will 2012 MBA be released in march?

[jjfcpa]

I was reading an article the other day that stated that MBP/MBA sales are down for January and February - presumably because everyone knows a refresh is in the works so they are delaying their purchase. The question is, would Apple release a redesigned MBA (15") using current processors just to get some increased sales number in March, then do a processor upgrade later (maybe July) when production level quantities are available? Or would they take the hit on sales numbers until the new processors are available?

Looks like March is already dedicated to the new ipad3 and AppleTV, so maybe confusing the buying decision with new MBA's in March would be unwise. I'm guessing we won't see the new MBA's till June. Give the consumer a chance to restock their wallets before draining it again.

 

[ovrlrd]

buy now! the current model is a huge upgrade compared to the 2010 model. the difference between 2012 if released will not be as significant since mba have odd update cycles.

Unless of course they offer 8gb of RAM, then it will be pretty significant.

Still, I am buying a new MBA right now because I need it for work. If there was any other reason I would simply hold off until they update them.

At this rate I will probably sell mine to get the new one though if it does have 8gb of RAM.

 

[Woodcrest64]

buy now! the current model is a huge upgrade compared to the 2010 model. the difference between 2012 if released will not be as significant since mba have odd update cycles.

Ivy Bridge is said to have USB 3.0 and intel's HD4000 graphics. Those two alone I think are pretty big. It will be interesting to see if the maximum memory is still 4GB.

 

[DVD9]

I was reading an article the other day that stated that MBP/MBA sales are down for January and February - presumably because everyone knows a refresh is in the works so they are delaying their purchase. The question is, would Apple release a redesigned MBA (15") using current processors just to get some increased sales number in March, then do a processor upgrade later (maybe July) when production level quantities are available? Or would they take the hit on sales numbers until the new processors are available?

Looks like March is already dedicated to the new ipad3 and AppleTV, so maybe confusing the buying decision with new MBA's in March would be unwise. I'm guessing we won't see the new MBA's till June. Give the consumer a chance to restock their wallets before draining it again.

APRIL

Apple has the chips. The Airs and Pros are rolling off the assembly lines now. Available for sale the first week of April.

Those delays are for HP, Dell, Asus, Samsung etc. They have to wait.

It's been this way for a long time. Surprised you haven't noticed. Apple announces and you can buy that day or within a couple of days. Have it in your hands. The others announce and you get a "ship date" and then you get an email telling you it's going to be a couple weeks longer followed by another email.

In this case the emails stop around early June. Apple buyers have theirs early April.

That's how it works.

 

[jjfcpa]

APRIL

Apple has the chips. The Airs and Pros are rolling off the assembly lines now. Available for sale the first week of April.

Those delays are for HP, Dell, Asus, Samsung etc. They have to wait.

It's been this way for a long time. Surprised you haven't noticed. Apple announces and you can buy that day or within a couple of days. Have it in your hands. The others announce and you get a "ship date" and then you get an email telling you it's going to be a couple weeks longer followed by another email.

In this case the emails stop around early June. Apple buyers have theirs early April.

That's how it works.

How right you are. I think that's what hurts the ultra books. The 1st generation is still hard to find and they've already announced the 2nd gen.

I love the way Apple announces and it is almost immediately available. I also like that i can order one on Thursday and get it the following Tue/Wed.

 

[Liquinn]

APRIL

Apple has the chips. The Airs and Pros are rolling off the assembly lines now. Available for sale the first week of April.

Those delays are for HP, Dell, Asus, Samsung etc. They have to wait.

It's been this way for a long time. Surprised you haven't noticed. Apple announces and you can buy that day or within a couple of days. Have it in your hands. The others announce and you get a "ship date" and then you get an email telling you it's going to be a couple weeks longer followed by another email.

In this case the emails stop around early June. Apple buyers have theirs early April.

That's how it works.

I'm going to hold off my MBP purchase then, if that's the case. Since it's only 4 weeks until April 1st.

 

[Thares]

APRIL

Apple has the chips. The Airs and Pros are rolling off the assembly lines now. Available for sale the first week of April.

