Apple has just revealed its new MacBook Air. The 2016 lineup is an overhauled one, as the series concentrates on the bigger versions, with the 11-inch version officially discontinued.
While the 2016 MacBook Pro took the spotlight in the keynote launch on Oct. 27, the Cupertino-based company gives hint on the future of its other laptop lineup, the MacBook Air. In the keynote event, SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller stated that "We're going to continue to offer MacBook Air 13-inch in our line."
Meanwhile, it is confirmed that the shift in the lineup details for Apple laptops cut down the MacBook Air series to just the 13-inch version, as the 11-inch variant has been taken off Apple's website page.
The 13-inch MacBook Air has also become the entry-level laptop in the Apple MacBook series. The base model starts at $999, with an Intel Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of SSD storage. Meanwhile, the step-up version retains most of the specs and features, including the 12-hour battery, but the native storage gets bumped up to 256 GB.
Speculations previously suggested that Apple will be featuring major improvements to the MacBook Air lineup since its only recent update has been upgrading the memory from 4 GB to 8 GB of RAM. However, with the supposed 2016 MacBook Air not included in the Oct. 27 launch, rumors of MacBook Air discontinuation has started. Reportedly, Apple is slowly streamlining its MacBook lineups, with a staggered pull-out of the MacBook Air. Eventually, the 13-inch version will also be discontinued and will be replaced by the 12-inch MacBook as the base model for Apple's laptop lineup. The top-tier series, meanwhile, will be the new MacBook Pro.
It remains to be seen if Apple will indeed discontinue the MacBook Air, given that some observers say that the supposed 2016 version may still make it to the expected March press event next year.
