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What to expect in the second Gen Retina MacBook (Merged)
- Thread starter Fuzzball84
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You couldn't be more wrong, look at what's going on in consumer electronics, hotels, food chains, even automobiles. It's an era of differentiation, segmentation, and specialization. It's a time where "less is more" no longer works. Today's consumers, driven by the millennials, don't want to settle for a lowest-common-denominator product. They want something built especially for them with all the features they want and none of the features they don't want.
Look to BMW and the 3 Series, best selling car in its luxury segment for over 30 years. It used to consist of just 4 body types- sedan, coupe, convertible, and wagon. Today it's been expanded into the 3 Series, the X Series, and the 4 Series, there must be 15 different configurations of sedans, coupes, convertibles, wagons, hatchbacks, liftbacks, SUV's, SAV's, all to draw interest from the same buyer. I myself own something called a 4 Series Gran Coupe which is a 4-door version of the 2-door coupe which makes no structural sense from an assortment standpoint but is what kept me in the BMW brand had they not differentiated and created it. It's lower and wider and sportier than the 3 Series 4-door I used to own yet has a ton of room and easy entry for my son's hockey equipment in the back. There was a time where such a fractional, niche vehicle would never make it past the board room's number crunchers, but today it's an essential part of a strategy to offer consumers choice. A lot of choice.
Back to Apple, it's a time to add more notebooks with more pricepoints and more differentiated features, it is by no means a time to scale back and simplify.
BJ
Many/most people don't have a problem with the keyboard. If you do, this isn't a notebook for you. It isn't a 'problem' for everyone.
Of course they should lower the price...while they're at it, end hunger and help foster world peace!
Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Let's understand that AAPL was 3 months from insolvency with a truckload of overlapping products and then after simplification to the 2x2 matrix they became the largest corporation in America. Based on that, which is more successful?
Millennials? They don't have any money to worry about buying products.
Going from 2 notebooks to 3 is hardly going to doom Apple.
In fact, their notebooks are the very thing that can help turn around their doom-and-gloom stock price perception. There are a lot of bored Pro and Air owners out there essentially using notebooks designed almost a decade ago just dying to buy something new.
BJ
It's all speculation. Yes, there needs to be differentiation but the future is retina.
We've seen Apple phase out lower res products from iPhones, to iMacs and MBP's.
The MBA's are next, replaced by only slightly higher priced Retina Macbooks.
The product line is simplier, and Apple 'forces' users to buy higher margin products.
Profits affect stock prices, not keeping old low margin product lines around.
I personally believe the current 13'' Air will remain around. I think they'll finally kill off the old non-retina MBP and replace that with the 13'' Air. They'll keep it in a similar position; not promoting it, not giving it a key-piece of real estate on their website. But it'll remain for at least a couple of years for the group of loyal buyers it will bring. While the 13'' Air has a screen that is less than ideal, everything else about the laptop is fantastic. The keyboard, the battery life, the size, etc. I think it was literally a perfect device for the last 5 years, but it's now time for Apple to move on.
That being said, what the rMBP update will bring is anyone's guess. Perhaps they'll release an updated design for the 13'' and 15'' models? And also release a new 14'' Macbook (Macbook+) to compliment the existing rMB? Those are personally my guesses, but they're just that: guesses.
I think that lineup would make a lot of sense. 12'' or 14'' models for the non-Pro consumers; the decision is just based around the combo of battery life/physical size the buyer is willing to choose. And keeping around the 13'' and 15'' MBP sizes with just new hardware/features. It would give buyers a huge variety of different sizes while checking off all the Pro-power requirements.
Or perhaps they'll just kill off 13'' and 15'' sizes all together, keep only a 12'' rMB, and just release 14'' and 16'' rMBP's?
It's anyone's guess, but personally I think a 14'' Macbook, of any variety, with ample power and battery life will hit the sweet spot. Keeping the dimensions of the 13'' MBA, nixing the screen bezels, and equipping it with enough power would be the dream device for me. I think it's what many people have been waiting for ever since the rMB was released.
It'll be an interesting 2016
That being said, what the rMBP update will bring is anyone's guess. Perhaps they'll release an updated design for the 13'' and 15'' models? And also release a new 14'' Macbook (Macbook+) to compliment the existing rMB? Those are personally my guesses, but they're just that: guesses.
I think that lineup would make a lot of sense. 12'' or 14'' models for the non-Pro consumers; the decision is just based around the combo of battery life/physical size the buyer is willing to choose. And keeping around the 13'' and 15'' MBP sizes with just new hardware/features. It would give buyers a huge variety of different sizes while checking off all the Pro-power requirements.
Or perhaps they'll just kill off 13'' and 15'' sizes all together, keep only a 12'' rMB, and just release 14'' and 16'' rMBP's?
It's anyone's guess, but personally I think a 14'' Macbook, of any variety, with ample power and battery life will hit the sweet spot. Keeping the dimensions of the 13'' MBA, nixing the screen bezels, and equipping it with enough power would be the dream device for me. I think it's what many people have been waiting for ever since the rMB was released.
It'll be an interesting 2016
I think the entry model will be either 11" MBA as is now (4GB, 128GB model only) at $899, or rMB as is now at $1099. Then there will be gen 2 rMB at 12" and 14" and updated rMBP.
