We said the same of the MacBook Air when it first came out of its gimmicky manila envelope on stage. Or, for that matter, when the iMac came out with no floppy drive, and only USB ports!

But, none of us did buy that MacBook Air - it was too expensive at the time. It was later generations that hit the sweet spot.

I knew a couple non technical people who bought and loved the first gen Air. The appeal broadened with later revisions, for sure.

I also know a bunch of developers who bought and love the MacBook. Not sure how they're making do with that single port but apparently it works for some.

Hold on - are you sure we're talking about the first gen Air - that device was more like a concept prototype than anything people actually bought/used. It came with a slow spinning disk by default, and the SSD was hellishly expensive. It was also pretty slow, particularly if you didn't upgrade to SSD. I know some people who did purchase latter generations once the SSDs were within reach.

I did buy and use it. I know other people who bought and used it. Of course the subsequent iterations were better, but the first gen was not unusable.

I used it too. Skype and Youtube was unusable unless it was cold that day.

Overheating was indeed an issue, but I think it didn't affect all the units to the same extent. It was a problem for me, and increasingly so if I remember correctly with later macosx releases, but another machine bought at the same time worked much better.

Expensive!? Only $2.8k with a 64gb SSD, and a processor slower than the regular Macbook :) Could get an extra .2 ghz for $300, too!

I love it as a backup machine when I'm traveling but still need to be able to respond to emergencies. It's light and perfect for this.

It seems like the ultimate lightweight on-the-go machine.

I think its a great fit for traveling too; other than price, I can't see a reason to bring an iPad over something like this.