Apple To Release a Cheaper MacBook Air Later This Year (9to5mac.com)

According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities, Apple doesn't appear to be axing its MacBook Air line, despite it being on the market for ten years. Kuo says Apple is planning to release a 13-inch MacBook Air "with a lower price tag" during the second quarter of 2018, which should help push MacBook shipments up by 10-15 percent this year. 9to5Mac reports: Details on the new MacBook Air are sparse, but this report from KGI corroborates a similarly vague report from Digitimes earlier this year. The MacBook Air line has been largely stagnate in recent years as Apple has shifted focus towards the 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro. Currently, Apple sells the 13-inch MacBook Air starting at $999, and KGI seems to think it will get even cheaper this year. Despite its neglect by Apple, the MacBook Air remains a popular choice for college students.

Comments

I never saw the purpose of these

[ArtemaOne]

They release a much slower laptop that just happens to be thin. It's too expensive to fill the purpose intended. I'd much rather have a MacBook Pro if I were going that route at all, but I can get a modern high speed laptop almost as thin for $800 that plays games at high resolution. The only draw is the Apple name and OS at that point.

Re: I never saw the purpose of these

[Anonymous Coward]

When the purpose is to show all your college buddies how big of a trust fund hipster you are, the price really can't be too high. If Apple swapped out the SSD for punch cards they could add another $1k to the tag and it'd sell like hotcakes.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[DontBeAMoran]

Too expensive to fill what purpose, exactly? Not everyone needs an expensive and powerful MacBook Pro.

What makes no sense to me is the MacBook. Sure it's thinner than the Air, it has a retina IPS display, but the keyboard is crap, the CPU gets throttled because it overheats because of the passive heatsink and there's only one USB-C port which makes no sense unless we were in 2028.

I hope they make the new replacement for the MacBook Air something that will also be good enough to be sold for a decade.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Anonymous Coward]

slower? the macbook airs are plenty fast at just about everything. i'm excluding CAD (which most people don't do), 3d rendering (which most people don't do) and video games (which most people don't do).

the main problem is the shit screen which apple keeps on purpose so people don't buy it.

Re: I never saw the purpose of these

[Hognoxious]

And put a headphone jack, but make it one of those olde-style ones that's as thick as a pencil.

Re: I never saw the purpose of these

[Uberbah]

When the purpose is to show all your college buddies how big of a trust fund hipster you are

If it's just marketing, funny how no other tech company has figured out how to do it. It's almost like...the hipster is you.

Re: I never saw the purpose of these

[Anonymous Coward]

They are awesome for students. Super thin/light with great battery life and are indestructible.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[tepples]

The only draw is the Apple name and OS at that point.

In particular, the ability to run Xcode.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[BronsCon]

Most people actually do play video games and, most of the time, they're doing 3d rendering while doing it.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Anonymous Coward]

That makes you the only one. The second gen MacBook Air was hugely successful and often imitated by Asus, Dell, HP, etc because it was exactly what most customers wanted.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[b0s0z0ku]

Rather, the customers are sheep and they're like "it's like Apple! shiiiiiny! we want!"

Apple could sell a laptop with a case made of pressed dog turd and the sheep will still want it.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[DamonHD]

An Air wasn't slower for my purposes when I bought it, and still now speed is rarely an issue (and maxed out RAM and SSD minimises that).

I do a fair amount of dev work (eg make- or IDE- driven (cross-)compile toolchain). I'm quite happy to tune my build processes to speed them up if need be, rather than hoping for 20% faster silicon.

Some of the stuff I build is built or targeted to less powerful devices such as the RPi and MCUs.

I don't play video games.

I haven't done 3D rendering for years.

For me, saving weight and space in my backpack was key, and nominal peak performance much less of an issue.

Rgds

Damon

Re: I never saw the purpose of these

[PopeRatzo]

And put a headphone jack, but make it one of those olde-style ones that's as thick as a pencil.

I would pay extra for that, so I'd be able to use my studio cans without an adapter.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[PopeRatzo]

Apple could sell a laptop with a case made of pressed dog turd and the sheep will still want it.

Only if it was milled from a single piece of dog turd.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[King_TJ]

Ignoring some of the snarky comments .... The Macbook Air likely still sells well in corporate America, where there was already a big investment in the machine.

When you look at Windows PCs? All of the big manufacturers like Dell, HP and Lenovo offer a line of laptops that don't change in design much for a number of years. They typically offer a docking station that's made to attach to any of the machines in that series, too. The price point on these always tends to be higher and they wind up with less features or poorer specs than their counterparts that see a lot of regular changes. But businesses pay the premium so they can stick with a standard for a while.

If you're a business that used Macs, the Macbook Air has stayed about the same since 2009-2010 other than regular bumps in CPU speed and a change so they all come with 8GB of RAM instead of only 4GB. All of the mag-safe AC adapters you bought for them and all of those USB to Ethernet dongles you bought (because they don't have built-in wired Ethernet and were sparse on ports), plus any docks you might have bought all work with an Air you replace in 2018 just as well as they worked with that 2009 or 2010 model.

The lack of a higher resolution display really doesn't matter to a lot of business users, because they're going to use a larger external monitor while at their desk with the computer all day. On the go, they're primarily in apps like Outlook where you don't need 4K resolution.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Megane]

It fills the purpose of a very thin, very light laptop that can be used for general web browsing and office apps. Unfortunately Apple went out of control and decided that all of their laptops need to be thin and light above all, at the expense of power, battery life, expandability, and repairability.

