With Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) only a day away, rumours have been flooding in on possible new hardware releases, specifically a new MacBook Air. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman’s latest claim touches on the rumours of the lineup coming in several new colours, which might not happen as expected.
According to leaker Jon Prosser and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the new MacBook Air will apparently come with a white bezel and several new colours similar to the M1 iMac lineup. Gurman has put a damper on these reports by calling them “exaggerated” and claiming that the new lineup will most likely feature the regular space grey, silver, and gold, though the gold colour will feature a more “champagne” hue.
The new MacBook Air has been planned to launch at WWDC. I think the only way it doesn’t is if the China factory shutdowns created such a supply and release date gap that it wouldn’t make sense to announce it on Monday. https://t.co/Swb1xJ1wNS
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) June 4, 2022
Gurman also hinted at the possibility of Apple delaying the new laptop’s announcement, saying that while the company “planned” to launch the MacBook Air at WWDC, factory shutdowns in China could potentially lead to the product having a release date gap that is too big if announced too early.
While this is just an analysis, it would make sense as Apple is not immune to the current chip shortage and the significant manufacturing interruptions happening in parts of China due to its strict zero-COVID policy. Just last week, Nikkei Asia reported that Apple is currently behind schedule on this year’s iPhone lineup manufacturing, with one of the models facing a three-week delay.
The upcoming MacBook Air series is also expected to debut the much-awaited M2 Apple Silicon chip and will reportedly bring back the popular MagSafe charger, which we have already seen in the latest MacBook Pro. It is unknown if it will have the display notch featured in the Pro, but it is possible for it to follow that design.
On the software side, Apple is expected to unveil major updates to its ecosystem comprising iOS 16, iPadOS 16, watchOS 9, tvOS 16, and macOS 13. Ahead of the event, the tech giant has revealed that iOS 15 has been installed on 89% of all iPhones within the last four years, a steady rise compared to the adoption rate back in January which stood at 72%.
(Source: Mark Gurman/Twitter)
