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Apple Introduced Its Most Controversial MacBook 10 Years Ago Today

d686546s said:
I honestly think that people who are willing to compromise on everything for portability generally overestimate the size of their own demographic.

The number of people who truly want or need something ultra-portable at the cost of needing a dongle for basically everything is probably small and most people are better off with a MBA, which now at least has two USB-C ports plus MagSafe.
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I'm not sure that's entirely the case. I'd argue that someone who buys a 11" iPad Air with Magic Keyboard is making even more compromises for portability (smaller screen, less powerful OS, less connectivity). But I think the 2015 MacBook was ahead of its time, which hurt its sales. It was the first widely available commercial device with a USB-C port. There were no USB-C hubs available, and Apple's own USB-C adapters were bare-bones (and you needed separate ones for VGA and HDMI). USB-C itself was not fully finalized, so it took a few months for more capable third party hubs to emerge.


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I bought one, pretty much maxed out at quite a cost. I really got my fingers burned... The keyboard failed twice and then the screen failed. In the end I just threw it away. I forgot to add that the battery was charging to 80% maximum after just 18 months.
 
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Funny little story, I had set my mind on buying a 2019 Macbook Air when they fixed the butterfly keyboard issue (by phasing it out entirely). I went to the official Apple Store in Strasbourg, place Kléber, and asked :

"Bonjour monsieur I would like a Macbook Air please. And is there an installment plan?" (There were, in fact, installment plans around Christmas time on some items, that's why I asked.)

And the man's eyeballs size me up and down and he says :

"- You have to be employed to be eligible to an instalment plan.
- *Scoff huff*, monsieur I AM employed.
- But you have to have a CDI (long term)
- MÔssieur, aïe aSSûre you I am SECURELY employed.
- We don't do installment plans on Macbooks anyway.
- The website says you do.
- This is a store, the website isn't the same thing.
- But you are a franchise.
- But we don't do the national commercial offerings.
- Somehow I doubt that is true.
- We will not do installment plans, we don't do installment plans here. You can try online.
- I understand. I'd STILL like to buy a Macbook today, please monsieur.
- But you wont be able to pay for it.
- WHAT THE HELL DUDE I HAVE THREE TIMES THAT ON MY CHECKING ACCOUNT SELL ME A DAMN MACBOOK.
- You'd have to come another time."

At this point I Karened it.

"I want to speak to whoever is in charge above you."

Another cretin comes along.

"Hello, yes the person in charge of sales isn't available right now, we can't sell you a Macbook today."

And that's how I didn't buy a Macbook until 2021.
 
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KPOM said:
When he was there everyone complained that all he cared about was making the thinnest devices possible, at the expense of functionality.
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Yep. Please don't bring him back. He took away the ESC key. Put everyone in dongle hell if you forgot to pack a dongle, or lost it and needed one urgently for a presentation to connect to the HDMI cable to the projector. The single USB-C port was a pain on my 12" MacBook. Thinness but not at the cost of functionality!

Come to think of it, why doesn't the current MacBook Air have a SD card slot? I bet there's room for it.
 
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shapesinaframe said:
Was the best laptop I ever owned. I had two of them. I wish they made one with AS.
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I would buy one in an instant. The only changes I would make would be making it ever so slightly thicker to accommodate a “Magic” Keyboard like the Air, MagSafe, and if they can pull it off, a second USB-C port (which in 2025 should support at least USB4/TB4). But since there are much better USB-C hubs available (at least from third parties), even 1 TB4 port with a MagSafe would be sufficient for me.
 
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I really loved this machine. I never had any trouble with the keyboard. I loved typing on it. I had the early 2015 gold model. My wife had the 2016 rose gold model. I loved that they were about the size of an iPad, but a full computer you could take anywhere. At the time, the macbook air had that terrible 1024x768 resolution screen. This was like an air with a high resolution monitor. I've had every generation of the macbook air M series but I still miss this machine. I also miss the days when you could get a matching computer, ipad, phone and watch.
 
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I expect every time Apple considers this, they end up with a set of requirements and then conclude: the iPad already does this. 🙁

Personally I think Apple is missing three laptops from their lineup:

1) As discussed here, a super thin & light. Thought if they did make it, I suspect they'd use an A* class SoC. Basically as thin and light as possible; though, I would hope it would have 2 USB-C ports and a headphone jack.

2) The same basic specs but make it a "cheaper than the MacBook Air" student laptop, which could also be a bit more rugged.

3) They should go big and make an 18" workstation laptop too. 🙂
 
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I love the 12-inch MacBook. With Apple Silicon, it will be a ideal ultrabook. But there're two catches:

1. 12-inch MacBook with M-series chip will crush the purchase demand of iPad Air/Pro + Magic Keyboard combination. Apple won't introduce a product defeating their current best selling device.

2. MacBook meant to be a low-price entry-level product. Mac laptop line does not need another experimental device. I have no idea how Apple could cut the cost on MacBook compared with MacBook Air, unless they put M1 on MacBook while MacBook Air gets M5.
 
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The only real controversy is why the hell they stopped making more M12s. I love the M3 MacBook Pro Max, but it’s just too heavy to lug around with camera gear. The M12 was amazing, and that extra 1.5 pounds on the M3 Mac makes a real difference—especially when you’re lying in bed with the M12 on your stomach. I still have mine and dream of the day Apple finally wakes up and revives the M12 line.
 
