William Gallagher
The new 15-inch MacBook Air has been widely praised, but one new report claims that sales of it are so low that manufacturing is being cut.
It was rumored and awaited, then the 15-inch MacBook Air was launched, and got universally good reviews. AppleInsider even called it the "sweet spot for portability and power."
However, according to Digitimes — and only Digitimes — sources in the supply chain claim that sales have been as much as 50% below predictions.
Digitimes further claims that as a consequence of this production is to be scaled back, but it's not clear whether this has begun or is still being considered. The publication says that unspecified resellers, and possibly Apple itself, are calling for production of the 15-inch MacBook Air to cease.
Note that Digitimes has a strong track record for its supply chain sources, but a significantly poorer one for the conclusions it draws about Apple's plans.
The chief selling point of the 15-inch MacBook Air is its screen, which is larger than in previous models. Prior to this device, users would have to buy a much more costly MacBook Pro in order to get a larger screen.
If Digitimes is correct, then there's a curious parallel between the MacBook Air and the iPhone 14 range. Both featured a new standard model that featured a larger screen, for instance.
Then while it remains far from certain that Digitimes is right, a flop 15-inch MacBook Air would mirror the reportedly unpopular iPhone 14 Plus.
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
29 Comments
I wonder why 🧐? Maybe because M2 will soon be replaced with M3 and most people won’t get tricked to buy hardware this close to a possible new one.
What a coincidence. Buyers were expecting double the ssd capacity for that price.
The main issue is the base configuration, No one in their right mind will be purchasing 8gb 256gb any more, I'm just a normal user and 256gb is too small for me, I can live with 8gb at the moment, however even I know I need 16gb for future proofing. At £1700 for that config, it's just not good value, compared to 14" Pro.
The next issue is the M2 chip, basically it's just an over clocked M1 with the addition of a media engine, (most buyers of this machine aren't creators), so most buyers like me are waiting for the M3 chip. Consumers these days are too smart to fall for the usual hype.
The final issue is; once you get past the bigger screen, it's compromised at every level compared to the Pro's, Screen, speakers, Pro Motion, Camera, IO's.
Like I said, I'm just a normal user not a pro and the only upgrade I'm considering is the M3 14" or 16" pro.
Once you you get to 16gb & 512gb the 15" is just not value for money.
I said from day one, it was not as good as the hype and these sales figures don't surprise me.
People want portability with the Air. Pity they didn't bring back the 11-inch Air, one of the best machines Apple ever made.
I looked at it on the weekend and really liked the hardware design, however the above comments regarding costs of ram and storage seem on point. Perhaps the current pricing approach for Apple is finally catching up with them...?
$159 gets one 2TB @ Newegg - currently offering a Samsung 990 Pro...
$800 gets one 2TB above the base cost of 256GB for the Apple option, and it is not (easily) user serviceable...
"PCIe Gen4 performance limits showing up to 7,450/6,900MB/s for Sequential Read/Write:
www.newegg.com/samsung-2tb-990-pro/p/N82E16820147861
www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/macbook-air/15-inch-midnight-apple-m2-chip-with-8-core-cpu-and-10-core-gpu-256gb#
32G of RAM might be helpful too, yet is even 24GB @ $400 at sufficient multiples of what is currently available elsewhere for PC under $100 to give pause?
www.newegg.com/crucial-32gb/p/20-156-328?Item=20-156-328&Description=&cm_re=-_-20-156-328-_-Product