Why I think we will see a new MBA sooner than expected:
According to the recent page 1 article,
This is not the only place I have read that Intel is pushing its newest processors out for a big Montevina move in. And if you look at the MR Buyer's Guide for the Macbook, there is a clear break in a steady pattern of release dates, and my guess is that it has to do with Intel lighting a fire under Apple's bum,
View attachment mb update.bmp
Next, there's the processor in the current Air. As said at http://blogs.computerworld.com/macbook_air_reccomendation_wait ,
Now, when looking to the Intel product roadmap, there are two Penryn chips to be released in May that stick out for obvious reasons,
View attachment penryn air.bmp
These are low-voltage chips, coming in at 1.6 and 1.8 GHz, and with Penryn's already lowered battery consumption, they could have a much greater impact on the Air's battery life than say the 2.1 GHz Penryn processor that is already released. Also, these two processors have 6 mb of cache as opposed to the 3 mb cache some are complaining about with the new macbooks. These two chips STICK OUT. It's almost like they were made with the Air specifically in mind. Now, I'm not sure how things are on the iPod HDD and SDD front, but those fields are always rapidly increasing in regard to capacity and performance. Just like the iPod touch and iPhone received randomly scheduled updates, I think the Air will be refreshed sooner than you expect.
And that's all I have to say about that.
-Ado
According to the recent page 1 article,
Apple insiders confirmed the company will refresh its notebook lineups in June, which comes as no surprise since all Centrino partners indicated they will announce notebooks based on the new Montevina Centrino 2.
Meanwhile, Digitimes details Intel's aggressive timetable with plans for Santa Rosa (Merom) to drop from 60% of shipments in the 1st quarter to 35% of shipments in 2nd quarter. Even the just released Santa Rosa (Penryn) is expected to be phased out by year's end to make room for Montevina.
This is not the only place I have read that Intel is pushing its newest processors out for a big Montevina move in. And if you look at the MR Buyer's Guide for the Macbook, there is a clear break in a steady pattern of release dates, and my guess is that it has to do with Intel lighting a fire under Apple's bum,
View attachment mb update.bmp
Next, there's the processor in the current Air. As said at http://blogs.computerworld.com/macbook_air_reccomendation_wait ,
Intel is late on their delivery of their ultra-low power 45nm laptop chips. Clearly, the MacBook Air is the exact computer that these types of chips belong in. So Apple and Intel spun it as going out of their way to do something special. That something special was jimmy-ing a 65nm chip onto a board that was made for a 45nm one. The 45 nm chips will be arriving by mid-year and will likely be put in rev 2 of the MacBook Air. They will use less power per CPU cycle and that five hour battery life could easily turn into six - and with the reduced power consumption, they might be able to crank the processor speed up to and beyond 2 Ghz or maybe even fit in some more wireless options..
Now, when looking to the Intel product roadmap, there are two Penryn chips to be released in May that stick out for obvious reasons,
View attachment penryn air.bmp
These are low-voltage chips, coming in at 1.6 and 1.8 GHz, and with Penryn's already lowered battery consumption, they could have a much greater impact on the Air's battery life than say the 2.1 GHz Penryn processor that is already released. Also, these two processors have 6 mb of cache as opposed to the 3 mb cache some are complaining about with the new macbooks. These two chips STICK OUT. It's almost like they were made with the Air specifically in mind. Now, I'm not sure how things are on the iPod HDD and SDD front, but those fields are always rapidly increasing in regard to capacity and performance. Just like the iPod touch and iPhone received randomly scheduled updates, I think the Air will be refreshed sooner than you expect.
And that's all I have to say about that.
-Ado