[Brave Ulysses]

Well, more memory wouldn’t make the computer run faster in this case, which is the bottom line here.

How not? That's also very far from the bottom line here.

But why? Some MacBook Air buyers will never use those apps (the vast majority, probably)

God, that is an awful statement, that apologists use all the time.

It would be wasteful and pointless to spec every machine for the worst-case scenario.

8GB of RAM is now worst case scenario? A Macbook Air owner using Illustrator is now a worst-case scenario? A Macbook Air owner running multiple apps at once is a worst case scenario? Maybe Apple should disable Mission Control and Spaces on those machines then. May as well not accommodate a "worst case scenario" if the machine can't handle it. Using the machine in 24 months is a worst case scenario?

Besides, 4 GB can honestly run things like Aperture. Not ideally, but it works fine if you take care to shut down memory-hungry things before starting work.

I use Aperture everyday. It sucks with 4GB of RAM. It will run, but it sucks.

Your suggestion is that users' needs never expand and develop as they use their machines. You seem to think this machine is simply a bargain bin, do nothing but Facebook machine, that soccer moms use for nothing else and that their creativity going forward and computer needs will be stunted in time. That's the exact opposite impression Apple gives about its products and users. The iPad fits that need. The MacBook Air (and the Mac in general) should be different. It should be more powerful and enable the user to grow within reason at each price point. With 4GB of RAM that can not be upgraded I feel this is just a dead end 2 year max computer, which makes it very far from impressive.

Again... the ONLY thing holding this computer back from smoothly performing all of those tasks is the RAM, and something the user can not upgrade... ever.

That’s the thing: 4 GB is actually quite a bit of memory. It’s not comparable to past situations, where Macs shipped with 128 MB and could barely load the OS in that.

Not true.

Apple also never shipped a machine with 128MB of RAM that could not be upgraded.

These things aren’t necessarily memory limited. For example, I haven’t seen Adobe Reader scroll smoothly in years on any Mac. The app is just layer upon layer of inefficiencies.

maybe you need more RAM.

When I upgraded my old MacBook Pro from 2 GB to 8 GB of RAM I noticed a distinct increase in idle power consumption. Not drastic, but enough to be sure it was real. Since the MacBook Air has extremely low power draw at idle, the effect may be larger for it. I don’t know which memory modules Apple uses so I can’t look up the figures. But for a given manufacturing process, doubling memory capacity simply doubles many types of current draw (though admittedly not some important ones, which show less of an increase). And notebook memory chips use enough power to make the sticks warm to the touch, i.e. a significant amount. In the very rough range of a watt, judging from some Micron datasheets I glanced at. So we’re talking about real effects on battery consumption – maybe close to an hour over the 12 hours claimed life of the 13-inch MacBook Air. Memory power consumption is an important reason Apple has worked so hard to keep down the memory requirements of iOS.

Sorry, all of the above is BS. Show me stats from an independent source. I've searched. I have found nothing at all about shorter battery life with 8GB RAM vs 4GB in a Macbook Air.

By the way, it isn’t just Apple that has stagnated on memory capacities. The whole PC industry has done so. 4 GB was common on new Windows-based notebooks in 2009, and remains so today five years later. Increases are no longer as vital as they were, and price pressure is higher.

Hard to find a PC laptop that doesn't allow you to upgrade the RAM. Most seem to come with 8GB these days anyway.

I also don't see any value in arguing that Apple is following the PC industry. Since when is that Apple's goal?