No MacBook Air in 2016: would there be anything wrong with this picture?
When the latest refresh of the MacBook Air was introduced in March of last year, it peaked in terms of thinness, and performance, as an ultra portable which has become the de-facto entry-level MacBook after the discontinuation of the original MacBook in 2011. The MacBook Air has been the perfect entry point for those who never owned a MacBook before, as well as those well overdue for an upgrade.
The MacBook Air’s original release goes as far back as 2008, and it was originally meant to sit right below the MacBook Pro, and provide best in class performance for consumers with portability and battery life in mind. The MacBook Air came in two sizes, 11 inches and 13 inches, to best fit portability requirements.
When the 2015 MacBook Retina, better known as New MacBook, was released, the first thought in the mind of analysts and opinionists alike, was a very optimistic vision of the MacBook Air. By introducing a 12 inch laptop, Apple filled the gap between the 11 inch and the 13 inch MacBook Air, as an additional entry level option for consumers looking for a simplified version of the MacBook Air that is more portable, lighter, and some argue, even faster than the 11 inch MacBook Air.
A year later, the industry has began noticing the lack of the usual leak about the MacBook Air, either from the usual “sources close to Apple”, as well as from any of the manufacturing plants around the world. Not a peep about the MacBook Air.
One could argue that this is no guarantee of Apple either discontinuing the line, or simply keeping it under a tighter lid than usual, but one thing is certain: there are signs that indicate that the MacBook Air may be slated to be replaced by a new breed of laptops, possibly following along the line of the 12 inch MacBook. What signs, you ask?
Apple is consolidating its product lines
Let’s look at the iPad Pro, for instance: by creating a 9.7 inch iPad Pro, the iPad air has instantly lost its ranking as the perfect entry-level tablet. Apple wasn’t subtle about it. It didn’t call it “iPad Air”, or “The New iPad Air”. It called it ”9.7 inch iPad Pro”, because there is no other like it, under all aspects, from processing power, to storage, to display quality and accessories.
By this token, it’s easy to deduce that as of 2017, at the very least, there will be a strong chance of Apple simplifying its brands even further by offering only two MacBook laptops: The MacBook Pro, which will never go away, as it’s the de-facto high-end option for working professionals, power users and the enterprise, and the “MacBook”, which may come in other sizes as well, perhaps a 12 inch and a 14 inch version, for consistency.
With that said, any 2016 or 2017 MacBook Air to hit the market will look unnecessarily like a slimmed-down version of the MacBook Pro, which is a waste of R&D resources for Apple, considering that the MacBook is likely to need an image refresh in order to integrate radical enhancements like biometric hardware, like fingerprint scanners and eye/face recognition.
If we were to go by these assumptions, it suddenly becomes clear how far back Apple has been thinking of axing the MacBook Air, although it’s not an easy thing to do, since the MacBook Air is still one of the most popular laptops in the world, which explains why Apple is exercising extreme caution in leaking any information concerning to its refresh... or demise.
What’s your take on the MacBook Air? Will there be a 2016 refresh? Should there be one? Comments are welcome.