Best Buy suspends MacBook Air orders ahead of refresh
Retailer Best Buy has put a hold on online MacBook Air orders, providing further evidence that Apple plans to release an updated version of its diminutive laptop.
Best Buy's listings (via MacNN) for the current-generation MacBook Air are now listed as "Not Available for Shipping." Meanwhile, all MacBook Air models on Apple's Online Store remain ready for shipping.
Best Buy continues to offer the portables in its brick-and-mortar retail stores, though some locations have reportedly run out of stock. In the U.K., the big-box retailer allows orders for a MacBook Air with 128GB of storage, but only with in-store pickup at certain locations.
Apple is expected to refresh the MacBook Air line with Intel's Sandy Bridge processors and the addition of the Thunderbolt port. However, people familiar with the matter have told AppleInsider that Apple is waiting until it can load a Gold Master build of Mac OS X Lion onto the notebooks before releasing them.
Mac OS X Lion is due for release on the Mac App Store in July. As a major upgrade to Apple's flagship desktop OS, Lion will include more than 250 new features such as full screen apps, additional multi-touch gestures and Mission Control.
AppleInsider also reported earlier this month that Apple's initial orders for the refreshed MacBook Airs, which were scheduled to begin production this month, were roughly 400,000 units. A recent report corroborated the targeted July release for MacBook Airs, though it also dubiously suggested shipments of the new laptop would reach "eight million MacBook Airs in the third quarter."
Earlier this month, Apple executive Phil Schiller remarked that the MacBook Air has been a key driver of the company's outpacing of the PC market. "It's beautiful, it's thin, it's light, it's fast," Schiller said during the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. "The whole PC industry wants to copy it."
Apple CEO Steve Jobs pronounced the MacBook Air the "future of notebooks" last October during the current iteration's unveiling at the "Back to the Mac" event. According to Jobs, the Mac maker took features from the iPad, such as "solid state storage, instant-on, amazing battery standby time, miniaturization and lightweight construction," and translated them to the MacBook Air.
Best Buy's listings (via MacNN) for the current-generation MacBook Air are now listed as "Not Available for Shipping." Meanwhile, all MacBook Air models on Apple's Online Store remain ready for shipping.
Best Buy continues to offer the portables in its brick-and-mortar retail stores, though some locations have reportedly run out of stock. In the U.K., the big-box retailer allows orders for a MacBook Air with 128GB of storage, but only with in-store pickup at certain locations.
Apple is expected to refresh the MacBook Air line with Intel's Sandy Bridge processors and the addition of the Thunderbolt port. However, people familiar with the matter have told AppleInsider that Apple is waiting until it can load a Gold Master build of Mac OS X Lion onto the notebooks before releasing them.
Mac OS X Lion is due for release on the Mac App Store in July. As a major upgrade to Apple's flagship desktop OS, Lion will include more than 250 new features such as full screen apps, additional multi-touch gestures and Mission Control.
AppleInsider also reported earlier this month that Apple's initial orders for the refreshed MacBook Airs, which were scheduled to begin production this month, were roughly 400,000 units. A recent report corroborated the targeted July release for MacBook Airs, though it also dubiously suggested shipments of the new laptop would reach "eight million MacBook Airs in the third quarter."
Earlier this month, Apple executive Phil Schiller remarked that the MacBook Air has been a key driver of the company's outpacing of the PC market. "It's beautiful, it's thin, it's light, it's fast," Schiller said during the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote. "The whole PC industry wants to copy it."
Apple CEO Steve Jobs pronounced the MacBook Air the "future of notebooks" last October during the current iteration's unveiling at the "Back to the Mac" event. According to Jobs, the Mac maker took features from the iPad, such as "solid state storage, instant-on, amazing battery standby time, miniaturization and lightweight construction," and translated them to the MacBook Air.
Comments
Good. It's the wife's birthday in July. One of these will keep her quiet for a while.
Ha Ha, that comment made me laugh.
With iCloud to give a substantial amount of independence as to where and how you are able to work. Wouldn't the 4th of July, Independence Day, just be a kick as launch day for the new MacBook Airs?
Absolutely no other rumor or support for that idea. It just seems to be a great choice of days.
I am an iMac man myself, but the sooner these come out the sooner Lion is coming out (most probably)!
Golden Master! Not Gold Master (old fashioned CD term).
Not available for shipping? Hello!!
I am an iMac man myself, but the sooner these come out the sooner Lion is coming out (most probably)!