I guess if you never need to plug in things and do everything cloud based then might be perfect. But, the idea that carrying dongles around is the answer is still wild to me. I'll take the extra few mm in size to save the hassle of extra disposable dongles that will most likely be in a landfill later on.
 
baconcat_8964 said:
I love the 12-inch MacBook. With Apple Silicon, it will be a ideal ultrabook. But there're two catches:

1. 12-inch MacBook with M-series chip will crush the purchase demand of iPad Air/Pro + Magic Keyboard combination. Apple won't introduce a product defeating their current best selling device.

2. MacBook meant to be a low-price entry-level product. Mac laptop line does not need another experimental device. I have no idea how Apple could cut the cost on MacBook compared with MacBook Air, unless they put M1 on MacBook while MacBook Air gets M5.
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You might be right, but I feel Apple is making a mistake by not letting their products complete. This used to be a rule Apple understood: If you don't compete and risk cannibalizing your own sales with your own products, a competitor will do so with theirs.

There absolutely should be a Mac laptop to compete with the A* Class iPad, and perhaps a thinner MacBook to complete with the iPad Air.

Apple not letting their products compete, while hoping customers buy both, is a recipe for customers to decide to buy neither in the future.
 
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MacRumors said:


Apple announced the infamous 12-inch Retina MacBook a decade ago today, an experimental new Mac that was as controversial as it was revolutionary.

2016-12-inch-macbook-feature.jpg

Apple unveiled the 12-inch MacBook on March 9, 2015, at the "Spring Forward" event in San Francisco, California. The event was primarily focused on the Apple Watch, which was being fully detailed ahead of its launch the following month, so the debut of the brand-new MacBook line took many by surprise. Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced the new MacBook as a "reinvention" of the notebook.

The device was extremely controversial due to its underpowered performance, single USB-C port for both charging and data transfer, short battery life, unreliable butterfly keyboard, and high price point ($1,299 starting price in 2015—the same as a MacBook Pro at the time).

However, the 12-inch MacBook offered a glimpse at what was to come in the Mac lineup. It was the first Apple device with a USB-C port, terraced battery, butterfly keyboard, and haptic trackpad. It was also the first MacBook with a design focused on efficiency, a Retina display in a non-Pro model, multiple color options, and without a fan or an illuminated Apple logo.

In 2016, Apple refreshed the 12-inch MacBook to add Intel Skylake Core m3, m5, and m7 processors, improved battery life and faster PCIe storage, and a Rose Gold color option. In 2017, it introduced Intel Kaby Lake Core m3, i5, and i7 processors, and a second-generation butterfly keyboard for slightly better reliability.

It was discontinued upon the introduction of the 2019 MacBook Air. The 12-inch MacBook was functionally replaced by the 2018 MacBook Air, which effectively adopted its design, but with an additional USB-C port, a single fan for active cooling, and a larger display.

What do you think about the 12-inch MacBook a whole decade later? Let us know in the comments.

Article Link: Apple Introduced Its Most Controversial MacBook 10 Years Ago Today
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Still using my 2017 version and I love it and wait for an updated version!
 
It's not a mystery why Apple got rid of the MacBook 12. It had too many compromises to carry on as a product segment. Could it work now? Sure thanks to the Apple Silicon M-series. At this point it would be a tiny niche that eats into iPad sales - not just the Pro, smaller models as well.

I used to carry my MacBook Air everywhere. Then I got the first of several iPads. Over time the MBA became more and more deskbound. Sometimes I would use it on the couch or in bed. But the iPad original, mini, or Pro was often more convenient. And it isn't just the bulk. Much of the time I simply didn't need a keyboard for my computing use cases. And if I did I could use my Magic Keyboard, which I always have ready in a nifty fold-up Fintie case. Total weight: 1.6 lbs for the iPad Pro with cellular and the keyboard. Or just over a full pound for the mini with keyboard. Last year I did a full cross-country train trip with the iPad mini, keyboard, and my iPhone. Plus Apple's dual-USB charger. That's the new portability: all of it less than the MacBook 12.
 
I personally hated the ultra-shallow first iteration of the butterfly keyboard, but my wife utterly LOVED her golden 12" Macbook. It weighted just 1kg and with such a small footprint... she would carry it everywhere in her handbag! Her current Macbook Air is not nearly as portable.

Now a days, with the improvements in battery and M processor efficiency, she would buy an update 12" Macbook right away. So... bring it back! 🙂
 
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Abazigal said:
I feel the 12" Macbook is the best example of what Apple so very uniquely Apple. That they are not afraid to design products with controversial tradeoffs and make people rethink just what are really "must-haves" in a product.

The OG MBA lacked an optical drive, and it wasn't soon before people realised that they could live perfectly well enough without one and fast forward to today - you will be hard-pressed to find a laptop with one.

Likewise, the Macbook gives up everything in pursuit of being the thinnest and lightest it can be. It's easy to cheer straightforward spec increases like going from 8gb ram to 16, or 2ghz to 3ghz. But imagine if someone said that in order to cut a few grams off a product or make it a millimetre thinner, they are going to remove features that some people deem essential (such as ports).

Even moreso than the original MBA, how many other companies would have dared to offer such a lopsided offering? Yet somehow, Apple is able to get away with it, and it's thanks to this that we are able to get differentiated experiences in the market today.

This is why I continue to be an Apple fan.
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I agree that this USED to be Apple: transgressive, bold innovations that reshaped the industry as a whole... but not anymore.

Apple has become quite the oposite, in fact: master of iterative micro-evolutions. When was the last time the iPhone wowed the world? Or the Macbook Air? Or the iPad? The last 5 years in any of those product lines have been super conservative.
 
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