As I've been writing about for awhile now, It’s kinda obvious that Apple is changing their naming strategy. Not only for their operating systems1, but also for their different devices. They started with the 12-inch Macbook.
For starters, the words ‘Light’ and ‘Professional’ are no longer a dichotomy, though they were when the original MacBook Air was launched in 2008. For Apple to achieve the the title of ‘World’s Thinnest Notebook’ they had to compromise on performance and expansion slots. It was a very niche and expensive product, only for people with the primary priority of portability. In 2016 – where nearly all products from Apple and competitors are thin and light – Apple’s distinction of ‘Air’ is redundant.
They also changed the naming of the iPad. We now have two iPad Pros. I'm sure they will discontinue the iPad Air and iPad mini too.
And they have now started the name change of the iPhone with the release of the iPhone SE. I’m sure they will remove the numbers from the names and call the different iPhones something like: iPhone (4.7-inch), iPhone SE (4-inch), iPhone Plus (5.5-inch) and eventually the rumored iPhone Pro (5.8-inch). By removing the numbers from the names Apple can update the iPhone as they want every year, instead of being forced to release 'S' versions of the iPhone every other year. They don’t have to follow a 2 year upgrade cycle anymore if they remove the numbers from the names.
So Apple has probably killed the ”Air” brand for now. It doesn’t fill any purpose anymore. It will be the ”Macbook” for the portability/mobility users2 and the ”Macbook Pro” for the PRO users. And when it comes to the iPad, I believe we will see a simpler and cheaper iPad in the future that will be called just the ”iPad”. So we will have an ”iPad” for casual content consuming users and an ”iPad Pro” in two sizes for PRO users.
And personally I can hardly wait for the next generation of the 12-inch Macbook! The 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard is thicker, heavier and almost more expensive than the 12-inch Macbook. So the choice is easy to do for me.
Via Apple Has Probably Killed the ‘Air’ Brand – Jack March's Tech Blog
Here is a video with my thoughts on Apples new and coming devices:
- From my blogpost: In a section on the webpage that discusses Apple’s process for conducting a product life cycle assessment, it refers to MacOS, tvOS, iOS, and watchOS devices. There’s no mention of OS X anywhere on the site. ↩︎
- Like me. I definitely prefer Thin, Light and Portable over big and professional. ↩︎