UPDATE MacBook Air OS X Lion (A La Sandy Bridge) Due July, Expect MacMania
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Mac attack: analysts tip a brand spanking new MacBook Air OS X Lion for next month and predict a buying frenzy to follow.


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Image: Apple District

There’s also a surprise in store – namely Sandy Bridge. Apple’s latest MacBook Air is coming next month, analysts believe. And not only will it be sporting the just announced OS X Lion but may also feature a high-speed Thunderbolt port.

And all will be revealed by July, believe analysts at Deutsche Bank.

This was also corroborated by Apple Insider, who last week claimed Apple had placed orders for 380,000 Sandy Bridge-based MacBook Airs this month, with the 11.6 inch model accounting for more than half of the anticipated batch.

And the update will send Mac users into a “strong” frenzy, spurring many of the of the 54 million global Mac users to upgrade and may sell as many as 1.5 million of the laptops every quarter alone.

“Our checks suggest a forthcoming MacBook Air refresh in July where we believe units could ramp to as high as 1.5M units per [quarter] or 50 percent of the MacBook business,” DB analyst Chris Whitmore wrote in a research note on Monday.

“We also believe Lion will drive a strong upgrade cycle due to: 1) low ASP; 2) significant enhancements/feature upgrades; and 3) arrives in conjunction with MacBook Air refresh.”

The fledging OS will be available only via download Mac App Store. In Australia it will cost A$31.99.

The ultra light laptop will boasts 250 or more new features including iCloud, multitouch gestures and Lion has more multi-touch gestures, full-screen apps, and a system called Mission Control that provides a bird’s-eye-view of every running app and window.

 

Among its new features, the most important improvements include iCloud, multitouch gestures, mission control and resume, says Whitmore.

Reports earlier today had cited next week for the release but it now appears July is the date to watch.

Oh, and other rumours doing the rounds in the Apple realm are a higher res screen for the iPad 3, “5-6 times higher than iPad 2” to be precise, althoguh we’ll believe this when we see it, which is sometime next year.