For the past couple of months, we’ve been seeing some really strange leaks
when it comes to Apple’s Mac lineup for the rest of the year, including
the new redesigned MacBook Air which might be more disappointing than we all hoped for..
At one point, we were expecting a new redesigned Mac Mini and a 13” M2 MacBook Pro at Apple’s March
event, but of course, that didn’t happen because we got the new Mac Studio and the Studio Display.
Then, we got some weird leaks from 9to5mac telling us that the high-end
Mac mini isn’t even coming until next year, and that’s exactly what Ming-chi Kuo said last month,
claiming that the Mac Pro, the iMac Pro and the Mac mini
aren’t coming this year at all, which he confirmed AFTER the March event.
And that right there is a shocker because all of us have been expecting the Mac Pro to come at WWDC
because that’s the last piece of the puzzle to complete
Apple’s 2-year transition to their own chips.
And even worse, he predicted that the new Mac mini in 2023
will likely remain the same form factor design, which would be a bit embarrassing for Apple.
But the biggest bombshell of all that I wasn’t expecting was when Ming-chi Kuo
gave us some updated predictions for the new redesigned MacBook Air, and trust me,
this came as a complete shock to me.
He said that mass production will begin as soon as the end of the 2nd quarter which is June,
with an M1 chip, no mini-LED display, an all-new form factor design and more color options.
And yes, he did just say the M1 chip,
which is exactly the same chip that’s already in the current MacBook Air.
And when I first heard this,
I completely dismissed it because it didn’t make any sense at all to me,
and it sounded unrealistic, but now that I’m really thinking about what’s been going on over
the past month, as well as some major leaks from Mark Gurman, I think it could actually make sense.
But before I get into how Mark Gurman’s old leaks and a brand new report on Sunday line
up with this new redesigned M1 MacBook Air theory… I want to get into some recent developments that
are starting to make me lean towards this worst-case scenario for the MacBook Air.
As we all know, the tech industry has been facing supply chain issues over the past year or so,
and even Apple has been impacted by them, but now, I think things are getting much worse,
especially over the weekend, so let’s get started.
It all started about a month ago, on March 9th, Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple may not launch
any new Mini-LED products this year due to cost concerns, which is extremely disappointing.
Making things even worse, because of supply chain issues,
Ming reported that the regular iPhone 14 models coming this year
will actually feature the same A15 chip that we already have in the iPhone 13 Pro lineup.
And a day after that report, 9to5mac confirmed Ming’s report with their own sources as well.
Going further, Ming said that there seems to be no reason to be optimistic
about the 2022 mobile phone market, with many companies including Apple cutting orders,
which implies that the entire mobile phone industry is facing structural challenges.
Then, on March 27th, Ming cut his shipment estimate of the iPhone SE
by as much as 50% due to lowered demand.
But wait.. It gets worse. Ming said that Major Chinese Android phone brands have
cut orders by about 20% compared to the original 2022 shipment plan
due to low consumer confidence, and that’s global markets, not just Chinese markets.
And the scariest part of all is that he mentioned that
inventory levels of certain RF chips have exceeded 6-9 months,
but smartphone demand is still going down due to low consumer confidence about the economy.
Going further, it looks like Apple has cut Airpods 3 orders
by 30% or more for later this year because people aren’t willing to spend an extra $50
on AirPods 3, which could mean that people’s bank accounts are beginning to get tight.
And now, let’s get into the absolute worst-possible scenario that started
to gain attention over the weekend, which is the massive lockdown in China.
Apparently, over 193 million residents
are in full or partial lockdown, with food shortages throughout even Shanghai, China,
where subway passenger volumes have slowed to a crawl, being almost 100% closed down!
Even worse, Air Traffic going through Shanghai’s two major airports
has dropped to levels lower than was seen at the height of the early 2020 lockdowns.
And as far as the supply chain on the cargo ship side,
almost 500 ships are waiting off east China’s ports because of the lockdowns.