Re: I never saw the purpose of these

[jimbo]

What have Slashdot become, the Reddit overflow?

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Megane]

maxed out RAM and SSD

Wait, there was a version of the MacBook Air that let you swap out the RAM and SSD? The SSD I can believe, if you got one of the first ones, but I thought they were already soldering RAM when they made the first Air.

Re: I never saw the purpose of these

[Hognoxious]

Do they make the transients more isotropic and give a warmer soundstage?

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[DontBeAMoran]

Next thing you're going to say is that they're also running A.I. threads while playing those 3D-rendering videogames, I bet?

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[DontBeAMoran]

And then anodized.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[DontBeAMoran]

He probably meant "maxed out RAM and SSD" when he bought it online.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[DamonHD]

Had to be ordered on line or at the store, thus adding a day or two's delay, but I did so and hit the then 8GB RAM / 256GB SSD limits.

Rgds

Damon

Re: I never saw the purpose of these

[PopeRatzo]

Do they make the transients more isotropic and give a warmer soundstage?

Yes, but only if you use the special rhodium over tellurium cable that has ultra-high harmonic resolution, imaging and transparence. These are known to provide the most refined tonal balance and harmonic complexity.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[PopeRatzo]

And then anodized.

Naturally. It's no good unless it's anodized.

Re: I never saw the purpose of these

[Anonymous Coward]

Donâ(TM)t worry there currently isnâ(TM)t any powerful Mac Book Pro just an expensive Air with yesterdayâ(TM)s specs

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[BronsCon]

You do realize that a 3d game has to render each frame... right?

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Junta]

Does it really sell that well in corporate? I mean apart from one notable anti-microsoft company, I've always seen corps stick to the market where they can make Dell and HP and Lenovo go into a bid war and they don't give a crap about brand value.

Now maybe this upcoming Macbook Air will be cheap and marks Apple actually giving a damn about their share on the busniess PC, but so far they've not acted that way.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Junta]

Originally, it was about "you want a super sleek laptop, compromises ok".

Then it lost all meaning as the mainstream went that thin, including apple's own line.

Now taking it at face value, looks like the new meaning will be "ok, fine, we'll play in the budget space". Note their mentioning boosting units sold, this is presumably to try to up their share of the market.

Apple may be buying into what seems to be the general perception in the market: PC market is not going to irrelevance, the relationship between tablet/laptop/phone has somewhat stabilized and PC market turns out to be more lively than tablet.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[pubwvj]

A lot of people do see the purpose of them so they buy the MacBook Airs and use them. Frankly, your comment is very self centered, along the lines of "If you don't want it then nobody should have it." Realize there are people with different needs than you and you're not the center of the Universe, no matter how massive you may be.

Re: I never saw the purpose of these

[Anonymous Coward]

How about a special rhodium-tellurium buttplug?

Since Tim Cock is so cocky, she might as well make it serve special needs with this abomination.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[LWATCDR]

I want a new macbook with M2 and SODIMMs. Yeahh I know good luck but I like apples OS a lot and I really do not like windows. Linux if fine but I need Office. BTW Do not bother with telling me about Open Office. I keep trying it but it is not as good as Office.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[b0s0z0ku]

Hackintosh... still works with High Sierra.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[ArtemaOne]

Scary Terry has a response for you. You do realize I never said no one should have them, yet you said this anyway.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[ArtemaOne]

I'm torn with all that too. My 2012 MacBook Pro died right before this deployment. I didn't want to spend what it costs to replace it, so went with a HP "gaming" laptop with a Radeon and fast processor, and it's pretty thin, just not MBA thin. I miss Mac OSX, but using Office 2016 on Windows is much nicer for that, and I don't have to dual boot for Steam. I wish there were better options.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Anonymous Coward]

Where do you get your "most" from? Yes, there are quiet a few gamers, but there are plenty of people who don't see the point, or who get nauseated by watching the screen of a 3D game.

And what makes you think that they have to play games on their laptop? I know several eager gamers who only play on consoles, and their laptops haven't any games on them.

A thin lightweight laptop with a long battery life has considerable appeal to people who do a lot of work while on transport, not just students. There are a lot of Mac laptops in use in coffee shops, too.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Anonymous Coward]

it runs xcode. The cheapest notebook that runs xcode.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Bing Tsher E]

There are a lot of Mac laptops in use in coffee shops, too.

True. For common use-cases for coffee shops, i.e. as props and chick magnets.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Bing Tsher E]

Even further lock-in than just the OS itself. A development suite that encourages you to produce source code that will ONLY run on Apple products.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Bing Tsher E]

Dell Latitudes.

I don't know where these people carrying on about Apple laptops come from. Not the business world. Maybe they're the marketing guys with the tasselated shoes.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course you don't get it, it's not for you. you've clearly stated as such. but as a basic, entry level mac, they are quite excellent. very repairable for one, and cheap to do so, most of the I/O is on a separate board that only costs about $30 or so, for example. insane battery life too, you can sit there and watch a full movie in kodi and it'll still be at 80 to 90% capacity when you're done.
there's a week turnaround time on repairing all the newer models due to the stupid fucking glued in battery, the macbook air does NOT suffer from this flaw at all, in fact, most of the parts are still separate from the top case.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Anonymous Coward]

I've repaired a lot of those newer models and I can confirm, they're all crap. The air is the last good holdout, if apple had axed it, the education market for one would drop apple just like that. the airs are their best seller. It'd be like killing the mid 2012 macbook pro all over again, you'd never hear the end of it from pissed off customers.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Anonymous Coward]

MacBookAir has a purpose now : kind of like a MacBookPro but with two USB-A ports.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[tepples]

A development suite that encourages you to produce source code that will ONLY run on Apple products.

