I'll bite too...
I agree with the premise of your arguement...but they are FAR from dead...IMHO what is dead is the plethora of the smaller air-tools...3/8" Impacts, Ratchets, Air Drills, etc...On those, I agree with you 100% air is dead. Even back when I was working at a dealership, I often wondered why people bothered with Air-Drills...
In terms of "Joe Homeowner" sure, cordless impact may be the way to go when you factor in the compressor, etc.. BUT in terms of ultimate performance, I have not seen ANY Cordless impact which would stand shoulder to shoulder to a MG725, AWP050 or the new IR, etc.. Nevermind 3/4" the impact world.
Buying a big cordless impact hasnt crossed my mind once...
Air Impacts are just one of those tools which "were meant to be"...
I started this thread when considering my Milwaukee 2763, some statements here would disagree with you, specifically that the 2763 is not as powerful as an MG725 (post #8). Furthermore it would seem that plenty of people are using cordless as their primary impact:
http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=254073&highlight=impact&showall=1
That said, as is common with the written word, people are being a bit too literal. I certainly don't mean that air tools truly are dead, it's partial truth and partial figure of speech.
My point, correct or incorrect, is that the demand from consumers is shrinking, and I'd say shrinking considerably.
And to the point of the thread, I really believe this is why I've seen very little mention of M7 stuff here. I just learned of it a couple months ago from a CPO promotional email. And it looks nice. I'd also argue that 8-10 years ago a new line like M7 would have caused a flurry of threads here, or on your average tool forum. The specs on paper look good, the tools look good, and the prices seem better than IR. But
today, much less excitement is generated.
Hell even the 2235 from IR hasn't garnered much excitement, or at least much discussion here. Sure, there have been a few threads. And I do see an argument that air tools in general are old news, so while people may be buying them there's not much to talk about. The latest generation of cordless impacts however are new and exciting just because they're now doing things we once thought nearly impossible. Eventually they'll be old news too and when someone comes out with a cordless impact that has 1500 ft lbs it too will only have minimal discussion among tool junkies. I think the challenge now is for cordless to get smaller and lighter, not anymore powerful than it presently is. Someday we may have a cordless gun that's 1/2 lb heavier than air guns in the same size as an air gun putting out comparable power, who knows.
Air's not dead for me, certainly not. I'll keep my air impacts at least and many rotary tools.
But for someone starting from scratch, it's a very different world today. You could almost equip a full automotive shop with nothing but cordless, grab a basic pancake compressor for airing up tires LOL.
Air - or at least air that's up to my standards - requires a whole infrastructure behind it: compressor in a separate shed, plumbed thru the wall (and power ran out to it), cooling wall, several shutoff valves, drops, hose reels. Not to mention the tools and know-how to sweat copper or thread black (I refuse to buy proprietary kits like RapidAir). Cordless requires a 110V receptacle - done. And I can take it with me in the tow rig. Or out back to a parts car.
