Apple's Sandy Bridge MacBook Air Expected in June or July

The next iteration of Apple’s MacBook Air is headed to market, one that better aligns it with the rest of the company’s laptop line. Taiwanese trade mag DigiTimes says supply chain chatter suggests that Apple is ramping up production of an upgraded Macbook Air with an eye toward an early summer launch. And like the recently refreshed MacBook Pro, it will feature Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processor and ultra-fast Thunderbolt I/O port.

Digitimes says Apple’s manufacturing partners are shipping new 11.6- and 13.3-inch versions of Air this month with availability likely in June or July. If that’s truly the case, it puts the machine on a fairly short refresh cycle–the latest version of the MacBook Air launched in October of 2010. That said, this new iteration would really be a spec bump more than anything, a worthwhile move considering how well the new Air has been selling.