As Apple prepares to launch new M4 Macs, I have one question: Where is my new MacBook Air?
Apple is likely only a few weeks away from unveiling its new range of M4 Mac products, with current leaks suggesting the new Macs will hit the market in early November. It was a less than watertight build to launch, with a slew of leaked details (including an apparent full-length leak of the M4 MacBook Pro on YouTube), but there is one very noticeable absence.
I’m talking, as you may have guessed, about the long-awaited M4 MacBook Air. This isn’t actually the new product I’m most excited about – that honor goes to the M4 Mac mini, because despite my usual Apple skepticism, I’m all for a powerful compact computer – but I’m honestly baffled by the apparent exclusion of the Air from the new product range, with current rumors suggesting it will launch sometime in early 2025.
After all, the MacBook Air is kind of a big deal. Apple itself calls it “the most popular laptop in the world” – a term I take with a grain of salt, as Apple doesn’t offer the same variety of configurations and models as almost every other laptop manufacturer – and we have the most recent M3 award-winning MacBook Air a rare five stars in our review. Even as a known macOS hater, I have to admit that it is undeniably a great laptop. So why isn’t Apple leading the way when it comes to the upcoming M4 series?
This isn’t the first time Apple has ditched its “most popular” Mac product. Last year, the same strange move took place at October’s ‘Scary Fast’ event, with the M3 chip officially unveiled first in a new MacBook Pro and iMac. The M3 MacBook Air only came out in March of this year, so it now looks like Apple is going to repeat that pattern.
Now, I’m just a humble technology journalist, unaware of the conversations that are undoubtedly happening behind closed doors at Apple, but I’d like to offer a few possible explanations for this, frankly, quite baffling decision to apparently deprioritize the MacBook. Air, despite its claimed popularity. Why exactly doesn’t Apple want to lead the way with its supposedly market-conquering laptop?
Well, our first answer might come from sales statistics. According to a study conducted by research organization CIRP, the MacBook Pro currently accounts for the largest share of Mac products sold in the US, with a 43% share, while the MacBook Air comes in second at 34%. But that’s still more than the remaining Mac devices combined, with the iMac, Mac Pro, Mac mini, and Mac Studio (in descending order of share) accounting for the remaining 23%.
So the MacBook Air is significantly more popular than the iMac and Mac mini, yet both lines are reportedly receiving new M4-powered models this year. It could be related to profitability; the iMac and MacBook Pro both typically retail well above the Air, and bringing the more expensive products to market first could be a smart business move. On the other hand, the Mac mini is by far the cheapest Mac product, with the M4 model presumably getting a significant redesign that hopefully won’t have too much of an impact on the entry price (especially since there was no M3 variant of Apple’s small desktop system).
A little trickery
I conclude that there is a simple explanation for why Apple is holding back the MacBook Air – twice now – as it introduces a new wave of Mac products. Apple just wants its shiny new M4 chip to look good – and it’s easier to show that off in a Pro laptop with active cooling, rather than the sleeker, passively cooled MacBook Air.
Not to mention the fact that the new M4 MacBook Pro reportedly comes with 16GB of RAM in the base configuration – something users and reviewers alike have been asking for for years, as 8GB simply isn’t enough for intensive work these days . If Apple plans to keep 8 GB of unified memory as the basis for the MacBook Air, the M4 chip in the cheapest model will obviously perform less well in many tasks compared to a new 16 GB MacBook Pro.
By releasing the new MacBook Air long after the buzz about a new chip has died down, Apple could hope to soften any backlash around expected versus real-world performance – and Apple has already stoked excitement about the M4 by putting it in to release its latest iPad Pro 13-inch in May, a smart move considering that high-level computing performance is less important on a tablet, and iPadOS is less resource-intensive than macOS.
To be clear, I’m not saying the new MacBook Air will be bad. It won’t be as strong as the MacBook Pro, and that’s fine — it’s cheaper, after all — but Apple probably doesn’t want anyone to consider it a “downgrade.” I will be though heavy disappointed when it launches with just 8GB of memory as standard, especially considering the ridiculous amount Apple charges for RAM upgrades. Don’t let me down, Tim…
