Apple Reportedly Sourcing Thinner Components for 2013 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro

flopticalcube said:

ahhh... the infamous MacBook Lighter-Than-Air...

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The MacBook Helium? The MacBook Hydrogen would be nice, but it might explode.

I don't understand how people can visit a site called macrumors and still ramble on about doubling down on secrecy..

Don't care, iMac and Mac Pro please.

who is asking for thinner notebooks?

why not add a sim card slot or GPS ? find my Macbook anyone?

Radio

Computers can only get this thin.

Dear Apple,

Time to stop focusing on the thinness and weight of your products and instead now focus on power, features, and battery life on ALL devices.

My MacBook Pro Retina is just slightly thicker than my iPhone 5! And both are incredibly light and easy to carry.

PLEASE move on to more important things now.

Signed,

A loyal Apple fan.

-

Maybe it has nothing to do with making thinner laptops. This could be the lower profile backlight they need to finally put it in the wireless keyboards. That would be awesome!

This obsession with "thin" over power is getting ridiculous. smdh

...

Poor HP, Acer, and other apple-copycats... They'll have to redo all their designs like Apple's again so they can say that 'apple doesn't own carbon fiber'...

Well, if they make this thinner, along with a few other components, it could easily mean a significantly thinner MBA. The ORIGINAL MBA was thin, and they blew everyones mind when the newer one was released. They'll probably blow our minds again.

Am I the only one putting two rumors together? Sourcing carbon fibre too....

Kentochan said:

Sounds like great news, but would the the MacBook Air cannibalize MacBook Pro sales, or perhaps vice versa?

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Just like they did with the White Macbook the MBA's are now cannibalizing the 13" MBP because of it's comparable (and in some cases better) performance, better screen, and slimmer profile. I'd imagine that this will be the 13MBP's last hurrah on it's own. After they release it's Retina sibling, I give it one more year until Apple kills it. Good machine, but the MBA has caught up in performance causing most people (myself included) asking "is the extra bulk really worth it?".

summitRun said:

RE: MBA...its hard to improve on perfection. Cant imagine it being a much better machine than it already is

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Citius, Altius, Fortius ...

O-l-e-d

Profile picture of the next gen Macbook Air:

I love how we get 2013 MacBook rumors and no rumors for the overdue iMacs. Pitiful apple just pitiful

kevinfulton.ca said:

Just like they did with the White Macbook the MBA's are now cannibalizing the 13" MBP because of it's comparable (and in some cases better) performance, better screen, and slimmer profile. I'd imagine that this will be the 13MBP's last hurrah on it's own. After they release it's Retina sibling, I give it one more year until Apple kills it. Good machine, but the MBA has caught up in performance causing most people (myself included) asking "is the extra bulk really worth it?".

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Nope...and never looked back

Thats great and all, but what about the iMac?

Not to be a party pooper but 0.15 mm is less than 1% of the total thickness of a Macbook Air (at 17 mm). I mean it's still nice, but this change alone would literally be imperceptible.

Can we get at least 1 iMac rumor? Am I asking for too much?

I don't think this is motivated for slimming their notebooks down.

My guess is that the thinner light guide provides some other advantage.. Like reducing the LED power required for backlighting. (These thinner light guides are typically used in cell phone keypads.)

MacRumors said:

Apple is working with suppliers on a new process that will enable the company to shave 0.15 mm from the thickness of the light guide.

A difference of 0.15mm seems a negligible reduction in thickness that would by itself be essentially imperceptible by users if it were even to translate to slightly thinner overall profiles for the machines, but the company is likely pursuing the reduction for some purpose.

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article sub-quote said:

Since the current injection process for the production of 0.4mm light guide plates has been optimized to its limit, makers utilizing extrusion processes are likely to win orders for 0.25mm light guide plates, the sources indicated.

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The process of extrusion is continuous and the process of injection is batch. This will make the part cost less than half as much and that alone is the likely reason.

It is notable such a granular item made it to a public leak.

Rocketman

BTW I wonder what a pallet of iPhone lenses looks like? Photo?

gnrredphoenix said:

how about instead of trying to make your amazingly thin and fast notebooks even thinner, you come out with a freakin imac already!!!!!! holy jesus enough is enough....

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Curious as to why people wa t this so bad. I have a 27" apple tb display with an air or pro that I just plug in at my desk, best of all worlds surely?

Kentochan said:

Sounds like great news, but would the the MacBook Air cannibalize MacBook Pro sales, or perhaps vice versa?

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A sale is a sale. Apple doesn't do door-busters or loss-leaders, so they make money either way.

One of these days I'll convince my wife to let me buy a new MBA....

Although I suppose the new house was enough for this year

Looking forward to Apple continuing to bolster their macbook line. I love the way they've gone (MBA and MBR) and have been coveting a 13inch Air for quite some time. Maybe by the time I'm able to get one, this size reduction will have happened!