Four versions in four years:
2015 (MacBook gen 1)
2016 (MacBook pro gen 2)
2017 (Gen 2.5 quick fix)
2018 (Gen 3)
Suggests it’s not all rosy on the butterfly front
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Apple Expected to Release New MacBook Air at End of Third Quarter: September or October
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2015 (MacBook gen 1)
2016 (MacBook pro gen 2)
2017 (Gen 2.5 quick fix)
2018 (Gen 3)
Suggests it’s not all rosy on the butterfly front
Give me a 14in model based on the current 12in Macbook with the same specs/features as last years non touchbar MacBook Pro...
Dual core i5 and i7 with integrated graphics
Retina
2 x Thunderbolt 3 USB-C
And finally... drop the Air moniker.
Dual core i5 and i7 with integrated graphics
Retina
2 x Thunderbolt 3 USB-C
And finally... drop the Air moniker.
Yes and all the MacBook Air needs is a Retina display. The MacBook Air is a proven design and more reliable than the modern MacBook. What Apple needs to do with the MacBook Air is release it with a Retina display as mentioned before, retain MagSafe, retain scissor mechanism keyboard, retain USB 3, retain Thunderbolt 2/Mini Display Port. Perhaps reduce the size of the bezel and perhaps offer USB-C alongside USB 3.
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Yes the MacBook Air would be the complete package with a Retina display.
That's not improvements, that's fixing a design flaw.
Before that, Apple used the same keyboard mechanism for almost a decade without needing to fix anything after the initial release.
I don't know how you can define something that needs two or three fixes of a design flaw as being "better".
I wish people would stop thinking "new" automatically means better and "old" automatically means bad.
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I don't think anyone understands how important this model will be.
Us tech freaks deem it completely obsolete, but the general consumer still considers the MacBook Air the best laptop ever made (even people in the IT business).
Many of consumers have voted against Apple's limited connectivity, butterfly keyboards and high prices. After all these years, with brand new shiny MacBooks, new MacBook Pro's and several revisions of the two - the old MacBook Air remains the best seller in many markets.
Please Apple, don't fu*k it up.
For once, just listen to your customers. A Retina display and recent processor, that's everything the MacBook Air needs.
Us tech freaks deem it completely obsolete, but the general consumer still considers the MacBook Air the best laptop ever made (even people in the IT business).
Many of consumers have voted against Apple's limited connectivity, butterfly keyboards and high prices. After all these years, with brand new shiny MacBooks, new MacBook Pro's and several revisions of the two - the old MacBook Air remains the best seller in many markets.
Please Apple, don't fu*k it up.
For once, just listen to your customers. A Retina display and recent processor, that's everything the MacBook Air needs.
I think it possible Apple might re-brand the current MacBook as the MacBook Air (it being the smallest and lightest model) with the "MacBook Pro Escape" becomming the new MacBook.
I agree the current MacBook Air and iPad Mini should be killed off and have stuck around only because people still buy them, outdated as they are. As for the iPhone SE, if the 4.7" model is leaving the line-up to make way for the 5.7" model at the bottom, then a smaller 4" model becomes that much more important and I believe we will see an updated iPhone SE (I am guessing at the September event now).
As for the future Mac lineup, I believe we could see:
Consumer
Mac Mini (updated)
iMac 4K (updated)
12" MacBook Air (formerly known as the 12" MacBook)
13" MacBook (formerly known as the 13" MacBook Pro without Touchbar)
Pro
iMac 5K / iMac Pro
Mac Pro (updated)
13" MacBook Pro with Touchbar
15" MacBook Pro with Touchbar
It was, but since it's late 2016 release, the MacBook Pro is now the most popular family per Apple and based on revenue climbs, the models with the TouchBar are leading that.
That would be Microsoft with their Surface line. The Surface line starts with 4Gb RAM and 64Gb of eMMC which is slower than SSD.
Several models also starts with 4Gb with 128Gb SSD, including the Surface Pro 4.
Yep, Microsoft sells a pro computer with 4Gb of Ram, 128Gb SSD and an Intel m3 CPU with 0,9GHz frequency.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_Pro_4
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Microsoft is using the pro moniker on computers with 4Gb of RAM and 128GB SSD with slow CPUs without any problems.
