It cannot and will not ever be an alternative. A Macbook is more than just its hardware. A Macbook's hardware and software are deeply interwoven to achieve maximum performance and optimization. This cannot be achieved with some random laptop, which just "kinda looks" like a Macbook. It's worlds different.
You can compare it to gaming consoles (Xbox, Playstation), which achieve a similar level of optimization (in regards to gaming of course). Because the hardware is stricly defined, and it's only 1-2 types of hardware, game developers can use any kind of tricks to pull out more performance. They can use the hardware to its fullest. That's why games on console look better and perform better than on PCs with similar hardware. On PC you mostly need a GPU 1-2 levels above the console hardware to achieve the same performance.
A new and compact notebook promises decent computing power and could, at least in terms of form factor, be a viable alternative to the MacBook Air. The CoreBook Air 226V comes with an Intel SoC, and external graphics cards can be connected via Thunderbolt.