What's lighter than Air?

Macbook Air introduction
Back in January 2008, Apple introduced the Macbook Air. There were rumours about Apple developing a smaller Macbook for years prior to the announcement. In many ways the transition from PowerPC to Intel processors that Apple started in 2005 was the catalyst for this product. Apple had long been struggling to fit the fastest PowerPC chips in their laptops, and it became clear in the mid 2000's that the performance per watt advantages of Intel were too good to resist. This was especially true given Apple's increasing focus on the portable Mac market as Macbooks were already outselling desktops by this point - with a trend that looked likely to accelerate.

There was a lot of fanfare when the Macbook Air was released. Apple had finally delivered what became known as an "ultra-portable". The thin profile of the Macbook Air was largely down to 3 things:

1. Removing the optical disk drive
2. Moving to a smaller HDD to save space
3. Using the latest and greatest, low TDP chips from Intel

The innovation in the Macbook Air came at a cost though, it was positioned as a luxury, more niche portable, for those who absolutely needed (or wanted) the lightweight, thin design that it offered. This wasn't the Macbook for most people, in order to get the extreme design you had to trade off a chunk of performance, the disk drive, some battery life, and some dollars. That meant that the Macbook Air was really suited to those who wanted the laptop either as a second Mac (to accompany a more powerful desktop) or those who had more basic computing needs, such as word processing, light coding, reading/consuming content. More hardcore applications could still be done on it, but performance wasn't its north star.

Reinventing the wheel
In late 2010, almost 3 years after the original Macbook Air was unveiled, Apple launched a completely redesigned Macbook Air. Not only did the physical aspects of the product change, but the positioning of the product changed significantly. Whereas the original Air was positioned as a luxury option, the new Air was very much positioned as the Macbook for everyone.

There was a significant price drop, helped in part due to a smaller 11.6" variant at the bottom of the line, which meant that the Macbook and Macbook Air were much closer together in terms of affordability. The redesign brought higher resolutions displays (remember when 900x1440 was considered high resolution?) and SSDs on all models, thanks to the sharp drop in SSD prices since the original Air debuted. This change allowed for even greater thinness due to the complete removal of HDDs. Intel's low TDP chips had also matured a lot since 2008, meaning that there was less of a performance sacrifice needed when choosing the Air over the other Mac laptops. Newer battery tech also made its way from the Pro models into these newer Macbook Airs. All of these factors combined to make the Macbook Air an irresistible combination of performance, portability, battery life, style, and price. Steve Jobs said that "we see these as the future of notebooks" - he was right.

The Macbook Air quickly became Apple's best selling laptop - due to its universal appeal to consumers, education, business, and everything in between. While models started off with just 64GB SSD and 2GB of RAM, they were configurable up to 256GB and 4GB respectively - meaning they scaled well and still appealed to prosumers who might have previously been tempted by the lower end Macbook Pros. The 2010 Air started at $999, but over the next few years the entry price came down further as manufacturing costs came down and economies of scale ramped up. I'm sure at some point in this period I saw an 11" Macbook Air as low as £660 after education discount. It became well and truly, affordable.

Over the period from 2010-2014 the Macbook Air continued to improve. The changes were always in the processor/SSD/RAM department, bringing even more performance thanks to maturing Intel chipsets and the viability of integrated graphics rather than small, dedicated GPUs. This lead to tremendous battery life improvements, going from 7 hours to 12/13 hours in just a few years. Faster SSDs made sure everything felt snappy in new Mac OS releases, and at this point the Macbook Air was untouchable. They were completely ubiquitous, every single coffee shop, school, university, meeting, lounge, all had a Macbook Air in them. Even I had one.

The difficult 3rd album?
Around 2013, a few years after the 2010 redesign, rumours began to circulate about a possible "Retina Macbook Air" *drools*. The Macbook Pro went retina in 2012, along with the 3rd gen iPad, following the introduction of "retina" displays on the iPhone 4 in 2010. Macbook Air owners lusted after the amazing display on the Macbook Pros - many had seen how good retina looked on their phone for years, and would have given an arm and a leg for Apple to release a portable laptop with such a display- I know because I was one of them.

On paper this sounded straightforward. We had retina screens in everything else, why not the Macbook Air? Sadly, retina displays came at a cost:

1. Greater power consumption, meaning worse battery life
2. Greater cost, almost certainly pushing the price of the Macbook Air up by several hundred dollars
3. Greater thickness/weight - not something in the Macbook Air's philosophy
4. Slower performance - Would the integrated GPUs from Intel be enough to push around 3 or 4 million pixels? And even if they could, what kind of thermal issues would you run into?

