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13-Inch Retina MacBook Pro Pricing to Start at Roughly $1699

iChrist said:
Hey, FYI. The year is 2012. Not sure if you entered a temporal distortion or something. :rolleyes:


lol
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My point is that small notebooks haven't always been only part of Apple's low-end line. That would have been the iBook back then.

The iBook used to start at $1099, which is not so different to a baseline Mac laptop right now.

Now we have the MacBook Air (low-end) and MacBook Pro (high-end).

For a while their 13" laptop was only part of the low-end line (white MacBook).

Now they've gone back to their strategy of having 2 small notebooks, one low-end and one high-end. Just like in the iBook vs PowerMac 12" days.
 
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iChrist said:
Yes it is.

To have dedicated graphics card on little baby 13" screen makes no sense. 13" Macbook is not for pros. And thus, it is priced great for the general public.

Thanks.

:rolleyes:
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lol what?

I'm sure any day people would pick dedicated over integrated graphics.
 
I hope Tim Cook is reading this forum so he can see some complaints about the pricing. It might change Apple's mind maybe...? :rolleyes: (yeah right lol)
 
This is Apple. Amazing stuff for amazing money. Take it or leave it.

My advice?

Get rich. Buy really cool stuff. Grow old. Die......whatever.
 
iGrip said:
Apple owes nothing to customers. The money belongs to the owners of Apple, who are the large institutional investors on Wall Street like pension funds and hedge funds.

Apple is not some kind of a charitable organization like the Red Cross or Planned Parenthood. They are a corporation with only one goal: to funnel money out of your pocket and into the pocket of the 1%.

Sheesh. What's the world coming to?

Why do you think that Apple owes you anything? Have you put your capital at risk? They ONLY goal of Apple is to convert your money into money that belongs to the hedge funds, et. al.

Make no mistake: customers are just a means to that end.
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Um... why isn't it possible for Apple to have mutliple goals – such as maximizing value to its shareholders AND making great, innovative products that people find fun and useful? Is the ONLY reason you work to make as much money as possible, or do you also find your job enjoyable and fulfilling (or at least aspire to such a job if your current one doesn't provide that)?
 
pgiguere1 said:
They tried a $1699 12" laptop and it sold pretty well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_G4

Back then PowerBook was the high-end while iBook was the low end.
Just like MacBook Pro vs MacBook Air now.

After that all their <15" laptops were only part of the low end line (MacBook), until now. Remember that a MBA used to cost more than a MBP until recently.
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Oh, I"m sure it will sell just fine. But unless you earn more than 100k per year, you are a bloody fool if you spend that much on a 13" laptop.
 
god im so over these rMBP

so useless and overpriced can't wait for the price to drop along with Haswell chips

i've met several camera techs that spent over $3k on a rMBP 15 I can't help but to laugh at them and I know it hurt them thats the worst part. You can find used 2012 15'' on eBay for the same price of 13.

Thats just nuts

Laptops shouldn't cost over $2k

hopefully this rumor is just a rumor

$1700 for an i5 WOW
 
TallManNY said:
Ouch, pricey. I'm still thinking this generation of retina computers is just a little too cutting edge with a cutting edge price to match. The 13-inch Air for $1199 seems like the laptop to buy for most folks.
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Quite right... and that's exactly how it SHOULD be for a cutting edge product. Something new comes in, especially when it's a high cost item like a Retina screen, it goes into the high end products first. Then as production ramps and costs per unit fall it becomes practical to introduce it at lower price tiers. Plus, in this case, there doesn't seem to be any way to introduce a Retina screen to the Air range with current integrated GPU tech so waiting isn't a bad thing.

I'm always amazed that people seem to think new products should IMMEDIATELY be introduced for the mass market at mass market price points (not saying you did TallManm this is a non-specific comment :D) and that supply can magically ramp to meet demand overnight. What we're seeing with the rMBP's is the future of Apple's laptop line a year or two earlier than you would if they'd waited to introduce them at every price point. That gives a purchase option to those that want and can afford one now, helps drive costs down over time, probably increases quality as issues in manufacturing are solved AND gives devs time to get used to the new tech. If it's too rich for your blood just wait a year or two for them to filter down.
 
This 2012 13" hi-res beast will be my Macbook in 2014. Hopefully I'll find it near-mint in the second hand market.

