Apple’s MacBook Air Revolutionized Laptop Design 10 Years Ago Today
On January 15, 2008, Steve Jobs announced the MacBook Air computer to an enthusiastic crowd. He described the MBA as “The world’s thinnest notebook. MacBook Air.” Along with taking away weight and thickness, the computer also did away with an optical drive and many ports. Apple looked ahead to a wireless world which people looked to the cloud for software, movies, music, and file storage.
Watch this advertisement from 2008 which introduced the world to the MacBook Air.
Later, Apple added an 11.6″ MacBook Air with faster processors, more RAM, and bigger SSD drives. I am typing on mine now. I rarely use the screen or keyboard because I use a 32″ external monitor and wireless keyboard and trackpad. Yet I can carry this mini-powerhouse computer between home office and work office and take everything with me.
I recently found some old briefcases in my garage which I’d used to carry my laptop computers over the past 25 years. They are HUGE and heavier than my MacBook Air today. I donated them to my local gospel rescue mission. Someone will find a use for them. And one more thing…
Happy Birthday MacBook Air!
You can learn a lot about how to turn negatives, i.e. no optical disk, into positives by watching Steve Job’s MacBook Air product announcement presentation. He always worked very hard on his presentations to make them appear effortless and be very conversational. In this one, he set the stage by saying nice things about Sony’s current notebook yet saying that Apple can do better. He told why it’s better and then he proved it.
You can read more about this revolutionary computer at MacRumors.com.
Today marks the tenth anniversary of the late Steve Jobs unveiling the MacBook Air, the world’s thinnest notebook at the time.
After introducing the AirPort Time Capsule and sharing some iPhone and Apple TV news, Jobs walked over to his podium, grabbed a manilla envelope, and pulled out the sleek MacBook Air. The crowd at Macworld erupted with applause as Jobs held the ultra-light notebook in the palm of his hand.
The thinness came at a cost. The base model ran $1,799 for a 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, and an 80GB hard drive. A maxed out version was also available for $3,098, around $300 more than the base Mac Pro at the time, with a faster 1.8GHz processor and a 64GB solid-state drive.
Go to MacRumors to read the rest of this article.