Apple chooses wireless

As the industry debates whether to continue to use wires at all for LAN connections to client computers, in walks Apple - which at its Macworld 2008 conference introduced an ultra-thin notebook computer that's missing an Ethernet port.

It supports IEEE 802.11n - or the draft version, I should say, of this not-quite-standardized wireless LAN technology. Leaving the wired Ethernet port out helped Apple make the MacBook Air computer very thin, but it's also a statement that wired connections aren't as necessary as they used to be.

You can use a USB-to-Ethernet adapter, but as one reviewer pointed out, there's only one USB port on the computer, so if you're using that for your Ethernet connection, you're out of luck on any other USB device, like a mouse. The reviewer, Riyad Emeran at Trusted Reviews, says that having no Ethernet port is "just lunacy!" He writes:

"Apple's reasoning (read excuse) for not having an Ethernet port is that 802.11n is a better option than wired Ethernet. Now, I'll admit that Draft-N is a very capable wireless networking protocol, but it would appear that Mr Jobs has never tried to get online in the Press room at CES. Trying to get a stable wireless connection in a confined area with literally thousands of 2.4GHz devices all transmitting is… an exercise in futility. Anyone with a modicum of sense will find the nearest Ethernet cable and plug it into their notebook - not an option with the MacBook Air."

Apple may have been reading some of the coverage of a recent Burton Group report, which asked if 802.11n might signal the "end of Ethernet." And while the idea of leaving wires behind had been raised and discounted in the past, the debate has been rekindled of late. 

The introduction of the MacBook Air reminds me of another startling move by Apple. Fairly soon after the 1000Base-T standard for Gigabit Ethernet over copper had been ratified, Apple came out with a PC with on-board Gigabit Ethernet. I believe it was the Power Macintosh G4 (Gigabit Ethernet) in 2000. 

At the time, having Gigabit Ethernet as standard on a PC was considered "lunacy." And yeah, it probably was (I may have even used that word in this newsletter). But in the years since, Gigabit Ethernet also became the norm, with many of today's computers supporting 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet.

Whether you like the MacBook Air or not, I wonder if Apple is showing the same prescience in this case?

Jeff Caruso is site editor at Network World.