Apple is working on an all-new 15-inch M2 MacBook Air and also an all-new 12-inch M2 MacBook that’s sure to be a hit with road warriors looking for a very light, small, highly efficient Mac.
Mark Gurman for Bloomberg News:
The new models underscore Apple’s strategy to use homegrown processors to make gains in a market led by Lenovo Group Ltd. and HP Inc. The company began splitting from longtime partner Intel Corp. in 2020 and announced its latest chip, the M2, at a developers conference earlier this week. Better performance and new designs have helped spur a resurgence for the Mac lineup, which accounts for about 10% of Apple’s sales.
The 15-inch model under development is a wider version of the 13.6-inch MacBook Air that Apple announced this week. That design, unveiled at the developers event Monday, is thinner than recent models, relies on the M2 chip and abandons the previous wedge-shaped frame. It’s considered to be the biggest overhaul to the MacBook Air since it was introduced by Steve Jobs in 2008.
Apple has also begun work on a new 12-inch laptop and is considering launching it at the end of 2023 or in early 2024. If Apple moves forward with the release, it would represent the company’s smallest laptop since it discontinued the 12-inch MacBook in 2019…
Apple is also planning new high-end MacBook Pros with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips for as early as the end of 2022, though the release date may slip into early 2023. These new 14-inch and 16-inch models, codenamed J414 and J416, won’t be radically new products beyond offering the speedier chips.
MacDailyNews Take: That 12-inch M2 MacBook is particularly interesting to us, as we move back to the concept of desktop Macs for our desktops and light and efficient Macs in our backpacks. Our foray back into the one-Mac-for-all conditions was a bad idea (thanks to the hot, power-hungry Intel CPUs in our 16-inch MacBook Pro units – among the worst Macs we’re ever had the displeasure to use).
We’ve been waiting and hoping for something like our beloved 11-inch MacBook Air road units to reappear! Hopefully, this new 12-inch MacBook is it and supply chain issues can be corrected to deliver these untis to us sooner rather than later!
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And just like that I’m cancelling my plans to buy the new M2 MacBook Air. I dream of a 12 inch model and if one is on the way, then I’m going to have to wait. 1-2 years it seems. Oh well, Apple you should have made this years ago. It’s not that hard. You’ve done it before
Apple is making the same mistake they made in late ’90s, when the company had such a dizzying array of overlapping models that they obfuscated their potential market categories, and confused potential customers.
They need to define their target markets, and then produce a FEW products for each target audience, and then market each category, precisely.
And on a contrary note, Apple, for some mysterious reason, stopped making the most iconic computer product they ever produced, the 27 inch iMac. And, no, I don’t believe that the Mac Studio fills the gap, as Apple argues.
I’ve been hoping for a replacement for my nine-year-old 16-inch laptop, but don’t need the power of the current MBP. Hope this news is true! Can’t wait!!
Maybe in two years, when it’s M3. Apple just introduced a brand new design for MacBook Air. Apple won’t dilute it with slightly bigger and slightly smaller models.
I’m waiting until 2026 when Apple will offer a 17.125” MacBook AirPro Studio SE with M5.2 chips and notches on each edge of the screen. And I won’t get any MacBook Pro until then because they are way too heavy and powerful for me.
I also hope Apple will release a rolling laptop bag with special machined alyumium wheels & a Hermes leather handle with matching Airpod tag. Only then will my life be complete.
Not really a bold prediction. Yes, Each generation will get faster.
I still LOVE my 12 inch Macbook and I will instantly order an M series version if they do release one. It’s the perfect road warrior machine and I use mine all the time to connect to my more powerful Macbooks backstage when doing show adjustments.
Why they would bring back the 12“ Macbook AGAIN? They would end up ditching it AGAIN