MacBook Air refresh with M2 a strong possibility for WWDC 2022

AppleInsider

Apple may introduce an updated MacBook Air at WWDC 2022, one that could be revealed as part of the launch of the M2 Apple Silicon generation.

Apple is rumored to be close to launching its next generation of Apple Silicon chips, with the M2 potentially being unveiled at WWDC 2022. As part of the launch, there is a chance Apple could bring out a new version of the MacBook Air at the same time.

According to Mark Gurman's "Power On" newsletter for Bloomberg, any hardware launches at WWDC will "likely be on the Mac side." Apple is also said to have been aiming to "launch the next MacBook Air with M2 chips at the conference."

While Apple planned for a launch, a supply chain crunch caused by COVID-19 lockdowns in China seemed to put that goal in jeopardy. However, Gurman says that developers have noticed Apple employees using "next-generation MacBook Airs with their apps," presumably for testing the hardware pre-announcement.

The idea of Apple introducing an updated MacBook Air has been floated a few times, and as one of the earliest M1 products, it seems like one of the biggest candidates for a refresh.

Rumors have put forward the idea that the MacBook Air can have a renewed appearance bringing it in line with the 14-inch MacBook Pro. This could include a display with a notch, complete with a 1080p camera, multiple color options, and a chassis change that removes the signature taper.

While the focus of Gurman's comment is the MacBook Air, there are reportedly at least nine Macs in development using M2-generation chips.

Read on AppleInsider

mpantone

I give a 0.02% chance of this happening.

As is typical for Apple, they will unveil new version of their various operating systems (iOS, macOS, iPadOS, etc.) at WWDC which will be available to developers leading up to their official release in the fall: new iPhones running on new A-series SoCs on the new iOS. It makes sense that new Macs running on new M-series SoCs will debut on the new macOS.

If they attempt to ship new M2 Macs on Monterey, there would likely be little new functionality offered by the current macOS Monterey unless they heavily forked macOS which isn't Apple's modus operandii. It's worth pointing out that there are no developer betas of the next generation macOS right now. Zero, zippo, zilch.

Things were different when Apple was still relying on Intel CPUs, Intel integrated GPUs and Radeon GPUs for their Macs but that time is passed.

New Macs = new M-series SoCs = new macOS.

And unless the new macOS ships in June, there isn't going to be a new M2 Mac on store shelves.

A more interesting topic is whether Apple will follow a "tick-tock" release cadence: Mx and Mx Pro SoCs in even-numbered years (2020, 2022, 2024) and Mx Max and Mx Ultra SoCs in odd-numbered years (2021, 2023, 2025).

For sure, Apple's macOS QA has declined substantially over the past few years and I'm not convinced that they are capable of releasing a high-quality macOS to support four flavors of M-series SoCs at the same time. (I would love to be proven wrong.)

wood1208

Size matters! I mean Macbook Air screen size to at least 141." if not larger.

firelock

wood1208 said:

Size matters! I mean Macbook Air screen size to at least 141." if not larger.

I just got my 14" MBP (32GB RAM, 2TB SSD, 24-core GPU) and the screen size and resolution are much better than my old 13" MBP. Screen area on my old 13" was very cramped. I think 14" with high-resolution screen is the sweet spot.

crowley

I was going to say that WWDC doesn't seem like the event to be updating the MacBook Air, but Apple did exactly that in 2013, so maybe.

mattinoz

crowley said:

I was going to say that WWDC doesn't seem like the event to be updating the MacBook Air, but Apple did exactly that in 2013, so maybe.

But they have dropped update releases as press release and Web page splash a week before the even on a reasonably regular fashion.

prof

mpantone said:

If they attempt to ship new M2 Macs on Monterey, there would likely be little new functionality offered by the current macOS Monterey unless they heavily forked macOS which isn't Apple's modus operandii. It's worth pointing out that there are no developer betas of the next generation macOS right now. Zero, zippo, zilch.

You don't seem to know a lot about OS development. The CPU specific code for in an operating system for a specific CPU model is miniscule, typically a few thousand lines of code across kernel and libraries. If Apple wanted (and they have done this quite often in the past) they could release a minor update to macOS which supports the new CPU model and release a new feature blazing major version a lot later; zero forking needed.

Also a lot of the limitations of the OSes on older devices are totally artificial to boost sales of new hardware; that's todays crux of device manufacturers: Almost anything is done and possible in software and the hardware has been powerful enough to do so for a long time but you simply can't make money with free software optimisations...

