14 DAY TRIAL // There is now more evidence of a potential MacBook Air refresh, this time around from sources around the globe telling 9to5mac that supplies are dwindling down.
Our Special Deals findings yesterday should do well to corroborate claims that Apple is giving the Air a minor speed bump, both in processing (Sandy Bridge) and in I/O (Thunderbolt).
Apple has slashed the price on some refurbished MacBook Air systems by as much as $200, indicating the Mac maker is clearing out stock to make room for new arrivals.
The 11-inch and 13-inch Airs are the last remaining Macs to get Thunderbolt I/O and Sandy Bridge processors from Intel, and word on the street is that Cupertino is wasting no time.
Sources close to the aforementioned Mac-centric blog say that both supplies and shipments of the MacBook Air are constrained in what is a clear planning to refresh the product in the June-July timeframe.
The hardware upgrade, whenever Apple decides to confirm it, will most likely be minor.
With the exception of Thunderbolt and Sandy Bridge CPUs that are still to be soldered onto the chassis, the MacBook Air is a state-of-the-art portable computing machine with solid-state storage, dual core CPU, powerful graphics, a ridiculously high level of portability, fair battery life, and looks to kill.
Long overdue for a refresh, the system was last updated last year and introduced at Apple’s Back to the Mac event with an all-new design, two size configurations (11 and 13 inch displays), and an attractive entry-level price of just $999.
The sources hinting at this forthcoming MacBook Air refresh also indicate that Apple’s Special Deals site is featuring refurbished units priced at an all-time low of $829, which should only add as confirmation that Apple has given the order to Chinese partners to assemble upgraded versions of the ultra light notebooks.