Even if only binaries. Even if you build with a multi-platform framework like Qt or Xamarin, you still have to use Xcode to build and deploy for iOS. The only way to make your application usable by iOS users without using Xcode is to build a web application instead of a native application, and you still need Safari for Mac to use the JavaScript debugging tools for Safari for iOS.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Anonymous Coward]

I use mine for development work. It keeps up with the big MBPr just fine, except for the GPU. But it destroys any other laptop on battery life, which is the primary reason I insisted on getting an Air instead of the Ultrabooks everyone else was inflicted with as my new work notebook. It even cost less.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[cerberusss]

It's too expensive to fill the purpose intended

I've had one, the 2013 model. I bought it with student discount for 934 euros, sold it 4 years later for 500 euros. That machine cost me 110 euros (US$ 135) per year. I found this truly incredible.

Now that doesn't work for all models. I've incurred a huge 800 euro loss on a 15" MacBook Pro that was bought for a project that was canceled after a couple of months. So it only seems to work for the fast-moving budget MacBooks. But the Air specifically was/is hugely popular.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[TheRaven64]

Even if only binaries. Even if you build with a multi-platform framework like Qt or Xamarin, you still have to use Xcode to build and deploy for iOS.

That's not quite true. You can build on any platform, though you will need the SDKs (which are included with XCode and are not legally redistributable), but you will need to run the code-signing tool on a Mac (and it's quite painful to use from a command line). If you're using a cross-platform toolkit then you can do all of your development on a non-Apple machine and then do the final sign-and-publish step on a Mac.

Re: I never saw the purpose of these

[fisted]

They're mechanically robust and have a massive contact area.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[BronsCon]

And none of that negates the needs of the professional power user, nor of the gamer. Go ahead and make a low-end model for people who don't need the power (and if we're talking about a laptop, that probably is most people, as most people who need that power have a dedicated workstation and very few of them actually do need that full power while mobile (though many of them do need considerably more than the average user). But what Apple has done is make that low-end model, then remix it, add a better screen, little faster CPU (but certainly not a workhorse), little more RAM (but certainly not enough for the kinds of things professional power users use their machines for), and call it PRO.

The MacBook Pro used to be what that user wanted. That hasn't been the case for about 5 years now, in no small part because everything Apple does to the lower Mac lines ends up making its way to the Pro lines in a release cycle or two; and that includes the dumbing down beyond the point of usefulness for most tasks beyond typical office use, web browsing, and maybe a bit of development.

Hell, the 2016 MacBook Pro I'm typing this on has trouble keeping up with a Twitch stream. Neither my 17" 2011, my 13" 2012, nor the 15" 2014 retina I passed along to my wife have trouble with that, but they put a "PRO" GPU in this model that is bested by workstation GPUs from 7 years ago and it just can't keep up with h.264 decoding. Disabling hardware acceleration and rendering on the CPU is a no-go, as well, because the poor thermal design of this machine causes it to throttle in mere seconds if I do that.

To be honest, that's not even acceptable for the average user's Facebook machine; there's plenty of h.264 to be found there.

Thin and light are considerations for some types of work. The ability to render a scene or compile a project without thermal throttling to hell and back and taking an entire workday are considerations for other types of work. The latter tends to appeal to the type of customer who would have a dedicated workstation (not the Mac Pro since 2013, though) for the real heavy lifting, but still needs some mobility.

Remember when Apple's whole thing was how much faster the PPC CPUs they used were than Intel's offerings? That's when creative professionals, engineers, and anyone else who needed a powerful system loved their platform. Remember when, even after the switch to Intel, Apple still sold at least one system with the fastest of Intel's CPUs in it, plenty of RAM, and the ability to expand the system to fit the workload you were throwing at it? That's when creative professionals, engineers, and anyone else who needed a powerful system loved their platform. Remember when Apple started soldering things in, using 2-or-3-generation-old CPUs, dumbing down the graphics on even their desktop and PRO systems, removing ports, and hindering expandability and compatibility to a degree most professional users who might need to connect to something off-site during their travels simply cannot abite? That's when creative professionals, engineers, and anyone else who needed a powerful system left their platform.

I bought this laptop thinking "it can't be as bad as I keep hearing it is." I mean, after all, I didn't have any trouble getting real work done on my older Macs, so why should this newer one with a better battery, better screen, and faster CPU be worse?

Let me tell you: It is.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[hoggoth]

The only draw is it doesn't F*ing install updates and reboot exactly when I have 15 minutes left to get that work done. It doesn't pop up a dialog asking me to do something important right in the middle of me typing away, grab a handful of my keystrokes as an answer, and go do god-knows-what with my permission based on what I was typing. It doesn't install updates when I open my laptop in front of 300 people to do a presentation. And it doesn't say "DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR MACHINE UPDATING OS" without asking when I am out of battery and away from a power outlet.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Plumpaquatsch]

And none of that negates the needs of the professional power user, nor of the gamer.

And those people, who even combined aren't "most people" can buy Pc notebooks several times the price of the MacBook Air. And then shove it where you get all your arguments from.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[BronsCon]

And if we want a Mac?

It wasn't long ago that Apple made machines that suited those needs. They hooked many of us and many of us have invested heavily in their platform, only to have them decide half a decade ago that "Pro" meant "spends enough time on Facebook they care if it loads a little faster".

