Ever since Apple shifted the MacBook Air lineup to its own chips and gave Intel the boot, MacBook Airs have become more and more compelling for scores of people who used to require a bulkier, more expensive MacBook Pro.
Now that we’re on the cusp of the fourth iteration of Apple’s svelte Air featuring Apple-designed silicon, we can say that every new release of the MacBook Air makes the MacBook Pro a tougher sell for all but the most demanding professionals. An Air with an M3 chip is already a powerful beast. And well, the M4 will be even more powerful.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, an analyst with a penchant for Apple leaks, mentioned in his Power On newsletter that the MacBook Air M4 would launch by March, “at the latest.” Last week, Gurman gave a rough timeline in saying that the MacBook Air M4’s launch was “weeks” away.
With little more than a week left in February and no official buzz or tease coming from Apple, it’s fairly safe to say that the MacBook Air M4 won’t be coming this month, but rather in March.
corroborating evidence On the Macbook Air m4
Other journos have put stock in Gurman’s assertion by pointing out that its immediate predecessor, the MacBook Air M3, launched on March 4 of last year, and Apple does have a taste for pegging certain product announcements on a fairly strictly annual basis, à la the iPhone.
But the MacBook before that (the Air M2) was announced in July 2022, and the one before that (the Air M1) in November 2020, so one possible rhyme based on a rumor doesn’t make a pattern. Yet Gurman has been quite accurate in the past, and the pace of MacBook Air M4 release rumors has increased in recent months.
We think Apple must want to get this device out there on the market, especially since the M4 chip debuted on the seventh-generation iPad Pro last May. It’s not like Apple has to hash out a new chip for its release, and Mac fans are already PO’ed at having to wait almost a year for a new chip and receive leftovers from a tablet… a tablet!, they collectively yell.
Plus, as Gurman pointed out, stock of MacBook Air M3s has been starting to run low in recent weeks. That’s classic Apple. Right before any new device comes out, Apple likes to run out of most of its old stock before announcing the new device. More evidence that the MacBook Air M4 announcement is imminent.
The post Macbook Air M4 Rumored to Be Launching No Later Than March appeared first on VICE.
