According to sources familiar with the topic, Apple aims to extend its laptop portfolio next year, hoping to capture a more significant portion of the market with its new, faster in-house CPUs.
The sources, who requested not to be named because the plans aren’t public, claimed the business is working on a bigger MacBook Air with a 15-inch screen that might be released as early as next spring.
In the 14-year history of the MacBook Air, this would be the first model of such size. Apple is also working on a new laptop that will be the company’s smallest in years.
The new models highlight Apple’s goal of using in-house chips to achieve a competitive advantage in a market dominated by Lenovo and HP. In 2020, the business started separating from longstanding partner Intel, and earlier this week, it unveiled its newest processor, the M2, at a developer conference. The Mac series accounts for around 10% of Apple’s sales and has seen a rebound thanks to improved performance and fresh looks.
The 15-inch variant under development is a larger version of Apple’s recently launched 13.6-inch MacBook Air. The new design, presented at a developer’s event on Monday, is slimmer than earlier versions, uses the M2 chip, and does away with the wedge-shaped frame. It’s the most significant update to the MacBook Air since Steve Jobs first debuted it in 2008.
Apple had considered a 15-inch MacBook Air for this year’s MacBook Air but decided to concentrate on the 13.6-inch model instead. Even so, it will take time for that approach to reach customers. Even though it was unveiled this week, supply-chain issues will delay its release until July.
Apple has also begun developing a new 12-inch laptop, which it plans to release in late 2023 or early 2024. If Apple goes forward with the release, it would be the company’s smallest notebook since the 12-inch MacBook was retired in 2019.
Apple’s Cupertino, California-based spokeswoman, refused to comment on the firm’s intentions.
Apple’s latest 12-inch laptop, the MacBook Air, was released in 2015 with a compact design, but it was panned for keyboard failures and poor performance. It’s unknown if the new 12-inch laptop will be a low-cost model or one of the MacBook Pro’s higher-end models, which are presently available in 13.3-inch, 14.2-inch, and 16.2-inch sizes.
Apple also marketed a 12-inch PowerBook, the forerunner to the MacBook Pro, between 2003 and 2006. It also provided an 11.6-inch MacBook Air for a short time. Apple’s new Mac processors, built on the same architecture as the iPhone and iPad, are intended to allow the corporation to increase performance while maintaining a thinner form factor.
Apple is also developing new high-end MacBook Pros with M2 Pro and M2 Max CPUs for delivery as early as 2022; however, the release date may be pushed out to the beginning of 2023. This new 14-inch and 16-inch devices, codenamed J414 and J416, will not be drastically different from previous models save for the faster processors. Next month, Apple will release a new 13-inch MacBook Pro with the same M2 CPU as the MacBook Air.
The M2 Max CPU in the upcoming high-end MacBook Pros will have 12 primary processing cores and up to 38 graphics cores, compared to the current models’ maximum of 10 processing cores and 32 graphics cores. According to Bloomberg, Apple is also testing new versions of the Mac mini and a redesigned Mac Pro. And Apple is already developing an M3 chip for future iMacs and other devices.
So far, Apple’s moving away from Intel CPUs has been a success, dramatically boosting Mac revenue. Apple earned $10.4 billion (approximately Rs. 80,900 crores) in Mac sales in the fiscal second quarter, almost double the $5.4 billion (about Rs. 42,000 crores) it made in the second quarter of 2020 before the changeover.
According to Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly preparing to produce a bigger version of the iPad Pro next year. The new model will make use of iPadOS 16’s improved multitasking features. Apple is also preparing new iPad Pros in 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes later this year.
