Those Airy MacBooks
Questions and speculation about the “new” MacBook Air…
Note: this post was adapted and expanded upon from my newsletter published this week.Many still recall the way Steve Jobs unveiled the MacBook Air. It was clever, cute, and iconic (in a similar vein to the way he unveiled the iPod and the iPod nano). Pure showmanship. As he took the device out of a manila envelope, audible gasps rippled through the audience. That was 10 years ago.
And so it seems fitting that there are now rumors of Apple updating that device — finally — after years of neglect. The report comes from Mark Gurman and Dabby Wun, who note:
The new laptop will look similar to the current MacBook Air, but will include thinner bezels around the screen. The display, which will remain about 13-inches, will be a higher-resolution “Retina” version that Apple uses on other products, the people said.
This has led to some confusion for a couple reasons. First, it does seem like a MacBook Air with thinner bezels would look quite a bit different than the current variety — which features rather large bezels! Second, one such device that features thinner bezels and the higher-resolution ‘Retina’ screen already exists: the MacBook. And actually, it’s overall thinner than the MacBook Air (and substantially lighter).
This has long bothered me. As Jobs noted on stage a decade ago, the Air was introduced as differentiated from both the MacBook (at the time, quite a bit larger) and the MacBook Pro. Premium svelteness. While the initial version was slow performance-wise, design-wise, it was the new state of the art. Basically every other computer maker eventually copied the design.
And so while the Air remains many folks’ favorite laptop of all time, it hasn’t been state of the art in sometime. So it’s interesting to think about what they can do to update it.
My guess — based on nothing other than logic and instinct — is that this new device won’t actually be a new Air, but instead will be a new, less expensive MacBook.¹ I think the Air may be going away and I think it’s time for it to go away, at least for now. Again, it’s no longer worthy of the ‘Air’ moniker. So it’s just sort of silly as a product line in 2018.
It would seem to be a good time for Apple to whittle the laptop line back to two: the MacBook and the MacBook Pro. And I think it’s fine to have a lower-cost (read: $999) MacBook while also offering a more full-featured model (think: two — yes, two! — ports) at a higher price point.
All of that seems pretty straightforward. But I’m still not sure what to make of the 13-inch (Air) versus 12-inch (MacBook) screen discrepancy.² Who knows, maybe the entire line of MacBooks is getting tweaked to get slightly larger screens, which may also mean a slightly larger base, which might also mean a slightly larger battery (this would be one of the remaining hurdles going from the Air to the MacBook — the Air has a much better battery: two hours better even just by Apple’s own stated standards), and the newly updated keyboard.³
That would leave the aforementioned port issue as the last big hurdle people would have to jump. USB-C just hasn’t taken off in the way Apple clearly thought it would when they made the move with the MacBook. Could they go back to regular USB? Undoubtedly no. But could they include an old-school USB port alongside the USB-C one? Would it even fit? If this laptop is meant to be aimed at the education market as the Air has been, can you get away with only having a USB-C port?
Questions remain. A couple more fun ones: does this have anything to do with Apple changing the name of iBooks to "Apple Books”? Do they aim to resurrect the name in hardware form? It’s a stretch, but it seemingly makes more sense than ‘Air’ — which, by the way, was quickly and quietly dropped from the iPad lineup a couple years back (after not even three years of existence — ‘Air’ as a name had run its course in that lineup).⁴ Another one: if there really does remain a third tier of the MacBook line, does it point to a direct path to the inevitable ARM MacBook? Maybe the ‘Air’ remains the low-cost MacBook Intel-based alternative, while the MacBook we know right now moves in the ARM (AX-chip) direction. Just a thought…
Anyway, at face value, this new MacBook Air rumor would seem to be the closest we have gotten to what many once considered to be the perfect laptop. But it’s a little weird because times have changed…
Note: John Gruber also has a ton of interesting thoughts and speculation on this rumor on Daring Fireball today (link below). Where he ultimately lands: that Apple will keep the ‘Air’ name and update the device. He acknowledges that it would make little sense from a naming-perspective, but who cares? Certainly not Apple as they’ve been known to do such things from time to time. The mantra always seems to boil down to: don’t overthink what’s working. Compelling, no doubt. Occam’s razor, for sure. But I’m still holding out hope for more…
Update: Thinking about this a bit more, it occurs to me that the thing that may make the most sense here (though hardly seems likely) is to switch the names of the devices to be more in line with what they are. That is to say, take what we currently know as the ‘MacBook’ and rebrand it to the ‘MacBook Air’ — again, it’s now the thinnest and lightest model, sold at what will apparently be a premium to this new model. Then you could call this new model simply the ‘MacBook’ as it would be the most affordable and accessible model (especially if it includes an old school USB port alongside USB-C).
Again, I don’t think this is possible just given the confusion it would cause. Then again, I’d imagine people are already confused given that the ‘Air’ is neither the thinnest nor lightest MacBook, as it currently stands.
So I’d still vote for just having two models: MacBooks and MacBook Pros. But I recognize that this newly rumored device may maintain a different form factor than the current MacBook. And people are used to the ‘Air’ name. So Apple may indeed do something that makes little sense at a high level, but makes sense in the market, because it’s the closest to the status quo.
¹ Which is to say: what we currently know as the MacBook but with a price reduction down to $999. Would the “new” aspect come from a simple spec change (presumably to the latest Intel chips, like their ‘Pro’ brethren)?
² Though the “about 13-inches” portion of the report would seem to give some wiggle room there…
³ Please no TouchBar — though you could easily see that being a part of a “higher-end” MacBook, if they go down that route…
⁴ Remember that the iBook was “cheaper” version of Apple’s laptop lineup, aimed at entry-level consumers and education…
