This is a guest editorial by Mark Reschke of Three Guys And A Podcast, a show about all things Apple. It was originally published here.
When Steve Jobs said the MacBook air was the computer of the future he wasn’t just talking about its hardware. Lacking both an optical and hard drive is nice and allows for a slim design, but that’s just the beginning.
If anyone paid close attention to Apple’s October Special Event, the OS X Lion presentation subtly showed us how the future of OS X computing would become largely Finder irrelevant for most tasks. But how exactly will this work? Enter the cloud.
On the heels of Apple’s special event, Google has revealed a sneak peek of their Chrome OS. Chrome is an OS which has its core philosophy based on cloud-only computing (or designed to appear that way as much as possible).
Seeing Chrome and understanding how much time is used on the internet by people isn’t a shock to anyone, let alone Apple. One does not need to stretch too far to see how Lion, the cloud (AKA Apple’s North Carolina data center) and MacBook Air-like products will dominate Apple’s future, and likely gain massive acceptance to an even wider audience.
Users will be keen on having the newfound web/cloud power, but also the access to an advanced and powerful desktop experience. Google sees it as black and white, desktop or cloud, choose. The opportunity for OS X Lion is to deliver the best of both worlds. Different solutions for different use cases, not one or the other.
Today we have IMAP, push notifications, syncing of calendar and address books, but what will the experience hold when your presentation, spreadsheet and video files are just everywhere you need them to be, in the state you left them… or for that matter the state you, your colleague, spouse, son or daughter left them? Virtual files available anywhere, anytime, on any iOS or OS X device.
The MacBook Air wasn’t just designed for today’s current computing paradigm. The new MacBook air sets the stage for the world of Lion, the cloud, and how portable Apple computing will “just work” seamlessly together. And no, Steve Jobs is not Aslan.
