Apple launches new MacBook Air with a Magic Keyboard featuring scissor-style keys, 13.3" display, Touch ID, and 10th-gen Intel Core CPUs, starting at $999
The Most Popular Mac Now Has Up to 2x Faster Performance, the New Magic Keyboard and Twice the Storage
Context & Ripple Effects
The 2018 redesign had repositioned the Air as a premium ultraportable at $1,199 with a Retina display but kept the much-criticized low-travel keyboard (2018's Retina MacBook Air). This refresh reverses both moves at once: the scissor-style Magic Keyboard returns, and the entry price drops back to $999.
It also reads as the opening move of a coordinated spring refresh — within weeks Apple applied the identical formula of Magic Keyboard, 10th-gen Intel CPUs, doubled storage, and faster RAM to the 13-inch MacBook Pro. Two years later the line this launch anchored was rebuilt entirely around Apple silicon in the M2 Air's non-wedge redesign, making this one of the last Intel Airs.
First-order effects
- Buyers get the Magic Keyboard and twice the storage at a $200-lower entry price than the 2018 model, making the Air the cheapest new Mac on sale again.
- The 13-inch MacBook Pro is left as the only current MacBook still shipping the older keyboard design, putting immediate pressure on Apple to refresh it.
Second-order effects
- Apple follows through within roughly two months, updating the 13-inch MacBook Pro with the same Magic Keyboard, 10th-gen Intel CPUs, and doubled SSD storage starting at $1,299 — the Air refresh effectively set the template for the Pro update.
- With the Air back at $999 while the Pro starts at $1,299, the price gap between Apple's consumer and pro laptops widens, sharpening the segmentation between the two lines.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the Magic Keyboard becomes the standard across every MacBook — which is what happens by the time the M2 Air arrives with an all-new design, closing out the Intel wedge era this launch belonged to.
- A sub-$1,000 entry price on Apple's most popular Mac lowers the switching cost for Windows laptop buyers, widening the funnel that later converts to Apple-silicon machines.
The trend: Apple is standardizing the scissor-switch Magic Keyboard across its MacBook line and using aggressive Air pricing to widen its buyer funnel in the final stretch of the Intel era.