After Apple slashed the price of its 13-inch MacBook Air by as much as $200, speculations about the release of a new MacBook Air for the year began to circulate online.

Reports reveal that the price of the current version of the ultrathin MacBook Air laptop with 128 GB hard drive and 8 GB RAM is currently dropped to $799 from its original price of $999. This could be the tech giant's way of selling the remaining units of the laptop to pave way for an updated edition of MacBook Air.

This is not the first time that speculations about the release of the next-generation MacBook Air for 2017 were talked about by gadget watchers. Back in March, Apple enthusiasts noticed that the company's website was deliberately taken down.

According to reports, the Cupertino-based tech giant was rumored to relaunch the website with new product lines during that time. Some believed that the tech firm will finally release the 2017-version of the MacBook Air in the market together with the return of the website. However, the speculations turned out to be untrue.

Apple first released the original version of the MacBook Air in January 2008. It used to have an 11.6-inch version that was first introduced in 2010, but it was discontinued since October last year.

The current version of MacBook Air in the market features a 1.6 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, 4 GB of SDRAM, options of 126 GB or 256 GB built-in storage, MagSafe 2 power connector, and the latest macOS 10.12 Sierra operating system.

However, the highly anticipated 2017 edition of the MacBook Air is expected to come out with updated features such as a Retina screen display, Intel Kaby Lake chipset, and the current USB Type-C ports.

Still, Apple remains mum about its plans of the next-generation MacBook Air for 2017 or if it is already planning to discontinue the product line.