The rumor mill has been churning out reports that the forthcoming MacBook Air 2014 will be much lighter and thinner than earlier models, and its ultra delicate internals will be encased in a specifically small frame. In fact, the new MacBook Air is touted to be so small that Apple has reportedly hired the services of a watchmaker to help in assembling it.

According to one rumor, Apple is working on a MacBook Air Retina having a 12-inch display and a novel design that will be almost equal in size to the 11-inch MacBook Air, but probably even slimmer and incorporate a touchpad design, without a fan.

Rumors also suggest that we can expect a new update on the MacBook Air sometime during Apple' Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC) in June. Another update, a major one, is rumored for later in 2014.

However, the major MacBook Air 2014 update is not expected before the WWDC 2014, scheduled for June 2. In October 2013, Apple released its new and sleeker MacBook Pro Retina. The analyst roadmap regarding releases of Apple devices in 2014 suggests that the company will release the MacBook Air Retina around the same time this year.

Provided the rumors have some truth, we may expect to see the release of small MacBook Air 2014 sometime in the coming months, and a major update to the MacBook Air Retina during the third quarter of 2013, after Apple launches its iPhone 6, iPad Air with Touch ID and iWatch.

According to a new rumor, the new MacBook Air 2013 will come with a touchpad ID, but no fan. Product engineers will need to design the interior of the device in a way that allows air flow to cool the notebook's internal pathways.

Recently, Apple announced that with Intel's 14nm Broadwell SoC delayed, this mid-cycle update still uses Haswell ULT parts. The chassis and internal specs haven't changed, however the base CPU gets a slight speed bump. The 1.3GHz Core i5-4250U is replaced by a 1.4GHz Core i5-4260U. The extra 100MHz won't change much. The upgraded CPU option hasn't changed, and Apple continues to accept nothing less than Intel's HD 5000 (Haswell GT3) on any of its MBAs.

That said, no one is certain when the new MacBook Air 2014 will be available to users. We can expect to see an update of the device during the WWDC, but no one is guessing the actual launch date of the notebook.