Why I would chose the Asus Eee PC over the MacBook Air - An Apple User’s Choice

Let’s just get this out of the way now, I use Apple products a lot.  My primary computers are both Macintoshes and I have two iPods, I have a PC laptop that I haven’t turned on in over 6 months because OS X has made it obsolete to the point that I can’t even justify pulling it out of the bottom drawer it currently resides in.  I’ve got an Apple sticker on my car and I tell people about how good OS X is every time someone asks me about computers.  When the MacBook Air first appeared it was pretty exciting, the thinnest notebook ever designed running a full version of OS X with a full screen and keyboard… but then came the price - 1799 dollars for a less capable machine than my current MacBook which only costs 1299.  I realize that you are paying for the portability and engineering that went into shrinking down a laptop to the size that it can fit into a manilla envelope, but it was lacking all the features that have made Apple my computing platform of choice.  With no Superdrive I could not burn  home movies, with no FireWire port I could not import video from my Sony video camera, and with no optical drive I couldn’t import my music or burn CDs.  In essence what I would be paying for would be a computer that was good only for creating and editing office documents and for checking email - all the other things I use my Mac for, such as video editing and other creative work, would have to go by the wayside.  I realize that you can still create podcasts, create websites, and edit photos using the MacBook Air, but I already have that capability with my current MacBook and eMac so there is no draw to lead me to spend the money on a new computer that would cost more but have less capability.  No, if I was going to get a stripped down computer to use for email and office work, I would go with the Asus Eee PC.  It does everything that I would use the Air for - creating office documents and presentations and checking email - and it does it at over a thousand dollars less.  In fact, I believe one of the reasons that the MacBook Air had such a lukewarm reception was because the Asus Eee PC had come out before MacWorld and had gotten people excited about the idea of a ultra cheap, ultra portable laptop and when rumors began to fly around about a ultra portable MacBook, thoughts may have turned to a stripped down and cheaper version of the $1099 version of the MacBook.  That is what I had in my mind as I waited for the announcement from Steve Jobs.  I believe that the Asus Eee PC has changed the nature of the game when it comes to the ultra portable segment, you don’t need to spend over 2000 dollars for a Vista machine with bad performance specs, an OS X machine that is more expensive than its already thin and portable MacBook cousin, or a Ultra Mobile PC with a crap keyboard and unusable small screen - I’m looking forward to see what the PC makers and Apple can come up with to compete against what Asus has created.  I’m hoping for an Eee PC sized laptop from Apple running the iPhone’s version of OS X preloaded with a version of iWork optimized to run on the smaller platform for a price that comes within around 100 dollars of what the Asus Eee PC goes for.