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Apple Predicted to Discontinue 17-Inch MacBook Pro

If true, I'd be disappointed.

I'm in the market for a new 17" within the next few months and was waiting for the refresh with ivy bridge.
 
"I would milk the Macintosh for all it's worth, and get working on the next great thing."

Steve Jobs.

It clearly isn't worth anything to them now, it was always going to happen, it was just a matter of when.
 
haruhiko said:
I'm quite disappointed with the sales number of the MacBook Air in the article, especially when it is compared with the strong sales of the MBP 13". MBA 13" is in every aspect much faster than the MBP 13", the screen is a lot better too. When you take the price of an equivalent SSD in the consideration, MBA 13" is much cheaper too.

So are people buying the 13" MBP just for the word "Pro"?
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Your statement indicates that you don't understand anything beyond your own needs. For launching applications and disk activity, the macbook air may appear faster when comparing stock drive installations. The option for the spinning type is nice if you require the capacity and it's enough to allow you to grab only your laptop rather than an additional external drive. It's not faster in every aspect at all. Even the gpu can grab more ram on the 13" MBP as it can go to 8GB and beyond. With 4 installed the HD3000 grabs the minimum amount. The screen is higher in resolution. This isn't automatically better. There are many factors. The MBP has way more ports. I don't know if it's using the same TB chip as the Air which uses a scaled down chip with lower available bandwidth.

Anyway the Air is not faster in every regard. Searches on here suggest that the display color and uniformity are a bit more variable. It lacks ports. It lacks drive options. For anyone who still uses one (I don't personally), it has an ODD. The ram limit on the Air can be quite limiting.

gpzjock said:
So Apple sell smaller, lighter, cheaper laptops that can run huge displays with ease or iMacs with huge screens built in for cheaper too.
£2000 to £3650 for a desktop replacement when you can replace your desktop with a 13" or an Air for a grand and still use a bigger screen when at your desk. Even a maxed out 27" iMac is £500 cheaper than a maxed out 17". 😱
Can't think why they sold so few.....
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Again you don't want one, but others might have a differing opinion. It really does depend on what you require from your machine.

gibbo132 said:
Well after using the 13" air I can't wait to get rid of my 15" MBP. It was a much nicer machine to use and felt much faster!
I looked at the 17" and I think it looks ridiculous, far to big for a laptop. Plus you can get the extra power of the 17" in the 15". If you really need the power get a Mac Pro!
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Several of you are incapable of viewing a product line beyond how it relates to your own needs. I like the 15" personally, but it's a matter of how much screen real estate you require when the external display is not an option. It's actually weird how much you guys go off mindless anecdotes. Regarding the mac pro, they may own one as well. You really don't know. It's not that uncommon to own one of the top macbook pros as well if you own a mac pro. I have seen people who used to purchase 17" models going to 15" versions in the past few years, but that's an anecdote rather than a meaningful sample (not only a small number but poorly randomized), which is why I don't present it as an argument related to the health of the product line.

Edit: If you look up topics on the Mac Pro, they're filled with speculation on if it will be dead soon, and the imac doesn't use an appropriate socket type to address any hardware approaching what is offered in some of the mac pro models. Many on here seem to believe that the iphone and ipad are the only things Apple should design regardless of if other products remain profitable.
 
Apple want to streamline their laptop range ???

But at same time offer 9 different iPads ??? (because of the different 4G variants)





Not sure I get that reasoning. I'm sure the 17" will be updated. If It is not updated, it's looking bad for the MacPro's future.
 
Winni said:
Next, you will go back to Windows and Dell's business products, like anybody else who uses computers professionally. It's that simple.

That being said, the 17" Apple notebooks were awesome. Personally, I never saw the benefits of the 15" models - they're a strange compromise between a workstation replacement and a true mobile system, neither being one or the other. The 12" and 13" Apple notebooks were amazing if you needed something mobile, and the 17" series was great if wanted a desktop system that could easily be moved from one work place to another. But why would somebody want the 15" model? Anyway. Who does still care? Apparently, Apple wants to transform their notebooks into iPads with keyboards and trackpads and I'm sure that I won't follow them onto that journey.
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Agreed on the comparison of 13"-17". Totally spot on.

