MacBook Air Confirmed to be Discontinued this 2017 as Apple Set to Sell Cheaper 13-inch MacBook Pro? (Photo : YouTube/HandyAndy Tech Tips)
The MacBook Air will be no more as Apple will reportedly bump off the line in favor of the 12-inch MacBook and the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The latter, according to the latest supply chain reports, will be significantly discounted presumably to entice MacBook Air fans to switch.
"Apple is likely to reduce the price for the 13-inch MacBook Pro without OLED Touch Bar to increase its overall shipments and will use the device to replace the 13-inch MacBook Air," Taiwanese publication DigiTimes reported this week. The tech giant is looking ship out 15 million MacBooks this 2017, the report added.
The projection includes the MacBook Pro 2017 refresh, which according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-chi Kuo will upgrade from Intel Skylake to Kaby Lake this year. Apple is poised to release a desktop-class MBP 2017 model with 32GB of RAM that will also run Kaby Lake, Kuo said.
Along the same line, DigiTimes said Kaby Lake becoming the main engine for the Mac and MacBook will set off significant upgrade moves this year. "The platform's low power consumption is expected to trigger a replacement trend among existing MacBook users," the report said.
The latest batch of MacBook Pro notebooks will commence production as early as July 2017 but Kuo said that mass assembly of the 32GB 15-inch MacBook Pro will not start until the fourth quarter of the year. The latter will not come out until November or December 2017, the same KGI report has indicated.
The 13-inch MacBook Air not getting an upgrade will complete the discontinuation of the Air brand as iDownloadBlog.com noted in a related report that Apple first retired the 11-inch form factor of the line.
The move to kill the MacBook Air was not without hints. First clue was the introduction of the ultraportable 12-inch MacBook that is now in two versions and poised to get its third iteration this 2017. Then the MacBook Pro was further trimmed down in profile, which observers said pointed to Apple's intents to focus on the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines.
The final straw came in the form of the reported discount that the 13-inch MacBook Pro will get, essentially confirming the rumors that the MacBook Air is on the way out.
