Apple’s upcoming redesigned 12-inch MacBook with a Retina display is expected to ship later than expected and new 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Air models have gone into production, according to a pair of reports from Taiwan’s Economic Daily News. The first report says that updates to both current MacBook Air sizes have entered production with Apple partner Quanta Computer, and that the new computers will boost Quanta’s 2014 notebook shipment numbers by 15%. The new devices are said to sport new chassis, screens, and chipsets, and volume shipments are due in late-August barring any unforeseen component delays.
Speaking of part delays, Apple’s illusive 12-inch MacBook with Retina display is now expected to ship as early as the end of Q3 2014 or as late as early 2015. The computer was initially reported by multiple analysts and publications to hit the marketplace sometime in the earlier part of the third quarter. Why the apparent delay? Intel. According to the report, the new MacBook’s launch is glued to Intel’s power and performance-efficient 14-nanometer Broadwell part, and as we’ve heard multiple times, those chipsets will be short in supply into next year. Regardless, Apple has shown an ability to stock up on Intel’s latest chips months before the competition, so perhaps Apple will be able to avoid this reported delay…
The reportedly redesigned 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs will be the first redesign to the Air since the iPad-inspired design shipped in fall 2010. The MacBook Air received a minor processor bump and a slight price decrease on the entry-level 11-inch model earlier this year, but the last significant boost came in mid-2013 with an internal revamp that included much-improved battery life, an improved microphone system, and much faster Intel chips. The 12-inch Retina MacBook will mark the first expansion of Apple’s Mac line since the MacBook Pro with Retina Display product line was introduced in mid-2012.
Both Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue and CEO Tim Cook have said that Apple’s 2014 product line will be the company’s best in 25 years, and the aforementioned MacBooks are only one chunk of that. Apple is also preparing to release a pair of larger-screened iPhones with thinner bodies, new iPads with Touch ID fingerprint sensors, a sensor-packed and fitness-oriented wrist-worn device, iOS 8, OS X Yosemite, and perhaps even some significant updates to the iMac and Mac mini lines. Tim Cook has also said that Apple will release new products “across 2014,” but with no notable Apple product updates occurring between January and July, it appears that the new MacBook is unlikely to have been the only delayed product this year.
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Here is hoping for a smaller bezel and/or touch in the new macbook air
You certainly won’t get any touch display
New chassis & screens? Does that mean the existing MBA’s are going to be redesigned? Otherwise why would they need new chassis and screens? Are the new screens going to be retina?
Do you know anything about editing videos?
Can’t comment; too stunned by the rare appearance of a Mac rumor.
I don’t get it. Why go for 12 inch MBP when 13 and 15 is perfectly fine?
Thought the 12″ retina was supposed to replace the 11″ and 13″ MacBook Airs. A 12″ MacBook Pro makes no sense unless they move to 12″,14″ and 16″ models. The 12 inch MacBook Air makes more sense and what has been rumored.
Apple also does not make a MacBook with retina display, they make MacBook Pro’s ith retina displays.
It’s been less then 2 months since Apple updated the 11″ and 13″ so I seriously doubt they would release new models in August.
Unless Apple wants cut the price on the 11″ air further and keep the11″ and 13″ as legacy models this rumor makes little sense, unless the 12″ retina air is a hybrid iPad laptop.
Great comment…I too think that if the rumors of a 12 inch mb pro are true than it makes sense that Apple revamp the rest of the line and make more compatible screen sizes.
Also there was demand for the 17 inch mb pro when it was pulled. A 16 in mb pro would fill the need for a larger screened mb pro.
and one more thing…if Apple is going to have a 12, 14, and 16 in. model mb pros, it would be a good idea to have 11 13 and 15 inch mb airs. I know alot of people would want a 15 in mba.
Maybe sometime in the 2015, with A9 and OS X.11.
OS X will likely never exist. It’ll all transition over to iOS as devices get more capable in terms of hardware and the software written for them. It’ll also not happen in such a short time frame.
We already have ARM powered “Macs” anyway, they’re called iPads. This is the future, not a mobile chip in a traditional desktop/laptop form factor.
Apple are nowhere near having iOS in any state remotely comparable to what a laptop is capable of. They need to have a serious look at Windows RT tablets and how to implement a marriage between OS X and iOS.
It might sound weird but I think touch ID needs to come to macs as well, where security is as important as in iDevices or even more. This could be the right place to start with. May be they could replace the power button in the keyboard to the round one as in older macbooks but with touch ID integrated.
Not really. It’s easier to type in a password on a full sized keyboard than on a phone. You also use it less often.
“bearing any unforeseen component delays.”
I think you mean “barring”, not “bearing”, right?
PLEASE! Stop reporting rumours as though it’s fact!
Seems as though the Mackbook Pro and Mackbook Air lines are converging. Mackbook Pros have become thinner, lighter, removed the disc drive, now if rumors are true even screen sizes are overlapping.
Before there was a distinct differentiation between the two. I’m all for the Pros becoming thinner, lighter, but where does that leave the Airs.
So any hope that these revamped 13″ Macbook Airs will feature a retina display? If not, I might just pick up a MBP instead of playing the waiting game.
I’m not convinced. A 12 inch Macbook Air seems nonsense. A better option would be an 11 inch (with Retina display) – that would fit in the portfolio followed by 13 and 15 inch Pros. It would be clean and easily differentiated by the customers. Throwing in 12 inch Retina, leaving 11 and 13 Airs plus 13 and 15 inch Pros… that’s a mess, not a great line up Tim Cook talks about.
A Mac Book Air with a smaller bezel would make a MBA as big as the 11″ have the screen of the 13″.
That would be a dream come true.
I am waiting for the 12″ MBA, so hurry up Apple!
Shut up and take my money :)
Heres to hoping they adopt the form factor of the iPad Mini and Air’s aluminum rounded edges, bezels, chamfered edges, and feel into the new Macbook Airs, Pros and new iMacs.