Apple’s newly announced MacBook Air has been in mass production since September and is expected to see a wave of replacement demand despite its $1,199 starting price, “which is much higher than expected,” according to Digitimes Research. The laptop is expected to help the tech giant secure fourth place in the global notebook market.
Digitimes Research says worldwide notebook shipments are forecast to increase 2.8% sequentially to their highest levels for 2018 in the fourth quarter thanks to strong seasonal demand and improving Intel CPU supply. Despite the tight supply of Intel’s mainstream and entry-level processors, worldwide notebook shipments still rose 4.8% sequentially and dropped less than 1% on year to arrive at around 40 million units in quarter three due to rising Chromebook and gaming notebook sales, notes the research group.
