MacBook

The MacBook, introduced in 2006 alongside the MacBook Pro, was Apple's mainstream consumer laptop for the Intel era — the machine most people actually bought, as opposed to the professional-oriented Pro line sitting above it.

The name went quiet for years before Apple revived it in 2015 for an entirely different machine: a fanless 12-inch laptop built around a single USB-C port, chasing thinness and simplicity above all else. It never became a mainstream hit, but you can draw a fairly direct line from its ambitions to the MacBook Air that eventually absorbed them.