Apple next Wednesday will unveil its latest bid to cater to consumers in the market for a true sub-notebook with the introduction of a smaller, 11.6-inch MacBook Air redesigned from the ground up, AppleInsider has been able to confirm from several independent sources.
The first models, which are certain take the form of an 11.6-inch notebook, have been in rolling off Apple’s Taiwanese manufacturing lines for at least a week now, placing their availability on or shortly after their introduction next Wednesday at the company’s “Back to the Mac” special event, according to person with a proven track record of pinpoint accuracy.
Back in January when Apple announced the iPad, Steve Jobs said this about netbooks:
Everybody uses a laptop and a smartphone.
And a question has arisen lately: is there room for a third category of device in the middle? Something that’s between a laptop and a smartphone. And of course we’ve pondered this question for years as well. The bar’s pretty high. In order to really create a new category of devices, those devices are going to have to be far better at doing some key tasks.
Better than a laptop. Better than a smartphone.
Now, some people have thought…that’s a netbook. The problem is, netbooks aren’t better at anything. They’re slow, they have low quality displays and they run clunky old PC software. So, they’re not better than a laptop at anything. They’re just cheaper. They’re just cheap laptops. We don’t think they’re a new category of device.
Let’s look at the 11.6-inch MacBook Air rumor through the lens of these comments.[1. Of course, Steve Jobs has a funny history of doing the opposite of what he said he would do. Remember the video iPod thing?]
The Display
An 11.6 inch display would make this rumored notebook one of the smallest notebooks the company has ever shipped.[2. The original PowerBook Duo had a 9.1“ screen, but the later PowerBook Duo 270c had a 8.4” color display. Crazy.] This change to the Air would bring it close in line with the 12-inch PowerBook line.
When talking about a display this size, it’s all about pixel density. Shrinking the current 13.3“ panel into an 11.6” panel would make for a fairly dense display, and could make things too small for most people’s comfort. However, decreasing the density too much could make for a ton of scrolling — something that is common on most netbooks.
I know when I ran OS X on a HP Mini 1000 and later a Dell Mini 9, this was a huge annoyance. Some programs like System Preferences were too tall, leaving me guessing as to what I was doing blindly with the keyboard.
A smaller screen, while tricky, doesn’t have to be a curse. One of my main complaints about the current MacBook Air is that it is built around 13.3" screen. I wrote this back in October 2008:
It’s really thin, but has the same footprint as the MacBook.
An Air built with a smaller display means the entire machine would take less space up on a desk. Which would be a good thing. The iPad smokes the Air in terms of portability — this could be the Mac’s chance to catch up.
The Software
Software has been an issue in the netbook world since the very first Eee PC. Back in the day, they mostly shipped with XP, which didn’t adapt well to low-powered machines with small screens. Ubuntu is a great netbook OS, but very few people like to use Linux. Windows 7 runs better on netbooks than XP, but still feels weirdly cramped on small displays.
Mac OS X, on the other hand, scales pretty well. It feels good on 13-inch MacBooks, 27-inch iMacs and everything in between. Dropping down another inch and half isn’t a big deal.
A smaller MacBook Air could most (if not all) the software full-sized Macs run. Even if the screen size was an issue for some apps, I’d imagine it’d be the pro apps, which would be pretty painful to run on Air, anyways.
This is pretty much a non-issue when it comes to the rumored 11.6" Air.
The Keyboard
When Apple announced the MacBook Air, Jobs said it was better than other ultra-portable machines because its 13" frame housed a full-sized keyboard, just like larger notebooks. This of course was a jab at netbooks, which usually ship with shruken keyboard.
While it is true that most netbook keyboards are terrible,[3. The HP Mini 1000 has an excellent keyboard, however.] the keyboard thing is also a non-issue here.
The keyboard Apple uses on all of it’s MacBook Pros is the same width — 10.75“ wide. That means it could fit into a smaller frame without too much trouble. 11.6” seems just about right.
In Conclusion
It sure seems like this rumor has picked up steam over the last few days. I think there is probably some merit behind it. While I don’t think this machine will run iOS as some people do, I do think that will be a far better option to those who want the portability of an iPad with the flexibility and power of OS X. If Apple does indeed have such a machine ready to go.