Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2012 Macbook Pro Redesign

Well, haven't been around these parts for a long time.

Anyway...

My gf is looking at getting a new machine and is fairly settled on a 13incher. Now there was a time I would actively keep up with hardware just for fun, then I would only research when buying, now I do nothing! And I was going to continue doing nothing right up until last night when I said lets go get a new MBP tomorrow. Then A light flicked on in my head and said "you should probably check a new one isn't about to come out". Lo and behold, I come on here and theres a wealth of rumor and speculation about a new one coming out.

Now, Ill be honest and say for what she wants (Thesis writing), the current crop are more than sufficient. She likes the design and doesnt really like the razor thin-ness of the Airs. She is also (inexplicably) worried about the loss of the CD drive. She needs a new machine in the next few weeks, so I would really just say go get one now and be done with it. But I know I'll kick myself if I let her do that and a new one pops out two weeks later. The machines gotta last so you need to buy the very best you can.

So I don't know what to do. I've talked her out of it for now, but my feeling is if its not going to be April, then its not going to happen till well into summer and we'll just buy one now and get 3 months use out of it before the new ones even materialise. I think it prudent to at least wait the two weeks to April. Hopefully you agree!!

Some great arguments for and against April launch on here. Good reading. Though I am inclined to believe that summer would be the time. I dont think it makes sense to release them shortly before releasing a new OSX. It looks a little clumsy if they do that and thats not the apple way is it. Much more cohesive if the new MBPs appear along side updated Airs and OSX ML.

As for the updates? My feeling is that they will drop the DVD drive and perhaps thin the machine out. My last apple laptop was a 2007 Santa Rosa and I hardly ever used the disc drive, as a result it filled up with dust and broke (got it replaced 3-4 times). However I dont think they should go for the wedge shape chassis like the air. I think it needs to retain a constant profile, just a little thinner, else the two lines are just going to be too similar.

I reckon we'll get modest screen res bumps (1280x800 is proper old hat now but I can see no more than 1440x900 on the 13 incher). I would hope for bigger batteries in place of the removed DVD drive. I reckon the 13 will keep intel onboard GPU's (they are pants yes, but for the 13 incher they are probably all most users will ever need).

I don't expect retina like displays. It works for small displays like the iPhone, but when making bigger displays for laptops I just dont think the economies of scale work out. Same with SSD's. It would be great to get decent SSD's standard for a reasonable price. But I dont think it would happen. The base MBP has a 500gb HD. The option to upgrade to similar size SSD costs nearly the same as the whole laptop. So there certainly won't be like for like swap unless the price increases dramatically. And lets face it, doing this is a bad idea, the machine is already very expensive for whats lurking inside. The minimum they could get away with is a 256gb SSD. But even then I would say thats probably going to be too small for a lot of people and it's still going to be more expensive. It doesnt sound like they are removing enough parts to make up the cost (how much does a super drive and couple of legacy ports cost? peanuts)

So a 2.5" bay will remain I bet and base machine spec will still be to have a normal SATA drive. At the most a hybrid SSD+HDD but I didnt think they really caught on that much so I don't expect to see one.

Of course its always nice to have more computing power, but I honestly think, for the average user computers have become powerful enough. I mean my old C2D MPB easily still had enough guts to do basic duties like internet and word before it died and I sold it for spares. You really would have to be a power user to be annoyed with its pace. So I am not expecting massive leaps in performance. Infact the single biggest performance gain they could get is giving us some sort of SSD storage for the OS or something. CPU's and GPU's continue to race to headier and headier heights! but all the while we are still stuck with a slow, spinning, mechanical disc hard drive. If I'd of gotten chance to put an SSD in my old MBP I probably wouldnt of needed to buy a new machine.


What I would like them to do is reign in OSX Lion a bit.... it just seems a bit tardy in comparison to older OSX releases.
 
I recall an official announcement some time ago where apple declared hackintosh as something they have no objections towards.
 
Ohrstrom said:
I recall an official announcement some time ago where apple declared hackintosh as something they have no objections towards.
Click to expand...


Not to mention, I haven't owned a Apple computer before so I decided to give OSX a try without having to spend a bundle. My next computer will be a MBP. I would have never made that decision without test driving OSX.
 
rneglia said:
If only 1 out of 100 people need one, can't they get one of these and everybody else can have more space for a second HDD or SSD?
Click to expand...

Ah -- and where are you getting the 1 out of 100 number? I keep seeing people saying that only X people need it or Y% need it but there really doesn't exist ANY statistical data either way. And by "need", where do you draw the line? Need daily? Need weekly? Need monthly? Need occasionally? What percentage is "too small"?

