The infamous Taiwanese publication Digitimes has yet again jumpstarted the never ending Apple rumor mill, this time suggesting that an entry level MacBook Air is planned for the third quarter of this year.
According to Digitimes, the device will cost $799, down from the current starting price of $999. Apple is apparently looking to target the myriad of low priced, super thin computers powered by Intel’s ‘Ultrabook’ campaign.
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.
As pointed out by MacRumors, it is unclear how Apple would be able to achieve this $200 discount on the price of the MacBook Air because of the limited flexibility in component pricing. As you probably know, Apple has always focused on maintaining a high profit margin – a $799 MacBook Air goes against that philosophy.
Who knows, maybe Apple is simply catering to those who find Macs to be too expensive.