Sources in the component supply industry are talking of double the quantity of new MacBook Airs being delivered to Apple in Q3 compared to Q2. Digitimes has been working the numbers and reports that July will see the supply chain “run in full gear” at this time.

Although MacBook Air figures doubling seems rather inflated, yearly estimates for Apple’s other MacBooks appear more sober. According to Digitimes: “The sources have also raised the projected shipments of MacBook notebooks for 2011 to 15 million units, compared to 13 million forecast previously.”

Rumours abound that the new MacBook Air will feature Apple’s Thunderbolt high-speed data interface – devised in collaboration with Intel – that utilises DisplayPort connectivity. Intel Sandy Bridge chippery too. With the release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion next month, a revamp of older models in range is hotly anticipated.

While Lion waits in the wings, Apple updated Snow Leopard to 10.6.8 yesterday, adding enhancements to the Mac App Store in preparation for the Lion on-line upgrade. The update also includes improvements to IPv6, VPN reliability and “Identifes and removes known variants of MacDefender malware,” an app posing as anti-virus software lurking on sites that took one-handed surfers among the Mac faithful by surprise. ®