Random Apple Memory

Apple's subtle reveal of the first Intel MacBook.

Blink and you’d have missed the launch of the first MacBook. Too late for the winter Expo and too early for the summer’s Worldwide Developers Conference, the plastic–cased laptop was unveiled on May 16 2006 in a press release. Steve Jobs was otherwise engaged with the opening of the new flagship Apple Store on New York’s Fifth Avenue, under a glass pyramid he’d designed himself with architect I. M. Pei.

Rumors suggested the model had been due earlier. Apple’s transition from PowerPC to Intel processors caused a number of delays that year, resulting in WWDC being pushed back to August from its regular June slot. Arriving four months after Intel updates to the iMac and MacBook Pro, the MacBook left only the Mac Pro tower and Xserve rack– mount to make the switch. Its Intel Core Duo chip would have been the latest thing in January, but by the time it shipped, the second–generation Core 2 Duo had already been announced.

Starting at $1,099, the pure white MacBook — echoing the contemporary flat screen iMac — cost 10 per cent more than its predecessor, the iBook G4, while the top–end $1,499 configuration came in black. Allowing for inflation, these are comparable to the prices of today’s basic 13–inch and 13–inch Touch Bar MacBook Pro models. Although the polycarbonate cases looked very different from later aluminum unibodies, it was the MacBook, not the MacBook Pro, that introduced enduring design patterns, including the recessed flat tile keyboard and latchless magnetic closure.

This was also the first Mac to come with a glossy screen as standard — a controversial concession compared to ongoing PC trends at the time. And it marked the end, after seven years, of the iBook brand. For the first time since the dawn of the PowerBook in 1991, every personal computer that ran the Mac OS started to bear the Mac name.