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Updated MacBook Air to Offer Minimum of 128 GB SSD and 4 GB RAM?

Thursday July 14, 2011 11:25 am PDT by Eric Slivka
Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today reported to AppleInsider that "industry checks" within Apple's supply chain suggest that the company is boosting the specs on its MacBook Air in the expected refresh to a minimum of 128 GB of solid state storage and 4 GB of RAM. That refresh has been widely rumored for some time, with Apple reportedly holding off until OS X Lion is released to the public to launch the new MacBook Air.
In a communication to AppleInsider on Thursday, Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said his industry checks suggest Apple is no longer placing orders MacBook Airs with 2GB of RAM. Instead, those checks indicate that all new 11.6- and 13.3-inch models will include 4GB of RAM as standard, as it will improve performance of Mac OS X Lion, also due to ship on each model.

Similarly, Kuo cited the same checks in suggesting that Airs with just 64GB solid-state-drives may go away in favor of Apple shipping only 128GB and 256GB models as standard, given that the bulk of Apple's shipments have been for models containing those larger drives.
The current MacBook Air models all carry 2 GB of RAM in their stock configurations, although they can be upgraded to 4 GB for $100 on build-to-order configurations. On the storage side, Apple's entry-level 11.6-inch model offers 64 GB of solid state storage, with users able to step up to 128 GB on the high-end model. The 13.3-inch MacBook Air already offers a minimum of 128 GB with the high-end model sporting 256 GB.


Kuo also indicates that Apple will continue to use a separate board for the solid state drive rather than shifting to new technology soldered directly onto the motherboard. He also suggests that Apple will likely adopt the following Sandy Bridge chips from Intel for the updated MacBook Air models: 1.6 GHz Core i5-2467M, 1.7 GHz Core i7-2637M, and 1.8 GHz Core i7-2677M.

Kuo has proven to have solid connections when it comes to MacBook Air information, as evidenced by his revelation last July that Apple was working on an 11.6-inch model, a machine that appeared alongside a revamped 13.3-inch model in October.

Outcome: The MacBook Airs were updated but kept 64GB SSDs and 2GB RAM as the minimums.


Related Roundup: MacBook Air
Tags: Concord Securities, Ming-Chi Kuo
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Air (Buy Now)
[ 199 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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ouimetnick
107 months ago
4GB should be minimum for a premium laptop. Isn't it the min for cheap windows ones?
Rating: 19 Votes
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Duke15
107 months ago
Thank God, but whens it going to be out thats what i care about
Rating: 13 Votes
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bigp9998
107 months ago
MacRumors conveniently failed to quote this portion of the report:

"It [AppleInsider] however warned on multiple occasions not to expect the new Macs this week, despite continuous unsubstantiated claims published elsewhere on the web that have ultimately proven to be grossly inaccurate and overhyped."

:D
Rating: 12 Votes
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KristyS9
107 months ago
:apple:
Rating: 12 Votes
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zedsdead
107 months ago
But did they bring back the backlit keyboard and IR sensor?
Rating: 10 Votes
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iDemiurge
107 months ago
Wonder if there will be a 11" 256 Gb option...
Rating: 8 Votes
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itcomesinwaves
107 months ago
Extra chips

Hopefully they're using all the 64GB units for the next iPhone.
Rating: 6 Votes
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MoreAwesomeDanU
107 months ago
enough with the rumors just release the god damn machines already
Rating: 6 Votes
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drewyboy
107 months ago

Apple is the only company I know of that has managers that are stupid enough to postpone the release of several major (backward compatible) hardware products in order to wait for a software update that is free in any event.

The only reason I can think of for why they might be doing this (apart from unbelievable stupidity) is that the new Air, Mac Pro, and Mini have hardware components that only work with Lion.


That my friend is why you'll never find yourself in a position as a manager for a large corporation. Apple is master at delivering the best experience. Do you really want to explain to ppl, yeah, in 2 weeks you can upgrade to a new os. how many ppl do you think will do that? This creates better experience, drive adoption of a new os, drive adoption of the mac app store, etc. I'm sorry sir, but if you are that blind to see this, you sir... nm, I'm going to name call. I think you get my point.

Edit: I think Apple knows what they are doing with having 70B in the bank, 2nd largest market cap in the world, and this with only owning ~11% PC market, ~16% smartphone market, and other misc. products. You tell me who's better at delivering products ;)
Rating: 6 Votes
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nebulos
107 months ago

MacRumors conveniently failed to quote this portion of the report:

"It [AppleInsider] however warned on multiple occasions not to expect the new Macs this week, despite continuous unsubstantiated claims published elsewhere on the web that have ultimately proven to be grossly inaccurate and overhyped."

:D


This is the second time this week that MR cherry picks an AppleInsider article, leaving out info related to release dates. (See the backlit keys article for the other.)

Should we just start reading AppleInsider instead?

Not happy.
Rating: 6 Votes

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