10 Years of the MacBook Air (theverge.com)

Ten years ago today, Steve Jobs introduced the MacBook Air. "Apple's Macworld 2008 was a special one, taking place just days after the annual Consumer Electronics Show had ended and Bill Gates bid farewell to Microsoft," The Verge recalls. "Jobs introduced the MacBook Air by removing it from a tiny paper office envelope, and the crowd was audibly shocked at just how small and thin it was..." From the report: At the time, rivals had thin and light laptops on the market, but they were all around an inch thick, weighed 3 pounds, and had 8- or 11-inch displays. Most didn't even have full-size keyboards, but Apple managed to create a MacBook Air with a wedge shape so that the thickest part was still thinner than the thinnest part of the Sony TZ Series -- one of the thinnest laptops back in 2008. It was a remarkable feat of engineering, and it signaled a new era for laptops. Apple ditched the CD drive and a range of ports on the thin MacBook Air, and the company introduced a multi-touch trackpad and SSD storage. There was a single USB 2.0 port, alongside a micro-DVI port and a headphone jack. It was minimal, but the price was not. Apple's base MacBook Air cost $1,799 at the time, an expensive laptop even by today's standards.

Comments

Re:Ah yes, the beginning of the dongle era

[Anonymous Coward]

I work as an IT integrator and am constantly visiting customer sites. Last time work refreshed my laptop (~3 years ago) I requested and received a Mac Air. There's been one refresh since, but the Air is still working fine and I kept it, the ultrabooks everyone else got have been swapped out.

The only thing I usually need to carry is a USB to serial cable just in case I need to work on a router. I have a thunderbolt to ethernet adaptor, but don't use it that often - amongst other things, I'm the guy who usually specs and supervises wireless rollouts, so most of the people I visit either have wireless or have it by the time I need to access their stuff. I do carry an charger, but I can't remember the last time I had to use it during a work day. Easily 8-10 hours to a charge.

If I had a normal HP laptop for work, I'd still need to carry a USB to serial adaptor, probably would need a USB-C to Ethernet adaptor (just in case) and I would grumble as much as everyone else about scrounging spare chargers.

Re:How many of them still boot and run on battery?

[another_twilight]

Glued in batteries, soldered down RAM and flash storage are all complicit in the prime example of planned obsolescence.

Or a recognition that the need to constantly upgrade CPU/RAM/storage has slowed to the point where a decently specced laptop can remain useful for years without needing anything upgraded.

Most people do not open their laptops to upgrade anything. Of those that do, most will only do so to add RAM and even then will not do it themselves. Those who want or need a machine that they can maintain themselves are a small niche that's growing smaller, even if we've been around longer than what is now the majority - people who want a laptop as an appliance.

The Air is not aimed at you. Or me. Or a bunch of folk on this site. But there's a large chunk of people for whom it's ideal and very well designed for _their_ needs. Serviceability is not a priority to that market segment and that has nothing to do with planned obsolescence.

Re: I wish they were still trying

[Plumpaquatsch]

Macs should be a cash cow for Apple.

They are. Apple now makes more money with Macs alone than they made all together 11 years ago. You know, back when many experts where claiming that since the iPod made them more money than the Mac, they'd stop making Macs in a few years and focus on iPods (even the ones that expected an Apple phone predicted that). Pretty much what the same experts say today.