Apple is readying to announce a new MacBook this week, report says

Apple had a busy February with the release of its new, lower-priced phone, the iPhone 16e. It also announced plans to add Apple Intelligence to its Vision Pro.

March looks to be another busy month as Apple gets ready for its big annual event, the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), which takes place in June.

To start the busy month, Apple could reportedly announce the existence of the M4 MacBook Air as soon as this week, according to Bloomberg Sunday.

Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the report.

What do we know about the MacBook Air M4?

There are naturally a couple of big questions people have about the next MacBook Air.

First of all, what is the price of the M4 MacBook Air? When it launched in March last year, the MacBook Air 13-inch (M3) started off with a price of $1,099 for the base model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, with the price going up depending on how much more RAM or storage a customer wants. Since its launch, the M3 MacBook Air has been sold brand-new for $999 or less.

The big question on pricing, however, is whether President Donald Trump's 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports will have an impact on the pricing. There are also threats from the president of 25% tariffs on semiconductors, which could affect Apple, whose processors are made by Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). Other computer manufacturers are scrambling to deal with these tariffs, but some are expected to transfer the costs to customers, which translates to higher prices for computers, laptops, and tablets.

Apple, however, could be able to sidestep the tariffs. TSMC is reportedly producing Apple's A16 chips in Arizona, which might be just enough to get around any proposed tariffs. The semiconductor company also has an eye on buying manufacturing plants currently owned by Intel.

There's also the recent news that Apple is planning a big investment in domestic production. The iPhone maker announced last week it planned to invest $500 billion in the U.S. over the course of the next four years. This would include expanding its team and facilities in Michigan, Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Oregon, North Carolina, and Washington. The company says it would also make a new factory in Texas and invest more in AI and silicon engineering. President Trump has taken credit for the deal, and it could be a sign that Apple may not have to deal with tariffs while competitors will, but that has yet to be determined.

The second big question about the M4 MacBook Air would be understanding how the new processor could improve on the laptop. If recent leaks are to be believed, while the MacBook Air is known for being lightweight, the M4 version is also shaping up to be a powerful machine.

Benchmarks numbers for the M4 MacBook Air showed up online back in February, and while the results have yet to be confirmed by Apple, it does show that the M4 on the MacBook Air is significantly more powerful than the MacBook Air M3. The Geekbench Metal benchmark showed the MacBook Air M4 had a score slightly higher than the MacBook Pro 14 M4, although the MacBook Pro 16 M4 was still far ahead.

The leaked benchmarks also revealed that, if true, the MacBook Air M4 will have an option that comes with 24GB of RAM, with the base model expected to come with 16GB of RAM.

What else is Apple coming up with?

Apple still has some more hardware reveals up its sleeves.

Coming after the release of the MacBook Air M4 is the next iPad Air. When it'll be announced is unknown, but it's likely to be announced soon after the reveal of the new MacBook and launch before the WWDC.

Another possible release before the start of WWDC is the next MacBook Pro. That news will likely come at the same time as news of the next Apple Silicon chip, the M5. Apple has yet to confirm the existence of its next processor, but the chip is reportedly already in production. The company will also reportedly focus on the next iPad Pro to promote the M5 chip.