MacBook Supplier Ramping Up Production as 15-Inch MacBook Air Rumored to Launch at WWDC

[ThailandToo]

While I'll hope with your guesses at pricing, I feel very different. My suspicions is Apple notices what seems to be accumulated, high(?) demand for this 15" Air and price it for (p)added profit gains. I won't be a bit surprised if the pricing results in a lot of "might as well get the pro" comments, much as we can see the same in select configs of latest Mini vs. Studio.

Later, when refreshed Pros are rolled out, Apple can "fix" the pricing mess by "improving" that pricing too, restoring the norm of Air models being generally priced lower than Pro models. For the summer though, I bet Air looks too expensive relative to current Pro pricing... triggering lots of "might as well get the pro" angst.

My guess on pricing of MBair 15" is "starting at $1799" and even that may be too conservative on my part.

Just because history has Air priced lower than Pro doesn't force Apple to keep doing that. This is- in essence- an entirely new product. Apple could price it at whatever price they think the market will bare. Since the Apple market seems able to bare ANY price (even rationalizing, and then evangelizing ANY price to each other), it could launch at any price. Cheerleaders will simply spin "inflation", "supply chain", etc as they have last few years, as part of helping the Corp convince others to pay up.

The drivers in this thinking:

• Apple just succeeded in kicking the computer, keyboard and mouse OUT of the iMac 27" but still got the same, full "starting at..." price range for that one. Why wouldn't that same Corp seek to "maximize" with this seemingly-high-demand Mac too?
• Consider high Mac Mini config pricing vs. low Mac Studio config pricing, illustrating that the Corp is not afraid to offer seemingly illogical pricing clashes... presumably to be "fixed" when the "improved" pricing in the next-gen Studio release. Why not that same (lucrative) "problem" here? 💰💰

Anyone thoroughly turned off at $1799+ could be directed towards the 13", 13"pro or refurbished/used 14"-16" pro.

But again, I'll hope with you at only $100-$200 more than 13" Air. Your logic makes sense through our consumer lenses but I'm not sure it looks the same through sell side eyes (and spreadsheets).

I get your argument. Tim Cook definitely cares more about short-term profits than the long-term health of Apple as an innovation-focused company. You could be correct, but ultimately your own argument is for the upgrade, and Apple will want the person to upgrade from the 13” MBA to the 15” MBA. It’s a continuous upgrade path.

I really wouldn’t mind paying more money for products that actually innovate a bit. The damned notch on the display of the MacBooks bothers me even more than on the iPhones. Get rid of the notch, and I will pay an extra $250. Make a model that eliminates the camera and give me the full screen and I will pay $250 more. With the iPhone, give me a SIM card slot for travel as the world doesn’t have eSIM ready carriers. And eliminate the dynamic island and I will gladly pay an extra $250. It just keeps going on and on for me.

With Apple it always has to be a love hate situation. Love this and hate that. Anyways, end or rant and hope they don’t go Tim’s and your foreseen path of up charge far more than necessary.

 

[Gudi]

If it has support for at least TWO EXTERNAL DISPLAYS I’ll be all over it.
Alas I’m sure to be disappointed.

The M2 chip won't suddenly push more pixels than previously.

MacBook Air (M2, 2022) - Tech Specs - Apple Support

MacBook Air (M2, 2022) - Tech Specs

support.apple.com

 

[jouster]

This with the M3 and the best battery life in a macbook would be hard to resist. 16 GB RAM in the base model would be like a cool glass of iced freshly pressed Apple juice on a hot summer day.

Yeah...well, you'll be getting warm, flat, generic soda, with a dead fly floating in it...and you'll like it!

 

[Infodataset]

Should have been released in April.

However, I’m so ready to place an order for MacBook Air 15” Midnight. I really hope it’s carrying a 120Hz screen display. 🙏🏻

You still dreaming now? Wake up

 

[t0rqx]

So...15" Air with M2 this summer, followed by 13" Air with M3 this fall?

This has been the rumor for months now and I still say it makes no sense.

Apple hasn't been making sense since Steve left.

 

[citysnaps]

And gaining others...

And most importantly, still has Johny Srouji at the helm.

 

[t0rqx]

If this releases with M2, that Mac sales revenue will not suddenly improve.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Apple hasn't been making sense since Steve left.

They've been making tons of $en$e... and Dollar$... but point is very well taken by me too. I miss the Apple that seemed focused on product before profits. Whether it was actually that way then or not, I don't know. Perhaps Jobs was just much better at hiding a maximum-profits-above-all-else motivation?

To me, that Apple felt like MAX profits and shareholder motivations was NOT top motivation. "Just works" seemed more than just increasingly-fading spin and it seemed like high-imagination products like transporters & holodecks might arrive by about this point in time.

