Reseller Shortages Hint at Forthcoming Update for 15-Inch MacBook Pro

[Ryth]

just hope the 13 inch wont be too big of step down from the new 15 inch for my video editing needs... my wallet can't afford the huge 15 inch price difference

What type of editing are you doing? If you give me specifics, when the 13" comes out I can tell you if it's adequate for your needs.

 

[srxtr]

You forgot the 11"..but I think they'll keep the Air tag.

11" Macbook Air
13" Macbook Air
15" Macbook Pro
17" Macbook Pro

I'd be fine with this if Apple brings down the price point for the 15"+

 

[Ryth]

I'd be fine with this if Apple brings down the price point for the 15"+

I could see that.

I can also see them going to that format of 2 models in the Air and 2 Models in the Pro...then within each model, 2 options like they have for the Air with upgrades.

 

[Mr. Gates]

Goodbye optical drive

 

[guzhogi]

I wonder if/when Apple will ever merge the MacBook Air & Pro lines. Same form factor as the MBA, drop the optical drive & 17" model, & call it just "MacBook". I'm not saying I'd like that (as I like having Firewire & express cad slot). Since Apple seems to be focusing so much on consumer products nowadays, this move wouldn't surprise me much.

 

[Ryth]

I wonder if/when Apple will ever merge the MacBook Air & Pro lines. Same form factor as the MBA, drop the optical drive & 17" model, & call it just "MacBook". I'm not saying I'd like that (as I like having Firewire & express cad slot). Since Apple seems to be focusing so much on consumer products nowadays, this move wouldn't surprise me much.

I think it's a good division/divider of specs to have the Air line for low/mid level users and the Pro line for power users.

 

[StealthGhost]

If the i7 3612QM comes out how it is rumored i'll be buying a computer with that. Very small hit in frequency for a 10 watt drop in TDP. 35w is what is in the Macbook Pro 13 right? I wish they'd throw it in the 13 then instead of sticking to dual core, that would allow them to release all of the Macbook Pros at the same time if the dual cores are being delayed.

 

[JohnnyQuest]

Retina and an Air-like design please.

 

[1=1?]

Please no air-like design. if i wanted air i'd buy an air. retina please.

It'd be sooooo awesome if they had different version of it. Like if I could get a Audio-centric Model that had a professional grade soundcard in it vs something with a kick ass video card.

 

[KrankyGuy]

Well thank you Apple

Well thank you Apple for letting the distribution channel tip your hand so we can hold off on buying one now

 

[apolloa]

This says a few things.

EITHER:

Apple are going to drop the 13" MacBook Pro, they will only launch a totally new design 15" Model with a retina display and they are having trouble making a 17" retina display of good quality or cannot make a powerful enough 17" machine with a retina screen in the new compact size.

OR:

This is total BS and we all should only blink once all the other models also run out of stock as Apple is not ditching any of the current lineup and will update them all at once.

BECAUSE:
The new CPU's are all coming out on the same day, why at the very least would they not update the 13" model at the same time as the 15"???

 

[guzhogi]

I think it's a good division/divider of specs to have the Air line for low/mid level users and the Pro line for power users.

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of "Why even keep a Pro option?" Since Apple probably has more consumer-level buyers than pro, and could get higher margins on consumer level hardware, why develop Pro hardware?

As I said in my previous post, I don't particularly like this, but I understand the thinking behind it.

 

[heisenberg123]

not in the market for a new one as my early 2011 is still perfect for my needs, but curious if anyone else thinks its bad marketing to release 15" before the 13" is ready?

unless its just a spec bump, but a full redesign of just 1 size? will this not kill all current 13" sales?

 

[Fandongo]

Delaying the 17" will be detrimental to its adoption with 3 exceptions.

1) It gets a more powerful Ivy CPU. Hex would be incredible for CS6.
2) Retina (or simply more dense) display.
3) 4x ram slots (32gig third party max...CS6)

Honorable mention - expresscard slot.

 

[nick_elt]

Goodbye optical drive

Oh is that what it was. Never used it to find out.

 

[Ryth]

Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of "Why even keep a Pro option?" Since Apple probably has more consumer-level buyers than pro, and could get higher margins on consumer level hardware, why develop Pro hardware?

As I said in my previous post, I don't particularly like this, but I understand the thinking behind it.

It makes sense in say the Mac Pro tower to discontinue it because that requires it's own design team and hardware team for dwindling sales. That tower is for a 'select' user base and that base again is dwindling. Many prosumers had to get a tower back in the day because it was all Apple offered for the most part in terms of a mid level machine even.

