$799 MacBook Airs Coming in Q3 2012

Reportedly aiming to take on Intel’s upcoming ultra-books priced around $700 US (roughly 538 EUR), Apple is said to be planning the release of a $799 MacBook Air model in the third quarter of 2012.

Citing the usual industry sources from Apple’s upstream supply chain, the hit-and-miss DigiTimes has a new scoop for Apple fanatics, this time regarding the price (not the specs) of an upcoming MacBook Air iteration.

The sources in question reportedly pointed out that Acer has reduced its ultra-book shipment target, whereas Intel continues to push aggressively, hoping to release devices in the $700 range in the near future.

The $799 MacBook Air is mentioned when the sources note that “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.”

Apple currently sells an 11-inch MacBook Air with 64GB of Flash storage for $999 (around 770 EUR) and a 128GB version priced at over a thousand dollars.

The Cupertino giant has a 13-inch version also selling for a higher price with 128GB of storage. Should Apple introduce this aggressively priced MacBook Air (at least by its own standards), “the sources believe the strategy will damage ultrabooks allowing Apple to continue to press its advantage,” according to the Taiwanese trade publication.

Apple has been long rumored to transform the MacBook Pro line into a new family of laptops that closely resemble the MacBook Air.

The company will undoubtedly press forward with its hardware upgrades this year, though it may well keep both laptop families on board until 2013, or 2014 when it may finally decides to merge them into a single notebook line.

Posted in: Hardware, Preview