Apple Predicted to Release Ultra-Slim 12-Inch MacBook with Retina Display in Mid-2014

[Pyrrhic Victory]

This is why Tim Cook the beancounter couldn't hold Jobs' jockstrap. He's obsessed with marketing BS like thinner-smaller-lighter instead of actually improving performance or adding features or, you know, innovating to transform the product into something new. Apple is creating the laptop equivalent of digital camera companies' megapixel race, and they're only competing with themselves. The MacBook Air is thin enough as it is, we don't need computers that are even less modular and less upgradeable and less repairable than they already are. I bet that idiot Ive is in on this as well, the so-called design guru whose work has been nothing short of disastrous ever since he and Cook kicked out Forstall.

Also this Ming Chi Kuo guy is so full of it, he's been wrong so many times and every time he cops out of it by claiming Apple changed their plans.

 

[MisterPunchy]

Ooooh, I hope this is true. Time to upgrade my Air, but I'd wait for this if it's really true...

 

[inhalexhale1]

Also this Ming Chi Kuo guy is so full of it, he's been wrong so many times and every time he cops out of it by claiming Apple changed their plans.

For sure. This guys name pops up every other day with some new prediction, timetable, or whatever that never seems to pan out. Seems strange they would put 3 separate, and long, posts instead of a Ming-Chi Kuo rumor round up like usual.

 

[Xiroteus]

This is why Tim Cook the beancounter couldn't hold Jobs' jockstrap. He's obsessed with marketing BS like thinner-smaller-lighter instead of actually improving performance or adding features or, you know, innovating to transform the product into something new. Apple is creating the laptop equivalent of digital camera companies' megapixel race, and they're only competing with themselves. The MacBook Air is thin enough as it is, we don't need computers that are even less modular and less upgradeable and less repairable than they already are. I bet that idiot Ive is in on this as well, the so-called design guru whose work has been nothing short of disastrous ever since he and Cook kicked out Forstall.

Even if there was the tech to make a computer as thin as a book cover does not make it a good idea, for a tablet, maybe. Just not at the expensive of power. Ports will also be needed.

Apple really needs to simplify their line-up:

12" Retina MacBook Air
13" Retina MacBook Pro
15" Retina MacBook Pro

Does that make sense because the 13" Macbook Pro is almost turning into a Macbook Air.

 

[MisterPunchy]

oh sure yup...
Best Buy Rep: hey, you want the 11",12",13" or 15"?
Customer: I was looking at the macbook
BB Rep: Yeah, they're all MacBooks, so 11,12,13, or 15?
C: I like the idea of maybe the 13
BBR: The Air or Pro
C: I thought you said they were all MacBooks
BBR: They are but there's two lines, the air and pro. Air 11 & 13, pro 12,13,15
C: 12? That's only an inch less?
BBR: Well...

Can you see the craziness? I'm not saying the 12" isn't true, but I'd put money on it that they won't be the exact same line. If the 12" is true, I'd guess that the 13" is going away. Who know's, maybe it's a consolidation. Or maybe he's got his sizes mixed up and the 12" is actually for an iPad. Maybe the air will be consolidated to a single size... I have no freak'n idea and neither does he but anyone with half a brain can realize that a only a 1" decrease in Apple's book does not justify a new product, it's just too confusing (for what apple has had for product lines). Now if it was any other oem, heck yeah... look at asus. 11,11.5,12,12.25 SE,13.3,14.2,15.1,15.8.... You get the idea

Nah. I bet they're gonna have the13" and 15" pro line, and a single Air model, which is this rumored 12", ultra-thin model. I'll be buying that one...

 

[iLilana]

or

A 12" MacBook would be awesome. At present, the 11" air's vertical height hampers web pages. Adding a little size could really make a difference. Add retina and wow. We'll see...

11 inch retina... really for me the 11 inch is the perfect size but a retina display would make it perfect.

 

[cocosparrow]

I'm not exactly impressed though a big Apple fan

I'm not exactly impressed with Apple releasing an iteration of a smaller 12 inch MacBook Air. In my humble opinion, they haven't spent enough resources on the development of professional portable machines. I completely understand the consumer market which has: made Apple considerably richer, share-holders proud and the blog-asphere roaring.

