With Apple’s release today of the new MacBook Air with Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, high-speed Thunderbolt I/O technology, a backlit keyboard and Mac OS X Lion, the world’s most advanced operating system, Apple’s MacBook has, unsurprisingly, gone missing from Apple’s Mac lineup.
Advertisement: OS X Lion. The world’s most advanced desktop OS advances even further. Just $29.99 at Mac App Store.
Apple’s MacBook was introduced in May 2006, replacing the iBook and 12-inch PowerBook models as a part of the Apple–Intel transition. Apple’s MacBook is now in polycarbonate heaven.
Find out more about Apple’s new MacBook Air here.
MacDailyNews Take: R.I.P. MacBook. May 16, 2006 – July 20, 2011.
Related articles:
Apple’s Mac OS X Lion now available via Mac App Store; thumb drive version coming in August – July 20, 2011
Apple debuts new MacBook Air with Intel Core i5 & i7, Thunderbolt I/O & backlit keyboard – July 20, 2011
Apple updates Mac mini with Intel Core i5 & i7 processors, Thunderbolt I/O, discrete graphics, and more – July 20, 2011
27-inch Apple Thunderbolt Display unveiled; world’s first Thunderbolt display – July 20, 2011
I bought my daughter a MacBook from the Apple refurb store in March 2006. It’s still going strong, only had to put a new hard drive in it.
That’s always the case with laptops. People don’t realize how sensitive the inner parts are. I’m always careful not to transport my macbook while it’s doing something.
My daughter tried to burn audio cds in her car while she was driving ?!?! and now here optical drive is screwy.
Kids! Yeesh!
Except for Education.
I think that fact has been missed in many articles I’ve read about this. Per, ahem…another site: “Update: Apple has announced to resellers that its white MacBook, model No. MC516, is available for education institutions only. (Readers looking for one of these models can still purchase one from Mac Mall, which still reflects stock.
The MacBook will remain available to partners via Apple’s online reseller stores only for education institutions. The company did not offer a timeframe for which the entry-level notebook will remain available.”
(sniff)
I’ll miss you most of all Scarecrow.
+1! 🙂
Aw.
Still love my BlackBook, downloading Lion on to it now.
I’m with you. I wish this was the last day for a black MacBook. Looks a lot better then white MB. Because the white apple stands out more.
So is the 3GS the last plastic apple product? (I suppose Airport, Mighty Mouse and AppleTV are as well).
3Gs has (thin) metal frame in it, and Apple had to use plastic only after finding out that aluminium is no go as case material for cell networking devices (Wi-Fi deals much better with it, so they can make iPads aluminium).
I am a former MacBook user – I got it as a successor to my PowerBook G4, and it was fairly basic and low cost. But ever since they introduced the MacBook Air, I could see Apple wanting to steer the low-end consumer in that direction, and what better way to do that than to make the MBA the low-end option. Personally, I’m going to stick with the MacBook Pro from now on (the computer I just got) for sake of storage space.
I love my MacBook, still using one from early 2008. It works still work geat, needs a new battery, but other then that never ever had a problem with. It keep delaying from purchase a new computer, off course with some help from the iPad. With Lion coming and death of the MacBook it time for a up grade. MacAir, MacBook Pro, or IMac which one should replace my late MacBook?
the MacBook heir?
It’s the MacBook Air.
this raises the price of the low end laptop with HD, or if you count the air, it loses the storage. NOT a good idea. I’ll bet they just dropped a best seller.
@Hiram
@Hiram
That, my friend, is the genius of apple. They are not afraid to kill a best-seller if doing so fits their strategy.
I’d take that bet.
The MBP and MBA outsold the MacBook pretty significantly.
This could be the sales dropping transition that Oppy mentioned.
maybe, but I’m thinking they’ve got something else in the pipe…
I think the way Apple dropped the MacBook from its lineup was very unceremonious and in a way underhanded. They could have made an announcement to give the MacBook a salutary send off.
The history of the MacBook is not trivial having started life as the clamshell iBook that was instantly recognizable in its day. In fact a friend of mine would proudly display his iBook and mostly get laughed at as Windows was the predominant platform OS then. You couldn’t actually do anything with a Mac back then except draw pretty graphics. But he was very proud of it and I out of curiosity would play with it on and off. Unfortunately XP still ruled the day for me then and the iBook seemed little more than an over designed toy. But it piqued my interest in Macs and I have always carried a secret love for Apple even as I used Windows in my everyday existence.
So at least from me, a hail to the MacBook. You have served Appe well my little R2D2 friend but now it is time for you to enjoy your retirement in the sky where robots go to die. Goodbye and God bless.
I had a black MacBook for about 2 years, then I sold it for a tidy sum on eBay and bought a 13″ MBP to replace it.
It was a great little machine, took a battering and still looked like new.
RIP.
Nightfly. Replace with MacBookAir Flash stores more at lower numbers, .64 great 128 plenty of storage.
Huh. Makes sense in retrospect, it’s never really sold very well since the MBA came out, and even before that the MBP 13″ was more popular and a better value generally.
Still, interesting that Apple finally killed the last of their white plastic computers.
The only market left for the $1000 white MacBook was college kids who need a small laptop but full scale computing.
iPad/MacbookAir is attempting to fill that void, but probably not completely. But at only $1200, the 13″ MBP is also really competitive price wise.
now… if only Apple is willing to do a lower spec 15″ MBP at a better price point (more like $1300). $1800 is a rather steep starting point for any 15″ laptop (and i don’t need quad-core at all).
Competitive with similar-spec’ed machines, yes. But a $200 difference can mean the difference between a sale to Apple or to a PC maker.
Last year a friend going back to do her masters was looking at $400 laptops (part time teaching jobs and TA work do not pay well). I convinced her anything less than $600 was junk. Thankfully, $100 off for recycling an old PC, and another $100 the store gave to beat Apple’s education pricing, meant she got the entry level Macbook for $850 CAD. This is still more than twice her original budget!
The entry-level Air is too small a screen. The next size up is $1300, so even with those discounts would be $1100, and the entry-level MBP isn’t much cheaper. If she were looking to buy a new laptop this year, for cost reasons she would’ve had no choice but to go with a PC.
If she doesn’t fit into Apple’s strategy, that’s fine, but don’t harp on people for getting Windows machines, say they’re stupid, don’t know good value, or whatever–sometimes they just can’t afford something better.
You may be right CYK because Apple probably doesn’t think it makes a lot of sense to sell three laptops with 13 inch displays. Maybe Apple is already developing a laptop with a 14 or 15 inch display and significantly lower price point than a 15 inch MacBook Pro for an introduction sometime next year.
I remember the eMac lived on for another year after it was discontinued in the Education Store (still have mine). Maybe the MacBook will do the same…
Dang it! We were waiting for an update to buy one. We wanted something a little tougher since we have small children in the house. The old MBP has taken it like a champ, but even it can’t last forever with kids standing on it regularly.
Dang IT? I could think of something a little stronger right now.
It has taken me five years. Five whole yeas t convince the father in law to switch to a MAc and he finally saw the light weeks ago saying he had enough to buy a Macbook.
I asked him to wait two weeks for a likely update and not listen to the salesman in a non-apple store who said thet there were no hardware refreshes due in the coming months.
Well, I was half right.
I now need to and tell him to find an extra £150 (equiv of $200) before he can switch. I don’t think he will be very happy! Not looking forward to that conversation, I can tell you!
The white MacBook gets displaced by the $999 11.6-inch MacBook Air.
The next MacBook model to be discontinued will be the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The new 13-inch MacBook Air fills that space quite nicely.