A Macbook Air update is pretty certain to pop up soon. The last refresh occurred in June last year (here’s our Macbook Air review to remind you) so another tweak is due and the unsleeping rumourmongers at DigiTimes claim to have the details on the next incarnation. Could Steve Jobs, scourge of netbooks, be about to sanction shrinking the Macbook Air down to 11.6in?
DigiTimes Research Analyst, Mingchi Kuo, has been reading the runes thrown down by Far Eastern component makers and says Apple is about to slim down the already sylph-like Macbook Air even further. He says the new model will be built by Taiwanese firm Quanta.
The current Macbook Air is one of three 13.3in models offered by Apple along with versions of the Macbook and Macbook Pro. Boiling down the Macbook Air to a more compact size could help to differentiate it from them but it would also presumably mean seriously rearranging the keyboard and even purging more ports.
With the iPad offering similar portability and a 9.7in screen, a slimmed down 11.6in Macbook Air could become an even more niche product. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen rumours of a size change for Apple’s slimmest laptop. In January last year, there were predictions of a 15in Macbook Air which came to nothing.
Could you see yourself toting an even smaller Macbook Air? Or has the iPad throughly filled that sweet spot?