Sounds good to me that the Retina 13" will come with standard SATA HDDs, so it will be user-replaceable.
 
Way too pricey

Who will buy that - it has not even a discrete graphics. That will be a shelf warmer. Everybody interested in that (for the majority useless) retina display will make the leap for the 15" instead. Slowly the company is completely loosing focus on customers.
 
nuckinfutz said:
That's just not going to happen. $1699 is not outlandishly expensive to those who have been purchasing Apple notebooks for years.
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No, it is not. Original MBA $1,799. Next MBA same price. 2009 $1499 and $1799 (the average of those two is close to $1699 ). It took 2 years for the MBA to come down to the levels close to where it is now.

This new device is filling the same "this is direction we're going" price slot.

I don't think they expect it to be the volume leader. The MBP 13" is going to retain that crown for another year. (or at least a share of the crown with the MBA 13" ).

At some point Apple will decide whether to retire either the MBA 13" or MBP 13". It may be that the MBA 13" is retired and the MBP 13" moves down in price which opens the door for the rMBP 13" to take those old positions. Or Apple will retire them both and move the rMBP 13" into the current price slots.

But to say this is unprecedented is lacking historical perspective.
 
nickarmadillo said:
With those specs? Nope.
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First, you dont know the specs. Second, the screen alone makes it high-end. Not to mention it will be very light and portable if its like the 15incher. The only question of the specs to be low or high end is discrete graphics. Everything else will be state of the art obviously.

----------
Monkeydude said:
Who will buy that - it has not even a discrete graphics. That will be a shelf warmer. Everybody interested in that (for the majority useless) retina display will make the leap for the 15" instead. Slowly the company is completely loosing focus on customers.
Click to expand...

What does them making one computer model that you dont have to buy mean about customer focus. There are plenty of people who might buy this.
 
Not sure if I believe this. Why would the premium be higher than it is for the 15" rMBP? That contradicts Apple's usual pricing patterns.

Either way, I wouldn't buy one of these first-gen rMBPs. I'll be waiting until Haswell with its better graphics and lower power consumption.
 
saved-up-for-a-new-macbook.jpg
 
Does anyone think they'll kill the 13" normal screen models? It feels like they'll phase those out sooner or later since there's a overkill at the 13" size with Air, MBP, MBP Retina.

Also, both the Air and Retina will be thinner and lighter than the normal screen but also cheaper and more expensize? It just feels odd, like customers looking for cheaper or portable with go with Air, customers looking for performance and quality go with the Retina, and customer looking for slower and heavier for moderate cost?

It feels like they should intro the 13" Retina models at $1499/$1599 ... but those retina screens and SSDs aren't cheap.
 
I think the specs for this price will be a start of 128GB SSD, 4GB Ram, integrated graphics in a quad core i7. But then if it had no ODD and soldered ram what's the point in the computer over the Air? You really only paying a premium for the screen.
 
futbalguy said:
This is a HIGH END computer. This isnt for normal consumers. Just like the high-end upgrade options for the regular Macbook Pro that most people ignore because they are too expensive. It really isnt that much money for a high end laptop. Laptops were pretty regularly in this price range 5 years ago and they didnt have this much engineering going into the. Im sure, this computer is going to be pretty awesome (graphics are a question though).
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If the 13" rMBP doesn't have a discrete graphics adapter, I'm not sure who it's aimed at, other than early adopters or people who just like the Retina display but want a 13" laptop. I would think that people who truly need the Retina display for high-end photo or video work also would need the discrete graphics adapter, and therefore would opt for the 15" rMBP. It's similar to when the MBA first came out: it was considered underpowered, overpriced, and more stylish than practical. But technlogy advanced, and it's now a "real" computer. I suspect the same will happen with the 13" rMBP: the integrated graphics in Haswell, Broadwell, or whatever comes next will be powerful enough, and the lack of discrete graphics will become a non-issue.
 
ECUpirate44 said:
I hardly ever see a MBA on my campus. The lack of a CD drive and Ethernet port are likely the reasons why.
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There's WiFi everywhere on college campuses. I also can't remember the last time I saw a CD on campus. This definitely isn't the reason.

Even if it were a problem, they can easily be solved with accessories.
 
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