New MacBook Air Possible as Early as Next Week

Last March, MacRumors received an anonymous tip claiming that Apple would announce new iPad, iMac, and iPod models with three consecutive days of press releases the following week, and that information proved to be two-thirds accurate with new iPad Air and iPad mini models announced on Monday, March 18 and an iMac refresh on Tuesday, March 19.

Apple did announce a new product on the Wednesday, but it was new AirPods, not a new iPod. Given both products have "Pod" in their name, perhaps there was some confusion there, but it is clear the tipster was relatively informed.

Now, the same anonymous tipster has informed MacRumors that Apple plans to announce new MacBook Air models next week. We have yet to confirm this information, but given the tipster now has an established track record, we have elected to share this rumor. The tipster did not provide any further details at this time.

A few days ago, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Apple plans to launch updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models with scissor keyboards in the second quarter of 2020, following in the footsteps of the 16-inch MacBook Pro.

While the second quarter does not begin until April, an announcement next week would be just a few weeks earlier. Apple has announced new or refreshed products in March for the last five consecutive years, so there is precedence. In terms of covering all bases, however, we cannot rule out the possibility that the tipster received wrong information.

The current MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro are still equipped with butterfly keyboards that can suffer from issues such as sticky or unresponsive keys after prolonged use, which prompted Apple to initiate a free repair program worldwide in 2018. Apple finally solved this problem by reverting back to a scissor mechanism with the new Magic Keyboard on the 16-inch MacBook Pro, which has proven far more reliable.

Kuo has previously said that several other Apple products are planned for the first half of 2020, including the so-called iPhone 9, refreshed iPad Pro and MacBook Pro models, AirTags, a small wireless charging mat, and high-end over-ear headphones that may have AirPods branding, so it is possible Apple has more announcements in store next week.

Beyond receiving a True Tone display and a tweaked butterfly keyboard in July 2019, the MacBook Air was last updated in October 2018.