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August production reported for Retina Display MacBook Air with 12-inch model to follow

Waiting for a retina display update on Apple’s MacBook Air laptop? If the Economic Daily News out of Taiwan is correct, you won’t have to wait much longer: The business-focused site reported over the weekend that parts for a refreshed MacBook Air with a higher resolution screen are shipping to Apple’s manufacturing partners now.

Macbook Air (angled view)

Apple Insider notes that parts shipments now combined with production of the laptops starting in August indicate October as a possible launch month for the revamped MacBook Air line. Aside from some changes in the chip that runs inside the laptop, the current MacBook Air computers are much the same as they’ve been since the late 2010 update.

Adding a retina display would obviously change that but it may not be the only difference: KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggested in April that Apple would introduce a 12-inch MacBook Air in the third quarter of this year, fitting between the two currently available models. According to the Economic Daily News, that potential product may be delayed until later, possibly until 2015, due to a shortage of the chips needed to run it.

 

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