Apple Flips the Playbook, Putting Mobile Tech in PCs
By MIGUEL HELFT October 20, 2010
CUPERTINO, Calif. - Over the last few years, Apple used technologies from its Macintosh computers to create the iPhone and the iPad, building a multibillion-dollar mobile computing business that now accounts for 60 percent of its revenue.
Now Apple is doing the reverse, taking technologies like the multitouch user interface from the iPhone and the iPad and using them to refresh its Mac business.
On Wednesday, Steven P. Jobs, the chief executive, unveiled two versions of its ultra-thin MacBook Air laptops. He also demonstrated an early version of Apple's new OS X operating system, which will be available next summer. In addition to multitouch, the new hardware and software incorporate the video phone software FaceTime, an App Store and other popular features of Apple's hand-held products.
Mr. Jobs even joked that the new MacBook Air was the offspring from the union of a Mac computer and an iPad. "We asked ourselves what would happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up," he said.
The new MacBook Air models are more powerful than their predecessors, which were introduced in January 2008 and have not sold well. They are also priced more aggressively, starting at $999, rather than the $1,499 starting price of the original.
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