Uhm, do you have any proof for your theory? I mean, I like your theory as it reduces dissonances of my decision that it would be wiser to wait for the new refresh.

Thank you.

 

[Tritons]

APRIL

Apple has the chips. The Airs and Pros are rolling off the assembly lines now. Available for sale the first week of April.

Those delays are for HP, Dell, Asus, Samsung etc. They have to wait.

It's been this way for a long time. Surprised you haven't noticed. Apple announces and you can buy that day or within a couple of days. Have it in your hands. The others announce and you get a "ship date" and then you get an email telling you it's going to be a couple weeks longer followed by another email.

In this case the emails stop around early June. Apple buyers have theirs early April.

That's how it works.

Is there any proof?

 

[iAppl3Fan]

Unless of course they offer 8gb of RAM, then it will be pretty significant.

Still, I am buying a new MBA right now because I need it for work. If there was any other reason I would simply hold off until they update them.

At this rate I will probably sell mine to get the new one though if it does have 8gb of RAM.

I would probably be incline to sell as well if there was 8gb as an option. Right now I'm more curious to see if retina iPad 3 comes out then what will Apple do with Macs for resolution...

Ivy Bridge is said to have USB 3.0 and intel's HD4000 graphics. Those two alone I think are pretty big. It will be interesting to see if the maximum memory is still 4GB.

USB 3.0 would be big but only because Thunderbolt haven't made much progress on the 3rd party side and prices are still high. HD4000 is just an upgrade to me, I wouldn't wait on just an Intel graphics card upgrade. Yes, an increase in memory beyond 4gb would be awesome.

 

[Mac32]

This April-thing is just pure wishful thinking. I would love to have a new MBA in April, but it's just not gonna happen. June/Juli at earliest.
However, a new MBP line in April is much more likely.

 

[Beanoir]

Wouldn't be the 1st of April by any chance would it....?

 

[prvt.donut]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I will let you in on a little secret that lets me buy used Apple products, but get brand new AppleCare coverage.

If the original buyer never registered it, you can register it when you buy. You need a reciept to send to apple, so buy from a store that sells used apple products.

In the shop, check the serial numbers and find one that hadn't been registered, then snap it up!

I got a 13" mint condition MBA i5 with 4GB and 256GB Samsung SSD for just over $1000! And AppleCare coverage from the date I purchased it!

This approach is best when new models are released or just about to be released, people are offloading their new purchases chasing the latest and greatest! And they neglect to register with AppleCare!

I don't care about the very latest hardware performance. I have chased that dream enough building gaming PC's.

The performance of the current MBA is more than enough. I just bought Dirt 2 and am blown away with it's performance. I'm running at 720p (fine by me) it is smooth and has a plenty playable framerate!

Of course a dedicated GPU will kick its arse, but people shouldn't be so quick to write it off. I think people read too much about it and especially write too much BS like, integrated GPU's are worthless for games!

Look at the iPhone, it does amazing things with a very small low power chipset.

And so does the MBA!

 

[smharm]

I'm willing to be they don't release any new laptops mba or mbp until the finalize Mountain Lion and have it ready to ship out to the public

 

[DavidC1]

Macbook Air refresh with Ivy Bridge in March/April is not possible. The biggest reason is that Intel won't have Ivy Bridge at all until late April, and 17W parts not until early June.

Apple typically release later than other manufacturers. The first Sandy Bridge systems from Apple were in March. By coincidence that also gave them an advantage as they avoided the 6 series chipset bug, however had that not occured they were 2 months later than other vendors announcing it in January alongside Intel.

First Sandy Bridge from Apple: 2 months later
Westmere Xeon Mac Pro: 6 month later
Macbook Air 2011: Skipped initial 17W chips for refresh chips in Q3

It's quite possible then they might even wait till November/December when Ivy Bridge refresh is available.

 

[DVD9]

Macbook Air refresh with Ivy Bridge in March/April is not possible. The biggest reason is that Intel won't have Ivy Bridge at all until late April, and 17W parts not until early June.

Apple typically release later than other manufacturers. The first Sandy Bridge systems from Apple were in March. By coincidence that also gave them an advantage as they avoided the 6 series chipset bug, however had that not occured they were 2 months later than other vendors announcing it in January alongside Intel.

