Steve Jobs email confirms Apple considered tablet Mac, 15-inch MacBook Air in 2007
An internal email written by late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs offers a window into the tech giant's hardware strategy just after the first iPhone launched in 2007, plans that included a tablet Mac and a 15-inch MacBook Air.
The document, made public as part of discovery in Epic v. Apple and highlighted by Twitter account TechEmails on Wednesday, is a printout of an executive team meeting agenda from August 2007, two months after the original iPhone launched. While most topics of discussion have since been revealed publicly, there are tidbits that offer insight into projects that failed to make the cut.
For example, Jobs refers to a 15-inch MacBook Air that was scheduled for launch or internal planning in the first half of 2008. Apple would go on to debut a 13-inch MacBook Air in a classic 2008 unveiling that saw Jobs pull the svelte thin-and-light out of a manila envelope.
Rumors of Apple's interest in a 15-inch MacBook Air surfaced in 2009, and again more recently in January, though the company has thus far not committed to a larger variant of its popular notebook. An 11-inch model was produced between 2010 to 2016.
Interestingly, Apple also appears to have considered the introduction of a tablet Mac prior to the introduction of iPad in 2010. A brief mention in Jobs' email, a "tablet" was teed up for discussion under the Mac category. Before the launch of iPad, scuttlebutt pegged Apple as an early entrant in the tablet PC game, though the company ultimately went in a different -- and arguably smarter -- direction by adopting an energy-efficient ARM-based platform that ran a lightweight operating system.
Other details revealed in Jobs' email include mention of a "Super nano" device that could be an unreleased iPod variant and the potential opening of iPhoneOS (later iOS) to accommodate third-party apps. On the latter, handwritten notes scrawled in the margins of the document show that Apple was perhaps considering a partnership with EA that would bring games to iPhone and iPod touch.
A separate internal email, also from the Epic v. Apple trial, sees software chief Eddy Cue discuss the promotion of music identification service Shazam's then-new Shazam Player app in the App Store in 2012. Cue decided against the suggestion, saying, "[w]e are not going to promote something that puts it's [sic] goal as replacing our music player unless it is significantly better than our player and it is not."
Apple acquired Shazam in 2017.
Follow all the details of WWDC 2021 with the comprehensive AppleInsider coverage of the whole week-long event from June 7 through June 11, including details of all the new launches and updates.
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
The document, made public as part of discovery in Epic v. Apple and highlighted by Twitter account TechEmails on Wednesday, is a printout of an executive team meeting agenda from August 2007, two months after the original iPhone launched. While most topics of discussion have since been revealed publicly, there are tidbits that offer insight into projects that failed to make the cut.
For example, Jobs refers to a 15-inch MacBook Air that was scheduled for launch or internal planning in the first half of 2008. Apple would go on to debut a 13-inch MacBook Air in a classic 2008 unveiling that saw Jobs pull the svelte thin-and-light out of a manila envelope.
Rumors of Apple's interest in a 15-inch MacBook Air surfaced in 2009, and again more recently in January, though the company has thus far not committed to a larger variant of its popular notebook. An 11-inch model was produced between 2010 to 2016.
Interestingly, Apple also appears to have considered the introduction of a tablet Mac prior to the introduction of iPad in 2010. A brief mention in Jobs' email, a "tablet" was teed up for discussion under the Mac category. Before the launch of iPad, scuttlebutt pegged Apple as an early entrant in the tablet PC game, though the company ultimately went in a different -- and arguably smarter -- direction by adopting an energy-efficient ARM-based platform that ran a lightweight operating system.
Other details revealed in Jobs' email include mention of a "Super nano" device that could be an unreleased iPod variant and the potential opening of iPhoneOS (later iOS) to accommodate third-party apps. On the latter, handwritten notes scrawled in the margins of the document show that Apple was perhaps considering a partnership with EA that would bring games to iPhone and iPod touch.
A separate internal email, also from the Epic v. Apple trial, sees software chief Eddy Cue discuss the promotion of music identification service Shazam's then-new Shazam Player app in the App Store in 2012. Cue decided against the suggestion, saying, "[w]e are not going to promote something that puts it's [sic] goal as replacing our music player unless it is significantly better than our player and it is not."
Apple acquired Shazam in 2017.
Follow all the details of WWDC 2021 with the comprehensive AppleInsider coverage of the whole week-long event from June 7 through June 11, including details of all the new launches and updates.
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.
Comments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_First
More fun Apple email reveals include Steve Jobs still resisting an AppStore months after the iPhone had launched, and in 2015 AppStore executives pushing for adoption of vetting processes Google used in their Play Store.
It is fun to look back and bathe in the nostalgia and reflect on how messy making progress actually is. But you probably shouldn’t read too much into it. On the other hand, as a math professor of mine once told me, don’t ball up your failed attempts too tightly when you throw them in the trash can, you may want to pull them out and unroll them later when you realize, upon further reflection, that you were actually on to something but missed a critical step that could lead to a solution.
They probably didn't do a 15" Air because it would persuade a lot of 16" MBP users to drop down to a lower price point. Especially with the M1 chip, this would be enough for software development and photography, leaving only creatives with higher performance needs for the 16" models (<5% of Mac users). It would persuade some 13" users to a higher price too though.
If they make a 14" MBP, that would get some of the way there.
People never say how it would be different. Just having other people agree with a sentiment doesn't make it any more credible. You can find over 3 billion people in the world to agree that an invisible man lives in the sky. There's a trend these days that facts should be determined by opinion volume.
This perspective probably comes about because Steve Jobs worked on new products right to the end. Apple's products are planned years in advance so the last products Steve Jobs worked on would have been around 2014/2015. Apple hasn't changed measurably in the last few years - same product line, same stores, same HQ, same executives.
People obviously want to fantasize about what could have been but it's a fantasy and nothing more. Steve jobs was a CEO, he wasn't an engineer, chip designer, software developer, industrial designer. His talent was hiring great people to work on great products and many of those people still work at Apple. What Apple is capable of making is limited by them, not by Steve Jobs and if Steve Jobs had plans for other things, he would have given them that direction.
Apple is a computer and electronics company, they make laptops, desktops, phones, tablets, watches, accessories, software and services. Once they put a computer in people's pockets, there were few places left to put a computer that people needed.