And it’s not just China getting impacted, because About half of German companies' supply chains,
logistics and warehousing are completely disrupted
or severely impacted by China’s lockdown situation.
And in terms of the US impact, all of this is happening on top of the already dire US supply
chain issues which peaked again in March, with logistics prices hitting a new high.
And even Tesla’s Shanghai factory could be shut down until at least Mid-May, according to reports.
And because of all of this, Ming-chi Kuo JUST reported
that the lockdowns are starting to affect iPhone assembly, and in the best-case scenario,
complete resumption of production may not be possible until late April or even early May!
And he mentioned that the longer the lockdown lasts, the further effect on consumer confidence,
which is already bad, and this would probably be detrimental
to the shipments of electronics, including Apple products, in the second half of 2022.
And now, when you take all of this into perspective,
it begins to make sense why Apple would decide to drop the mini-LED plans for the
MacBook Air redesign, as well as reusing the A15 chips in the new iPhone 14 models.
So what if the supply chain issues are worse than we think, and just to give an ounce of evidence to
that idea, Apple has just confirmed to Reuters that the iPhone 13 is now also being produced
in India as the US tech giant Apple tries to reduce reliance on its Chinese supply chain.
So now, I’m finally beginning to believe Ming when he says the redesigned MacBook Air is coming
with the old M1 chip because the only reason it would ever make sense
is because the supply chain issues are worse than we thought,
and it may be too expensive to put the M2 chip in the low-end MacBook Air.
So if this is true, Apple’s best option is to do exactly what Ming-Chi Kuo was saying,
release a redesigned MacBook Air with a bunch of new color options
which regular consumers are going to love and buy regardless of if it still has the M1 chip,
because many consumers don’t even know or care that an M2 chip is supposed to be coming soon.
The M1 chip is honestly more than powerful enough for basic use, and going this route will
allow Apple to save a lot of the new M2 chips for their more expensive products, seeing as
the MacBook Air is Apple’s best-selling laptop, and it’ll be much easier to give it the M1 chip
since they’re already mass-producing it for so many products including two of their iPads.
And this finally brings me to some old and new reports by Mark Gurman, which didn’t really
make sense until you consider Ming-Chi Kuo’s prediction of a new redesigned M1 MacBook Air.
Many months ago, he predicted that we would be getting both a new redesigned MacBook Air AND a
new 13” MacBook Pro which would be reusing the old design from the M1 MacBook Pro.
And before, we thought that it made absolutely zero sense because we assumed
both MacBooks would be getting the new M2 chip, so why in the world would anyone pay
MORE money for the 13” MacBook Pro with the same performance, but with the older design??
But now, if the new MacBook Air is truly getting the same M1 chip, then the people
who really care about performance would easily pay more money for the M2
13” MacBook Pro coming later this year because Pros care more about performance than looks.
And then, the lineup would finally make a TON of sense again, with the redesigned M1 MacBook Air,
then the M2 13” MacBook Pro, and then the new 14 and 16” high-end MacBook Pros.
And if you think about it, it makes so much sense for this new M2 MacBook Pro to use the old design
because if Apple gave it the new design AND an M2 chip, it would be stepping on the toes
of the 14” MacBook Pro, but with the old design.. It won’t!
And now, Mark Gurman’s latest PowerOn report points to two new Macs coming around the
middle of the year, potentially at WWDC, and one of those is likely the MacBook Air.
And if you think about it, if Apple isn’t ready to launch the M2 chip until Fall due to supply
issues, giving the M1 chip to MacBook AIr means that they could literally launch it
as soon as the redesign is ready, which could be around summertime.
And then as for the second Mac, Apple could easily launch the M1 Pro Mac Mini to replace
the current Intel model, which is currently the last Intel mac that apple still sells.
So with that said, to sum up this video,
the recent supply chain and economic issues are already impacting Apple,
which could lead to new redesigned MacBook Air sticking to the same old M1 chip.
Now if you totally disagree with me, then let me know in the comments below,
but if you learned something new, then click the circle above to subscribe for more videos
like this one. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in the next video!