Oliver Haslam on March 12, 2018, 7:44 pm

2018 MacBook Air To Feature Retina Display, Will Cost $999

Hot on the heels of claims by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo last week that Apple would be launching a new, cheaper MacBook Air this year which were then followed by a second report that the pricing for such a device would be between $799 and $899, we now have a third report which appears to add further corroboration to the theory.

The third report does however come via the notoriously unreliable DigiTimes, but it does tie in with some of the things we have been hearing over the past week or so.

As the story goes, Apple will reportedly release a new “entry-level” MacBook in a 13.3-inch size during the second quarter of the year. While DigiTimes labels the machine as a “MacBook,” it’s unclear whether this is the same device previously labelled as a “MacBook Air” during previous reports of this ilk.

One area things do appear to differ between reports is the price, with DigiTimes reporting that the new notebook will sell for the same as, or more than the current MacBook Air which is priced at $999; perhaps the inclusion of the Retina Display may drive the cost to that price point.

The 13.3-inch a-Si panels for the new notebook feature the same resolution as Apple’s 13.3-inch MacBook Pro at 2,560 by 1,600. LG Display will begin supplying the panel in April with the new MacBook scheduled to enter mass production at the end of May or the beginning of June.

Along with new MacBooks of some sort, DigiTimes also believes that Apple will be launching new iPad models in the second quarter and new iPad Pro models during the second half of the year, something that has also received traction via similar reports of late.

All things being equal it does look increasingly likely that we will see new iPads and new notebooks in the coming months, although quite what the lineup will look like afterwards remains to be seen.

(Source: DigiTimes)