MacBook Air 2016 rumors: Apple to discontinue MacBook Air lineup?

Reports indicate that Apple might ditch its MacBook Air lineup as the tech giant puts more research and development efforts in giving its cousin–the MacBook Pro series–a massive design makeover.

Speculations are rife over the possible scrapping of the Air series which other tech observers consider as redundant. As noted by Apple Insider, MacBook Air's life is hanging in the balance following the lack of significant updates for quite some time. Moreover, sales of Air devices are also falling way behind MacBook Pro laptops.

Apple last upgraded MacBook Air in spring of last year with only a handful of minor under-the-hood tweaks such as the addition of Intel's Broadwell chipset, high-definition graphics 6000 and Thunderbolt 2 display, per Ecumenical News report. In addition, the Cupertino-based tech giant seems disinclined to give MacBook Air a decent retina display upgrade that has long been on consumers' wish list. Moreover, a series of price markdowns on a number of Air notebooks is also indicative of Apple's decision to let the lineup die a natural death.

Meanwhile, a number of reports making rounds across rumor land suggest that this year's iterative MacBook Pro upgrade will include the addition of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel to replace the function keys traditionally found on the keyboard, Tech Radar reported. Under the hood, the new MacBook Pro will reportedly run on Intel's sixth-generation Skylake processors.

It must be noted, however, that other PC makers like Dell and Hewlett-Packard have already adopted Intel's seventh-generation Kaby Lake chips, Enstarz reported. As far as the design is concerned, Apple's flagship laptop is expected to sport a slimmer external frame.

In another update, Apple's tech sales have decreased by 20 percent across Target's retail chain stores amid a worldwide drop in consumer demand for smart devices. Moreover, there are also worrying concerns over the declining interest in Apple's existing product lineup due to lack of innovation in recent years. Consumers are reportedly holding off buying as they wait for huge iterative upgrades.

"Our guests come to us looking for those products. They're looking for the newness and the innovation. We're putting together plans with Apple and our merchandising teams to make sure we're ready to take advantage of that in the back half of the year," said Target CEO Brian Cornell per Bloomberg report.