One should NOT be buying a current MBA if they need to use the computer for three years. Right now, the MBA is stuck with 2 GB of RAM forever. That amount of RAM was acceptable eighteen months ago when the MBA was introduced in the v 2,1 update in October 2008. In June of last year, it badly needed an update. However, the $700 price drop made the lack of a RAM upgrade acceptable.
Now, it's just too limited for the average user who plans to own this MBA for more than a year as their primary Mac. Now, if you want a secondary Mac, the MBA is fine. But to use it as most use a primary Mac, it's just too limited in two main points. One, the RAM. Two, the drive space. There is no way to upgrade the RAM, ever without access to Apple's plant and robotic soldering ARM. And the drive is so specific in size and has such a connector as to make it damn near proprietary.
The drive uses an LIF cable, and Apple is the only company using LIF on a SATA-II drive controller. Furthermore, the drive is not only a 1.8" form factor, but it also is limited to a 5mm height clearance.
The RAM is soldered to the board, and I asked a computer/electrical engineer about soldering larger capacity RAM chips on the MBA and was told it's NOT possible without access to original equipment/computer/robot that soldered the RAM on there in the first place. Or if one would be willing to pay the setup costs and production costs to have a computer production company (like Foxconn) make a custom batch of logic boards with larger capacity RAM chips soldered on. So, Steve Jobs could easily have the facility use larger capacity RAM chips soldered onto his own personal MBA giving it 4 GB or 8 GB of RAM, easily without any extra costs other than the additional cost of larger capacity RAM chips. You and I, cannot have it done without a robot specifically designed to solder RAM onto the MBA's logic board. Easy to do with the robot, impossible to do without the robot. So, unless we can get some MBA logic boards without the RAM chips soldered on, and we can pool together maybe $100k, and get SJ's permission to have Foxconn do it, it isn't going to happen.
The better option is to wait for an MBA upgrade. It is very possible, I would say probable, that Apple will update the MBA before or at WWDC by late June or early July. If Apple takes a similar approach to the next MBA update as it did in October 2008, we can expect an MBA with a Core 2 Duo CPU, Nvidia 320m GPU/chipset, and probably more RAM and more drive space options (assuming Apple takes same strategy and doubles RAM and increases drive space - also assuming Apple realizes what we do that would be MBA buyers want more RAM and drive space to make the purchase). We can hope for other updates, like a glass trackpad, new display tech, or more advanced CPUs and dedicated graphics, but it seems unlikely if Apple uses the same strategy as it implemented in October 2008. Since then, Apple has used one chipset/GPU setup across five Macs (13" MBP, 13" MB, 13" MBA, Mac mini, and 20/21.5" iMac). Since the 13" MBP is Apple's best seller, and since the MBP hadn't been updated in far too long for a "pro" user, it is obvious Apple would use all capacity to manufacturing enough 13" MBPs first, then moving onto MBA, MB, Mm, and 21.5" iMac updates.
I expect the MBA update will occur as a silent update but it could happen at WWDC if Apple has bigger plans for it, like say an IPS/OLED/3D display, or a completely different chipset and CPU strategy for the MBA. Some think maybe the MBA will wait for the next MBP update to get updated to beyond C2D CPUs and Nvidia GPUs/chipsets. I suppose that is one great possibility too, but I hope Apple gives a damn about the MBA/luxury buyers too. I hope Apple isn't so limited in scope that it has forgotten about the MBA, Mac Pro, larger ACDs, and other high-end products, while it focuses all of its energy on the iPad/iPhones.