Without sounding hyper-critical, I am a very big Apple fan but there are too many incrementally small changes to keep the media machine alive. I would rather wait longer periods before an Apple product refresh and have the changes truly radical. When companies make large fanfares about small changes that's when "Jumping-the-shark" seems uncomfortably close.

Apple shouldn't update the MacBook Pro until they can include radical changes such as:

MacBook Pro 11,3 early 2015

Carbon Fibre exterior - unibody Aluminum shell with user serviceable / upgrade form factor
Slot-Loading Dual-Layer Blue Ray multi-burner (yes physical media backups are essential)
2X - Thunderbolt 2.0
1X - Uni Dongle (Thunderbolt to: FireWire 800, 400, Gigabit Ethernet, SM card reader)
1X - USB 3.0
3.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 (4Ghz option)
16GB 2Ghz memory
1TB flash storage
Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 770M
with 3GB GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI® Enabled

Broadcom 802.11ac - Bluetooth 4.0

Built-in battery with True-Life. (4 hours) of realistic professional use, in the field not economy mode.

This aggregate of specifications isn't too presumptuous as Alien Ware currently sells a product near this build.

-] cocosparrow

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Remember before Jobs came back, he said Apple had gotten too complicated. They had a TON of models that confused the consumer because the bean counters ran the company...we're definitely getting back to that time unfortunately.

We are getting back to that because there is a rumor about the Airs getting thinner and the 13 and 11 will be replaced by just one 12 ? C'mon...

----------

My favorite laptop was the 12" PowerBook, so I like the idea of this.

Look at the current 13" rMBP. It is fantastic !

----------

Apple really needs to simplify their line-up:

12" Retina MacBook Air
13" Retina MacBook Pro
15" Retina MacBook Pro

Or how about:
12" Retina MacBook Air
14" Retina MacBook Pro
16" Retina MacBook Pro

Would make more sense to me.

 

[pearvsapple]

Forget that. Where's our transformable tablet?

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

How much of this is being developed by Apple?

 

[HurryKayne]

They're probably just fading out 11" models and replacing them with 12".

As well with the 13 (Air,perhaps even pro if Air got quad someday?)
12 and 13 could not stay together.
Seems a 12" MacBook "coming back " concept to me.
So in the 2014 we will hear about IOS 8 and Syrah
http://goo.gl/WjlZXM ,
A8 (quad?) and and 12 inches ipad?
http://goo.gl/2L0809
What if the next 12 inches Air would be
an Hybrid machine with a detachable display which consists
in a Ipad ..ehm ,wide?
http://goo.gl/hGDrB
I will buy for sure,as i use a lot Ios for mobile tasks i complete on
my desk later even more if next MacBook Pro will lost the discrete Gpu in.

 

[Jensend]

Apple shouldn't update the MacBook Pro until they can include radical changes such as:

MacBook Pro 11,3 early 2015

Slot-Loading Dual-Layer Blue Ray multi-burner (yes physical media backups are essential)

HAHAHAHAHA that's a good one. Apple, the company that is phasing out all built-in optical drives by the end of this year, introducing a computer with an optical drive a year and a half from now.

 

[shurcooL]

Whenever I see "KGI Securities anaylst Ming-Chi Kuo", I get excited because it's likely an accurate prediction.

 

[hova]

Not sure if this has been speculated already so here is what i think.
In terms of footprint they can't reduce the bezel on the 11 inch MBA because the Keyboard (which apple is obsessed with being full size) can't be made any smaller without being smaller than even on the 15 inch MBP. So less than full-size.

We already know that Apple will bring Retina to the MBA and the 13 inch has rather large bezels and footprint compared to the 13" rMBP.
So if they can't also reduce the bezels on the 11"MBA they have to do something else... like making the screen bigger but still reducing the bezels without reducing the footprint...

 

[KohPhiPhi]

This is NOT possible.

A 12" 2304 x 1440 retina resolution is, in fact, the equivalent to 1152 x 720 in actual work space (screen real state). That is LESS than the current 11", and it will be extremely uncomfortable to work with.

