14 DAY TRIAL // Quanta, Apple’s primary notebook manufacturer, has reportedly landed orders for 11.6-inch MacBooks, with shipments of the “11.6-inch” laptops being expected to top 400,000-500,000 units in 2010, industry sources indicated to the DigiTimes.
The first clues pointing towards Apple’s plans to revamp the MacBook Air arrived earlier this year, when the Mac maker's Taiwanese component suppliers reportedly said that the company was placing orders for parts akin to a slimmer and lighter MacBook Air.
The device was said to be based around an 11.6-inch LED-lit display and Intel Core i-series ultra-low voltage processor.
Now, a report issued by Taiwanese rumor site DigiTimes reaffirms such talks, revealig that Apple's notebook manufacturer Quanta has landed orders for the first batch of the 11.6-inch "MacBooks" for delivery before the end of 2010.
The device is expected to sell between 400,000 and 500,000 units, the report notes.
The last revision undergone by the MacBook Air was in June 2009, when Apple cheapened the system, while beefing it up processor-wise, as well as from a graphics standpoint.
Retaining the high $1,799 price was the version based around a 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 128GB solid state drive.
Apple touts the MacBook Air as being the thinnest notebook in the world. Just like every other Mac, the laptop ships with Mac OS X pre-installed, and shares many other noteworthy capabilities (wireless connectivity, the full-size keyboard, glossy screen etc.) with other members of the MacBook family.
However, it lacks an optical drive, and offers a single USB port, two negative factors that have undoubtedly made some people scrub it off their list of priorities.
At $1,499, the computer is also far from being affordable, even for those who don’t mind spending a lot for Apple products.