Apple’s latest MacBook Air is set to be yet another huge success for the company, with half a million units of the new ultraportable having already shipped from the supply chain during June, according to a new report. This volume is expected to “remain strong” throughout July and August, and could see at least 1.5 million units shipped before the end of the September quarter.
Sources for Chinese trade publication DigiTimes have estimated that Apple’s entire MacBook family will reach sales of 13-14 million units during 2011… possibly even more:
The sources estimated that Apple’s MacBook series sales will reach 13-14 million units in 2011 and may even reach 15 million units, while adding that Apple is the only vendor that has provided a full shipments forecast to the first quarter of 2012 as the IT industry is being rather conservative about the overall demand in the second half of 2011.
During its recent quarterly conference call, Apple announced shipments of its Macs during the third quarter reached 3.95 million units — a 14% increase over last year’s numbers. Despite the impressive increase, however, analysts had predicted that at least 4 million Macs would ship during the last quarter.
Apple’s MacBook Air has been hugely popular since its refresh in October 2010, which saw the introduction of the 11-inch model. Yesterday the company issued another refresh, introducing Intel’s latest Core i5 and i7 processors, the company’s high-speed Thunderbolt technology, and backlit keyboards as standard.
