Steve Jobs Slims Down

In some senses the Macbook Air occupies a strange place in the Apple product line. Because it has less storage, a smaller screen, and no optical drive, it isn't a full-service option, like the high-end Macbook Pro. And even the lower-cost Macbook offers more storage, more ports, and an optical drive. What it does have is a gorgeous design and that trimness that makes it the Audrey Hepburn of laptops. But will customers spring for it, or will it become the portable version of the Apple Cube, an achingly beautiful computer whose awkward price/performance curve made it a marketplace bust?

Jobs obviously thinks the former. The current subnotebook market, in his opinion, is "e-mail machines for executives"—overpriced (around $2,500), low-performance, often flimsy devices. "That doesn't interest us," he says. "We're trying to create a new category of mainstream notebooks, not a little niche. To build a really thin, lightweight notebook that could become mainstream. That's what we set out to do. And I think we've done that and priced it at a mainstream price. $1,799. I think people will look seriously at this. Some as their second notebook."

The answers will begin to come in two weeks, when Apple begins selling Air. One thing is certain: the first people to begin traveling with it will be the center of attention in airports, as rubberneckers gather around it to gawk at yet another great-looking Apple creation. Jobs is so happy that he says he's not bugged that the rumormongers figured out early what he had under his sleeve this January. "There was some speculation that we'd introduce a notebook, but I don't think anybody thought it would be like Macbook Air," he says. "Sometimes people get a category right, but they don't get the magnitude right."

© 2008