Macbook Air Accounting For 40% Of Apple Laptop Sales

HardMac’s Lionel notes that one might have thought that the Macbook Air, halfway between the iPad and Apple’s bigger and more powerful laptops, would not be a best-seller, but after questioning Apple’s suppliers, analysts estimate that the MacBook Air would have represented 40% of Apple laptop sales, with 1.1 million units sold.

Lionel observes that while the MacBook Air doesn’t have as much power as a MacBook Pro, the speed of its standard solid state drive compensates for that substantial in terms of feel, and while it’s currently impoverished in the I/O department with just two USB 2.0 ports and no FireWire, he expects that will soon be remedied with the addition of the new Thunderbolt I/O interface, which he expects will happen soon.

He further observes that some users are choosing the MacBook Air over the iPad, citing its big advantage of being a computer running Mac OS X, while the iPad is “too closed of a product” for his taste, and too limited for tasks like creating files and typing.

I agree on the point, but I’m increasingly torn, especially with the iPad 2 coming. I’d like to have both, but probably an iPad 2 and a 13″ Core “i” MacBook Pro would be a more sensible combo for my needs.