In technology, you have 3 competing factions: Battery life, performance, design. You can only ever pick 1, or maybe 2 of this trio (unless you lived beyond October 2020 and the advent of Apple silicon). The Macbook Air was all about design, it was about being lightweight and thin. The battery life and the performance of the Macbook Air were secondary, it just happened that they still managed to be really good thanks to the advances mentioned above in the early 2010s. Adding a retina display into the Macbook Air though would clearly compromise the battery life and performance of these machines, and it also meant that the starting price would have to go up. Apple had a choice to make - do we introduce a Macbook Air with a retina display as a higher tier option, and let consumers pick it if they want to trade off performance and battery life, or do we wait until the time when it can be introduced without any big downsides and without having to put up the price? Turns out, they did neither.

Apple was even more ambitious than the fanbase of the Macbook Air, Apple had been working for years on a completely redesigned, even thinner, even lighter version of the Macbook Air, which ALSO had a retina display. 2013 passed without any announcement, then 2014 came and went, and finally in March 2015, rumours built ahead of a spring keynote, and we were finally going to get to see this new generation of Macbook Air.

Sucking the Air out of the room
Apple delivered. Everything that Macbook Air customers had been dreaming of, and more, was shown off in the March 2015 keynote. We got:

1. A complete redesign, it was WAY thinner and lighter than the previous Macbook Air, coming in with a 12" screen and weighing just 2 pounds (eliminating the need for both the 11" and 13" models and finding a middle ground)
2. A retina display, coming in at 2304x1440, with the same PPI as the retina Macbook Pros
3. Still great battery life, of 9 hours
4. A new chip from Intel, the core-M, with an extremely low TDP (just 5 watts). Despite the low power consumption, it was still more than capable of the basic, everyday tasks that the Macbook Air was designed for, and could drive the retina display just fine
5. UBC-C charging, making it future proof (although notably omitting USB-A ports entirely to allow for the new slimmer design)
6. Fanless, all metal design, with larger speakers. The fanless nature meant it ran completely silently

There were also some extra goodies that I don't think anyone saw coming. Apple completely reinvented the keyboard, changing the underlying mechanism for sturdier keys and a shallower profile. The trackpad was perhaps the most revolutionary part of the whole product. Rather than the previous "diving board" mechanism which meant that the trackpad hinged at the top (meaning it was harder to click the further up you were) - the new trackpad was solid state, relying on force sensors and haptic feedback to provide a clicking sensation (how f*cking cool is that?) It also allowed for new UI elements, allowing you to "force click" on things to quickly reveal other options or perform quick actions, and haptics provided feedback as you pinched/zoomed/navigated round apps to allow for easier and more precise cursor work. It was, and is, amazing.

By the time Apple had gone through all of this, I truly thought we were looking at a return to the old days - positioning this product as a luxury, ultra portable that pushes forward the laptop for a premium price. This was reinforced when they announced the starting configuration would include 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. The Macbook Air had previously started at 4GB/128GB respectively, making this a significant leap. I was ready for an astronomical starting price for such a device. To my amazement, it started at $1,299.

Then for an even bigger bombshell - they called it the "Macbook". Everything about this product was a redesigned, even better, Macbook Air, but Apple marketing lost their bottle. The Macbook Air had become such a juggernaut, that even the name needed protecting. The Macbook Air name had become the 2010 design, it had become its own brand. Apple clearly wanted to continue selling the 2010 edition Macbook Air given the huge success it had enjoyed, but how would they do this if this newer, lighter edition took the same name? Would they rebrand it as the "Macbook"? (I personally would have loved it to be called the "Macbook Classic", but hey ho). Apple decided that rebranding the 2010 edition Macbook Air was too much of a risk, so they just... didn't do it. Instead they kept the Macbook Air as it was, and launched the newer, thinner, lighter, retina edition as the "Macbook".

On gas and Air
The decision to start the Macbook with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD was clearly to try and differentiate the two lines. The Macbook started at $1,299 as a result of the higher starting config, $300 above the Macbook Air's base config. However if you priced up the Macbook Air to the same spec, they were essentially the same price. This clearly compromised the success of the Macbook hugely. As mentioned above, the Macbook Air name had become so strong that customers walking into an apple store already trusted the product. Even faced with a thinner, lighter model, with a retina display and way more advanced tech, for the same price, they would go for the Macbook Air because its safe. When you're spending $1,299 you don't want to take risks if you don't have to. Your friend told you they love their Macbook Air, why would you suddenly buy this other thing you've never heard of?

The Macbook also came under fire from reviewers and journalists due to the lack of ports. There was just 1 USB-C port and a headphone jack on the Macbook, compared to the 2010 Macbook Air having 2 USB-A ports, headphones jack, mini displayport, SD card slot, and magsafe for charging. The lack of magsafe meant that when charging, users would effectively have no ports, compared to the 2 free USB-A ports on the Macbook Air. I understand the frustration around this by reviewers, but I can't help but think it was low hanging fruit when looking for cons. Sure, the lack of ports might put off some users, but Apple wasn't making this product for people who needed USB-A ports, just like the original Macbook Air wasn't made for people who needed optical drives. The Macbook Air had always been about compromise. If you wanted something with a ton of ports and expandability, the Macbook Pro was there for you. They didn't seem to get this...

