The MacBook Air just got a surprise upgrade

Apple announced an unexpected change to the current M2 and M3 MacBook Air today: more memory. Alongside the overarching bump to RAM in base configurations of the M4 iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro, Apple also announced that the 8GB versions of the M2 and M3 MacBook Air have also been removed from the lineup.

Starting today, the M2 MacBook Air and M3 MacBook Air will both have 16GB as the starting configuration. But here’s the kicker: Apple isn’t raising prices. That means if you’d spent $1,199 on an M2 MacBook Air with 16GB of RAM yesterday, you’d be getting it today for just $999. As much as that’ll sting for recent buyers, it’s great news for people buying MacBook Airs this holiday season.

Apple was criticized heavily for the way it sold the M3 MacBook Pro with a starting configuration of only 8GB of RAM last year. Despite its defense at the time, that decision has been reversed by this week’s M4 announcements. But no one, myself included, thought Apple would reach back into its own lineup to reverse its position.

It’s also peculiar timing for the product itself. It’s highly rumored that the MacBook Air will receive the M4 upgrade early next year, with some placing it as early as in February. That means Apple could have easily waited a few months and made this change at a more natural time for the product.

One possible reason is to sweeten the deal on the MacBook Air heading into the holiday shopping season. The MacBook Air is Apple’s bestselling laptop, and if everyone is being told to wait until next year to buy one, that could to hurt sales. But that’s just a theory. Whatever the reason, it seems that Apple was intent on addressing this complaint once and for all.

There’s one other bit of possible good news with the announcement. Although Apple will no longer sell the 8GB MacBook Air, it’s possible that it will remain around in third-party retailers — and hopefully at a reduced price. Before the announcement, you could…