New MacBook Air could arrive next week, rumor claims

A possible MacBook Air refresh with a scissor-switch keyboard could arrive as soon as next week, according to a source claiming to be familiar with Apple's plans.

In a recent research note, reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that a new MacBook Air, as well as a refreshed 13-inch MacBook Pro model, were coming in the second quarter of the year.

An anonymous tipster is apparently forecasting that Apple would announce new MacBook Air models sometime during the week of March 15. The second quarter of 2020 starts on April 1, so a debut the week of March 15 would be about two weeks early.

That tipster informed MacRumors about the launch window on Friday. No additional details about the upcoming MacBook Air were provided, beyond the rumored release date.

The publication notes that the tipster was relatively accurate in their predictions in March 2019, when they tipped that new iPad models would launch shortly before Apple debuted the iPad mini and iPad Air.

Apple's MacBook Air was last updated in October 2019 with a Touch ID sensor, True Tone display and an updated butterfly keyboard.

Kuo first predicted that Apple would begin moving all of its portable models to a more robust scissor-switch keyboard in July 2019, a transition that kicked off with the 16-inch MacBook Pro in November of that year.

Apple will likely switch both the smaller MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air to a scissor keyboard this year, though the timetable has been adjusted several times. Originally, new MacBook Air models weren't expected until the fall, though Kuo's most recent note updated that timeline.

On March 3, Kuo also wrote about the possibility that the smaller MacBook Pro model could adopt a new 14.1-inch display size along with the updated keyboard. It isn't clear when that device will launch, as the tipster made no mention of it, but Kuo still expects it to arrive within the second quarter.