Ten Years Ago the MacBook Air Changed Notebooks Forever

This week marks 10 years since Steve Jobs unveiled the first MacBook Air. At the time, it was the world’s thinnest notebook — and it undoubtedly changed the laptop industry for good.

A decade ago, during Macworld 2008 on Jan. 15, the late Apple co-founder walked over to his podium, grabbed a manilla envelope, and shocked the audience with how thin and small the MacBook Air was. “It’s the world’s thinnest notebook,” Jobs said, and at the time, it was. The sleek device elicited applause and even gasps of surprise — and for good reason.

Notebook makers had been making thinner and lighter laptops in 2008, but they weren’t the sliver-sized computers of today.

One of the thinnest notebooks at the time, the Sony TZ series, was still about an inch thick and weighed about 3 pounds. But as Jobs pointed out, most of them compromised as far as processing power, and display and keyboard size.

MacBook Air managed to pack better features — like a full-size display and keyboard — into an even thinner form factor. It was obviously a feat of engineering at the time, but it came at a price: $1,799. Pricey, even for today’s standards. The MacBook Air was also a laptop of firsts: it was the first with only a single USB port, the first to offer an SSD storage option, the first with a mercury-free display, and the first notebook to weigh three pounds or less.

It’s not exaggerating to say that the MacBook Air was a success. But beyond its features and form factor, or how well it sold, the MacBook Air signaled a definite shift in the notebook industry to thinner and lighter notebooks. That’s a shift we can still see today.

As The Verge points out, it took PC makers years to catch up to Apple’s notebooks. Indeed, until a few years ago, MacBooks remained some of the best laptops on the market in terms of displays, specifications and hardware.

But Apple has refused to redesign any of its MacBook computers to compete against the slew of tablet-notebook hybrids on the market today. For many consumers, that fact has probably led Apple’s MacBook Air lineup to feel dated — particularly at its price point.

The MacBook Air is still available from Apple today, but its heyday is undoubtedly over. It’s a lower-cost option, and its own category has seemingly been overtaken by increasingly thin MacBook and MacBook Pro devices. Indeed, the lineup hasn’t seen a refresh since 2015 beyond a minor speed bump last year.

But while the MacBook Air may soon be on the chopping block for discontinuation, but there’s no doubt its influence on notebook design will be felt for years to come.

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