MacBook Air coming next week with socketed 128GB SSDs

By Jason D. O'Grady July 15, 2011, 8:59am PDT
Summary
Several sources indicate that the third-generation (3G?) MacBook Air will arrive next week on either Thursday (7/21) or Friday (7/22). Socketed 128GB SSDs and 4GB RAM will be standard on the new Airs according to the rumor mill.
Topics
Apple MacBook Air, Apple MacBook, RAM, Notebooks, Memory, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Semiconductors, Components, Jason D. O'Grady
Jason D. O'Grady

Jason D. O'Grady developed an affinity for Apple computers after using the original Lisa, and this affinity turned into a bona-fide obsession when he got the original 128 KB Macintosh in 1984.He started writing one of the first Web sites about Apple (O'Grady's PowerPage) in 1995 and is considered to be one of the fathers of blogging. He has been a frequent speaker at the Macworld Expo conference and a member of the conference faculty. He also co-founded the first dedicated PowerBook User Group (PPUG) in the United States.After winning a major legal battle with Apple in 2006, he set the precedent that independent journalists are entitled to the same protections under the First Amendment as members of the mainstream media.O'Grady is the author of The Nexus One Pocket Guide, The Droid Pocket Guide, The Google Phone Pocket Guide, and The Garmin nuvi Pocket Guide (Peachpit Press), the author of Corporations That Changed the World: Apple Inc. (Greenwood Press), and a contributor to The Mac Bible (Peachpit Press). In addition, he has contributed to numerous Mac publications over the years, including MacWEEK, Macworld, and MacPower (Japan).When he's not writing about Apple for ZDNet at The Apple Core, he enjoys spending time with his family in New Jersey.
David Morgenstern
Bio
Contact
Biography
David Morgenstern
David Morgenstern has covered the Mac market and other technology segments for 20 years. In the recent past, he founded Ziff-Davis' Storage Supersite, served as news editor for Ziff Davis Internet and held several executive editorial positions at eWEEK. In the 1990s, David was editor of Ziff Davis' award-winning MacWEEK news publication as well as its successor title, eMediaWEEKly, which focused on multiplatform professional content creation. His byline can be found online and in print publications including CreativePro.com, Peachpit Press' Mac Bible and Popular Photography.
Vendor HotSpot
The 360° Conversation around Cloud Computing

TECH VISUALIZER brings the social conversation to life... powered by BrocadeLearn More »
If you’re like me, you’re probably getting tired of the constant ping-ping of MacBook Air launch dates. It’s coming this week, it’s coming next week, I just want the darned things to ship already.
There’s been rumblings that the next-generation MacBook Air would arrive this week (alongside Lion) but hopes were dashed when Tuesday and Thursday came and went without the telltale “We’ll Be Right Back” post-it note appearing on store.apple.com.

AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski now reports that the third-generation (3G?) MacBook Air will indeed arrive next week on either Thursday (7/21) or Friday (7/22). The new Airs are expected to rock new Intel Sandy Bridge processors, high-speed Thunderbolt ports, backlit keyboards and 128GB and 256GB SSDs.
Yes, I said 128GB SSDs. Even in the 11-inch model.
In addition to dropping the previous 64GB SSD configuration, Concord Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (via Electronista) believes that Apple has configured the new Air with a minimum of 4GB RAM “to improve Lion’s performance.” Kuo also writes that the Air SSDs will still come on socketed micro SATA modules (like the current model) noting that they won’t be soldered on the motherboard as was previously rumored.
Some pundits have suggested that Apple might be waiting until after its Q3 2011 earnings announcement — which happens on Tuesday, July 19 – to launch Lion and the 3G Airs. The rationale is that Apple would push the announcement until after the earnings call just in case something went wrong with the launches. If true, this would be unfortunate because it would mean that Apple didn’t have much faith in its new products.
Image: iPad-site.net
Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/macbook-air-coming-next-week-with-socketed-128gb-ssds/10568?alertspromo=&tag=nl.rSINGLE