I miss that Apple, whether it was only better at fooling me or that was really as it was.

 

[Candy Apple+ Nutz]

I’m ready for a straight black.

Bring on some fingy prints!!!

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

If this releases with M2, that Mac sales revenue will not suddenly improve.

Lots of people will buy this whether M2 or M3. Lots of typically MBpro people will buy this instead of their next scheduled MBpro purchase, assuming it doesn't come with some significantly gimped something.

MBair is best selling Mac. Bigger Air will likely be very appealing. If pricing isn't nuts, "bigger is generally better" in eye of consumers. "Small, medium or large?" doesn't typically result in "small."

Average Joe/Jill does not worship at the alter of deep tech specs. Average J might not even be able to say the name of the CPU inside... or even know that it's not still Intel inside. He/she will simply see bigger-screen Air for (hopefully) not a lot more cost than 13" Air. If so, it will sell very well.

Only we fanatics worry about every little tech spec inside. None of us can even see what number is painted on the chip. Apple could sneak M1s into these and in software show it as M3 and it would take some effort to know. Average J would never know unless one of us told them... and they are the ones who buy MOST of the products.

 

[acconda81]

Unless they come out with something crazy like oh now you can game and with raytracing I see absolutely no real benefit for many users to jump from a m1 to m3. You could perhaps save a few seconds on daily tasks if that’s really worth the money to you.

 

[mannyvel]

Been holding off buying a 16" M1 to see what the 15 brings.

The M series and the various product refreshes around the M chips has screwed up Apple's product positioning somewhat. They can only design so much hardware. That'll probably shake out in the next year or two.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Should have been released in April.

However, I’m so ready to place an order for MacBook Air 15” Midnight. I really hope it’s carrying a 120Hz screen display. 🙏🏻

120Hz in an Air? Really blurring the lines between Pro and Air. Why buy a Pro if Air has those same features?

It'll never happen.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

If its M2 in my opinion it is more about Apple removing inventory for what for me was a disappointing M2, mainly because the M1 iMac in particular was a decent little computer for non business use.

Indeed it brings home what I believe is a problem at Apple, where its no longer consumer led, but marketing lead(excuse pun) by virtue of Tim Cook, but where the wheels do seem to be slipping off that approach.

Need to get back to more innovation, better base specifications even with unified memory 8Gb these days is too low, as is the idea of stepping back with regards to certain SSD implementations.

Perhaps its time for Apple to split into two companies: Apple iPhone, Apple Computer/tablet as everything seems to revolve about chips for the iPhone then working out an implementation for the other devices based on that, so on the computer side its no longer consumer led, but iPhone led

Suffice to say that I disagree with every word of that post.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Been holding off buying a 16" M1 to see what the 15 brings.

The M series and the various product refreshes around the M chips has screwed up Apple's product positioning somewhat. They can only design so much hardware. That'll probably shake out in the next year or two.

Then you've made a big mistake and are missing some great savings. Have you seen the $1500 16" M1 Pro? Surely the 15" MBA will be close to this price by the time you upgrade it to 16GB memory and 512GB SSD, and you'll still be missing the beautiful display, 120Hz ProMotion, stellar sound, and (probably) all the ports you get with Pro.

If thin and light is a very high priority, then spend the same and get less with an Air.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Unless they come out with something crazy like oh now you can game and with raytracing I see absolutely no real benefit for many users to jump from a m1 to m3. You could perhaps save a few seconds on daily tasks if that’s really worth the money to you.

Can't judge it until you see it. You're comparing a known thing to what is currently a completely unknown thing.

However, based on rumors for the unknown thing, I agree. M1 seems like it should have plenty of legs left vs. rumored M3. There's already a few YouTube "influencers" with posts generally titled something like "Apple made M1 too good" talking to such concepts.

As is the case with all computing "brains," the drive to upgrade will be some curious need to own "latest & greatest", to show others you own "latest & greatest" or some actual benefit of "latest & greatest" important to the buyer. For example, besides the rumored raytracing, there is rumor of much greater battery life. That may really matter to some. M3 will process faster than M1. Speed matters to many computing tasks (so-called "time is money"). More cores may matter to some needs. Sometimes just a different color can inspire purchases (I'm looking at you yellow iPhone released half a year after the very same iPhones). Thinner? Etc.

Some people can buy new and have someone else- like their employer- pay for it. They may make an argument that it's time to replace their 2-3 year old laptop whether they really need ANYTHING in the new one or not. IT departments won't necessarily fault the natural logic of updating laptops that are already a few years old.