If they defer M2 Macs, then most certainly not because of macOS.

crowley

prof said:

mpantone said:

If they attempt to ship new M2 Macs on Monterey, there would likely be little new functionality offered by the current macOS Monterey unless they heavily forked macOS which isn't Apple's modus operandii. It's worth pointing out that there are no developer betas of the next generation macOS right now. Zero, zippo, zilch.

You don't seem to know a lot about OS development. The CPU specific code for in an operating system for a specific CPU model is miniscule, typically a few thousand lines of code across kernel and libraries. If Apple wanted (and they have done this quite often in the past) they could release a minor update to macOS which supports the new CPU model and release a new feature blazing major version a lot later; zero forking needed.

Also a lot of the limitations of the OSes on older devices are totally artificial to boost sales of new hardware; that's todays crux of device manufacturers: Almost anything is done and possible in software and the hardware has been powerful enough to do so for a long time but you simply can't make money with free software optimisations...

If they defer M2 Macs, then most certainly not because of macOS.

Yeah, new iPhone and iPad models ship on a different schedule to iOS and still manage to have new features.  Not sure why mpantone is talking about "forking macOS", it's just an update, Probably compatibility, maybe new features.

Though what new features are you expecting on a processor bump anyway? 

am8449

I'm really hoping for an Air with a 16" screen to replace my dying 15" MacBook Pro.

My current one is a 15" Pro from 2012, which I primarily use to watch videos, and read articles. I don't need the power of a current Pro, but would really appreciate the big screen.

DAalseth

mpantone said:

I give a 0.02% chance of this happening.

Agreed WWDC is a software event. 

crowley said:

I was going to say that WWDC doesn't seem like the event to be updating the MacBook Air, but Apple did exactly that in 2013, so maybe.

That means that its been almost a decade since they used WWDC for a major hardware release. This suggests against the possibility. 

crowley

DAalseth said:

mpantone said:

I give a 0.02% chance of this happening.

Agreed WWDC is a software event. 

crowley said:

I was going to say that WWDC doesn't seem like the event to be updating the MacBook Air, but Apple did exactly that in 2013, so maybe.

That means that its been almost a decade since they used WWDC for a major hardware release. This suggests against the possibility. 

They've done hardware announcements since then, in 2017 and 2019.  Hardware announcements are the exception rather than the norm, but pop up every few years.

entropys

If there is hardware, I would expect an M1 Mac Pro. It is all that is left on Intel.

and while I like the argument an M2 MBA would be available to sell to back to school,people, Apple hasn’t really worried about that in the past has it? 

Japhey

am8449 said:

I'm really hoping for an Air with a 16" screen to replace my dying 15" MacBook Pro.

My current one is a 15" Pro from 2012, which I primarily use to watch videos, and read articles. I don't need the power of a current Pro, but would really appreciate the big screen.

I agree completely. I would love a larger screen MacBook as well, but have no need for the extra muscle under the hood. Also, a 16 inch MacBook or MacBook Air would definitely cost less than the Pro models, which my wallet would thank me for. 

Japhey

designr said:

I'm inclined to believe this. I suspect Apple wants to get the next generation MBA out for the school buying season. Much later than June and it's too late.

I would counter that Apple would rather use back to school season and the accompanying discounts it brings to clear existing inventory before launching the new models. Just in time for holiday season. 

Who knows? Both approaches seem logical. 

elijahg

mpantone said:

I give a 0.02% chance of this happening.

As is typical for Apple, they will unveil new version of their various operating systems (iOS, macOS, iPadOS, etc.) at WWDC which will be available to developers leading up to their official release in the fall: new iPhones running on new A-series SoCs on the new iOS. It makes sense that new Macs running on new M-series SoCs will debut on the new macOS.


If they attempt to ship new M2 Macs on Monterey, there would likely be little new functionality offered by the current macOS Monterey unless they heavily forked macOS which isn't Apple's modus operandii.

So we're going to have every new Mac introduced all at the same time once a year when the new macOS is released? I give that a 0.00% chance. Otherwise this forking you claim Apple does (it doesn't) is already happening when they introduce a new variant of a CPU, like the M1 Pro. There is no need to fork an entire OS to add CPU support, branch+test+merge will be the procedure.

mpantone said:

It's worth pointing out that there are no developer betas of the next generation macOS right now. Zero, zippo, zilch.

Just like pre-annoucement of the original Intel and M1 switches then. The architecture between M generations will not be entirely different, otherwise there would be horrible fragmentation where some Mac apps wouldn't work on some versions of the CPUs.

mpantone said:

Things were different when Apple was still relying on Intel CPUs, Intel integrated GPUs and Radeon GPUs for their Macs but that time is passed.

