Upgrade to a MacBook Air for just an extra $200.

This is part of our package about Apple’s 50th anniversary.

In January 2008, Steve Jobs unveiled the MacBook Air by pulling it out of a manila envelope at Macworld. The moment sent shockwaves through the Windows PC community, prompting executives to scramble for envelopes to fit their own laptops, only to find themselves tearing through the paper. Engineers were called in, and assistants rushed off to find larger envelopes.

While I can’t confirm that exact scene, what followed was undeniable: a wave of imitation that lasted for years. Apple’s legacy is often defined by the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, but the MacBook Air deserves its place in the spotlight. Without it, the modern laptop landscape would look vastly different.

At the time of the Air’s debut, I was a reporter at Laptop magazine, covering the latest Windows laptops at CES in Las Vegas. The standout was Lenovo’s IdeaPad U110, an 11-inch, thin-and-light device running Windows Vista. In contrast, the Air boasted an aluminum chassis, a full-size keyboard, and a stunning display.

I wasn’t a visionary back then; I was a loyal Windows user and found the Air laughable. It weighed three pounds, lacked a DVD drive, and had just one USB port. While people now grumble about the MacBook Neo’s 8GB RAM, the Air came with a mere 2GB. And at $1,799, it seemed like a beautiful, overpriced joke. But as Tim Cook later noted, the goal was to lay a foundation, not just to sell units.

Over the past 18 years, I’ve seen that foundation built on three pivotal acts, each reshaping the computer industry.

**Act 1: An Overpriced Showpiece (2008–2010)**
The first Air, measuring just 0.76 inches at its thickest point, featured a quirky drop-down port door. To achieve its ultra-thin design, Apple cleverly concealed the USB, headphone, and micro-DVI ports behind a small flap. It was sleek yet absurd, like the laptop was hiding something illicit. If you spotted that silver wedge in a café or on a plane, you knew the owner was likely driving a nicer car than you.

At $1,799, you were essentially paying for a long list of exclusions: no DVD drive, no Ethernet, no FireWire, no easy battery swaps, and no upgradeable RAM. The original model even came with a painfully slow 4,200rpm hard drive unless you forked out an extra $1,300 for the 64GB solid-state option. What a time to be alive!

But that was the point. While the Windows world was still pushing ultraportables packed with legacy ports and spinning drives, Apple was selling a vision of the future: one where optical drives faded away (and they did), wireless connectivity triumphed (and it did), and aluminum replaced plastic (and it did).

Watching competitors scramble to create thinner devices was entertaining. Dell’s $1,800 Adamo XPS was their answer to the Air, measuring just 0.39 inches thick with a bizarre pop-up hinge. The Adamo line was discontinued in 2011, likely due to dismal sales.

**Act 2: A Mainstream Marvel (2010–2018)**
Apple’s 2010 MacBook Air redesign was a game-changer. The press release still excites me, highlighting significant updates:

* Flash storage became standard, making the Air feel more like an iPhone or iPad.
* Battery life improved from five to seven hours.
* A full-size, multitouch glass trackpad introduced new scrolling and zooming capabilities.
* It was available in two sizes: 11-inch and 13-inch, with the smaller model starting at $999.

This shift was monumental. The Air transformed from a luxury item for first-class travelers into a genuine mainstream laptop. “We think it’s the future of notebooks,” Jobs declared at the launch.

With the iPhone and iPad’s success, Apple infused the Air with their best features: faster boot times, longer battery life, and multitouch functionality on the trackpad.

The Windows PC market responded with “ultrabooks,” a term coined by Intel for a new category of thin and light laptops. However, none could compete. I reviewed them all, and the Asus Zenbook UX31, a near-perfect Air clone, suffered from a glitchy trackpad. The same went for the Lenovo U300s and Toshiba Z835. It became a running joke: “For $200 or $300 more, you could just get a MacBook Air.”

I even installed Windows 7 on a MacBook Air to prove my point. Even running Windows, the Air’s trackpad outperformed any Windows laptop I had tested.

The story was about Apple’s vertical integration: they controlled both hardware and software, while Windows manufacturers struggled with subpar third-party trackpad drivers. Eventually, PC makers caught up with devices like the redesigned Dell XPS 13 in 2015 and Microsoft’s Surface Laptop in 2017.

**Act 3: A Silicon Savior (2020–present)**
One crucial element that Apple didn’t control in the earlier Airs was the chip. That changed in 2020 when Apple introduced its first M-series silicon, completing its vertical integration.

This shift allowed Apple to eliminate many of the laptop’s remaining compromises. The absence of a fan, heat, and the need to scramble for a charger halfway through the day became selling points. The Air felt almost like an iPad in laptop form—minus the touchscreen, of course.

Once again, the PC industry scrambled to catch up. Laptop manufacturers partnered with Qualcomm to create similar devices, while Intel promoted its vision of thinner, cooler, longer-lasting PCs.

So, while the MacBook Air may not have generated the same cultural impact as the iPod or iPhone, its story is intricately tied to Apple’s journey. The Air was never just a laptop; it was Apple’s magic trick, transforming compromise into aspiration and inspiring the rest of the industry to follow suit—again and again.