In an attempt to offer unique functionality compared to various ultra-books that this year will address the markets of media tablets as well as ultra-thin notebooks, Apple plans to install high-resolution retina-class displays onto its MacBook Air laptops later this year.

Apple MacBook Air thin-and-light notebooks historically used Apple’s most advanced technologies to provide end-users decent performance and pleasant experience amid ultra-slim form-factor and ultra-light weight. However, Apple first used the retina-class screen technology for notebooks on professional MacBook Pro line last year, leaving its consumer laptops with screens on par with those offered by competitors. This year, Apple will finally bring its retina technology to MacBook Air.

According to a number of media reports (1, 2, 3), which cite similar sources among supplier of components, Apple intends to introduce a new generation of MacBook Air thin-and-light notebooks with high-resolution retina-class displays in the third quarter of the year. It is projected that both 11” and 13” versions of the laptops will receive new screens, but the details about resolution, brightness and other details are unclear.

Even though technically installing considerably improved displays into Apple MacBook Air products is hardly a really big deal since the MacBook Pro’s retina display modules with screen itself, protection glass, backlight and other components is already pretty slim, it will still be a challenge to create an MBA with retina. Since screens with high resolutions demand higher amount of power, Apple will need to use new generation of batteries that fulfill power demands and do not make the ultra-thin laptops thicker.

For the new MacBook Air laptops Apple is likely to be interested to use Intel Corp.’s next-generation Core i-series 4000-family “Haswell” microprocessors since they consume lower amount of power than existing Core i5 “Ivy Bridge” 3000-series chips and provide higher performance in graphics intensive applications. Still, it is unclear whether Intel will be on track with low-power versions of Haswell in Q3 2013.

Apple did not comment on the news-story.

Tags: Apple, macbook, MacBook Air, Haswell, Intel, Core, 32nm