First Sandy Bridge from Apple: 2 months later
Westmere Xeon Mac Pro: 6 month later
Macbook Air 2011: Skipped initial 17W chips for refresh chips in Q3

It's quite possible then they might even wait till November/December when Ivy Bridge refresh is available.

You're confusing an announcement by HP, Dell etc. that they are selling a laptop with such - and- such chip. When Apple announces you can have it in your hands that day or a couple of days later. You can easily wait two months to get an HP or Dell in your hands with the newly announced chip.

The Envy Spectres were announced two months ago and people are just starting to get them in the mail now. You can't see one anywhere in a store.

Samsung's new Series 9 laptops are nowhere to be seen and only vague rumors are available about "mid to late April", and they will have Sandy Bridge processors. It could be November before Samsung has 9 laptops with Ivy Bridge on board available for purchase.

Taking orders and shipping the product are two very different things. Apple doesn't take orders, they only announce shipping dates.

And your speculation about a June availability date was squashed as a foul rumor last week. The delays are to be no more than two weeks, not two months.

 

[Roman2K~]

And your speculation about a June availability date was squashed as a foul rumor last week. The delays are to be no more than two weeks, not two months.

According to this news, the delay is 1 month (March => April) for both desktop and mobile processors.

 

[DavidC1]

You have a point about shipping, but Apple is still later than most. They don't release it when Intel does, often significantly later. Also, I had a friend that wanted to order Sandy Bridge laptop. Sandy Bridge came at Jan 2011, they only noted 2 weeks shipping time. That still makes first Sandy Bridge Macs 2.5 months later.

June timeframe is for the 17W and dual core parts, which goes into the Air. Other CPUs are coming earlier in late April, and isn't used in the Air.

And original release date for 17W and dual core parts were supposed to be May. That makes it 3-4 weeks delay which is in line with what Intel claims.

April 8 moved to April 29: Desktop Core i5 and i7/Quad core laptop
~May moved to ~June: Dual core chips, more variants for desktops

 

[iAppl3Fan]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

I will let you in on a little secret that lets me buy used Apple products, but get brand new AppleCare coverage.

If the original buyer never registered it, you can register it when you buy. You need a reciept to send to apple, so buy from a store that sells used apple products.

In the shop, check the serial numbers and find one that hadn't been registered, then snap it up!

I got a 13" mint condition MBA i5 with 4GB and 256GB Samsung SSD for just over $1000! And AppleCare coverage from the date I purchased it!

This approach is best when new models are released or just about to be released, people are offloading their new purchases chasing the latest and greatest! And they neglect to register with AppleCare!

I don't care about the very latest hardware performance. I have chased that dream enough building gaming PC's.

The performance of the current MBA is more than enough. I just bought Dirt 2 and am blown away with it's performance. I'm running at 720p (fine by me) it is smooth and has a plenty playable framerate!

Of course a dedicated GPU will kick its arse, but people shouldn't be so quick to write it off. I think people read too much about it and especially write too much BS like, integrated GPU's are worthless for games!

Look at the iPhone, it does amazing things with a very small low power chipset.

And so does the MBA!

How do you check the serial number to know it is not registered?

 

[scarred]

Macbook Air refresh will occur with the release of Mountain Lion. Late summer.

 

[prvt.donut]

How do you check the serial number to know it is not registered?

Use the Applecare checker.

If it says a date for expiry then you know it has been registered already.

If it asks you to register the date of purchase.

Then you know it hasn't yet.

You will need to send Apple a photo of the receipt as proof of purchase date though.

 

[iAppl3Fan]

Use the Applecare checker.

If it says a date for expiry then you know it has been registered already.

If it asks you to register the date of purchase.

Then you know it hasn't yet.

You will need to send Apple a photo of the receipt as proof of purchase date though.

Thanks!

 

[warriorz]

2012 MBA: Will battery life be improved?

Hi,

I am in a similar situation to the OP.

However my main concern is with battery life. I do need a new laptop but can wait a 'reasonable' amount of time. I have settled on the 11inch after having tried both the 11inch and 13inch in store. However battery life is very important to me.

