Steve tells his team to create a highly portable Internet-centric notebook. I want it unfettered – minima to no cables, light weight and transportable. I want it small enough to fit nicely on an airplane’s fold-down tray and I want it to be wirelessly connected all the time. That’s right, wirelessly connected all the time.

The challenge was formidable, but the team went to work. Working day and night like Nasa’s Apollo 13 ground control to provide a solution to the problem. But the wi-fi connection was a big problem among many others. In the early 21st century wireless connectivity was not pervasive which makes the businessperson hop around hotspots like caffeinated roaming hoards. But Steve had a solution.

From the top the message is sent down to the invisible minions, the power behind the man. Keep wi-fi, but add in cellular connectivity through the AT&T 3G network. We’ll work the agreement to get a monthly residual revenue share and tie the notebook to the network. We’ll be the first mover on the market and we’ll call our marketing campaign “Something in the Air” representing our always connected state.

Connect. He paused. Connect, anywhere to a suite of services we will call MobileMe .. wait that’s another tale ..

But connect we will! So the people went to work and deals were crafted and AT&T danced around the table and slapped each other on the back and congratulated each other on the incredible genius of this plan, until… the AT&T minions groaned – our network cannot handle it, we’re in for imminent doom.

Steve’s head hit his hands and head-hung he cursed the cellular network calling it dirty words like Microsoft and IBM. He said something blasphemous about OS/2 as well, but no one really got what he meant as they’d never heard of OS/2.

Anyway, the Air came to be and the marketing spin made money spent on the “Air” campaign work and it became about the “light as …” metaphor.

Me? Well I am sitting here with a great MacBook Pro waiting on a tire to get fixed and wondering why in the …. Don’t they offer free wi-fi!

The End.