“Possible Macbook Air Refresh” As Early As March?
Appleinsider’s Daniel Eran Dilger says that while NPD Group is reporting essentially flat domestic sales of Macs, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster reports in a note obtained by AppleInsider that “Apple may launch new MacBook Airs as early as March,” which would help boost global Mac sales and reach quarterly street expectations of 4.5 million units.
The problem I see with that is that while it’s now just two days short of a year since the MacBook Pro line got a substantial update (to Core i processors), Intel’s next-generation Ivy Bridge 22nm CPUs aren’t available yet, and likely won’t be in dual-core permutations for several months yet. A refresh without new CPU silicon seems unlikely, so where does that leave us?
How Desirable Is A 15-Inch MacBook Air, Really?
PCWorld’s Matt Peckham suggests that Apple’s next-generation MacBook Air could launch soon, at least if one is inclined to interpret DigiTimes’ latest report (see below) in the most optimistic light.
Peckham also cites documents leaked to VR-Zone in December suggesting that Intel would be dropping its 25W “Low Voltage” processors in favor of “Ultra Low Voltage” versions that use just 17W, running at clock speeds of 1.8GHz and 2GHz, and muses about a widely-rumored 15-inch version of the MacBook Air, noting that 15 inches sounds ginormous for an ultraportable, Apple may perceive a need to answer the burgeoning ultrabook market, where 15-inch models are proliferating.
However, he observes, and I agree, that the Air’s marquee appeal is how much power it packs into a form factor the size of a file folder, and contends that at 15-inches you’ve traded away much of that advantage for screen real estate.
Notebook Makers To See Shipments Recover In February
Digitimes’ Aaron Lee and Joseph Tsai report that notebook makers, after suffering weak sales performance in January, are expected to see an overall on-month shipment growth of 10% in February as hard disc drive (HDD) supply returns normal.
Lee and Tsai note that longtime Apple subcontractor Quanta Computer shipped 3.8 million notebooks in January and expects its shipment volume in the first quarter of 2012 to drop 10-15% sequentially to 11.8-12.5 million units, but with Apple set to launch a new MacBook Air model, Quanta’s revenues are expected to grow further in the future.
How far in the future is the operative conundrum. Once again, that would appear to depend mainly on when Ivy Bridge laptop CPU chips are available in sufficient volume.
