Apple’s new MacBook Air faces strong Windows and iPad competition
Steve Jobs changed the world of laptops 10 years ago when he introduced the MacBook Air by removing it from a tiny paper office envelope. It was a moment that shocked the audience at Apple’s Macworld 2008 keynote, and sent shockwaves through the entire PC market. Apple created a wedge shaped laptop that at its thickest part was still thinner than the thinnest part of the Sony TZ Series — one of the thinnest laptops back in 2008. No other PC maker had anything that could compete, and it took years for the PC market to find an answer.
Apple’s MacBook Air from 10 years ago signaled a new era for laptops, but the company’s latest refresh, unveiled earlier this week, shows how the competition has caught up. While the original MacBook Air dazzled the crowd 10 years ago, the model unveiled earlier this weekis more a refresh than a revolution. A quiet revolution has been occurring in the Windows laptop space over the past decade, though.
A big part of the appeal of the original MacBook Air was its reliable hardware. The keyboard had the right amount of travel, the glass trackpad felt buttery smooth, and you could open the lid and know it would reliably resume. You could even close the lid on a MacBook Air and the battery wouldn’t drain even if you left it for weeks. The sleek wedge design and lightweight frame also made it very appealing if you wanted to travel light, and the battery life was solid. This combination of hardware was very appealing to consumers.
Windows laptops at the time were a mess. Most were built out of plastic, with erratic trackpads that were so unreliable that PC users just got used to the poor experience. Booting up a Windows laptop was slow, and resuming was hit and miss. Battery life was also poor on many Windows laptops compared to the MacBook Air, and while some like Dell’s Adamo managed to beat the thinness of the MacBook Air, none managed to beat the whole package for more than five years.
I spent a lot of time searching for the perfect Windows laptop when Windows 8 was released in October 2012, and like many others I opted for a MacBook Air. Running Windows on a MacBook wasn’t ideal, but it was simply the best option at the time. It wasn’t until 2015 that the PC industry finally unveiled an answer to the MacBook Air. Dell’s XPS 13 appeared at CES 2015 with an impressive edge-to-edge display, a glass trackpad, and a machined aluminum and carbon fiber design. I switched to it immediately, and it was this period of time when PC makers finally figured out how to compete with the MacBook Air.
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