I don't think a PC laptop will fit in my wallet, but that's where I'm arguing from.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[outlander]

Yup. I've had a couple of MacBook Airs since 2011, and they've been fine small machines. They're not super-powerful, but they're perfectly good editors, and the ergonomics are comfortable. And I don't compile locally much anyhow.....that's what Linux machines are for.

Re: I never saw the purpose of these

[msi]

How about a special rhodium-tellurium buttplug?

Fuck no for the proper warming of the signal you need a synthetic material for you buttplug like Polychlorotrifluoroethylene.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[hoggoth]

You are really deluding yourself. Apple's OS is no better than Windows in any meaningful way and the hardware is much more expensive for equivalent speeds. More to the point WINDOWS UPDATE REBOOTING NOW DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER INSTALLING UPDATE 1 of 78...

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[hoggoth]

As long as that turd doesn't install updates while I'm trying to use it I'll be satisfied.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[b0s0z0ku]

I'm not saying Windows 10 is any better, frankly. Screw both MS and Apple.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[DontBeAMoran]

You do realize I was being sarcastic... right?

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[BronsCon]

It's hard to tell with you sometimes, especially via text. Try a sarcasm tag next time?

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[Plumpaquatsch]

And if we want a Mac?

Then don't buy the MacBook Air, you moron.

Re:I never saw the purpose of these

[DontBeAMoran]

The only other options are the MacBook which is more expensive, has a better but a worst everything else or the MacBook Pro which is even more expensive and has a worst keyboard and no classic USB ports.

Re: I never saw the purpose of these

[Hognoxious]

A bit like your mom, then.

MacNetBook Air

[OffTheLip]

Of course it won't be that useful but at least affordable.

Dongles...

[b0s0z0ku]

And $300 more for dongles for the single USB-C port if you actually want to do something useful...

Re:Dongles...

[Anonymous Coward]

Had the 12" MacBook for traveling for the last two years. One USB C port. I never use it except to charge the thing. I found I did not need to plug in peripherals while on the road. Eventually I expect they will release a version with wireless charging.

As usual, the slashdot crowd fails to see reality. $300 in dongles - nope. But as long as you like your wired connections like headphone ports, I guess that is your style, gramps. For portability, you just need a wifi connection bud.

Re:Dongles...

[b0s0z0ku]

As usual, a dumbfuck fanboi like you thinks that THEIR use case is the only use case.

Let's see. I travel with my laptop. Recently, I've used a USB port on the laptop to:
(1) charge my phone (basically, the laptop's battery is bigger than the phone's)
(2) connect an external drive
(3) connect digital photography equipment and transfer data

What would it cost Apple to install a few ports? $10 per laptop? Not like they're strapped for cash or wanting for profit.

Also, USB ports break. It would be nice to have a laptop that doesn't become e-waste as soon as the single USB-C port (also used for charging) breaks.

Re:Dongles...

[Uberbah]

As usual, a dumbfuck fanboi like you thinks that THEIR use case is the only use case.

Almost as obnoxious as the dumbfuck hatebois who act as if Zombie Jobs is holding a gun to your heads to get you to buy stuff. If it doesn't do what you want for what you're willing to pay - don't buy it, pretty simple. When Samsung released the first large-screen smartphone, I had no use for something that large but I didn't break out my fainting couch over it.

Re:Dongles...

[b0s0z0ku]

Apple just sets the trends of how the rest of the industry screws its customers. As a wiser man that me once said: "Steve Jobs, pioneer of computing as a prison."

Re:Dongles...

[BronsCon]

Maybe it's because many of us currently use Apple's products in our day-to-day lives and want to continue doing so, but we see them actively making their products unsuitible for our needs? You ever stop and think that we're not bitching because we hate the thing but, rather, because we love the thing and hate what is being done to it?

Re:Dongles...

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably because you're also arguing that most people want their computer to be a game machine. If you use arguments that are obviously untrue, you're probably more interested in fanyboyism than in legitimate discussion.

Re:Dongles...

[BronsCon]

No, most of us are really fine with Apple offering a low-end option, but when they neuter the high-end (pro) models to the functional level of the low-end, that's when we start sharpening our axes. Not everyone needs a high-end workstation or a machine with a ton of ports and, fine, for them Apple sells the MacBook and MacBook Air; but some of us do and that's what the Mac Pro and MacBook Pro used to provide. Now they're just more expensive and slightly larger versions of the Mac Mini and MacBook, functionally the same thing with a different look and a higher price tag, so we're complaining. About all of it. Because Apple has made it all the same.

Because we've seen that what Apple does to the non-pro lines comes to the pro lines in the next release cycle and we're sick of it.

Re:Dongles...

[King_TJ]

To be fair .... I hate the dongle mess Apple has created too. But I have a 2017 Macbook Pro 13" I'm using, and you can buy some pretty slick 3rd. party USB-C to multi-purpose adapters to cut down on what's needed, and the price.

I'm currently using one that has an HDMI port, 2 USB 3.0 ports, a gigabit Ethernet port, and a pass-through USB-C port on it. The dongle cost me about $79 at Best Buy. (That means I'm sure cheaper ones are available online if you look around.) Honestly, with that -- what else do you ever need?

Re:Dongles...

[b0s0z0ku]

can you charge with it connected, or is it useless with a low battery?

Re:Dongles...

[Junta]

I use my laptop to connect to datacenter equipment, with a usb serial port and/or an ethernet cable.
I use it to connect my phone, generally not at the same time.
HDMI I frequently use for conference rooms and presentations.

