Cupertino based Tech Giant Apple last week held a formal event in San Francisco with the name of “Back to Mac” event. In this event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the latest Macbook Air models that have been redesigned and revamped with new features. Apple unveiled two new models of Macbook Air, one with 13-inch display and the other new version released is 11.6-inch Macbook Air.

Well ordinarily, the launching of a single ultra thin and ultra portable Macbook should not be the sole reason for the Redmond based software giant Microsoft to panic but the launch of the latest product by Apple will pose a grave competition to Microsoft.

It is clearly not the case that a single product itself will put a visual dent in the Microsoft’s massive share in the PCs Market, but however according to the analysts this latest product demonstrates certain new features and capabilities that Microsoft still don’t have in their Laptops and PCs.

“Instant On” Capability in Macbook Air

The biggest fact I can perceive is that the latest Macbook Air just like Apple’s hottest selling items including iPhone and iPad boasts a new option of instantly resuming itself with just a touch of the button on the laptop. Apple has called this new added capability as “Instant On” rather an Instant Resume. The latest Macbook Air can stay in sleep mode for weeks, so this new added option of Instant On is pretty much an Instant Resume.

So now we get over to the Microsoft’s version of Instant Resume; Windows 7, which is now almost a year old, has been improved remarkably in the resume time, but even the best version of PC running on Windows 7 cannot match this amazing new feature of Apple’s Macbook Air of Instant On.

So part of the reason for Macbook’s Air speed is simply due to the mere fact that it is loaded with the Flash Storage, and it is due to the reason that tech giant Apple has built the new Air on the latest hard drive technology. And, they were aware of the fact that there would not be a traditional hard drive powering the machine. As a result of this knowledge, Apple has been able to build the Air system accordingly, beefing up the speed by which tasks are completed.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs during the media event said numerous times that the design of the latest Air represents exactly the future of Apple’s elusive Macbook series.  He also stated that the Flash Storage would be the ultimate future for all the portable devices that the Cupertino Company will design.

Microsoft now in order to support Windows has to ensure that the operating system Windows works on everything that the hardware houses and meets its minimum level specification. So in short, it is the same typical kind of challenge for Microsoft to be swift. The reason for Microsoft’s worries is that software giant works with a multitude of hardware partners and their OS is also supporting year old machines, so ultimately Windows has to sacrifice the high performances factor with the compatibility factor.

Well so far this is the area where Microsoft is working extensively with the hardware partners, and in the market there are already some machines which are pretty zippy like Sony’s Ultrathin Viao X (that weighs less than Macbook Air even). According to the industry analysts, a speedy development on the chip front will help in Microsoft’s competitive race with Apple.

Microsoft has also an added advantage on the price front, the latest Flash Storage is quite expensive as compared to the old traditional hard drives and this fact provides Microsoft plenty of cushions to fight on price front. But it is not just the Macbook Air that should worry the executives at Redmond; Apple in the latest event also announced a new version of Mac OS X called as Lion. What Apple is talking about is the integration of Apple’s hottest selling iPad features in the Lion that will power the Macbooks in the next summer.

Moreover, Apple is bringing an App store to the Mac platform as well which will also put Apple’s computers as a center spot for Software Development. The mindset behind this launching of an App Store on the Mac platform is of the fact that it is very hard to distribute inexpensive and small software programs, pricing in the range of $2-5 in the traditional software buying world, but once they are available on the App world they can be a running success. The mechanism with which App Store normally works will also overshadow the Macbook Air lack of an Optical Drive.

On its part, Microsoft is also planning a Software Store of its own for its latest Windows 8, but the company has still not commented when the users will see this latest OS.

Finally on the software front, Apple also introduced an updated version of iLife. According to the industry analyst, Microsoft’s big push for the holiday season relies on the success of Windows Live Apps. The company is put a lot of effort in revamping its video making/editing and photo editing programs to match up with the Apple’s latest iLife Suite. So let’s see whether Microsoft will counter this Apple’s spree of latest Notebook and OS.