No they weren't. Intel adds features to their CPUs with each generation, and the software running on them doesn't need a recompile for it to work (but to use new features yes - and possibly developer input). How many versions of Windows do you really think there are? Hell the same version runs on CPUs by two different vendors entirely.

mpantone said:

For sure, Apple's macOS QA has declined substantially over the past few years and I'm not convinced that they are capable of releasing a high-quality macOS to support four flavors of M-series SoCs at the same time. (I would love to be proven wrong.)

And you shall be, because Apple right now supports a wide family of Intel CPUs, each with compatible but yet moderately different CPU architectures. The QA hasn't fallen at the kernel level, which is where architectural differences do make a difference and would be a potential source of crashes - personally I haven't had a kernel panic for a year or so. It's higher levels that need more QA, and at those levels (i.e. Swift and C++/ObjC) the architecture generally doesn't matter. The same bug would occur on PPC, Intel or ARM.

dewme

WWDC should ideally be a developer focused event. Anything with a big impact on the developer community including hardware, software, or architecture, e.g., things like the Apple Silicon announcement, should be top priority. Unless the M2, or M2+Air, is bringing something new and unique to the forefront that developers will have adapt to, announcing it at WWDC would just be a way to juice the event for non-developers and Apple-centric media.

Would Apple announce new hardware at WWDC just to build interest and generate buzz? Absolutely. It’s not like API updates or incremental Swift language enhancements or XCode on iPad are going to make a big splash outside of the developer community. Is the PC world buzzing with giddy excitement after MS Build  took place last week? If it is, I haven’t heard it.

So while it’s more likely that Apple will announce something in the AR/VR space with underlying content and even hardware that developers will have to get their hands on to get an early ticket on the reality train, Apple may use WWDC as a convenient venue to roll out product updates that have little immediate impact on developers. After all, WWDC is a big Apple event that is guaranteed to have a large audience. This audience is always eager to see what Apple itself is developing, regardless of what the larger Apple developer community is up to, so slipping in some cool new things to keep the excitement level high is always fair game, especially if it’s not a year with a massive Apple Silicon sized change to consume the bulk of the keynote focus.   

The wild card of course is that Apple may totally surprise us. They’ve been known to do that, which is part of the reason we tune in for the show. 

mike1

Japhey said:

designr said:

I'm inclined to believe this. I suspect Apple wants to get the next generation MBA out for the school buying season. Much later than June and it's too late.

I would counter that Apple would rather use back to school season and the accompanying discounts it brings to clear existing inventory before launching the new models. Just in time for holiday season. 

Who knows? Both approaches seem logical. 

Agreed. Many are gifts and the vast majority of back to school customers have no idea or care about new processors. Often the customer knows nothing more than to buy a Mac notebook at whatever price point the budget allows. And there will still be sticker shock sometimes. How many students get asked by their parents, "What's wrong with this Lenovo or HP? It's only $499."

danox

This WWDC should be the end of Intel on the Mac, the Pro desktop machine should be released, move on.

The Rack Mac servers should also be on the radar.

What are they waiting for.

Where are those curated Apple routers?

charlesn

Good to see Garner predicting today that the new Airs are looking like they could make it for WWDC. Feels like I've had my Apple Store app open forever waiting for these. 

programmer

mpantone said:

If they attempt to ship new M2 Macs on Monterey, there would likely be little new functionality offered by the current macOS Monterey unless they heavily forked macOS which isn't Apple's modus operandii. It's worth pointing out that there are no developer betas of the next generation macOS right now. Zero, zippo, zilch.

Things were different when Apple was still relying on Intel CPUs, Intel integrated GPUs and Radeon GPUs for their Macs but that time is passed.

New Macs = new M-series SoCs = new macOS.

And unless the new macOS ships in June, there isn't going to be a new M2 Mac on store shelves.

I don't think this is correct.  First of all, an M2 won't necessarily be substantially different from the software's perspective -- same or at least compatible cores, same GPU architecture/revision, same other SoC devices, etc.  Apple has full control over the hardware development, so they can (and do) coordinate closely between the hardware design and software development teams.  Additional or updated drivers, where necessary, could be delivered in a minor OS update, if necessary.

Second, Apple's QA burden has actually decreased in the transition to Apple Silicon because they are now leveraging the iOS team's hardware support as well.  Some iPads now have M1s, for example.  So the macOS and iOS teams can now share their hardware support efforts.  This should result in improved macOS support compared to when they had to struggle with supporting new Intel and AMD CPUs/GPUs (plus other devices on the motherboard).