Apple recently posted a new product sales list with a $500 cut off its 640GB SSD MacBook Air, which takes the laptop from its initial $3,098 price to $2,598. The decision comes just six months since the MacBook’s official release and it is closely connected to the company’s transition from its expensive single-level cell flash to its multi-level technology and also to the slow but continuous fall of flash memory prices.

Apple explained through its spokesman Bill Evans the strategy behind the move. "From time to time we adjust the price of configure-to-order options for our systems. The options to upgrade a MacBook Air to a faster Core 2 Duo processor and a 64 gigabyte solid-state drive are now more affordable," he said, as quoted by the LA Times.

Another explanation for the measure could be the fact that the market is being constantly invaded by new models with a wide range of features and prices, and in order to stay competitive and continue to attract customers, Apple took the decision to address its offer to a wider audience. At this point, choosing the SSD option when acquiring a MacBook adds only $599 instead of the $999 demanded before and the 1.8 GHz processor option also dropped from $300 to $200.  

The reasons why the solid state drives (SSD) are still so expensive is because of their mechanism which does not use any moving parts. The lack of movement is translated into a longer life, a significantly faster information access and also no noise while operating your device. Even though its popularity is on the rise and its price is slowly dropping, the process of general adoption will still probably demand a few years. Once the market will offer sufficient SSD options, the prices will surely become accessible for a much larger part of consumers.