Apple has yet to refresh its MacBook Air lineup for 2012, and thanks to a report from Digitimes it seems that this year’s MacBook Air models could start from as low as $799, making it a more attractive option to would-be buyers and also to compete against Intel’s goal of ultrabooks hitting the $699 price tag by the middle of this year. Granted that Apple does use Intel’s hardware in their MacBook Pros, Intel is certainly pushing the ultrabook standard hard with its other manufacturing partners such as HP and Dell, and a $799 MacBook Pro would most certainly be a more attractive option compared to its current price of $999 for the base model.
Apple is reportedly considering responding to the upcoming second-generation ultrabooks by launching a US$799 MacBook Air in the third quarter of 2012, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
Although Acer has recently reduced its ultrabook shipment target, Intel continues to aggressively push ultrabooks and is aiming to have the devices priced at US$699 in the second half of the year. However, if Intel is unable to bring down ASPs to its goal, the price gap between ultrabooks and the US$799 MacBook Air may further postpone the time ultrabooks become standardized, the sources noted.
What do you guys think? Could a $799 MacBook Air be in the works? If it were, would its cheaper price tag convince you to hop aboard the OS X bandwagon?
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