It will definitely be interesting 2016!
It will definitely be interesting 2016!
I can see there being value to a 13'' MBA sticking around, but I don't think the 11'' MBA will. I believe the majority of people probably chose the 11'' model as a decision based on price, and the rest obviously for size. The rMB takes the place of those seeking a smaller size, and the 13'' MBA will replace those that made decisions based mostly on price.
That being said, absolutely agree on expecting a price drop on the rMB. In fact I'd guarantee it. Not that that means much...but it's a really expensive device and it'll obviously see a price drop given the more advanced supply-chain readiness, the increased demand, etc. And, historically, almost every new Apple notebook comes it at a high-price and finds its way down from there as refreshes are released.
There's something really exciting about the fact we are completely in the dark about this. We don't know what will happen, when and how much it will cost 
In the day when we get "camera cable from the new model with three wires instead of two clearly indicating Live Photos" it's... refreshing.
In the day when we get "camera cable from the new model with three wires instead of two clearly indicating Live Photos" it's... refreshing.
Agreed. The differentiation you seek will be the obvious ones - CPU and GPU performance, on-board connectivity, i.e. ports, and, in the case of the new 16" MBP, discrete graphics....just like it has been to this point.
The MBA has no real place in that line-up. Most likely a legacy 13" cMBA sticks around like the cMBP has done, for those duped into thinking the couple hundred they save is actually a value over the current offerings.
This argument actually directly supports why they should discontinue the MBA. Those MBA and MBP users who want something new aren't going to be looking at the MBA line at all - they're already deciding whether they should go MB or wait out a redesign of the MBP, depending on their needs. You and I are examples of this. If Apple hadn't released the MB, I'd still be using my old 11" MBA, waiting for something better.
Saying that they should keep around the MBA because it has been their most popular laptop is backwards thinking. Thinking that has caused this innovation stagnation at the company in the first place. The MB in a 14" flavor with a second fully functional USB-C/TB3 port alongside a new redesigned 14" & 16" MBP line-up is exactly what Apple needs to revamp and capitalise on the segment you are referring to. Keeping the MBA line-up as is alongside that doesn't make any sense. It's just unnecessary filler. Apple makes up those sales numbers at higher profit margins on the newer products and doesn't waste valuable supply chain and manufacturing resources supporting too many SKU's.
I would not be surprised to see a 12" rMB with 4GB RAM and 128GB of storage in the next refresh. Along with a price drop of $100 on the current models, such a bottom-feeder rMB would come in at $999 as Apple's entry-level laptop.
14in rMB with a decent speed bump on last year's 12in and they could take my money.
Otherwise I might be in the market for a new 15in MBP.
Otherwise I might be in the market for a new 15in MBP.
Do you guys think the next rMB will come with usb-c or thunderbolt 3 (or one of each, for those of you who think that the new macbook will come with two ports)? When it was released with broadwell, it was a bit too early for thunderbolt 3, but I'm hopeful the next version will come with it (wouldn't mind getting a thunderbolt dock).
It's not going to happen.
If anything, look for Apple to remove ports and weight and height and length. They're not going to add anything. The mission of the RMB is to be as thin and light and minimal as possible, rely on new wireless technologies, eschew legacy paperweights. For those who want a Swiss Army knife of a notebook, the new Pro will suffice.
BJ
I highly doubt they will remove the usb c port any time soon. Thunderbolt 3 is the same shape, so it would make no difference as far as external appearance is concerned.
It's true that it would take a little more internal space, but it's also true that Skylake is more efficient than Broadwell was, and if Apple keeps the same form factor or very near to it (which I think is pretty likely), they could reduce the battery size by a tiny amount to accommodate the increase in internal space required for thunderbolt over usb c and still likely realize small gains in battery life.
It also seems to fit the ideology of the new macbook to me; no wasted space or extra ports when you don't need it, but one powerful port that can do whatever you want when you dock it (like, for instance, connect to a 5k external display at 60 Hz, which usb c doesn't do -- surely an executive wouldn't want to use any external display of lower quality than 5k? ;p).
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The iPad Pro doesn't run OSX or Windows 10 so it's not to be taken as a serious computer. It may be a great tablet for illustrators, but it's not something a business executive can use at work. Doesn't have true multitasking, doesn't have file/folder structure, it's got a compromised keyboard, doesn't have a mouse.
If you take everything that's essential to a notebook and everything that's an advantage of a tablet and created a product out of that, you have the RMB. Which is why it's the greatest product Apple has ever designed.
BJ
There's always a chance, but I don't think it's likely. The most you can currently get for the iMac and Mac Pro is 1TB, which cost $700 and $800, respectively. I'd be surprised if Apple offered 1TB for the MacBook, though prices will eventually drop.
If the philosophy behind the MB is a wireless world, my guess is no.
Apple will point you to the cloud if you need more storage space.
I meant they'd remove the headphone jack, leaving just the USB-C port behind. Bluetooth or a dongle or Apple's rumored Lightning port would be potential solutions.
I'm all for a single port for power and all other legacy connections, but connecting the RMB to an external display is again counter to its mission of portability, HDMI is good enough.
BJ
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