Macbook Air - Big where it's needed, slim where it's not...

Ross Rubin of Engadget makes an excellent point about Apple's usability strategy with the Macbook Air: "Apple is again banking that human factors - particularly that bigger screens and keyboards are better - will allow the blade-like profile of the world's thinnest notebook to slice into the traditionally slim market for ultra-portable notebooks." Existing ultraportable devices tend to have screens on the order of 10 inches and cramped, smaller-than-regulation keyboards; the Air, on the other hand, has a reasonable 13.3-inch screen and full-size keyboard. The only dimension that makes the thing so tiny is thickness, correctly identified by Apple as one that doesn't matter for usability (except that the port "door" has proved to be a bit of a hassle for some), but makes a huge difference in perception. Hence, the Air gets to call itself an ultraportable while being oodles more usable than anything else with that title. Sounds like a winning bet to me...