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The latest generation of the stick-insect-thin MacBook Airs are set to arrive this week with beefed-up processors and higher capacity storage. Apple also had a record quarter, with staggering sales figures for the iPhone 4, iPad and iMacs — and the Cupertino company let slip a reference to a September launch for the iPhone 5.
Keep your eyes peeled, folks: the MacBook Air is definitely on its way this week. The new models have been rumoured to be turning up for a while now, sporting faster processors, better storage and the return of the backlit keyboard.
9 to 5 Mac reports a full list of specs from a sneaky source at Apple. The physical appearance of the new models will look the same, save for a newly added Thunderbolt port on the side and a backlit keyboard within. The base 11.6-inch model will sport an improved 1.6GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and a 64GB solid-state disk drive. The configuration can be beefed up online to include a 1.8GHz processor, 4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.
The base 13.3-inch model boasts a 1.7GHz processor, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. This again can be improved online to a include 1.8GHz processor, 4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. There’s no word on prices for these chaps yet, but you can bet they’ll be a few hundred bob north of a grand — those achingly thin bodies don’t come cheap.
Apple’s quarterly earnings report also appeared yesterday, with figures that frankly made our heads spin. The company’s revenue for the quarter was $28.57bn, with a gut-busting profit of $7.31bn — that’s up 124 per cent. Almost as good as our figures.
Record sales of the iPhone and iPad have helped Apple achieve such epic figures. Some 20.34 million iPhones were sold in the quarter, more than double the amount it sold in the same quarter the previous year, potentially putting it ahead of Nokia and challenging Samsung to the crown of smart phone king.
A hefty 9.25 million iPads were sold as well, which is almost triple the amount sold in the iPad’s debut quarter in 2010. Apple’s chief operating officer Tim Cook stated the company was selling “every iPad it could make”, in stark contrast to some of its struggling rivals.
Intriguingly, Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer stated the company expected to see a revenue slump in September of 12 per cent. His reason? The launch of iCloud, iOS 5 and a “future product transition” — almost definitely the iPhone 5.
While nothing is set in stone, we’d seriously suggest you wait for September if you’re considering taking the plunge into iPhone world.
