Apple upgrades MacBook Air and Mac Studio after sales resurgence

Apple rolled out updated MacBook Air laptops and Mac Studio desktops, seeking to maintain a sales resurgence for the company’s computer line.

The new MacBook Air gets the speedier, AI-focused M4 processor, an upgrade from the M3. The models come in the same 13-inch and 15-inch sizes and start at US$999 (HK$7,792.2) and US$1,199, a US$100 price cut from the M3 versions. Beyond the new chips, the machines are available in a new sky blue color option and include an upgraded FaceTime camera.

Apple also updated the Mac Studio, a desktop computer that’s positioned between the Mac mini and Mac Pro. The new version comes in M4 Max and M3 Ultra configurations — an usual approach that offers consumers a choice between a new chip architecture and an older one with more horsepower.

The Mac Studio is priced from US$1,999, matching the prior M2 Max version.

Apple’s Mac line performed better than expected during the holiday season, helping offset sluggish demand for the iPhone. The segment grew 16 percent to US$8.99 billion, topping the US$7.94 billion estimated by Wall Street. On the company’s quarterly earnings call, Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook cited the MacBook Air as one of the reasons.

The M4 chip comes to the MacBook Air after first launching in the iPad Pro last May. The processor was also at the heart of the MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac mini models unveiled last year. The chip’s central processing unit, or CPU, has 10 cores — a measure of computing power — up from eight in the M3 MacBook Air. Both models include a graphics processing unit, or GPU, with 10 cores.

The Mac Studio represents the model’s first update in nearly two years, and it brings some potential dissonance to the broader lineup. The US$5,999 Mac Pro wasn’t updated as part of the unveiling and is now less powerful than a model with a significantly lower price.

After putting the M3 Ultra in the Mac Studio, Apple could theoretically use a newer-generation chip in the next version of the Mac Pro, helping justify the cost of its top-of-the-line model.

The M4 Max chip in the standard configuration of the Mac Studio arrives after first coming to high-end MacBook Pros. That component has a 16-core CPU and a 40-core GPU, up from the 12-core CPU and 38-core GPU in the M2 Max Mac Studio.

The M3 Ultra chip has a 32-core CPU and 80-core GPU, up from the 24-core CPU and 76-core GPU in the M2 Ultra it replaces.

The move to the M3 and M4 in the Mac Studio also enables ray tracing, a technology that improves graphics in gaming. And the upgrades better position the device as an AI development machine, a category that the personal computer industry has embraced recently.

Wednesday’s Mac upgrades follow a slew of other new Apple products. On Tuesday, the company introduced a new iPad Air with an M3 chip and a low-end Magic Keyboard, as well as an updated entry-level iPad that adds an A16 processor. Last week, it started selling the iPhone 16e.

Bloomberg