New MacBook Air: Apple to update small laptop with new features and a lower price, report claims

Some had feared that the thin, relatively mature MacBook was never going to get an update

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces the new MacBook Air as he speaks during an Apple special event at the company's headquarters on October 20, 2010 in Cupertino, California (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Apple is going to revive the MacBook Air, its mostly forgotten small computer.

That's according to a new report that suggests that the laptop will get new features and a new lower price tag this year.

The new report claims that Apple will release at least three new big products this year: an even bigger, 6.1-inch version of the iPhone X, updated versions of the AirPods, and a MacBook Air. The first two have been long rumoured – but the new MacBook Air is a surprise.

Some had feared that Apple would never update the laptop, which was first introduced in 2008. It has gone for years with barely any tweaks, and has been superceded as Apple's most portable laptop by the newly revamped MacBook.

But the new report from reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that the laptop will receive updated features and a much cheaper price tag this year. Despite the fact little has changed in years, the cheapest version of the small laptop still sells for £949 in the UK.

Mr Kuo didn't reveal any of the new features that could come in the new laptop. But it is lacking in a number of features that are now standard across the Apple line – most obviously the Retina Display, a technology that was first revealed with the iPhone 4 in 2010 and has since become standard on every other Apple laptop.

The report claimed the new laptop would be revealed sometime in the second quarter of 2018. That could suggest that Apple will put it on sale around the same time as its Worldwide Developers Conference, the major event in June that Apple often uses to show off new laptops and computers as well as software.

Apple has also committed to update the iMac Pro, perhaps the only one of its products that is as neglected as the MacBook Air. The company has promised to rethink the computer, committing to release a new version though not saying for sure definitively would be released.

Mr Kuo also suggested that Apple will focus on the AirPods, its wireless ear buds, as well as an over-the-ear version that Apple is rumoured to be working on. As well as improving the technology in those headphones and adding waterproofing and other features, the company is expected to integrate them into its plans for augmented reality.

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