Apple has updated its MacBook Air line earlier this year although some analysts feel that it fell short of innovative features. The company has to come up with more tricks or more groundbreaking features and updates if it wants to increase the value of its product line. It appears Apple may be planning something about just that.
Analysts predicted before that Apple may be preparing a 12-inch Retina MacBook edition. The release however may take some time extending to the 2015. Taiwan's Industrial and Commercial Times (link via various reports) claims otherwise saying that the company has another MacBook in store to be released before conclusion of the year.
The report indicated that the release may be possible with Intel coming up with enough number of "Broadwell" Core M chips for initial release. However, sites like BGR say that this should be taken with a grain of salt as Apple already completed its holiday release. Any announcements or launches until the end of the year may be highly unlikely.
Another report from The Motley Fool argues that the issue is not whether Intel can produce enough number of Broadwell chips to ship. Rather, Apple may have issues with the compatibility of the processors to its laptop line - another reason to doubt launch. While the Broadwell chips can allow more energy-efficient and fanless designs, still, Apple may not be willing to compromise the performance thus still opting for the Core i5 and i7.
For instance, the Intel's Core M processor 5Y70 edition, the most advanced of the series, only offers a 2.6 GHz CPU speed and 850 MHz graphics performance. The 5Y71 comes with 2.9 GHz CPU speed and 900 MHz graphics performance. Even with the improvements introduced, these only account for 11% and 5.9% respectively. They cannot be considered as game changers or something that would prompt Apple to make the switch according to the report.
Apple may be more willing to trade off the fanless design than the performance stats of its line. The company has not released any official announcements.
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