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Of course everyone’s going to buy the new Retina MacBook Air

Published Mar 16th, 2018 9:32PM EDT
MacBook Air Retina release date
Image: Rafiq Sarlie

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According to a bunch of rumors and supply-chain sources, 2018 is going to finally be the year that Apple launches a new MacBook Air. We don’t have all the details just, but a few consistent rumors are that it will have a Retina screen (a huge improvement over the dated non-HD panel on the current MacBook Air), and a budget-friendly price of around $800.

If those two things are true, Apple is basically going to be printing money. Most people I know love the MacBook Air’s size, battery life, and port selection very dearly, so if Apple can stick in a better screen and keep the price low, it’ll be a home run.

That’s also the assessment reached by top insider analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In a new report, the KGI analyst claims that Apple’s MacBook line will see the best year-on-year growth of any of Apple’s product lines, with a forecasted growth of 13-16%. That’s compared to a forecast of 7-10% for iPad and 4-6% for iPhone.

According to Street Insider, the bulk of the growth comes from “new models,” which we assume to be the new MacBook Air:

Kuo added that shipments of components look to grow 60-80% QoQ in 2Q18 on the start of shipments of new models.

Most of the shipments will happen in later in the year he said, with 2nd-half shipments accounting for 65-70% the of annual shipments.

The other good news here for Apple-watchers is that Touch Bar MacBook Pro shipments are “significantly up,” so maybe people are finally coming around to the idea of paying $1,800 for a laptop with two screens.

Chris Mills
Chris Mills News Editor

Chris Mills has been a news editor and writer for over 15 years, starting at Future Publishing, Gawker Media, and then BGR. He studied at McGill University in Quebec, Canada.