New MacBook Air at WWDC?

[franzkfk]

Is there any likelihood of the new MacBook Air coming at WWDC? I expect they will announce M2 at the event, so I would have thought they would have liked to have launched some hardware at the same time, plus there is plenty of rumours of new hardware coming in the summer...

One of the earlier Bloomberg reports were about new Macs coming in the middle of the year - around WWDC time. I think a lot of rumors are usually meshed up and sort of paraphrasing the upcoming reality. I mean ... there are rumors about entry level MacBook Pro; redesigned MacBook Air with M2 and sometimes with M1. I think these rumors are about one and the same product. New MacBook will be just called "MacBook" with new M2 chip. MacBook Air with M1 will stay and probably be ditched later on or stays in the line and take a role of "iPhone SEish" version of MacBooks. That's what I think:
MacBook Air 13-in M1 $999
MacBook 13-in M2 $1299 (could be in two sizes)
MacBook Pro 13-in M1 with Touch Bar (ditched)
MacBook Pro 14-in $1999
MacBook Pro 16-in $2499

And yes ... I think they will show it at WWDC.

 

[jimimac71]

The new Mac mini MacBook Air is almost certainly coming.

 

[UltimateSyn]

It doesn’t make sense but neither does the iPhone 14 sticking with A15… but that is happening by the looks of it…

The M1 is plenty powerful for the target demographic the MacBook Air is geared towards and whether it has M1 or M2 it’s going to sell like hot cakes, it all depends whether Apple want to milk M1 as much as possible before moving onto M2…

That… is a very fair point. We might be so far into the point of diminishing returns for mobile, consumer-level use cases of Apple Silicon that only ever other generation gets a processor upgrade. Saw it in the Apple Watch a few times IIRC, too.

I do *still* think that they wouldn’t want either the biggest update to the Air in its history (if it is indeed an Air), or an entirely new product, to be ”tainted“ by the fact that it’s still using Silicon that’s been out for nearly two years. I think they will indeed keep the M1 around in whatever product sits at $999 for a while longer now, but this rumored new redesigned product, which I think will come in at $1299, will get M2.

 

[ghanwani]

Possible, since the refreshed MacBook Air will still use M1. I think it'll come earlier rather than later in Q3.

Speculation: Maybe they are doing a tic toc design cycle and they'll have an "M1S"?

It doesn't make sense for them to release a brand new chassis with the exact same processor that is 2 years old. It has to have at least some variation.

 

[JPack]

Speculation: Maybe they are doing a tic toc design cycle and they'll have an "M1S"?

It doesn't make sense for them to release a brand new chassis with the exact same processor that is 2 years old. It has to have at least some variation.

If I were to guess, it's slightly higher clocked or simply all 8-GPU cores are enabled on the $999 model.

Given the massive slow down in lithography technology, it makes sense to keep using M1 and A15 for some 2022 MacBooks and iPhones. TSMC "4nm" only offers 5% reduction in logic area compared to 5nm. Every year, performance increases because Apple throws billions more transistors at the problem. This is happens when lithography stalls and Apple doesn't want to raise prices.

 

[James Godfrey]

I think WWDC is going to pan out something like…

Usual services, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, WatchOS etc… then MacOS, after this I expect them to unveil M2, and then lead on to announce the new MacBook Air and Mac mini which will have the M2 chip but will ship late June or early July.

Unveiling M2 at a developer conference seems extremely likely IMO…

 

[theluggage]

WWDC is a software event,

The actual conference sessions, yes. But the WWDC keynote is primarily a high-profile press event, and if Apple have something to announce then they could well do it then. Also, the M2 and/or any whacky M1 Quad/extreme/whatever they put in the Mac Pro could have developer implications.

The 2019 Mac Pro, the 2017 iMac Pro and the Trashcan were all announced at WWDC keynotes even if they weren't available to order immediately.

Not saying that they will announce hardware at the WWDC keynote, but you can't rule it out with the "WWDC is software" argument.

 

[theluggage]

It doesn't make sense for them to release a brand new chassis with the exact same processor that is 2 years old. It has to have at least some variation.

One issue is that a M2, rumoured to have ~20% faster single-core performance and an extra GPU core, would likely be generally faster than the binned 8-core "M1 Pro".

Put an M2 and a miniLED display in an Air and it's going to seriously cannibalise the low-end 14" MBP until a "M2 Pro" rolled around.

For the sort of applications that the MacBook Air is typically used for, and given that the Air is effectively Apple's "budget" Mac, the M1 and the existing display are firmly in "good enough" territory. Put them in a pretty new case and that might not impress the folks in this forum but it could work in the mass MacBook Air market.

There was, a few months back, a rumour of a M2 version of the 13" MBP which seemed weird - but maybe that would make sense if the Air stayed on M1 and the base 14" MBP got bumped to the non-binned M1 Pro.

 

[mnsportsgeek]

One issue is that a M2, rumoured to have ~20% faster single-core performance and an extra GPU core, would likely be generally faster than the binned 8-core "M1 Pro".

Put an M2 and a miniLED display in an Air and it's going to seriously cannibalise the low-end 14" MBP until a "M2 Pro" rolled around.

For the sort of applications that the MacBook Air is typically used for, and given that the Air is effectively Apple's "budget" Mac, the M1 and the existing display are firmly in "good enough" territory. Put them in a pretty new case and that might not impress the folks in this forum but it could work in the mass MacBook Air market.

There was, a few months back, a rumour of a M2 version of the 13" MBP which seemed weird - but maybe that would make sense if the Air stayed on M1 and the base 14" MBP got bumped to the non-binned M1 Pro.

Ya for me if they put an M1 in the new air I'll just buy a 14" MBP on sale for like $1750 which it seems to get down to every couple weeks.

 

[JPack]

Once again, we're back to the same question asked 6 months ago.

Will Apple will loop the M1 before finishing their Mac transition to Apple Silicon? How likely is it we'll see M2 before the new Mac Pro is done? Seems extremely unlikely.

The Studio Display firmware suggests a new Mac mini is coming, not MacBook Air.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1513886880907075586