Those are outdated because Apple can't be bothered to upgrade them. The fact that they're still selling means people either can't afford something else or they have something the new models lack.
MacBook Pro is the most popular family because it has more models, perhaps? It may also be because the MacBook Air hasn't been really updated since mid-2013?
Also, I do not see how using revenue shows anything about the popularity of something. If Apple sells one MacBook Pro for $10000 vs twenty MacBook mini at $500, revenue will not tell us that the MacBook mini is 20 times more popular.
As for the touchbar, don't look at sales or even units sold to say that it's popular. Some people need the power of the 15" MacBook Pro and they have no choice but to buy a MacBook Pro with a touchbar. I'd even say that some people are buying the 15" MacBook Pro despite the fact that it has a touchbar instead of physical function keys.
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How about iPad DS? One screen pro, (works w iPencil,) the other regular, with battery sharing, and a new connector: like the magnetic smart connector for the keyboard, but also does all lightning/usb c functions, allowing Apple to FINALLY make a waterproof device. Make it so you can undock them, (each will have to have a half-hinge and a kickstand, or they can both lay flat. OR use a color e-ink display for the non-pencil one.)
Apple will release a new MacBook Air at the end of the third quarter, according to Taiwanese research firm TrendForce. That lines up with either September or October, depending on how the wording is interpreted.
TrendForce also refers to a new MacBook Pro in future tense, but it is surely referring to the models released in July, when the third quarter began:The report does not provide additional details, but both Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and Bloomberg News reporter Mark Gurman expect Apple to release a new entry-level notebook later this year, and they are two of the more reliable sources as it relates to Apple's upcoming product plans.
TrendForce specifically says it will be a new MacBook Air, but Kuo and Gurman have not identified what branding the notebook will have.
Earlier this year, DigiTimes claimed that Apple will release the first MacBook Air with a Retina display in the second half of 2018, and noted that it will be a 13-inch model in a separate report. This week, it said Quanta will assemble new "inexpensive notebooks" from Apple in the fourth quarter.
Whether it turns out to be a MacBook, MacBook Air, or something else, Gurman expects at least one of the entry-level notebooks, if there are more than one, to have a starting price of $999 or less in the United States.
The current MacBook Air hasn't seen any substantial updates in over three years. Since that time, Apple has discontinued the 11-inch model, while the processor on the base 13-inch model received a minor bump in clock speed, but it's still a Broadwell chip from the 2014-2015 timeframe.
Apple could announce availability of a new MacBook Air via press release at any point this fall, or save it for a September or October event. At this point, we lean towards an October release, as the September event should be busy, with a trio of new iPhones, Apple Watch Series 4 models, new AirPods, and more.
With refreshes to other Macs expected later this year, including the iMac and Mac mini, and a widely expected iPad Pro with Face ID, Apple may have enough in its pipeline for an October event, which it last held in 2016.
Article Link: Apple Expected to Release New MacBook Air at End of Third Quarter: September or October
Making the power and data connecting port a flush-mount mag-safe, (MagSafe 3, Apple?) and making the whole thing waterproof WOULD be a legitimate reason to do away with the remaining hole in the iPads’ chassis... the headphone jack.
Just saying. In fact, when hooked to each other, you could have them also be able to talk to each other and share processing and graphics power too.
This would be a moonshot for Apple. That’s why they won’t do it. They’ll just iPhone X-ify the iPad, getting rid of all the buttons and ports but the usb c, which will mean STILL no water resistance, let alone waterproofing. So no bathtub or poolside reading, etc. then they’ll add a stupid ugly pointless useless NOTCH and make me buy a Samsung tablet after my iPad dies.
And they still won’t update the Mac Mini. Or if they do, they will Apple iTV-ify it. The new Mac Mini, complete with tvOS. YUCK.
Perhaps the MacBook will transition from Intel x86 to ARM and become the new "iBook" which would allow the MacBook Pro 13" without Touchbar to become the new MacBook and also fill the current MacBook Air's role...
Financially speaking, the only reason the MacBook Air still exists is because it sells. If we're only looking at the price, that's why it's still selling so Apple keeps making more.
