This is exactly the reason I'm about to get an Air.
Question is do I go ahead and get a 13/4GB/128GB SSD now or wait?
Wait for IVB. not too far away now
Wait for IVB. not too far away now
No. Apple got Sandy Bridge right when others got them. It's true that Apple did custom order some chips from Intel, but it's not like Intel gave Apple chips before all other OEMs.
So if IB is delayed until June, I'd guess that it'd be August or so before Apple can introduce new IB MacBooks. That would also coincide with Mountain Lion release schedule, so it makes more sense.
Not sure what to think now. Someone in this thread says because of IVB delays, the Air reboot could be pushed back to December.
Link
I think that's more because they take less time to design, implement, and mass manufacture MacBooks than other manufacturers. But then... Apple only has to maintain a production run of so many products, and they can keep the same chassis for a long time, whereas other manufacturers usually have to redesign everything from chassis to board.
So yeah, perhaps they come to the market with products faster, but I don't think they get their hands on the chips any faster than other OEMs to test.
I doubt Apple is Intel's #1 customer in terms of revenue, but they have shown in the past that they're willing to pay a premium for parts. That coupled with Apple's general appeal (which of course rubs off on Intel) has to be a pretty big bargaining chip for Apple.If I am not mistaken, it isn't unheard of for Apple to get chips ahead of the competition.
They were the first to market (by at least a month or more) with Penryn Core 2s and 8600ms (though that proved to be less good since the 8600 was notoriously bad) and I think that they have gotten first shipments of Xeons for the Mac Pro a couple of times.
When the original MBA came out, they had the first chips that were built on Intel's smaller process (I can't remember where they were at then)
But why would they, only in those specific instances, have had such a long time period where they were the only option with those chips? When the Penryn MBP came out, it was just about the absolute best performer for the money for a few weeks, maybe even 2 months (I can't recall exactly) Nobody else had Penryn, and no one else had the 8 series for a while.
And I think that the only reason that other OEMs redesign so much is out of fear of stagnation. I think they aren't crazy about any of their designs enough to say 'This is what we are going iterate on' and move forward from there. Every new model is a complete rebuild from the previous one. There are exceptions, both big and small (ThinkPad, big exception) but for the most part, Apple seems to be the only one to stick with a design for a while, at least in their computers. They change up their iDevices quite frequently, every 1-2 years.
It's been a while since Intel has shown that kind of preferential treatment towards Apple (4 years is a long time). Plus, I'm sure it angers other OEMs when Intel plays such games, when other OEMs clearly provide more business for them in terms of number of chips sold.
Regardless, Apple is no longer beholden to press event cycles like they were back in 2008. It makes little sense to get "early chips" from Intel, only to constantly have their small stock of laptops sold out. It's discouraging to a would-be buyer, who might instead start wondering to look for something else. I'm of the belief that a well-stocked product that sells well is better than a understocked product that is sold out. There are other options out there, this isn't a game console on launch day.
Was going to wait for a 15" MBA, but am seriously considering a 13" refurb.
RAM is still my sticking point with the MBA. If they sold a 8GB model, I probably would have done it by now. I wish they gave you at least 1 DIMM slot in addition to the on board.