Apple made it clear in the keynote that they were pushing for a wireless future with the new Macbook. As cringey as that sounds - I think the compromise they reached was a good one. Airdrop had recently been brought out, enabling apple devices to easily transfer files between each other without the need for USB sticks. Mail Drop meant that you could send large attachments over email, using iCloud as the host for your attachments up to 5GB. iCloud Drive meant that you could store all of your data on the cloud, accessing and sharing it from any device. The solutions were there, I guess people just didn't know about them or weren't ready to rely on them. You could also get a dongle to use USB-A, HDMI, SD cards, etc, if you really wanted - but maybe the inconvenience of this was too much for some. I get it, the fear of being in a position where you need these additional ports is there, but for most I thought the new design would outweigh those fears.

Another nail in the coffin of the Macbook was the keyboard. It was radically different to previous Apple keyboards. It was much more shallow, and took some getting used to, acting as a middle ground between traditional keyboards and the iPad's virtual keyboard. With enough use though, I personally found it to be a great keyboard. I wrote my entire final year project on the thing (which ended up being an 88 page novel) and it never missed a beat. Some people found that keyboards were failing, with keys stopping working after continuous, heavy use. While this was clearly an issue, I think the general dislike among journalists of the more shallow keyboard crept into the reporting of the keyboard failures, and the Macbook became notorious for having unreliable/faulty keyboards. I don't know what % of owners had these issues, I can just say that after years of heavy use, I've not had a single issue, and I know many others who haven't. It was clearly a problem, but it felt like a scapegoat for an overall backlash against the new design.

The Macbook line trundled on for a few years, getting its final update in 2017 with faster core-M chips and a more reliable, 2nd gen butterfly keyboard. Despite the 2017 model improving the performance of the laptop significantly, and the 2nd gen keyboard helping reduce failure rates, the Macbook continued to be outsold compared to the cheaper Macbook Air, despite the Air's ageing design and crappy display. The final nail in the coffin was in October 2018, when apple triumphantly announced a Retina Macbook Air, saying that customers had been asking for it and would finally get what they wanted after 8 years of the same design. The announcement celebrated the fact that the new Macbook Air had a retina display, a force touch trackpad, a fanless design, and a butterfly keyboard, and was also slightly thinner and lighter than before (2.75 pounds vs 3 pounds previously). As a big Macbook fan (pun intended) - this was painful. What this update essentially did was bring it in line with the features of the Macbook, while still being thicker and heavier than the 2 pound wonder, in exchange for a slightly larger screen, higher TDP intel chips, and Touch ID. The two lines were now so similar that it was clear the Macbook couldn't survive in its current form for much longer. Even the prices of the two products were now basically identical. In July 2019, the Macbook was officially discontinued.

At this point I probably sound like a Macbook apoligest, and I probably am. I love this laptop.

Apple silicon and the future
With the advent of apple silicon, announced at WWDC 2020, I had fresh hope that the Macbook form factor could make a comeback at some point in the future. The transition to apple silcon was in many ways, very similar to the Intel transition in the mid 2000s, the main reason being performance per watt. The M1 chip (A14X) came out with incredible CPU and GPU performance compared to the intel chips they replaced, while also being much less power hungry. The main advantage of these gains were clearly going to be in the notebook lines, where they could completely change the battery life/power/design equation for the better, enabling thinner/lighter designs while also cramming in more performance.

The M1 absolutely destroys the chipset inside the 2017 Macbook (the final iteration before being discontinued), while also offering a TDP low enough to fit inside ultra-light, ultra-thin chassis. Indeed, the M1 fits comfortably inside the 2018 Macbook Air chassis, which itself is a bigger brother to the Macbook, and even with heavy sustained use - it's difficult to get that laptop to throttle and slow down, if not impossible.

Fitting an M1/2/3 inside the 12" Macbook design, albeit at a lower clock speed perhaps, should easily be possible. Even if this wasn't possible, putting in the latest A series chip as an alternative would work perfectly. The A16 is in a different world to the 2017 Macbook guts, even without the extra CPU/GPU cores that the M series offers. To summarise, there is absolutely no reason why apple couldn't build a 12" Macbook using apple silicon that blows the old intel models out of the water, both in terms of performance and battery life.

Given that Apple recently redeisgned the Macbook Air with a new flat design at WWDC 2022, we're clearly not getting a new Macbook Air anytime soon. Therefore, I'd personally like to see this 12" design in the form of a "Macbook nano" (Macbook Mini/Macbook [insert gas lighter than air] would also work). It could be positioned once again as a more expensive, luxury product that focuses primarily on portability, compromising on having less battery life and less performance than the thicker and heavier Macbook Air. There were some rumours in 2022 of a possible return to the 12" form factor with a 12" Macbook Pro - and I believe there's no smoke without fire there. But I think the fire I want, and miss, was clearly extinguished in Apple's product strategy long ago.

I'll keep dreaming, Apple.