“Apple will defer the volume production of its new budget-type MacBook Air for 2018 to the second half of the year from the originally-scheduled second quarter, supply chain sources have disclosed, adding that they would suffer from high material inventories and low capacity utilization before Apple starts to take shipments probably in the third quarter,” Aaron Lee and Willis Ke report for DigiTimes.
“The sources said that Apple has informed supply chain partners that mass production of its new notebook model for 2018 will not kick off until the second half of the year, yet without explaining the rescheduling move,” Lee and Ke report. “Some partners speculated that the postponement might be caused by problems with some key components such as processors.”
“The planned new MacBook Air will have a slim design, and come with Retina high-resolution screen and Intel’s latest notebook processor. Unit price for the new model is expected to be lowered from US$999 to US$899 or down further to US$799, which in turn may push up sales of MacBook series by over 10% in 2018 to regain part of market shares held by Chromebooks, according to market observers,” Lee and Ke report. “Some MacBook Air supply chain players who have readied full inventories of materials to support second-quarter production will face low capacity utilization before starting to deliver shipments in the third quarter, the sources said.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’re hoping that the next-gen MacBook Air will be even more of a perfect “road Mac” than the current 12-inch MacBook.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s new 13.3-inch entry-level MacBook Air to feature Retina display, sources say – March 12, 2018
Apple’s MacBook Air: Why won’t it die? – March 7, 2018
An even less expensive MacBook Air makes perfect business sense for Apple – March 5, 2018
Apple’s rumored March 2018 event: Analyst expectations – plus who’d like a 13-inch MacBook Air with Retina display for $899? – March 5, 2018
Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple to launch more affordable 13-inch MacBook Air in Q2 – March 5, 2018
The notion a macbook at $800-900 addresses the $250-300 chromebook education market tsunami is beyond ludicrous. Without the classroom administrative cloud offering, these devices are pandering on the same scale as the trash can mac pro offering.
The high school where I volunteer bought Chromebooks for about $275 each, and are quite happy with them. With the Chromebook management system having been in place for two full school years, there’s no way that school is switching for a product that costs three times as much.
Yes all that Chromebook experience for the kids will come in handy when they enter the work force – oh wait…
With Virtualization companies like Citrix, Chromebooks are arguably the most secure way to give out-of-office employees travel ‘laptops’.
The Google factor would make me nervous. It’s like handing part or all of your soul over to Lucifer and being reassured nothing could possibly happen.
Businesses worried about data stored on devices and cost of equipment would probably prefer Chromebooks over any other laptop format device.
Because the Cloud is so secure? My wife is a high end bank executive working heavily with their tech dept. and they wouldn’t go near that consumer stuff.
Not so much the cloud, but the fact that very little if any data is stored on the Chromebook, updates are automatic and Virtualization software allows the host computer to remain at company sites while enabling a secure connection. If the employee loses or breaks the device somehow, no data is ever lost, replacement is quick and affordable, and device management is relatively easy compared to its competition.
Lets face it, The workforce is Windows or not Chromebook more that Apple’s 8 percent share of the market and no desire to enter enterprise anyway, If I were a teacher, i’d want kids to learn on the device they’ll probably use at work. Apple killed its pro apps too. Good move. duh. A delay to boot… reassuring to those teachers, I’m sure.
The workforce IS largely Windows even if Mac is making some inroads, especially when workers are given a choice – a more recent key factor in corporate thinking that might move the needle a little more.
The thing is Microsoft and most tech companies are losing trust. And now Appe gets to join the list, completely unnecessarily. All not ever required of them was to execute and put out Macs customers actually want.
As far as teachers well, it all depends on what the kid wants to do. Future worker drones on Windows, creatives on Macs. Well it USED to be that way. Thanks Apple!
A product delayed? From Apple? I am SHOCKED!!
Nice going Pipeline.
I know right the bigger question is what if anything will ship LOL!
You don’t expect 13,000 employees to update Macs, watch bands AND emojis, do you?
Assuming it’s hobbled by USB-C ports and the dust-is-kryptonite, $700 to replace, keyboard, a 2015 Macbook Pro 15″ is looking more and more like the successor to my 2013 Air.
That is indeed the choice to make. And don’t wait for the new Macbook Pro, its probably delayed too
They should just delay all OSX stuff until after Cook retires… save us all a bunch of frustration.
Or just cancel it. It’s obvious that they don’t give a damn about it, why keep going through the charade that they do?
This is my shocked face
:-I
How does one delay an unannounced product?
Don’t worry they’ll get to it, right after they finish that next set of cool emojis.
They just have to be growing a ton of weed in that new whatever the eff it is building.
3rd party drone pass over the ‘garden’ at the center of the donut?
Hmmmm…
“Some partners speculated that the postponement might be caused by problems with some key components such as processors.”
Well, you DO need processors to make computers. That’s for ding dang sure. Intel, holding up progress on mobile systems since 2016!