There is a report that a supply chain for Apple products out of Taiwan is shipping brand new 11.6 and 13.3 inch MacBok Air models featuring the Sandy Bridge platform and Thunderbolt interfaces in late May. This is for a launch that will be coming in June or July no doubt and seems it may not be the product Apple is supposedly going to launch on its retail anniversary. This is all reports from the makers in the supply chain. However Apple has not commented and is usually hush hush about its launches. Here a small overview of Apple in the laptop market and why this report of the new Mac Book Air is likely to take flight in June/July.
Apple shipped over 2.7 million notebook PCs in the first quarter of 2011, historically the second highest quarterly level and only 5% lower than the shipment volume in the preceding quarter. The 5% sequential drop was lower than the corresponding industry average decrease of more than 10%, and this was mainly due to booming sales of new MacBook Pro models. Along with shipments of the new MacBook Air, Apple’s notebook PC shipment volume in the second quarter is expected to rise by 5-10% on quarter and may attain 3.0 million units.