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Macworld was this past week. It really kicked off with Steve Jobs’ keynote on Tuesday. If you haven’t heard yet, he announced some cool things. First and foremost (and what basically every news outlet is talking about) is the Macbook Air.

Basically, it’s the world’s thinnest notebook. It’s so small it can fit nicely in a Manilla folder, the kind you use to send Inter-Office mail. How do they do that? Well, most obviously missing is any type of optical (read: DVD/CD) drive. You can, however, buy an external USB drive for it. You also have the option of “borrowing” the DVD drive from another computer on your home network, which it would then use over the WiFi. Yes, it has to be WiFi, because this thing doesn’t have Ethernet or a modem or anything. The only wired option is to get a USB attachment that takes up the 1 USB slot. So, basically, really thin, reasonably powerful, no CD drive and just one USB port.

And That’s OK. I actually think it’s a great idea. The iMac (way back in 1998) shipped without a floppy drive, and people thought it was insane. That was how data was transfered between computers back then. But now, I don’t think there’s a laptop out there with a floppy drive and they’re becoming increasingly rare on desktops. Apple saw that the floppy was on the way out before most (all?) other companies, and I think they see it again. Think about this honestly: when was the last time you used your DVD drive? I can’t actually remember when I last used mine. It’s not very often. Most of the time I use my 4GB thumb drive to move data back and forth, and it’s more often than not much more than I need. With Internet speeds getting faster and faster and people getting more of their media over the wire (or through the air), there’s going to be less and less use for a CD drive.

The New York Times had an article a few weeks ago about people storing and working on data in the cloud, bringing such technology into the mind of people like my father, who is not at all tech savvy (he hates the Universal remote we got him and prefers to use 2 separate ones). If my father thinks something technological is a good idea, there’s a good chance it will catch on in the future.

Merlin Mann has some great thoughts on how Apple intends to move forward in this space. If Apple hadn’t started on this path already, they’d be stupid not to take his plan, flesh it out a bit and announce it at next year’s MacWorld. They’ve pushed themselves into prime position to dominate the ubiquitous storage/media realm. Young people today are buying macs in greater numbers, and they’ll be customers for life when they grow up. There are 4 million iPhones out there (in just 6 months), a number that’s going to keep rising. Those are tiny little network-connected computers that Apple could hook into people’s data stores and allow them to store and access all their files.

They’ve already made the move into ubiquitous content delivery by allowing you to buy movies on the Apple TV without even needing a computer (though you do need an internet connection). With just a few tweaks (like a free starter pack and expanded data storage for more money), Apple could make .Mac into a must-have accessory for all Mac and iPhone/iPod Touch owners. It would put them in the position of being a leader in the coming online storage revolution, just as they led the digital music revolution with the iPod. This may all be in their long term plan, which could explain why they dropped the “Computer” from their corporate name last year. Either way, I think it’s going to be an interesting year for Apple.