January 29, 2008
MacBook Air released
Steve Jobs introduced the MacBook Air on January 29, 2008 — an ultraportable Mac slim enough to fit in a manila envelope.
What it was for
The Air traded optical drives and ports for thinness and solid-state storage options — setting the template for ultrabooks developers carry to coffee shops and conferences. It became the default Mac laptop for mobile engineers before the Retina and M-series revisions. PCPersonal computer — a computer designed for individual use, especially desktop or laptop machines. makers rushed to match its thin wedge profile.
Companies
- Apple
Why it's here
The MacBook Air defined the ultraportable laptop category for the late 2000s.
Why it mattered
It shifted developer expectations toward thin, SSD-based laptops as daily driver machines.
What it solved
Road warriors wanted full macOSApple's desktop operating system — runs on Mac hardware with Unix foundations and the Cocoa UI framework. in a package lighter than existing PowerBook and ThinkPad models.
Media
ImageMacBook AirUser:KKPCW, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Related
- Apple PowerBook releasedOctober 1991
- Macintosh Portable releasedSeptember 1989
- GRiD Compass releasedApril 1982
- M1 MacBook Air and Pro shipNovember 17, 2020
- Intel Atom announcedApril 2008