The 64GB MacBook Air, while more expensive and smaller than the regular 80GB drive in the cheaper MacBook Air, is much faster and silent. Also, unlike normal hard drives, it contains no moving parts and is therefore less likely to be damaged by heat or physical shock.

Solid state drives are increasing in size and dropping in price - a 128GB SSD is becoming widely available, and the sizes and pricing can only improve in future. Whilst not yet appropriate for users who need several hundred gigabytes of video and document storage, SSDs will eventually replace the existing system of hard drives with spinning platters of data.