If battery life is not likely to be significantly improved with the new processors then I guess there's limited point waiting. However if the battery life will be improved, then I can hold off and borrow the family laptop in the meantime.

My usage is occasionally power hungry, but mostly average use, hence I was looking at the i5, 4gb in current models. I do sometimes need to have plenty of apps open and sometimes work with very large photo files, with other editing apps open in the background which I notice definitely puts a strain on resources, speed and certainly eats through battery with my current Mac (Pro, 13inch, 2gb memory, 2.4ghz). The i7 is beyond my needs, and I don't like the thought of the heat and certainly reduced battery life in comparison to the i5.

Will waiting for the new processors on the 11inch be guaranteed to improve on battery life?

Thanks very much.

 

[blue22]

decide what ur immediate needs are first, then make a decision to wait or buy now...

To the OP: similar to some earlier posts, these are good overall points of reference to keep in mind:

Only Apple knows for sure. Rumors are just that: rumors.

Buy what you need, when you need it. It's a pointless effort to chase the "next update", since you don't know for certain what it will include, and there will always be a "next update" coming, no matter when you buy.

My suggestion is: there will always be another new model around the corner at some point, but if the current model does everything you need or want, then get it and enjoy it, if it doesn't do everything you want, then either wait for a new model and hope it has the features, or find another laptop that has what you want.

With that said, we are close to seeing the 2012 editions of the MBA and MBP being released within the next several months. Judging from the current crop of rumors these facts are the ones most relevant to keep in mind for your pending purchase decision:

- Intel's initial launch wave of Ivy Bridge CPU's is being delayed only by a few weeks.

- Mountain Lion OSX 10.8 is set for a summer release, most likely July, same as last year.

- The MacBook Pro was last updated in October 2011 and the most recent update for the MacBook Air was in July 2011.



Current speculation is based off of the above info:

- mid-April to late-May launch window for new MBA and/or MBP: Apple typically gets their Intel chips about a month sooner than the rest of the industry so this timeframe for any MBP or MBA refresh is reasonable to expect at this juncture based on recent Apple release history.

- MBA in 15" form-factor rumored to debut in 2012: Apple has hinted since the introduction of the 1st-gen MacBook Air three years ago that this is the future of their laptop line, so the rumor of a unified Apple notebook line seems to be gaining some traction as of late, but we won't know for sure until it's actually released. Regardless, I think it's fair to expect based on Apple's usual yearly update of the MBA's in general that the new MBA will launch sometime around June/July either just ahead of OSX 10.8 launch or timed to debut with Mountain Lion pre-installed as it was done last year. Whether or not this potential 15" MBA will actually be a streamlined MacBook Pro is another matter for speculation in it's own right.



So, in short, if you can hang tight with what you currently got for a couple more months (until early May) you/we all will have a much stronger insight of what's just around the corner from Apple regarding the MBA/MBP. Plus, if for whatever reasons it turns out that the newer system is not what you prefer spec-wise you can still get the previous generation now at a discounted price at that point.

Otherwise, no shame in picking up a shiny new Apple laptop now as the current crop are solid machines. In fact, even if you do this, you can still re-sell it if you decide the 2012 edition of the MBA/MBP is more to your liking.

Either way, I think the most critical thing for yourself is to simply decide what your actual computing needs are at the moment and make a decision to wait or buy now based off of that.

Best.

 

[Beau10]

Hi,

Will waiting for the new processors on the 11inch be guaranteed to improve on battery life?

Thanks very much.

I have a 2k10 Air and this is my biggest issue as well, I'm holding out for better battery life. In general it's a reasonable expectation due to moving to a 22nm fab and something that Intel is touting as being significantly more efficient power-wise.

Personally, I don't think it will be a huge improvement, I would expect the rated 5 hours to be bumped to 6 for the 11". That's enough for me though. In practical terms (I use my MBA mostly for web dev) I get more like 6-7 hours, at a rated 6 hours I could probably clear a full day of work on one charge.

 

[Nebrie]

One thing is for sure, they better not wait until "late summer" so they can bundle Mountain Lion with it like they did with the 2011s.