 

[teejaysplace]

Random nitpicks:

Never liked the aluminum bezel around the MacBook Air screen. Maybe Apple can switch to a black glass bezel like the MacBook Pro (and all other Apple computer screens.)

Getting tired of plastic keys. I'd like glass keys, and I'd like the fit and finish to be improved so the backlighting doesn't leak around the edges.

And maybe it's time to drop the "Air" and call the low-end laptop line "MacBook."

The aluminum bezel is there because it adds less size/weight than the glass versions, which is an important consideration in the Air. What Apple needs to do is shrink its size so that, no matter what the color, all the bezels are far less intrusive.

----------

People have been clamoring for a 15" MB Air for awhile. So, it might be feasible for Apple to offer a single redesign of the MBA in 12", replacing the two smaller models simultaneously, then add a 15" Air if the market looked promising. I'm not sure how sales have been, but in my life I've only ever seen one 11" MBA in the wild — the screen is simply too small to be functional. They could also likely then do away with the Non-retina MacBooks, which I'm sure they'd prefer to do. To me, a lineup of 12", 15" and 13", 15" makes a lot of sense.

 

[praterkeith]

My old 12" PowerBook was my favorite computer I've ever owned. My c2d Macbook will get replaced if these rumors are true.

 

[Viking2]

We are getting back to that because there is a rumor about the Airs getting thinner and the 13 and 11 will be replaced by just one 12 ? C'mon...

----------



Look at the current 13" rMBP. It is fantastic !

----------



Or how about:
12" Retina MacBook Air
14" Retina MacBook Pro
16" Retina MacBook Pro

Would make more sense to me.

Thats what i want I would then either buy one 12" + 16" or just buy the 14".
But please give me true 8 hours battery with no thrills.

 

[FuNGi]

Apple really needs to simplify their line-up:

12" Retina MacBook Air
13" Retina MacBook Pro
15" Retina MacBook Pro

The 12" MBA would have the same physical size as a current 11" model, only with a smaller bezel.
I don't know why anyone would want a 13" MBA when the 13" Pro exists, other than pricing reasons. That can be fixed by reducing the base spec of the pro.

The "pro" is not a pro machine these days anyway, perhaps just drop the suffix and have a 12/13/15" MacBook line. I doubt we will see the 17" model return.

They really need to bump up the resolution of all their displays too. 1280x720 x2 on the 13" and 1440x900 x2 on the 15" is woefully inadequate - it's less workspace than the old pro machines had, and the current Airs have.
The scaled options are very blurry, and at x1 everything is too small.

13" PC notebooks have moved to 3200x1800 now (1600x900 x2) which is much more fitting for a display of that size. (though some might prefer 2880x1600 at 13")

I basically agree with you. Particularly because once you boost up the options on a 13" MBA the price difference between that ant the rMBP are negligiable. I don't need the processing power in the rMBP but it doesn't make much sense to forgo the screen and build quality of the rMBP when trying to decide between these two units.
The stock MBP screen resolution is, as you say, atrocious. I can't believe that at least the high-res options on those lines is not made standard.
I'd welcome a consolidation of the lineups.

I'm not exactly impressed with Apple releasing an iteration of a smaller 12 inch MacBook Air.
-snip-
MacBook Pro 11,3 early 2015

Carbon Fibre exterior - unibody Aluminum shell with user serviceable / upgrade form factor
Slot-Loading Dual-Layer Blue Ray multi-burner (yes physical media backups are essential)
2X - Thunderbolt 2.0
1X - Uni Dongle (Thunderbolt to: FireWire 800, 400, Gigabit Ethernet, SM card reader)
1X - USB 3.0
3.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 (4Ghz option)
16GB 2Ghz memory
1TB flash storage
Dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 770M
with 3GB GDDR5 - NVIDIA SLI® Enabled

Broadcom 802.11ac - Bluetooth 4.0

Built-in battery with True-Life. (4 hours) of realistic professional use, in the field not economy mode.

This aggregate of specifications isn't too presumptuous as Alien Ware currently sells a product near this build.

-] cocosparrow

What?! A slot-loading drive? A 1TB SSD option? A 4 hour battery?

