AppleInsider Staff
A report out of East Asia on Tuesday claims Apple's partner manufacturers will begin production of the long-rumored 12-inch MacBook Air sometime in the third quarter.
Citing the usual upstream supply chain sources, hit-or-miss Taiwanese publication DigiTimes reports Quanta Computer will begin mass production of the rumored 12-inch MacBook Air in quarter three, which technically starts in July.
According to the publication, Apple is planning to stick with the current MacBook Air design, with only minor unseen tweaks to rearrange certain internal structures and accommodate an adequately sized battery.
Sources said Apple is introducing the new format Air to delineate a clear boundary between the 11-inch model and the iPad Air, which boasts a 9.7-inch screen. Confusingly, the same sources contradict themselves by claiming Quanta Computer was chosen to build a rumored 12-inch iPad in the second half of 2014, a move that would completely negate efforts to define product boundaries by screen size. In any case, the super-sized iPad project has supposedly been delayed.
The timing is consistent with predictions from noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a strong track record in forecasting Apple's hardware releases, said in April that he expected Apple to launch a 12-inch Air towards the middle or end of the third quarter.
Kuo believes the new model will be a combination of the 11-inch MacBook Air's portability and the 13-inch model's performance. He also noted that the 12-inch thin-and-light could be the first MacBook Air model to feature a Retina-quality display.
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Marko Zivkovic
47 Comments
16:10 screen please!
That timeline certainly seems reasonable, insofar if all those devices do get released that I could see them getting updated in that order around those timeframe, except perhaps for that 5.5" iPhone which would appear to be placed right at Christmas, which is far too late. Even the low-volume Mac Pro started shipping earlier in the month of December. That would seem to be folly for that device but I also have a hard time seeing a 5.5" iPhone without something major added. Was there talk of new digitizer APIs for iOS 8 at WWDC or is that my imagination. I can definitely the logic in replacing 11" and 13" MBAs with a 12" model and I'd love to see a new Mac mini and Retina Thunderbolt Display, too.
I don't see the point in the 12" MacBook Air, unless it is going to replace both the 11" and the 13". A third model in between the two current models makes no logical sense to me at all. But then if that 12" new Air model has a retina screen, how do you make the 13" Retina Pro differentiated?
Did they forget to put the Mac Mini on that chart? The Mac Mini hasn't been upgraded in ages, and since 2014 is supposed to be the mother of all product releases for Apple, I would definitely expect to see a new Mac Mini. According to another site which tracks release dates, it's been 608 days since the last Mac Mini Release.
I am of course typing this for purely selfish reasons, as I'm thinking about picking up a Mac Mini, but there had better be some new ones soon.
I'm also looking forward to the new iPad releases. I doubt that there is going to be any larger iPad or any iPad Pro this year, but I'll be more than happy with a faster and more powerful iPad Air with Touch ID.
It'll also be interesting to see what the rumored "iWatch" is like. Also the new, larger iPhones should be interesting.
Actually, if Apple releases all of the products indicated on that chart in 2014 and also the Mac Mini, which is absent from that chart, then this will indeed be a very busy and good year for new Apple product releases.
[quote name="Apple ][" url="/t/180865/rumor-apples-12-inch-macbook-air-to-enter-production-in-q3#post_2554674"]Did they forget to put the Mac Mini on that chart?[/quote] They also made no mention to the iPods which will have gone a full two years so I think it'll get an update.