Right now, how many people "need" a Thunderbolt port by that criteria? How many people "need" an SSD by that criteria? How many people "need" a high speed GPU by that criteria? You don't take a feature out of a Pro level machine just because it's frequently "needed" by a relatively few people. You only take a feature out of a Pro level machine that is NEVER used by almost anyone - and an ODD doesn't fit that criteria.

The fact remains that there *are* people who need an ODD. In my opinion, the majority of people who currently have an MBP or are who are likely to buy an MBP will need an ODD at some point for some purpose. Should ALL of those people be forced to buy and lug around a bulky external drive just for that, more than countering any minuscule size advantage you add to the laptop?

Zakoth said:
The only way I'd need a ODD is to watch a film on a plane or something; but I can use a external or just download onto the HDD/SSD
Click to expand...

Using an external drive on a crowded plane would be one really annoying juggling act - there's barely enough room for the laptop on most planes, so finding room for an external drive as well would be a mess, plus it assumes you have to lug the bulky external drive around as well. Just downloading onto the HDD/SSD assumes you A) have that same external drive to do the download in the first place, and B) have the room to spare for things like movies on the HDD, and C) have the time to spend ripping the DVD. Neither is a sufficient replacement for simply slipping the DVD into the internal drive and watching the film.
 
Roman2K~ said:
Asetek is working on notebook liquid cooling. One can hope Apple is working on / has implemented a similar cooling system for their next MBP :D.
Click to expand...

My hope- they do not. There was a notoriously unreliable Mac Pro with liquid cooling. Also, it is hardly possible to fit a water cooling system into a smaller package than the current fan.
 
zgwortz said:
Right now, how many people "need" a Thunderbolt port by that criteria?
Click to expand...

And Apple put that useless TB port in your MBP anyway. Using your own logic, they can "taketh" away just as easily (the ODD).

You only take a feature out of a Pro level machine that is NEVER used by almost anyone - and an ODD doesn't fit that criteria.
Click to expand...

Here we go again with that naive interpretation of the term "Pro" when used with product marketing. It's just hype - nothing more. Disk media has served it's purpose. Time to put it to pasture.

The fact remains that there *are* people who need an ODD. Should ALL of those people be forced to buy and lug around a bulky external drive just for that, more than countering any minuscule size advantage you add to the laptop?
Click to expand...
Should all those people who don't need an internal ODD be forced to miss out on features that can better utilize the space?
 
zgwortz said:
Ah -- and where are you getting the 1 out of 100 number? I keep seeing people saying that only X people need it or Y% need it but there really doesn't exist ANY statistical data either way. And by "need", where do you draw the line? Need daily? Need weekly? Need monthly? Need occasionally? What percentage is "too small"?

Right now, how many people "need" a Thunderbolt port by that criteria? How many people "need" an SSD by that criteria? How many people "need" a high speed GPU by that criteria? You don't take a feature out of a Pro level machine just because it's frequently "needed" by a relatively few people. You only take a feature out of a Pro level machine that is NEVER used by almost anyone - and an ODD doesn't fit that criteria.
Click to expand...

zgwortz, I love this argument. Many of the arguments in favor of removing the ODD are conjecture. It's unfortunate that although you are spot-on, I feel like Apple is definitely going to get rid of the ODD in the next model. Reasoning be damned, Apple makes some pretty appalling decisions every now and then. And most signs point to ODD being removed.
 
Apple isn't the company of needs... They are innovation and technology dictators. They push their ideas and doesn't care about what you want.
 
Removing the ODD?

Damn well better put a USB3 to compensate. And a better battery life. And with all that real estate, they better put some decent cooling as well.
 
ddomike said:
Apple isn't the company of needs... They are innovation and technology dictators. They push their ideas and doesn't care about what you want.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree, at least somewhat. I agree sometimes the way they work is odd, but they seem pretty interested in giving us what we want. However, we is being used loosely here, and so we may not be the we, in that we are more enthusiasts than mainstream users.

If Apple was not delivering on what customers want, then their stock would not be what it is. I also remember...

the day when MP3 players were all the rage but only in theory because all MP3 players on the market sucked. They were either stupidly expensive, low capacity, unreliable, hard to navigate, or a variety of the above.

the day when if you wanted one single song from an artist, you had to go and buy the entire CD.

the day when the best email you could get on a phone was the BlackBerry and its overall GUI sucked. It didn't have many usable features, it was not compatible with all email types, you had to use physical buttons, and it was massive. It also didn't feature apps that were designed to increase productivity.

the day before trackpads offered good multi-touch capability.

the day before keyboards had lights on them and when IBM had ThinkPads had a light bulb built into them.