In terms of the MBAir/MBPro, offering 'Pro' options is hardly more work for them minus a few tweaks here and there of the internals, especially if they are moving to a similar design for the Air and MBPro. To fit a quad core chip, more RAM slots and a possible dedicated graphics card (which would go into the ODD slot now) isn't much work for the team.

 

[nick_elt]

This says a few things.

EITHER:

Apple are going to drop the 13" MacBook Pro, they will only launch a totally new design 15" Model with a retina display and they are having trouble making a 17" retina display of good quality or cannot make a powerful enough 17" machine with a retina screen in the new compact size.

OR:

This is total BS and we all should only blink once all the other models also run out of stock as Apple is not ditching any of the current lineup and will update them all at once.

BECAUSE:
The new CPU's are all coming out on the same day, why at the very least would they not update the 13" model at the same time as the 15"???

I thought the whole problem was that the cpus weren't being released at the same time. The dual core cpu that will most likely used in the 13 wont be ready till june. Also hasnt apple released the newer 17" after the others in the past already.

 

[fisha]

but curious if anyone else thinks its bad marketing to release 15" before the 13" is ready?

not really imho. i personally think that the 13" mbp will fall away and merge into the air line ( i.e. with the release of suitable ivy bridge dual core a revamped 13" unit will be a combo of both the air and mbp ( an air-pro ))

if so, then letting the new 15" loose into wild gets it into the market and money in. Why not sell a product thats ready to go? The market moves so fast that a few months of lost sales can mean a lot.

 

[jonnysods]

Foaming at the mouth for this one!

 

[neilpryde23]

not in the market for a new one as my early 2011 is still perfect for my needs, but curious if anyone else thinks its bad marketing to release 15" before the 13" is ready?

unless its just a spec bump, but a full redesign of just 1 size? will this not kill all current 13" sales?

15" MBP was introduced first in 2006 and then the 17" model was added several months later. Then in October 2008, the 15" MBP got the unibody redesign first while they continued to sell the non-unibody 17" MBP til like January (or sometime around then) when the 17" got the unibody design. Finally, they introduced the 13" unibody MBP in June of 2009. In terms of spec updates, however, I feel like they generally update them at the same time.

I'm not saying those past cases dictate what Apple will do and I agree that releasing a 15" MBP redesign in late April/Early May and then a 13" redesign a month later (at WWDC?) would be very close and that it is different than the 15"/17" unibody example since those were released several months apart but I wouldn't be too surprised if the 15" redesigned MBP came out first.

 

[cult hero]

13" Pro vs. 13" Air

The 13" Pro is kind of the redheaded stepchild of the MacBook lineup right now and has been for a while. Think back to mid-2010 when we were still sporting C2Ds because 13" Pros use integrated graphics.

I figure one of two things will happen:

1. The 13" MPB goes bye-bye in favor of Airs. There's just not a whole lot distinguishing the two right now. The MBP actually has a WORSE screen than the Air. I think the writing is on the wall for optical drives.

As a 13" MBP owner, the only thing that kept me from switching to the latest round of Airs was the 4GB of memory cap. I don't much care about the processor (still sporting the aforementioned C2D and it's more than enough for 95% of what I do) but I do a lot of virtualization and that eats RAM.

2. Apple does indeed drop the optical drive but keeps the 13" MBP and actually does something useful with the space like adding dedicated video.

Regardless, if the next Air refresh has an option for 8GB of RAM, that's where I'm going next.

 

[Liquinn]

What's the earliest date Apple can refresh the 15" Macbook Pro?

 

[JasonR]

Come on...where the 'Shut up and take my money photo'...and no I'm not posting it.


I can see this issue with a desktop, but you have a laptop...it's movable...

Move
away
from
the
window

My experience is the EXACT opposite. A laptop is made to be carried around and used in many different environments. I HATE Apple's glass displays on the Macbook Pros for this reason. However, I have owned an iMac and a couple of ACDs, and they are great because I can control the office environment I put them in completely.

That being said, I wouldn't be opposed to anti-glare cinema displays.

 

[cire1244]

Gahhhh

I need a 13" MacBook pro to upgrade from my 13" blackbook. The air doesn't do it for me because I need the extensive hard drive space and processor speed for a variety of engineering programs. I carry it around everywhere, and size is my biggest concern, not weight.

I just hope apple doesn't kill the 13" MacBook pro. It's fine with me if they keep the optical drive with a processor refresh. But the air isn't an option for me and I really really really don't want to be forced to buy a 15".

 

[Ryth]

What's the earliest date Apple can refresh the 15" Macbook Pro?

...it seems the fastest, quad-core models will be announced in the last week of April and available starting April 29.