Rumor: Apple Suppliers To Go Full Speed In July Gearing Up For New MacBook Air

Anytime Apple is getting ready for a new product, some of the first whisperings often come out of China where suppliers spill the beans on ramp ups. The suppliers aren't always correct, but we never know. DigiTimes reports that sources in the supply chain for Apple are saying that suppliers are gearing up for full production in July for components to be used in the new MacBook Air notebook computers. The number of MacBook Air notebooks that Apple is said to be receiving in Q3 is very large.

The sources claim in Q3 Apple will get over 8 million MacBook Air notebooks. That would make sense with the holiday shopping season coming shortly thereafter. The same supplier sources claim in June parts and components for the machines that shipped totaled enough for 2.2-2.4 million notebooks. In July, the orders are expected to be in the range of 2.7-2.8 million units. Those parts should be for the existing model of the Air and would be consistent with Apple's tendency to discount outgoing products to move them ahead of a new launch.

Sources further claim that the projected shipments of MacBooks for 2011 has been raised from 13 million to 15 million units. There are expected to be a few changes to the new Air with OS X Lion onboard and rumored support for Thunderbolt. Both of those features would make sense and be no surprise. Rumors of a black MacBook Air were recently debunked by a source claiming to work for Apple. The source claims that the black coating absorbed skin oils and the notebook looked bad after a while and was scrapped.

[via DigiTimes]