I currently have a laptop with no ethernet port, and the dongle is such n annoying problem that I will absolutely have a built in ethernet port. An associate has a macbook and in meetings never is the one to present, because the conference rooms never has usb-c and he never has the right dongle with him.

For me, I like the concept of USB-c connector for keyboard/mouse/displayport/ and charge in one port, but I would additionally want at least one USB-a connector, HDMI, and Ethernet jack Maybe in a few years HDMI will get replaced by USB-c (once upon a time, I *needed* VGA, no more), maybe accessories will move to type-c (the more complex and expensive 24 pin usb-c connector adds non-trivial cost to little usb accessories though) but even then I'd want at least two ports. RJ-45 however is going to be with us for the foreseeable future (the cable and connector are just too dirt cheap)

Re:Dongles...

[b0s0z0ku]

you'd be surprised about the current need for VGA. all of the classrooms and presentation rooms at a certain CUNY campus still have VGA connectors only (for the projectors). no VGA, no projection for you. I suspect many buildings with older IT infrastructure still have the same thing.

Re: Dongles...

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck you and fuck your dongles. Professional use case does not involve me having to carry around a stupid docking station to use my LAPTOP.

Re:Dongles...

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe you can carry an Apple HDMI dongle, supplemented with HDMI to VGA dongle.

Re:Dongles...

[tlhIngan]

can you charge with it connected, or is it useless with a low battery?

Of course you can. USB-PD allows for bi-directional power delivery, so a port can be used to charge a laptop, or it can be used to charge a phone.

Even better, a Thunderbolt dock can still offer all that, and use USB-PD to charge said laptop all over one port. (Yes, you can use USB docks, but USB docks generally suck if you have access to thunderbolt ones).

Of course, with the Pro, all 4 ports support USB-PD, so you can come up with some oddball situations (like charging or docking from either side, and using those USB-PD ports to charge other things).

Dongles are a mess, but unless you're operating mobile, dongles prove to be less of a problem. Most laptops I see for business use are tethered to a desk, or completely mobile. About the only "mobile" use I've seen is someone connecting one to a display, and it seems we can never pick an appropriate connector. We pick HDMI, we get laptops with (Mini) DisplayPort. We pick VGA, everyone has HDMI. So we have a healthy supply of adapters because we can't seem to have one universal display connector. My laptop has USB-C/Thunderbolt port and I am one of two people with a USB-C to HDMI adapter (Alt Mode - it's not a USB video adapter).

I'm seriously considering a dock simply to make mobility easier - it's nice to have a dozen ports, but if it means everytime I got mobile I have to unplug a dozen cables, it's not as handy. I'm trying to get a dock to avoid the unplugging hassles. Unplug one or two cables, makes life easy

Re:Dongles...

[Uberbah]

Apple just sets the trends of how the rest of the industry screws its customers.

Not so much as some people like to hate on one company and the products it makes. Like the people who bitch about Apple and "walled gardens" before firing up their game console to play manufacturer-approved games. It really doesn't matter how many other people do the same thing when stones can be thrown at Cupertino.

The MacBook Air is dead!

[DontBeAMoran]

Long live the MacBook SE!

At least one USB 3.0 type A port, if they ditch magsafe then one USB-C for power/etc. Same headphone/microphone port, better display (1080p, IPS would be nice but is too costly), more recent CPU, 8GB RAM standard with a 16GB option, same 128GB SSD, same keyboard as before (no butterfly 1 or 2), SDXC card reader would be nice.

Lower price on top of that?

Sold.

Re:The MacBook Air is dead!

[DontBeAMoran]

Since the MacBook is now thinner than the MacBook Air, it makes no sense to try and remove ports to make it thinner, but a name change will be needed since it could very well change the form factor. A return of the 11" display to lower the cost even more, maybe?

Re:The MacBook Air is dead!

[serviscope_minor]

At least one USB 3.0 type A port, if they ditch magsafe then one USB-C for power/etc. Same headphone/microphone port, better display (1080p, IPS would be nice but is too costly), more recent CPU, 8GB RAM standard with a 16GB option, same 128GB SSD, same keyboard as before (no butterfly 1 or 2), SDXC card reader would be nice.

Lower price on top of that?

Sold.

Unless they pull something very good out of the hat or if you're really only interested in OSX, there are easily better options out there at the moment. The last Asus Zenbook I tried (a few generations ago) was excellent and I'd happily get another and the current gen thinkpads are fantastic. I prefer them to my work issued mac pro.

Re:The MacBook Air is dead!

[Anonymous Coward]

Display will either be the same as the current Air or 13" retina (2560x1600). 1080p doesn't make sense.

Re:The MacBook Air is dead!

[b0s0z0ku]

Unless it's a 10-11" screen.

Re:The MacBook Air is dead!

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be a different rumor.
This story specifically says 13" MBA.

Re:The MacBook Air is dead!

[DontBeAMoran]

If you buy a Mac for anything other than macOS, you're doing it wrong.

Re:The MacBook Air is dead!

[DontBeAMoran]

Retina DOES NOT MAKE SENSE on a LOW-COST laptop. The most expensive parts are probably the CPU, the LCD display and the SSD, in that order.

Re:The MacBook Air is dead!

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't your mom tell you that shouting is rude?

Maybe it will be retina, maybe it won't. 6+ years into retina/hidpi, I doubt retina panels are that much more expensive.

But there's no chance it will be 1080p, which would mean a non-integer scaling factor at the optimal resolution.