So looking only at cost and profit margin, I don't see how a MacBook Pro could drop so much in price that it becomes the replacement for the MacBook Air.
And returning to the name "iBook" would only make things confusing, unless this isn't a laptop and Apple are releasing a low-cost e-paper tablet.
So looking only at cost and profit margin, I don't see how a MacBook Pro could drop so much in price that it becomes the replacement for the MacBook Air.
And returning to the name "iBook" would only make things confusing, unless this isn't a laptop and Apple are releasing a low-cost e-paper tablet.
Possibly because one of the primary attractions the Air has among the current Apple laptops is the availability of multiple useful ports?
The only way to really answer that question would be to offer two equivalent laptops, one that's slightly thicker with the old keyboard and the current one with the terrible keyboard. Which would people buy?
The Atari 400 was also a hot seller in its day, perhaps Apple should switch to a membrane keyboard.
Yeah, remember how many people complained about the last generation of keyboard? Oh right. Nobody did. Nobody had an opinion on the last keyboard because nobody should notice a keyboard. It should just be there and just work, like the last generation of keyboard did. The fact that the butterfly keyboard turns off a sizable number of users makes it a design fail right off the bat.
I am not sure Apple has to go $999 with this new machine. They could comfortably go $1099 (a "Retina premium" over the Air) and it would still be a $200 price drop from current price of the MacBook Pro w/o TB.
I think it would be a consistent branding. Apple has used "Book" in their laptop branding for decades so just as an iPhone is a smartphone that runs iOS and an iPad is a tablet that runs iOS, so would an iBook be perfectly logical to describe a laptop that runs iOS.
Another possible option is that Apple would launch an all-new model to replace both the Air and the MBP w/o TB and introducing a new case that would then migrate to the MacBook Pro line in 2019. What makes me feel this is not happening is that there have been no leaks (the 2016 MBP case redesign was leaked months prior to launch).
But those looking at the MacBook Air will see that as a price increase for a more powerful computer that they don't need. The MacBook Air is already too expensive as it is, even with its old TN display.
Oh, if this new laptop runs iOS then yes I agree it would make perfect sense to call it iBook. But I thought we were talking about a MacBook Air upgrade/replacement here, so I was assuming macOS and not iOS.
What would be the point of an iBook running iOS though? What would make it different from an iPad with a keyboard cover?
If Apple does release a laptop running iOS then we're in for a torrent of furious comments on MacRumors like we've never seen before. They did say on multiple occasions that they were not merging macOS and iOS, after all.
This lack of leaks is indeed not helping anymore predict what Apple are going to do next. Maybe there's no hardware leak because this new laptop already exists (iPad + keyboard cover) and the only new thing is an iPad running the ARM version of macOS. But then that wouldn't explain the yet-to-be-released model numbers, so I'm dismissing that last idea completely.
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I agree it is overpriced for what it is (was the day they launched it in 2008, if we're honest), so the majority of people who do buy it do so because they want a Mac yet either cannot swing the extra $300 for the MBP w/o TB or feel the "Retina uncharge" at $300 is too high. But I do believe they would consider $100 more acceptable and would pay it.
The general consensus I hear from people who support the idea (like Jason Snell and Serenity Caldwell), they feel it would be much more stable when used in a lap compared to most current iPad+keyboard case combinations, which are generally designed to be used on a table or desk and can have connectivity issues if they use Bluetooth instead of the Smart Connector.
Yes, there probably will be a torrent of complaints, however if Apple did this after they released an updated MacBook Air / MacBook Pro w/o TB and MacBook, that would probably quell it a fair bit.
Or just release it after an updated, modern Mac Mini. Everyone will still be drunk from the celebration and won't notice.
One flaw in your logic....the “terrible” keyboard is only your opinion. If it were that bad, it’d be gone, period.
I’ve seen people on here say they prefer the new style...anecdotal, but proves it’s not universally hated.
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People complain about everything. You are not all knowing, so it’s ridiculous to say “non one” complained about it.
Also, just because people don’t complain doesn’t mean it’s the best solution for all time.
No one complained in 1999 when they didn’t have an iPhone. Sometimes, you don’t know how something can improve until a company shows you.