Yes, it seems MBA's will be out early July based on this finding and I'd anticipate alongside Lion... But is Apple that close to a golden master? How many developer previews should we expect prior to that?
Apple should bring to market a lighter and smaller MacBook Air to outsell all the others, as the 11-inch model did with the 13-inch one. Because in this model the priority is not power of battery life but sheer portability. For other features are the MacBook and MacBook Pro.
yea, perhaps they could ax the keyboard and put a touch screen on it, maybe 9.7" or thereabouts.
of course, without a keyboard they would have to retool the OS a bit.
make it happen, Apple!
...oh, wait.
Apple should bring to market a lighter and smaller MacBook Air to outsell all the others, as the 11-inch model did with the 13-inch one. Because in this model the priority is not power of battery life but sheer portability. For other features are the MacBook and MacBook Pro.
Without power or battery life, what you're left with is a netbook. Apple has said they'd never build one of those.
I think rather that for the Air to succeed it needs to combine computing power and decent battery life with portability.
By the way if power isn't a priority and portability is, Apple does make a product like that. It's called the iPad. Maybe you've heard of it. Seriously, the iPad is going to get more capable with each new version which would make it pointless to take the Air in that direction, namely lighter and smaller at the expense of power.
The Air is just about right as is but needs to get more capable. More powerful low voltage CPUs are inevitable and the cost of solid-state storage will come down so it's not hard to figure out what the next few years will bring. Expect the Air to retain its current form factor but each new version will be that much closer to serving as a full-function computer. Eventually, for many the machine will have the muscle to even serve as a desktop replacement. That's a few years away but it is coming.
"in July."
With iCloud to give a substantial amount of independence as to where and how you are able to work. Wouldn't the 4th of July, Independence Day, just be a kick as launch day for the new MacBook Airs?
Absolutely no other rumor or support for that idea. It just seems to be a great choice of days.
Probably the Tuesday or Wednesday on the day after.
New MacBook Airs with new OS X Lion is quite a lot of work, it wouldn't be too nice for the tons of Apple employees who have to work on the 4th of July if it's launched on that day.
So I'd say Wednesday July 6th is MacBook Air and OS X Lion launch. Nice synergy to that.
To be honest I'm pretty bored so might be one of the early adopter suckers to try out Lion, despite feeling that there's nothing that absolutely mind-blowingly fantastic about it.
Golden shower!
"in July."
With iCloud to give a substantial amount of independence ... Wouldn't the 4th of July, Independence Day, just be a kick as launch day for the new MacBook Airs?
...
If they renamed the 4th of July "Dropbox Day", perhaps.
Noting the comment that the "MBA is the future of laptops" I really am hoping for a 15" version.
It's much more likely that the Pros will be shifted to SSDs as a first step. The obstacle to having Pro power in a light Air form factor is that the CPUs to make that happen don't yet exist. Not sure, either, how ready Apple is to ditch the optical drive in its Pro series of laptops.
When the time comes to abandon the optical drive and the switch to SSDs is completed, the Pro line will have moved very close to being a more powerful companion to the Air models. Yet how many years will it be before a low-power chip can deliver enough muscle for demanding laptop customers. Quite a few, I suspect.
It's much more likely that the Pros will be shifted to SSDs as a first step. The obstacle to having Pro power in a light Air form factor is that the CPUs to make that happen don't yet exist. Not sure, either, how ready Apple is to ditch the optical drive in its Pro series of laptops.
When the time comes to abandon the optical drive and the switch to SSDs is completed, the Pro line will have moved very close to being a more powerful companion to the Air models. Yet how many years will it be before a low-power chip can deliver enough muscle for demanding laptop customers. Quite a few, I suspect.
Perhaps there will be an option to replace the optical drive with a SSD with the OS preloaded. It would gain the instant-on capabilities of the Air, while allowing larger storage for "Pro" users.
"in July."
With iCloud to give a substantial amount of independence as to where and how you are able to work. Wouldn't the 4th of July, Independence Day, just be a kick as launch day for the new MacBook Airs?
Absolutely no other rumor or support for that idea. It just seems to be a great choice of days.
Except when Apple says "July" it means "July 31st".
Good. It's the wife's birthday in July. One of these will keep her quiet for a while.
Wow. One more reason I am so glad to not be married.
Wow. One more reason I am so glad to not be married.
haha oh im just kidding. But she sure will be pleased with her new present. she spilt beer on her last one and we have been waiting for an update since. Not having a computer has been frustrating for her as it would for me or anyone else.