The MacBook Air is likely dead. Despite being Apple’s most popular current computer, used by programmers, bloggers, and coffee shop patrons everywhere, the MacBook Air appears to have been put to pasture. It’s never going to get a super high resolution Retina display or a super thin bezel. Instead according to Tim Cook, MacBook Air fans should go with the tiny MacBook Apple announced last year.
After the event, Apple quietly stopped selling the 11-inch MacBook Air, although you can still buy a 13-inch MacBook Air for $1,000. (The machine hasn’t been updated at all.) This move lends more credence to the idea that Apple is phasing out the MacBook Air family.
The The MacBook, which is only available in a super small 12-inch version, will now be the smallest and cheapest laptop regularly updated by Apple. For all intents and purposes, the $1,300 MacBook is now occupying the budget space the MacBook Air used to comfortably live in.
As for the old MacBook Air, they’ll still be available from Apple—possibly for a long time—but don’t expect a refresh ever, ever again. It’s been 598 days since the last refresh, and Tim Cook’s language suggests no more refreshes are planned. Now if you want a sub-$1,000 Apple laptop you’re going to have to wait for the tiny MacBook to go on sale.