Apple Shows Some Much-Needed Love to Neglected Product Lines
*By Hope King*
Apple showed some love to the MacBook Air and Mac Mini Tuesday.
The trillion dollar tech giant hosted its second event in two months to introduce new versions of these somewhat neglected devices.
The MacBook Air was last fully refreshed eight years ago, with a small update three years ago. The Mac Mini hasn’t gotten an update in four years.
Reports ahead of the event anticipated the announcements, but that didn’t leave the crowd — made up of Apple employees, guests, partners, and media — any less enthused when C.E.O. Tim Cook and team finally got on stage.
When the video of the MacBook Air played on stage there were "whoo-hoos" from the crowd when the retina display was featured, and more when the three different color options came on screen: gold, silver, and space gray.
One of the moments that drew the biggest cheers was when Laura Legros, VP of hardware engineering, announced the body of the MacBook Air would be made from 100 percent recycled aluminum.
"That's one of the really exciting things about the product today," Legros told Cheddar after the event. "This is many, many years in the making of actually being able to develop a process out of the materials that we already are using in our production process."
Apple is entering a phase of slowing growth for its iPhone, its most important product for revenue and profits. The company is also seeing increased competition from the likes of Amazon ($AMZN) and Facebook ($FB), two names which are suddenly threats. Amazon this year released 70 new devices and Facebook recently came out with its first-ever hardware devices, the Portal and Portal Plus.
According to Apple, the company unveiled 10 new products this year — more so than in years past.
Can new colors like gold help Apple sell more Apple Watches and computers? Future earnings reports will be the proof, but for now, Apple is heading into one of its trickiest holiday seasons yet.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
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Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
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