Apple's new MacBook Air faces strong competition between Windows and iPad

Steve Jobs changed the world of laptops 10 years ago when he introduced the MacBook Air by removing it from a small paper envelope. It was a moment that shocked the audience during Apple's speech on Macworld 2008 and sent shockwaves across the entire computer market. Apple created a wedge-shaped laptop that, in its thickest part, was still thinner than the thinnest part of the Sony TZ series, one of the thinnest notebooks of 2008. None Another PC maker had the ability to compete and it took years for the PC market to find an answer.

Apple's 10-year-old MacBook Air has ushered in a new era for laptops, but the company's latest update, unveiled earlier this week, shows how much competition has caught up with delay. While the original MacBook Air dazzled the crowd 10 years ago, the model unveiled earlier this week is more a refresh than a revolution. A silent revolution has occurred in the space of Windows laptops over the last decade, however.

The appeal of the original MacBook Air lies largely in the reliability of its hardware. The keyboard had the right distance, the glass trackpad was smooth as butter, and you could open the lid knowing it would reliably restart. You can even close the lid of a MacBook Air and the battery will not discharge even if you have left it for weeks. The stylish wedge-shaped design and lightweight frame also make it very attractive if you want to travel light and the battery life is solid. This combination of equipment was very appealing to consumers.

Windows laptops at the time were messy. Most were built of plastic, with erratic trackpads that were so unreliable that PC users got used to the bad experience. The startup of a Windows laptop was slow and the recovery was random. The battery life was also poor on many Windows laptops compared to the MacBook Air, and while some, like Dell's Adamo, managed to defeat the leanness of the MacBook Air, none of them has managed to defeat the entire case for more than five years.

At the time of the release of Windows 8 in October 2012, I spent a lot of time looking for the ideal Windows laptop, and like many others, I opted for a MacBook Air . Running Windows on a MacBook was not ideal, but it was simply the best option at the time. It was not until 2015 that the computer industry finally unveiled a response to the MacBook Air. The Dell XPS 13 appeared at CES 2015 with an impressive edge-to-edge display, a glass touch pad and a machined aluminum and carbon fiber design. I went immediately to that and it was at that time that PC makers finally figured out how to compete with the MacBook Air.

It was at the same time that Microsoft just released its Surface Pro 3 and relaunched the Mac conflict against PC for its marketing campaign. While the Surface Pro 3 debuted with Windows 8, Microsoft had spent years developing Windows 10 to move away from the drastic changes in Windows 8 tablet-based. Microsoft has also worked closely with Intel to improve Windows trackpads and the Windows 10 gestures for notebooks feel identical to the MacBook Air's trackpad. Apple's MacBook Air felt old-fashioned at the launch of Windows 10 in 2015, and competition has intensified recently.

The best Windows laptops you can buy now include Huawei, HP, Microsoft and Lenovo devices. Although there have been some experimentation in Windows 8, the industry seems to have opted for a common 2-in-1 form factor, which offers some features of the tablet alongside a more traditional notebook format. HP's Specter X360 does a good job with this combination, while devices like Microsoft's Surface Laptop 2 and Huawei's MateBook X Pro offer the traditional laptop in a modern touch-screen case.

Surprisingly, Apple's new MacBook Air does not do much to surpass this latest flow of Windows laptops. A new high resolution screen is now included on the MacBook Air, a much needed addition after the existing Air Air was available for $ 999 with a non-IPS low resolution display for 10 years. While Microsoft updated its Surface Laptop 2 with the latest Intel processors in the four-core U series, Apple opted for a less powerful dual-core Y-series processor built into the new MacBook Air.

Image: Apple

Apple has also decided to install the latest generation of its controversial butterfly keyboard on the new MacBook Air. It's still too early to know if Apple's improvements to butterfly switches are enough to combat dust problems, but it's still a keyboard that people love or hate.

Apple has added Touch ID to its latest MacBook Air, although facial recognition is a bigger improvement. Windows 10 has introduced Windows Hello support to allow you to connect to a PC only with your face. Most modern Windows laptops now include Windows Hello, and facial identity would be a welcome improvement for any MacBook.

Most of the most remarkable hardware enhancements from Apple seem to have been reserved for the iPad Pro. Apple has added Face ID to its latest iPad Pro and a powerful A12X processor. Built on 7-nm technology, it features an 8-core processor and a 7-core graphics processor. Apple claims that the new iPad Pro is faster than 92% of all laptops sold in the last 12 months, and that the new hardware "delivers Xbox One-class graphics performance." These advances in the performance of the iPad Pro combined with a reduction in the front and face The credentials are much more impressive than a refreshed MacBook Air.

Picture of Dan Seifert / The Verge

The new Apple MacBook Air will not advance the notebook market significantly, but the iPad Pro is stealthily advancing. It has been clear for some time now that Apple gives priority to the iPad Pro over the MacBook as being its mainstream "computer", but this was clarified during the event organized by Apple earlier this week. Apple has revealed to have sold more iPads over the past year than the full range of laptops from all manufacturers. "This makes the iPad not only the most popular tablet, but also the most popular computer in the world," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Apple also revealed that there were 100 million active Mac devices in the world, compared with 1.5 billion active Windows PCs, according to Microsoft. briefly revealed last weekend before replacing it with the 700 million Windows 10 figure of the company. It's not surprising that Apple is focusing on the iPad on Mac, which accounts for only 6% of the desktop market. Apple has not mentioned the number of active iPads, but Cook has revealed that more than 400 million iPads have been sold so far. Although only half of these are still active today, it still represents double the number of active Macs in the world.

Throughout 2017, Mac sales continued to counterbalance the trend of the personal computer industry and increased from one year to the next, even though most quarters experienced minimal growth. In 2018, Mac sales dropped steadily, while iPad sales were essentially flat. Apple still earns more revenue from Mac sales than iPad sales, but if it can convince more consumers to opt for an iPad Pro than for a MacBook Air or other Windows laptop, it will change.

The price of this year's iPad Pro is $ 799 for the 11-inch model, an increase of $ 150 over the previous 10.5-inch version. The largest 12.9-inch iPad Pro now starts at $ 999 instead of the previous $ 799 starting price. If you take into account the price of an iPad keyboard (which has also increased), a 12.9-inch iPad Pro is now at the same price as a basic MacBook Air model ($ 1,199). This is an interesting choice between macOS, iOS or a Windows machine.

Apple will now make it difficult to see how people make that choice. Apple has always been surprisingly transparent with its Mac and iPad sales numbers, reporting them quarterly, unlike the rest of the industry. But all of this is about to change because Apple's price increase strategy shows the first signs of success. Apple will no longer communicate sales figures for iPhone, iPad and Mac, so it will be more difficult to see how the MacBook Air and the iPad Pro are competitive compared to conventional laptops.

The debate between tablet and laptop will be raging in the coming years, but it is clear that Apple's new MacBook Air now faces more competition than ever before. With the MacBook Air and the iPad, the computer industry has improved, but it is the iPad that will determine its future and not the new MacBook Air.