Re:The MacBook Air is dead!

[Bing Tsher E]

When I buy a dongle, it's for more important software than just the OS itself.

Waiting for the PortBook

[Anonymous Coward]

A macbook full of real USB A ports, ethernet, dvd drive and a choice of screen sizes from 11-17 inches. I would call it the PortBook. Don’t tell me to get an old one on ebay, as I wont be able to get High Sierra on it defeating the point of a Mac.

Re:Waiting for the PortBook

[DontBeAMoran]

USB 3.0 type A ports? Sure. I don't get Apple's obsession with ditching USB type A so early in the game, especially when the CPUs they use can't handle more than one or two USB-C ports anyway but could handle one or two USB-C and two or more USB-A ports on top of that.

Built-in ethernet? Nope, use an adapter. If you're connecting an ethernet cable that means you're not mobile anymore, so a dongle is not a huge inconvenience.

DVD drive? Nope. Apple is never going to go back on that decision for their laptops, pro or not. If you need one, buy an external one. I don't understand the need for optical discs on the go, in 2018.

Screen sizes from 11 to 17 inches would be nice, maybe 11, 14 and 17 inches?

Re:Waiting for the PortBook

[b0s0z0ku]

Also, the old slot-loading Apple DVD drives were terrible, jam-prone things that broke in 6 months or if you looked at them wrong...

Ethernet would still be nice. You might need it at an off-site location that's Ethernet only or has poor wifi, no need to worry about forgetting your dongle.

Re:Waiting for the PortBook

[Wrath0fb0b]

RJ45 port height: 8.3mm
Minimum height to accommodate the female RJ45 connector: 10mm
Height of the bottom half of a MacBook Pro: 5mm

File this under "nope".

Of course, if you want a battleship, by all means, buy a Thinkpad or whoever else is making brick-sized laptops. More power to you. But please don't crap on the part of the market that would like something sleek and doesn't particularly care to make design compromises for a connector that was designed during the Nixon years. Especially when it's $20 for a dongle.

Re:Waiting for the PortBook

[b0s0z0ku]

Wrongo -- plenty of laptops have folding Ethernet jacks. The contacts themselves are only a few mm thick -- the part that holds the bottom of plug can hinge from the laptop. But yeah, I'd rather have a Thinkpad that's 5mm thicker than the latest Crapplebook and actually functional.

X-series is far better and more solid than anything Apple foists on the public.

Re:Waiting for the PortBook

[DontBeAMoran]

I'm sick of people comparing hardware only. The Thinkpad does not run macOS, so it's not an option.

Also, those folding ethernet jacks are flimsy and break easily. Much less potential trouble to use an ethernet-to-USB dongle.

Re:Waiting for the PortBook

[b0s0z0ku]

Sure it runs MacOS. Just not legally ;)

Re:Waiting for the PortBook

[pubwvj]

I believe you can install High Sierra on a 2011 MacBook Pro 17" - or at least that is what I did and it worked fine. This "PortaBook" has a nice big screen, big hard drive (solid state), 16GBRAM and lots of ports just like you're asking for. I do agree with you that it is unfortunate that Apple doesn't make them anymore. And yes, I got mine on eBay for only a few hundred dollars.

Re:Waiting for the PortBook

[Anonymous Coward]

Height of two 5mm halves : 10mm.
There'd be room for connectors behind the screen and hinges, if you don't mind that the laptop doesn't open 180 degrees anymore.

Re:Waiting for the PortBook

[Wrath0fb0b]

See, here I was being gracious and explaining that, if you want a 5mm thicker Thinkpad, more power to you.

Some of us actually have the decency to acknowledge other peoples' preferences.

Re:Waiting for the PortBook

[b0s0z0ku]

Better than hobbled Apple junk.

Like TFS says

[rsilvergun]

College Kids. It's easy to cart around in a backpack. The low power draws and SSD make it durable enough and it's small enough to fit on those tiny, tiny desks and arm rests they have in classes.

It's also not pre installed with 3000+ crapware programs to slow the thing down. Seriously, if we could just get PC manufacturers to stop doing that their computers could hang with Apple on performance & stability. I ended up buying my kid a Macbook and taking her Windows laptop because she said it kept crashing. She's in school for Nursing, I don't expect her to know how to sort out crashes. I gave up and did a clean load of Win 10 (possible since you can pull an iso from Microsoft nowadays) and low and behold it ran fine.

Re:Like TFS says

[ArtemaOne]

As stated, it's easy to carry around a lot of laptops that are similarly as thin. I do think the Mac OS is nice, and agree that the install from the manufacturer screws up Win 10 pretty bad, but still don't have a justification for a $1k plus price tag.

Re:Like TFS says

[b0s0z0ku]

The built-in spyware cr@p from MS screws up Win 10 just as much. Win 10 is screwed up, period.

One LT USB C port will never make sense

[fyngyrz]

there's only one USB-C port which makes no sense unless we were in 2028.

It won't make sense then, either.

don't expect surprises

[Espectr0]

probably they are going to ship a quite old processor with just 4gb of ram (lucky if you get 8) for $899.

Re:don't expect surprises

[b0s0z0ku]

4gb of SOLDERED IN RAM, because Apple is too courageous to allow mere peons to upgrade their hardware.

Re:don't expect surprises

[Anonymous Coward]

No chance of 4GB. The current model has 8GB. The interesting question is whether 16GB will be an option.

Re:don't expect surprises

[b0s0z0ku]

Probably. For a few hundred dollars, nevermind that an extra 8GB RAM module sells for $60 on the open market.

