the exclusion of a Kensington security slot. Others correctly point out that the Air requires more compromises than notebooks in the same class made by Dell, Lenovo and HP (our new client).

However, now that the news has been out a week and I've had a chance to reflect on it, I believe the debate here is actually broader. Take a bird's eye view and you will see what is shaping up to be the biggest and most public test yet of consumer mettle for cloud computing and remote data storage.

As we become more dependent on technology, people crave small and thin computers and mobile devices. They want to travel light, yet still remain as productive as they can at home or work with a desktop. This will require that manufacturers rely more on "the cloud" (e.g. the Internet) and local area networks, rather than on-board hardware to do more of the work - at least for now. That's the compromise we make with any lightweight device. I can't edit photos on a phone, but it's conceivable that one day I will be able to through say Picnik or an online version of Adobe Photoshop.

Apple is planning for the future where cloud services help consumers mitigate the sacrifices of size and weight. In launching the MacBook Air, Apple deliberately created a new notebook that tests our mettle for remote data storage - be it on the cloud or a local network.

Steve Jobs talked about this explicitly during his Macworld keynote by showing how the network attached storage/computers and wireless movie downloads replace what DVDs to date have managed. However, he went even further by creating a new category of computers that sits between the MacBook and MacBook Pro - both of which offer a full array of ports, drives plus more oomph, not to mention poundage.

So the success of the MacBook Air is really dependent on much more than just Apple and its marketing mojo. It's about the network. The question is this: will the benefits of mobility outweigh any privacy or data availability concerns that consumers may have to deal with by leaving some data either on the cloud or the local network? It will for some, but just how many is anyone's guess.

The success or failure of this product is important to watch because it's a harbinger of just how much appetite consumers and business people have for cloud and remote data storage. Much more than Apple hangs in the balance here. Google and Microsoft - each of which takes a different approach to web services - will be watching too.