A slightly sketchy report claims that Jony Ive tried to influence Apple to stop making the MacBook Air, leaving a redesigned MacBook Professional as the one transportable Mac.
The story comes from Walt Mossberg, who admits that it’s based mostly on a single supply inside Apple, however says that particular person was at “a really excessive degree” with distinctive product data …
Macworld picked up on the declare made in The Vergecast podcast.
What if there was just one laptop computer line, the MacBook Professional, and nothing else?
That’s what former Apple design guru Jony Ive wished to do, in accordance with journalist Walt Mossberg. In a latest episode of The Vergecast podcast, Mossberg talks about one of many concepts that Ive had whereas working with Tim Cook dinner at Apple. (It’s on the 26:30 mark of the present.)
Ive wished to whittle down the MacBook lineup to 1 mannequin, the MacBook Professional. “He determined there didn’t have to be an Air and a Professional,” stated Mossberg. “He determined he may do the Professional and make it as gentle and as skinny–or thinner–than the MacBook Air. And it will be a higher-priced machine, so that will be higher for his or her backside line, and folks would purchase it even when they didn’t want the additional energy it gave.”
Mossberg’s supply stated this led to an enormous battle between Ive’s design staff and the product managers, and was solely lastly resolved in 2018, when the product staff acquired their manner.
It’s a giant declare to base on a single supply, even coming from Mossberg. There are some causes to present it credence. It’s plain that the MacBook Air spent some years within the wilderness, seemingly uncared for by Apple earlier than the 2018 mannequin. It’s additionally notable that this mannequin, whereas a giant improve technically, didn’t get a redesign.
All the identical, it appears odd – particularly the concept Ive could be motivated by the monetary influence of forcing folks to purchase a costlier mannequin. Ive famously obsessed over design alone, and confirmed little to no real interest in the enterprise facet of the corporate.
Both manner, it will have been a dumb transfer. The MacBook Air is the mannequin that every yr brings a brand new era of shoppers into the Mac world, lots of who will later graduate to costlier fashions. Eradicating a product which is each massively common and a gateway to Macs typically would have made no sense – even when the purpose was the maximize income.
