Apple’s revamped flagship ultraportable notebooks, the MacBook Airs, were rumored to hit Apple Stores today. But that has happened yet and insider sources reveal that it won’t happen tomorrow either. Rumors for a launch today are apparently off by a week. Sources now claim that the new MacBook Airs are set to arrive next Thursday or Friday.
According to AllThingsD, “several sources” indicate that Apple plans to unleash the new MacBook Airs by late next week. This means that rumors of a July 26 launch are also off base, although it cannot be completely ruled out. Considering that Apple officially requested developers to submit Lion apps for review just this past Monday, a launch today would seem a bit rushed.
Launching the new MacBook Airs alongside OS X Lion next week or the week after would give developers more time to optimize their apps and to ensure new Mac customers have the best Lion experience.
These sources, however, do concur with the rumors regarding the specs of the upcoming MacBook Airs. The notebooks is said to sport Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge chips, the Thunderbolt connector port, a backlit keyboard, and increased SSD to 128GB or 256GB.
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In a communication to AppleInsider on Thursday, Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said his industry checks suggest Apple is no longer placing orders MacBook Airs with 2GB of RAM. Instead, those checks indicate that all new 11.6- and 13.3-inch models will include 4GB of RAM as standard, as it will improve performance of Mac OS X Lion, also due to ship on each model.
Similarly, Kuo cited the same checks in suggesting that Airs with just 64GB solid-state-drives may go away in favor of Apple shipping only 128GB and 256GB models as standard, given that the bulk of Apple's shipments have been for models containing those larger drives. Contrary to some reports, however, the analyst and proven insider said his checks indicate the SSD drives will remain pluggable, and won't be soldered to the logic board.
In terms of which Sandy Bridge CPUs Apple has chosen for the Air, Kuo pointed to three specific Intel ultra-low-voltage chips (comparison chart) that launched just last month as prime candidates based on his checks: the Core i5-2467M (1.6GHz), i7-2637M (1.7GHz), and i7-2677M (1.8GHz). Each of the chips consume only 17 watts, making them suitable for the slim design of the Mac Book Air, and support systems with up to 8GB of total memory.
While, AppleInsider cannot corroborate all of the aforementioned details, it relays the information given that Kuo has a respectable track record of producing accurate predictions for Apple's future hardware designs. For instance, he was the first to accurately predicted the launch of an 11.6-inch MacBook Air and iPod touch with camera last year, and this year followed up with accurate specifications for the iPad 2 and white iPhone 4 production, among other products.
CloudTags: Apple, MacBook, Air, refresh, may, launch, recently, iPed Tablet PC, LCD Monitor
According to AllThingsD, “several sources” indicate that Apple plans to unleash the new MacBook Airs by late next week. This means that rumors of a July 26 launch are also off base, although it cannot be completely ruled out. Considering that Apple officially requested developers to submit Lion apps for review just this past Monday, a launch today would seem a bit rushed.
Launching the new MacBook Airs alongside OS X Lion next week or the week after would give developers more time to optimize their apps and to ensure new Mac customers have the best Lion experience.
These sources, however, do concur with the rumors regarding the specs of the upcoming MacBook Airs. The notebooks is said to sport Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge chips, the Thunderbolt connector port, a backlit keyboard, and increased SSD to 128GB or 256GB.
Other Business News:
laptop batteries
Acer as07a31 battery
Dell latitude d820 battery
In a communication to AppleInsider on Thursday, Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said his industry checks suggest Apple is no longer placing orders MacBook Airs with 2GB of RAM. Instead, those checks indicate that all new 11.6- and 13.3-inch models will include 4GB of RAM as standard, as it will improve performance of Mac OS X Lion, also due to ship on each model.
Similarly, Kuo cited the same checks in suggesting that Airs with just 64GB solid-state-drives may go away in favor of Apple shipping only 128GB and 256GB models as standard, given that the bulk of Apple's shipments have been for models containing those larger drives. Contrary to some reports, however, the analyst and proven insider said his checks indicate the SSD drives will remain pluggable, and won't be soldered to the logic board.
In terms of which Sandy Bridge CPUs Apple has chosen for the Air, Kuo pointed to three specific Intel ultra-low-voltage chips (comparison chart) that launched just last month as prime candidates based on his checks: the Core i5-2467M (1.6GHz), i7-2637M (1.7GHz), and i7-2677M (1.8GHz). Each of the chips consume only 17 watts, making them suitable for the slim design of the Mac Book Air, and support systems with up to 8GB of total memory.
While, AppleInsider cannot corroborate all of the aforementioned details, it relays the information given that Kuo has a respectable track record of producing accurate predictions for Apple's future hardware designs. For instance, he was the first to accurately predicted the launch of an 11.6-inch MacBook Air and iPod touch with camera last year, and this year followed up with accurate specifications for the iPad 2 and white iPhone 4 production, among other products.
CloudTags: Apple, MacBook, Air, refresh, may, launch, recently, iPed Tablet PC, LCD Monitor
