I’m reluctant to say the rumours about a 12in MacBook Air with a single USB-C port “don’t make sense”. Mark Gurman has a pretty good track record and very good sources within Apple, although – as he states himself – his source has only seen a prototype and prototypes have a habit of changing before final release.
What’s more, Apple has a habit of confounding people who say something doesn’t make sense. Every now and then a rumour will emerge which does’t make sense until the moment when the product is revealed and that single snippet of information is placed into the context of a finished device.
I do know, judging by Gurman’s report, Apple is making one of the devices I dream of owning. Having had an 11in Air, I know the value of an ultraportable Mac which is robust enough to be thrown in a bag on a whim. Owning a retina MacBook Pro 13in, I know how wonderful a high resolution screen is. I don’t want a plethora of ports: thin and light are much more in tune with what I want a portable machine to be.
What also interests me is how this might fit in with Apple’s overall product line. Will this be the onlyAir now? This would certainly make a much clearer split between Pro and Air lines. But a lot of people have bought 13in Airs as their only machine – would a 12in version be powerful enough for this?
Then there’s the (also rumoured) iPad Pro. Wouldn’t a 12in iPad and a 12in Air make for a confusing choice for consumers? Doesn’t this further muddy the product line? More importantly for me which one of these goddamn machines do I buy?