Never going to happen. Will cost $1200. Yes a decline of 50% battery life 1.5 years into the future.

 

[TrollToddington]

Whenever I see "KGI Securities anaylst Ming-Chi Kuo", I get excited because it's likely an accurate prediction.

I think it is equally likely an inaccurate prediction. Basically, what this guy Kuo actually does is to read the articles on MacRumors like this article and begin throwing roumors at us. Creating a roumor based on other roumors makes your roumor an even less likely believable.

The 1440p retina macbook is a dead horse. Effective 720p vertical resolution is even less practical than the now-present 11" Air 768p resolution. It might be kind of useful for text editing but nothing besides it. That resolution is even lower than the iPad biggie's. One doesn't need to wear glasses to see that such a product will flop big time. Not to mention they will use the retina screen for an excuse to raise the price.

As usual, we always vote with our wallets.

 

[Klae17]

oh sure yup...
Best Buy Rep: hey, you want the 11",12",13" or 15"?
Customer: I was looking at the macbook
BB Rep: Yeah, they're all MacBooks, so 11,12,13, or 15?
C: I like the idea of maybe the 13
BBR: The Air or Pro
C: I thought you said they were all MacBooks
BBR: They are but there's two lines, the air and pro. Air 11 & 13, pro 12,13,15
C: 12? That's only an inch less?
BBR: Well...

Can you see the craziness? I'm not saying the 12" isn't true, but I'd put money on it that they won't be the exact same line. If the 12" is true, I'd guess that the 13" is going away. Who know's, maybe it's a consolidation. Or maybe he's got his sizes mixed up and the 12" is actually for an iPad. Maybe the air will be consolidated to a single size... I have no freak'n idea and neither does he but anyone with half a brain can realize that a only a 1" decrease in Apple's book does not justify a new product, it's just too confusing (for what apple has had for product lines). Now if it was any other oem, heck yeah... look at asus. 11,11.5,12,12.25 SE,13.3,14.2,15.1,15.8.... You get the idea

More like 12,13,15.

 

[Meister]

I want a powerfull Retina Macbook Pro line with 13" , 15" and a 17" model, the option to upgrade, reasonable lightness and thinness (like the current rmbp) and a large array of ports (3 thunderbolt, 3 usb)
If someone wants portability, then buy the mba or an ipad! I already use my ipad mini for daily tasks and its basically weightless and fits in my coatpocket.
I think everybody wants this and everybody is served well. so Am I really asking for too much?

 

[booyahbooyah]

Apple is eating itself. They're making too many models of things. This is exactly opposite of what Stevy wanted.

This.

Question -- what do you folks think of Apple doing a $700 plastic macbook?

 

[Beta Particle]

Or how about:
12" Retina MacBook Air
14" Retina MacBook Pro
16" Retina MacBook Pro

Would make more sense to me.

The Retina MacBook Pros already have a reduced bezel size compared to the MacBook Air though, so 14/16" models would be larger than the current models. (not going to happen)

I don't know that you could shrink down the footprint of the current 11" Air to make it any smaller than it already is, which is why it makes sense to move to a 12" display by shrinking the bezel.

So you're still really looking at an 11/13/15" range as far as physical size is concerned, but upgrading the 11" screen to 12" while keeping the rest of the body the same size.

This is NOT possible.
A 12" 2304 x 1440 retina resolution is, in fact, the equivalent to 1152 x 720 in actual work space (screen real state). That is LESS than the current 11", and it will be extremely uncomfortable to work with.

They already went from 1440x900 on the 13" Air to 1280x800 x2 on the Retina MacBook Pro. I wouldn't put it past them.

My old 12" PowerBook was my favorite computer I've ever owned. My c2d Macbook will get replaced if these rumors are true.

It'll still be a 16:10 display though, and not 4:3. Which is a shame, I actually think 4:3 works better at small sizes.

Question -- what do you folks think of Apple doing a $700 plastic macbook?

I think it's unlikely - the iPad has replaced the MacBooks as their cheap "computer" option now.

 

[gpat]

They should just make a 13" Macbook Air, and a 15" Macbook Pro. 12" for the first one should be fine too.