Half of Apple's MacBook Air lineup now sold out at Amazon ahead of WWDC

MacBook Air models, including Apple's popular 11.6-inch, sub-$1,000 offering, continue to go out of stock at Amazon ahead of an anticipated product refresh that's expected to add Intel's latest-generation Haswell processors.

As of Thursday morning, our Apple Price Guide shows Amazon is completely sold out of the 11.6-inch MacBook Air with 64 gigabytes of storage and a 1.7-gigahertz Intel Core i5 processor a handful of used and refurbished units remain in stock.

Notably, the listing for the entry-level 11.6-inch model is consistent with a discontinued item on Amazon, with no indication that stock will be replenished. In contrast, the online retailer typically portrays a simple stockout with availability advertised for "1-2 months."

The 128-gigabyte version of the 11.6-inch model remains in stock for now, as does the entry-level 13-inch model. But beyond that, all MacBook Air configurations are completely out of stock at Amazon.

Similar constraints of MacBook Air inventory can be seen at other resellers, including MacMall, MacConnection, Best Buy, and J&R. All of those stores currently show stockouts of a huge swath of MacBook Air configurations.

Best Buy has also begun to run out of in-store MacBook Air inventory. For example, as of Thursday the entry-level 11.6-inch model was unavailable for pickup at about half of the retailer's New York City stores, while even fewer locations in the suburbs had available inventory.

As of yet, there is no sign of those same constraints at Apple's own retail stores. On Thursday morning, stores around the country showed both 11.6- and 13-inch MacBook Air models remain in stock and available for in-store pickup.

Last week, the first major signs of reduced MacBook Air inventory were spotted, beginning with the 13-inch model. Apple typically draws down inventory of current models at its resellers ahead of a product refresh.

It's expected that Apple will introduce new MacBook Air models next month at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The refreshed thin-and-light notebooks are expected to feature Intel's latest-generation Haswell processors, which offer greater performance along with reduced power consumption.

Intel's Haswell chips will launch the first week of June. Likely CPU candidates for the new MacBook Airs will include Intel HD 5000 integrated graphics that promise a 50 percent improvement in performance over their predecessors.

Readers can find the best deals on still-available MacBook models in the AppleInsider Mac Price Guide, included below. In particular, B&H is exclusively offering AppleInsider readers an exclusive $200 discount on a handful of remaining BTO MacBook Air models, which brings the 1.8-gigahertz 11.6-inch down to $1,199, and the 2.0-gigahertz 11.6-inch model to $1,549. Savings increase when purchasing news Macs with 3 Years of AppleCare extended warranty (see our New Macs + AppleCare price guide)