Apple Employee: Steve Jobs Said No to Black MacBook Air

An email coming from an alleged Apple employee appears to shed light on the rumors about Apple’s next iteration of the MBAs having an optional black finish.

Apple did, indeed, plan to roll out a black-coated version of the MacBook Air, this employee said.

He remains anonymous (for obvious reasons), and provides the following details to MacRumors.

According to the rumor blog, this person said: “We tried to powder coat the Air's (and Pro's for that matter) in black as a test run. There are more than a few floating around campus.”

The tipster said “The coating looks good and holds up well, but it also soaks up body oils, making the palm rest look pretty gross. Ultimately that is the reason that the top brass (Jobs) killed the idea... it was just too easy to make the computer look like crap.”

He also confirmed that Apple continues to test various materials to ultimately roll out black versions of its popular laptops.

“At some point we may offer a black coating, but it won't be powder coat, and it won't be anytime soon,” he said.

The staffer does not specify whether or not these prototype machines had been assembled prior to Apple being granted the rights to test Liquidmetal, a space-age material.

Liquidmetals are amorphous metal alloys sports properties unlike any other material. For example, it is particularly scratch resistant.

It also doesn’t let grease stick to it, and it can be attributed any number of colors through a process that allows manufacturers to leave an impression beneath its most outer layer.

Undoubtedly Apple is considering to use the material in some of its products. So far, the company has been fond of anodized aluminum for the unibody MacBook Air and MacBook Pro designs.