Re:don't expect surprises

[DontBeAMoran]

Except for one tiny little detail... AFAIK, LPDDR3/LPDDR4 doesn't exist in SODIMM form.

Re:don't expect surprises

[b0s0z0ku]

put it on a daughter card...

Re:don't expect surprises

[DontBeAMoran]

If it's on a daughter card, it's going to be custom to Apple, which goes back to being twice as expensive.

Still, it would be nice to be able to buy the laptop and upgrade the RAM a few years later instead of having to pay for the whole thing upfront.

Re:don't expect surprises

[b0s0z0ku]

Until Chinese reverse-engineered copies start showing up on Amazon. And used part-outs start showing up on EBay.

Re:don't expect surprises

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually yes Intel got a new SO-DIMM standard done a few years ago that can take LPDDR3 (called UniDIMM)

First and third picture here
https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/how-intel-plans-to-transition-between-ddr3-and-ddr4-for-the-mainstream.205231/

It was a failure. Also a bit more power use than soldered.

Four four years?

[SuperKendall]

As stated, it's easy to carry around a lot of laptops that are similarly as thin.

That will last for four years? I don't think so, from the thin Windows laptops I've seen and the reports of the Microsoft Surface (which also are not that cheap).

I'd be pretty sure a MacBook Air could manage four years.

With the Air dropping in price how many other thin ceraptops can survive? At $800 it starts to compete against upper tier Chromebooks because it's so much more functional even if more expensive.

Re:Four four years?

[ArtemaOne]

I guess the Lenovo Yoga Book at under $600 would be comparable.

Re:Four four years?

[jawtheshark]

I'm still using an Acer Aspire S3 (MS2346). It was released in 2011 from what I read, I bought it on sale for ~600EUR in 2012. It's a 3rd gen i5, 4GB RAM, 20GB SSD and 500GB spinning rust. I run Linux on it. The biggest downside is the 1366x768 screen. The battery is replacable if you're not scared of a screwdriver. I replaced it once, and by now I really should do it again.

Re:Four four years?

[angel'o'sphere]

It is not.
Why would it?
it is much smaller, has no real keyboard.

It is nice, because of the wacom digitizer in the keyboard and in the screen, but it does not compare in any way to a iPad or Mac.

However it is 100times better than a windows laptop, unless you are so dumb and buy the windows version of the Yoga Book.

Re:Four four years?

[TechyImmigrant]

>I'd be pretty sure a MacBook Air could manage four years.

My wife's did. The pro I'm typing on is a 2013 model and still going fine with no problems. It'll get replaced with some new iShiny when I start to feel the itch to upgrade.

Re:Four four years?

[b0s0z0ku]

At least the Windows version of the Yogurt Book can be wiped and reinstalled with Ubuntu. Can the Android version have a non-crippled OS that's not handcuffed to Google?

Re:Four four years?

[angel'o'sphere]

Are you sure you can put an Ubunto on it?
That would be a reason to get a second one.

that's not handcuffed to Google?
If I would care about that I had not bought it ...

This buffer left blank.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure.

What about the sapphire screen though

[Anonymous Coward]

Can we cut back on the Apple rumours? It wasn't too long ago that analysts were posting crap about the iPhone getting a sapphire screen.

The only purpose of junk like this is to boost Apple stocks.

Re: What about the sapphire screen though

[Anonymous Coward]

Sapphire screens were something apple looked into but it didnâ(TM)t work out. Seems like a legit thing to discuss.

Re:What about the sapphire screen though

[pubwvj]

If you don't like the rumors then set your filters to ignore them.

Stagnaged?

[Solandri]

It's been unmodified for 3 years. 2015 was the last major update (CPU upgraded from Haswell to Broadwell, faster PCIe bus for SSD, Thunderbolt upgraded to Thunderbolt 2).

The "2017 update" actually just replaced the Broadwell CPU with another Broadwell CPU that's 0.2 GHz faster (and was available in 2015). You'd think they could've at least updated to Sky Lake (available late 2015) or Kaby Lake (available late 2016/early 2017). But apparently they didn't want to go through the effort of designing a new mainboard for a newer CPU, so they did the cheap and easy thing and just swapped one Broadwell CPU for another and called it a "new" model.

Re: Stagnaged?

[Anonymous Coward]

This thing has far more CPU than is needed as it is for itâ(TM)s target audience.

My 15 pro is just as fast at doing the sorts of things a person that would be the target for the air would use them for.

Re:Stagnaged?

[DontBeAMoran]

Maybe they didn't bother because they already had this new upcoming upgrade/replacement in the pipeline?

I don't mind the non-powerful CPU, I'm still using a mid-2010 Mac mini with a 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo after all, but sometimes I'm wondering if Apple is using outdated CPUs on purpose and/or has a deal with Intel so they keep making those old CPUs half a decade later.

Love the current Air

[MMC Monster]

I love the current MacBook Air. Just the right size screen, good resolution, enough USB3 slots, a card slot for camera cards.

If they could just update the processor, solid state drive, and ram every year or so, that would be all I would ask for.

Re:Love the current Air

[93 Escort Wagon]

If they could just update the processor, solid state drive, and ram every year or so, that would be all I would ask for.

That’s how I felt about the 2015 13” MacBook Pro... but you saw what they did to that product line.

