Macbook Air 2014 Retina Release Date Delayed Due to Intel Production Line Delay?
Apple has been preparing for the release of the new Macbook Air with Retina Display by bringing down the prices of current stock drastically in hopes of selling it before the new batch of Macbook Airs come in retail. Some retailers even have been providing coupons for student discounts on existing Macbook Pros and Airs.
The new Macbook Air is speculated to come in two variants, much like the older Macbooks. Apple is focusing their resources on putting the 12-inch Macbook Air into production. The company is collaborating alongside Intel to provide them with the new 14-nm Broadwell chips, which will be installed in the new Macbook Airs.
Intel had experienced a delay in their production lines earlier in the year causing Apple to push their release of the new Macbook Airs a few months back. The company has announced, however, that production for the Broadwell chips has now continued and will be shipping before the holiday season.
The only downside to this good news is that Intel will be producing a few variants of the Broadwell chips and has only confirmed the shipping of the M variety chips. Apple needs the U variety chips to continue production of the Macbook Air, and these chips won't probably come out of the assembly line until 2015. This delay will also put the Macbook release to 2015.
Of course when the Broadwell U variant chips do come out, the Macbook Air with Retina Displays will follow soon. These new chips will be replacing the old Haswell chips in old Macbook Air models which will enable the new laptops to get an increase in battery life by as much as 30 percent.
Until Intel ships out the Broadwell U variants, Apple can't push through with production and will only set the release date further into 2015.
