The Apple rumor mill is up and spinning again, and this time it’s the unsubstantiated 12-inch MacBook Air at the helm of this trend. Alleged reports are touting Apple’s new ultra thin notebook for a release in the first quarter of 2015, and we definitely have our fingers crossed for that.
According to DigiTimes, "Apple’s new 12-inch MacBook Air is expected to enter mass production in the first quarter of 2015, according to sources from the upstream supply chain." Earlier there were unconfirmed reports about Apple gearing up to produce its first ever 12-inch MacBook Air, where the model is so far released with 11-inch and 13-inch display configurations.
It was further rumored, and it is hoped, that the new MacBook Air will be sporting a Retina display as well, akin to the MacBook Pro. MacBook Air continues to be devoid of any such display and the new high-res panel will definitely increase the notebook’s appeal to the consumers.
DigiTimes says that this new MacBook Air will be featuring the latest Intel Broadwell processor and will be considerably thinner and lighter as well, owing to a new chassis design. Interestingly, there’s also news flying around about the machine featuring a fan-less design. To elaborate; there will be no fan blowing out all the hot air, instead Apple will rely on a passive cooling design, but we don’t know how. We’ve seen passively cooled GPUs for desktops before and that didn’t go well for many manufacturers.
It is further believed that the new MacBook Air will be shipped in limited quantity since the machine will be targeted towards the more high-end segment of the market. Given this, it is likely that we may see a heavily inflated price tag on Apple’s supposed-new offering.
It is important to know that DigiTimes hasn’t always been exactly reliable with regards to information about future Apple products, so you might want to take this story with a pinch of salt or however you may prefer.
DigiTimes had previously reported that the 12-inch MacBook Air will be releasing the fourth quarter of 2014, but clearly that lead didn’t pan out. The website now says that, "the start of mass production has been hampered by low yield rates. As the yield issue is gradually being resolved, mass production is expected to come in the first quarter of 2015."
(Source: DigiTimes)
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