Based on recent history - if they do update the Air, you’ll probably see

- Newer generation processor, but clocked the same
- “Upgraded” to the new crap keyboard they’re putting in every Mac laptop now
- One Thunderbolt 3 port
- No SD Card slot
- No headphone jack
- A four-minute Jony Ive video telling you how great it is that they’ve removed most of the functional ports and dumped the better keyboard.

Re:Love the current Air

[Anonymous Coward]

More likely, they'll do what they did with the most recent iPad. They'll take the same basic design as the current MacBook Air and modernize it a bit - newer CPU/GPU, and maybe a retina display.

Can't wait for those Apollo Lake netbooks

[Anonymous Coward]

N3450 for only $999!

Priced like the iPhone 5c: $899.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is Apple we're talking about. Their version of "cheap" is utterly ridiculous.

Anyone looking to save money can buy a Windows laptop with equivalent specs for about half the price. For the same price as a MacBook Air, they could buy a gaming laptop.

Requirements

[PaulHammant]

Needs 16GB of RAM for some of the road warriors (me) to feel happy. 4GB of RAM across the Mac range is only viable for modest web surfing now. Meaning, don't have too many tabs open concurrently or the thing will creak even if it has a 1.6Ghz processor. I'm not sure how Apple manage to sell the MacBook range with 4GB and 1.2/1.3GHz CPUs. My wife has a 4GB 11" MacBookAir which she loves, and would replace as she can't - the smaller Macbooks on sale today have less power than what she has, and the reason she'd upgrade is to get a performance boost (not a drop). MacOS on its own has bloated to the extent where the lower end Macs approaching non-viable for the 10.13. I've no faith that 10.14 will be any better at all. It is only something like Quantum Firefox that has rejuvenated the one she has for the next year or so.

Re:Requirements

[Anonymous Coward]

Intel 10nm process is very late, got delayed by over a year. The Cannon Lake dual core/quad thread CPU is what would go in a new MacBook.

larger harddrives

[e**(i pi)-1]

in a time where one can by 500 gig memory cards, it is really time also to have larger harddrives into the macbooks (I have two of those and the lack of harddrive space space is the main complaint for those things). Also nice would be two USB C ports. There are still almost no USB C hubs which allow to attach USB C devices and charge at the same time.

Re: larger harddrives

[Anonymous Coward]

256gb ssd is fine. Just put one or more of those 200+GB uSD cards in your microSD slot where the DVD drive used to be.

Re: larger harddrives

[Anonymous Coward]

Ugh. So you're splitting storage between a 4 GB/s drive and a 4 MB/s drive (I'm only exaggerating slightly)

Writing slow flash is slow.

Great idea

[thewebsiteboy]

Atleast for this time, the poor can afford a good laptop for themselves. Great achievement

I can't be the only techie thinking "who cares?"

[Anonymous Coward]

If you haven't noticed Slashdot is Apple this Google that with a tad of Dell sprinkled in. I don't care about slashvertisements unless they're specifically about free software, GNU, Linux, liberty/freedom/cesnorship, etc and the companies behind them aren't defrauding people in one way or another.

Could have just lowered current ones

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, in reality Apple could have lowered the price of current Macbook Air's if it wanted to. Can't believe they even remain a viable option for anyone at the current price. I see no reason to buy a entry level Mac at this point and I seriously doubt anything new will really be different in Apple's traditional pricing with good margins for Apple. I remember the White plastic Macbook which was hardly a bargain for what it was. But if you were desperate to have a notebook with fruit on it. Then the White plastic Macbook was the ticket, and there was a Black on for a time too. I'll stick to buying better hardware fro the dollar then what Apple offers.

Re:Priced like the iPhone 5c: $899.

[Bing Tsher E]

B'doy! I can't run XCode on that!!!

Compare to Alienware 13, about the same price

[Tony Isaac]

You can pay $1,000 for Apple's bottom-of-the-line MacBook Air, or for just $150 more, you can get an Alienware 13.

Besides being a beast of a (small) laptop, the Alienware...has a headphone jack! And an RJ45, 3 USB 3 ports (type A and C), Thunderbolt, and HDMI.

If I were to buy a small laptop for around $1,000, I know which one I'd pick!

Re:Compare to Alienware 13, about the same price

[Anonymous Coward]

They are not comparable. The average weight of the Alienware is 5.8 pounds.

Re:Compare to Alienware 13, about the same price

[Anonymous Coward]

You can buy an Acer Aspire laptop for $350 with about the same specs as a MacBook Air. Sure, maybe the screen isn't IPS, but it's 1080p and a little larger. And it has HDMI and VGA out, USB-C, RJ-45, and more.

Quad-core gaming laptops start around $800, but can be found discounted.

Re:Compare to Alienware 13, about the same price

[DontBeAMoran]

The MacBook Air display isn't IPS either, it's TN.

Re:Compare to Alienware 13, about the same price

[cthulhu11]

And spend my life dicking around with MS Windows or the balkanized pissing contest that is a Linux desktop? No bargain, no thanks.

Re:Compare to Alienware 13, about the same price

[93 Escort Wagon]

That's not even remotely aimed at the same audience. That Alienware box looks like it's as thick as three MacBook Airs, stacked one on top of another.

The XPS 13 is designed more along the same lines as an Air - and still has an SD slot and a headphone jack.

Re:Compare to Alienware 13, about the same price

[angel'o'sphere]

Me too,
I would pick the Mac.
Would save me more than $1000 to figure how to get OS X running on the Alienware.

Re:Compare to Alienware 13, about the same price

[Tony Isaac]

You're right about different audiences! One audience is willing to pay for beauty, the other is willing to pay for raw power.