Looks like someone missed the point of the MacBook Air commercial…
Boy oh boy, did we all have a good laugh when Steve unveiled the Macbook Air, pulling from inside a manila envelope! Oh my, yes! We laughed and we laughed!
But eventually we stopped.
Well, 5 months later the folks over at interofficemac.com apparently still think it’s funny, and are hoping to laugh all the way to the bank with their new InterOffice Mac Envelope Sleeve, a MacBook Air laptop case designed to look just like that envelope Steve showcased at Macworld. Of course, the Mac Envelope provides a bit more protection than a regular old manila envelope. Constructed from “high grade water proof and fade proof vinyl” with “a scratch proof cotton twill lining”, the sleeve’s envelope-styling is purely cosmetic. The case is zippered shut, not held together by the thin red strings, and there’s 1/2-inch of padding to keep your MacBook Air safe if you should accidentally mail it.
Very cute. So the big question is, “who will buy one?”. I may be wrong, but I think the point of the MacBook Air envelope commercial was to show how thin it is, not to suggest anyone superficial enough to spend $3000 on a computer with hardly and features/power is going to want to keep it in a case that looks like an envelope. In fact, I would think they might be more apt to put it in a real envelope, as at least ten they can keep performing that same “hilarious” sight gag over and over on their friends. InterOffice is selling the Mac Envelope Sleeve for $30, and for an extra $20, you can have your initials embroidered on it, thus ruining the illusion of it being a real envelope. $30 is not quite too much to spend for a gag gift, so perhaps they’ll have some success among prop comedians such as Carrot Top and Gallagher.
Thanks (once again) to faithful Macenstein reader Kelly for the tip!
It doesn’t even look like a real envelope, it’s like that knitted iPhone in your previous posting… and I am pretty sure I saw someone else hocking one these in Macworld.
Are you kidding me? You may aswell walk around with a “ROB ME” tattoo on your forehead. Ugly.
Timbuk2 is also doing an envelope macbook air sleeve, but in my opinion, it’s much better quality. It’s not bright yellow, it actually uses the red string to shut, and best of all…
They call it the steve sleeve.
And it’s made from all post consumer recycled materials. Cool!
Unfortunately, it won’t be here until July. Not Cool.
http://www.timbuk2.com/tb2/cms/macbookair/macbookair.htm
And FYI Macenstein, if I had a MacBook Air, that would be my sleeve of choice.
This is cool, but Jordan is right… The Steve Sleeve looks SWEET! now it they only made a MBP version…
If I get an Air in my interoffice mail, I ain’t returnin’ it.
I think it’s great. But a bit too shiny. It should have one side printed with a bunch of interoffice addresses crossed out, and a place for your name and number at the bottom. A Kensington pass-through grommet is probably a good idea, too.
I’d love to see a whole series of these. A faux FedEx (FaUx?), a Priority Mail, a manila folder, maybe a fake blue-lined pad of paper. There’s a bunch of fun possibilities that are clever without looking (too) juvenile. They’ll be the new status symbol that you wait for others to ask about, like the white iPod earbuds were in 2004.
If you are going to buy from Interofficemac, then please read my post on the Apple support discussion forum about their product: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7920623