-the day when touch screens were a cool idea in theory but sucked in practice.


Apple indeed does occasionally stray from what I want to see, but they often do deliver IMO. They have pushed many things to the limits. The iPhone and iPod are perhaps two of the most iconic electronics in history, and they have literally changed the way the earth looks at music and phones.
 
yanksrock100 said:
When you put it that way it sounds bad! i think of it as...they make you want things you never knew you wanted ;)
Click to expand...

that sounds bad too, manipulation! :p you're both right though but both do sound a little bad.

NickZac said:
Apple indeed does occasionally stray from what I want to see, but they often do deliver IMO. They have pushed many things to the limits. The iPhone and iPod are perhaps two of the most iconic electronics in history, and they have literally changed the way the earth looks at music and phones.
Click to expand...

I see your point, but why not put a better camera or the same camera in the ipod as the iphone? this is just an example.

apple do many things that are profitable and the idea of keeping loyal customers...well thats the closed enviroment they stick you in. Their designs are pretty good but they can offer more bang for the buck IMO
 
charlieegan3 said:
"we" != "I"

you are not us.

your dreams (aside being unrealistic) are very self orientated. You should try to think more about what apple are likely to do and if you like that idea or not.

Don't just say what you want and leave it at that.
Click to expand...

What I said Apple would be doing going forward is *most consistent* with the way they have developed their products. The iPad 3 did not get smaller or lighter, it became more powerful and with that, has worse battery life than the iPad 2.

Apple's #1 priority for the MBP refresh is to keep it consistently better than the competition: which is **also** getting more powerful and feature-laden.

What me and many others in this thread have tried to hammer home repeatedly is that Apple ALREADY HAS AN ULTRAPORTABLE LINE. They have that market covered (very well, too). There is absolute zero business sense in coming out with a stripped-down, smaller, lighter MBP. Again, how many people here are complaining about the size and weight of the 17" MBP? Nobody. It weighs less and is easier for me to haul around on my back than my 15" work Dell laptop.

If Apple is stupid to push the MBP harder and give it more power (while keeping dimensions and weight in check with last-year's model and the competition's models) then every other laptop company in the world (who is trying to do the same thing as Apple) must also be stupid. Or maybe they're not stupid and you're just wrong. :)
 
Truth is, people are creatures of habit. We do not change unless forced to, therefore a company like apple has repeatedly shown that it does not cater to our habits, it creates new ones for us to continue their business growth and sales.

With this reasoning, those of you who are "pro" and "need" an ODD, apple simply does not care about you. Nor do they care about the other chunk of people who say the don't want an ODD. Apple does what is best for themselves. They are a company after all, and companies #1 priority is profits.

So, a conclusion that we can ALL come to, is they do not care about what you or I think. Remember what Steve J. said, we don't do focus groups because people don't know what they want until you show them. I'm a firm believer in the MBP will lose ODD either this revision or the next. Many people say, but my client or boss needs a cd. WTF, really? There is cloud storage, network storage etc. Yes there are times when cd/dvd/bluray is needed, but for the majority of clients who say they do, I think they are clueless as to why. Great example is the ever HORRID fax. At my place of employment, we constantly remind other companies we do business with is WE DO NOT FAX. We can scan and email back, but that's it. These days contracts are signed on iPads and emailed back, or using a notebooks touchpad.

Apple is about moving forward, not for forwards sake, but because they can force you into buying new gear, and for using technology that suits them and their design... not you. Just remember that when you think a company actually cares and puts their "customer first". Typical corporate bs.
 
I'm NOT saying that removing the drive is right or wrong, but I think that most people still using regularly the ODD when there are so many other options today do so out of pure habit.
Apple is obviously going to "help" them change those habits. Anyway if nobody does, most (not all ok!) of these guys will still be using DVDs in 2017...
 
Can we get back to other discussions on the refresh/redesign? I am so sick of the ODD talk. I mean if its gone, so be it!
 
Rilely said:
I think it will be June and it will debut with Mountain Lion.
Click to expand...

I'm going to say I disagree. Apple learned few years back that doing a software and hardware rollouts at the same time is not a good thing. New iPhone + iOS + mobile me + mac hardware... it was not pretty and Steve was pissed. That's just my two cents.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back