M3 appears to be big leap from M1. If those leaps matter enough, M1 owners will "upgrade." Those who don't will still have a powerful, potent Mac to keep doing everything it could do the day before M3 equivalents are revealed. Bring on M4 or M5!

 

[Warped9]

Possibilities:
- Apple introduces MBA 15in. with M2. Both 15 and 13 MBA upgraded to M3 later.
- Apple introduces MBA 15 with M3 and upgrades MBA 13 to M3 later.
- Apple introduces both 15 and 13 MBA with M3 and surprises the hell out of everyone.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Shame that it will be hindered with a last-gen 5nm chip. Like many, I'll wait to buy the 15MBA when it's updated to the M3 in the fall/spring.

Why? What do you believe will be so much better about M3 in the low end? Probably a couple of more cores is all. More battery efficient too, but they are already plenty adequate in that regard. Display, speakers, etc. will remain less good and the Bluetooth and WiFi already were upgraded in M2.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

1. The 15” laptop is the most popular in the windows world. It’s perfect for office and students. Therefore, one can expect the 15” Air to be Apple’s most popular laptop in the future. So it’s not a low end laptop. It’s actually Apple’s most important Mac.

Sorry but the MBA is by definition Apple's low end laptop, even if it is actually Apple’s most important Mac. The significance of being low end is that the MBAs will always get relatively lower end componentry: displays, speakers, chips, memory bandwidth, etc. Being M3 would not magically make MBA into MBP.

 

[slash8slash1]

I think Apple is messing with Gurman's leaker's, I wouldn't be surprised if the 15 inch MacBook Air actually comes with M3 just like last years Air was the first debut M2. It would incentivize users to purchase it even more. Apple could then refresh the 13 inch Air with M3 when they decide to update the iMacs. The point is, this is just the introduction to M3. Its not gonna be anymore powerful than an M2 Pro or Max.

But I know what you are also thinking. So what about the Mac Pro? At this point, I don't think the Mac Pro is a major priority for Apple. We will get a preview at WWDC, but the eta is still unknown, they could actually push it to January 2024 with M3 Ultra and M3 Max.

I think it depends on how fast the M3 really is. If it is below 20% faster than it would make sense to only release the M3 Air as it would merely touch the M2 Pro. If Apple decides to up the cores and the package comes out 20% faster than the M2 Pro, then I'd expect a release like the M1, multiple Macs at once

 

[darngooddesign]

No changes mean a new screen size with a comically large notch, which means they still are or were planning to bring FaceID to the Mac at the time this laptop was designed.

The iPhone/iPad Face ID components are double the thickness of the entire MBP lid, so unless you think a laptop camera bump is acceptable, you wouldn’t like FaceID.

Meanwhile, this is what is inside the MBP notch; the Air probably isn’t much different.

 

[esserpain]

M2 being stuck in this chassis only for the 15-inch to potentially be refreshed in the near future with M3 is ridiculous, IMO. But that isn’t going to stop people from buying it, especially with how big a draw the larger screen, lower weight than the MBP and potentially better thermals are to so many people. Doesn’t change the fact that it should’ve been released in 2022 alongside the original 13-inch, though.

 

[segfaultdotorg]

MacBook Supplier Ramping Up Production as 15-Inch MacBook Air Pro Rumored to Launch at WWDC​

Fixed that for you.

 

[esserpain]

Why? What do you believe will be so much better about M3 in the low end? Probably a couple of more cores is all. More battery efficient too, but they are already plenty adequate in that regard. Display, speakers, etc. will remain lame and the Bluetooth and WiFi already were upgraded in M2.

The real answer as to how much better M3 will be is that there isn’t one yet. The only thing we can speculate on is the 3nm process, which will supposedly bring performance improvements, but we don’t know how much.

Personally, I expect the jump to M3 to be bigger than the one to M2 - especially since Apple needs to make improvements that aren’t as incremental to keep driving interest in the advancement of their products - but I don’t know, either. Only Apple knows.

 

[Matsamoto]

Correct me if I’m wrong🙂
but wasn’t M2 first released with the Air? And after a while the M2 Pro/Max came in the MacBook Pro?
And also the same with the M1?

So maybe we see an M3 in the new Air 15, if Apple releases it.

And if so, Apple probably will use a slower SSD than the Air M1, just like they do with the M2 Air and also the M2 MacBook Pro.

Actually I can’t understand why Apple can do this. Is it lack of component? Idk.

I would like to but a new Air 15, but for me personally I actually would buy a M1 Air.
Yes, I know you can upgrade SSD to 512GB and don’t have this issue, but why would I?
I don’t need so much storage, and I’m not gonna pay Apple their insane price for extra storage🙂