But a new question surfaced in my head. What about the content creation Apple is promoting? They have created a new ecosystem (ios, mobile web for ios devices, appstore ios, appstore mac and so on), and they surely want it to expand as, if more content & software out there, more consumers to consume directly from their machines. How do they expect this kind of work to be done on low end prosumer machines such as 13"-15" laptop or iMacs?

It really doesn't make sense killing the content creation line.
 
Last edited:
Apple are growing their laptop sales what 200,000 units a quarter.
They are expected to move 5.2mil. There does not seem to be any reason to kill a model outright.

Maybe organize models but really not cut. If anything I'd be expecting an addition model at this stage. The 15 air seems like the most likely addition. If they said the 17 was going BTO I might think they had insight.
 
geogolem said:
ya realistically the macbook pro 13" offers no improvement over the 13" Macbook Air except the optical drive which I almost never use anyway. I'm looking forward to see what Apple does with their notebook offerings....

Hell I'm waiting for the day we have a 13" Macbook Air with a swivel touch screen thats snaps down over the keyboard. Wouldn't it be awesome to have the full power/functionality of Mac OS X in your hands but the capability of swivelling the screen and snapping it down and basically having an ipad mode?

I want an Macbook Air/Ipad hybrid!!!!
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haruhiko said:
I'm quite disappointed with the sales number of the MacBook Air in the article, especially when it is compared with the strong sales of the MBP 13". MBA 13" is in every aspect much faster than the MBP 13", the screen is a lot better too. When you take the price of an equivalent SSD in the consideration, MBA 13" is much cheaper too.

So are people buying the 13" MBP just for the word "Pro"?
Click to expand...

They are not.

13'' has a faster CPU, and has more space inside, so you can put an aftermarket SSD in the optical drive's place and have both a rotational and SSD storage, which is a big bonus. Plus, the maximum 4GB of ram is a joke.
 
I would be very disappointed if this were true because I'm waiting for the next refresh to buy my third 17" MBP. I can't see it being dropped though because there are a load of Windows high end 17" rivals and it would be a bad idea to cede part of the market. I notice that whenever I see a MBP being used on a TV programme it's nearly always a 17" and this is free advertising for Apple. I think the BBC must buy a truckload of them. It may sell in smaller volume but that does not mean much if the margin is good. BMW sell a small number of 7 series compared to the 1 and 3, but I seriously doubt they would drop it anytime soon.
 
donga said:
i love these rumors. it gets the people going!
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I wouldn't be surprised if it happened, they would shift focus onto other products and get out of the market to make money elsewhere with a new product, not necessarily a good new product just a new one. They did drop the macbook and moved towards the macbook airs, they left the entry level notebook market and took on a a new line and angle (ultrabooks) which has been successful for them.

It would make sense to streamline everything ie:

11 macbook air
13 macbook air
15 macbook pro
17 macbook pro

And make everything customizable unlike how now you can't upgrade everything like you once could on BTO products. But obviously the 13' MBP is quite popular so we don't see that happening. I was surprised to hear this as I thought the 15' would have been much more popular in sales than the 13'.
 
Is this a deep seeded war against ADOBE?
CS6 is almost here.
All pro programs have had dynamic improvements lately.
Finally harnessing the 64bit potential in every thread as well as allocatable Ram and Mercury Playback (GPU). Ivy will be a huge encoding boost.

But if the carpet don't match the drapes.
We must be getting raped.

I was waiting for the 17".
Mostly for the expresscard hole.
Audio people need FW.
FW400 interfaces ruin the speed of the chain, ruining FW800 portable raid drives.
Not buying a stupid non-existent overpriced hub.
Not buying a stupid existent overpriced expresscard adapter adapter adapter.
Not buying thunderbolt HDDs (10-15% boost over FW 800) at 5 times the price.

Cook, you drop the 17" and continue middle fingering the Mac Pro...
Then dude, I'm getting a Dell.
 
Its just a rumor at this point, but honestly wouldn't shock me if they did drop the 17". I think it will be based on sales and the cost or production for that specific model. I don't think Apple is one for having it just because the other guys do.

This is not to say I would agree with the decision, personally the 17" to just too big for my taste and I'd never buy one, but I know others do.
 
I don't belive that the 13" Pro is Apple's best selling laptop - in fact I'm sure it must be the worst.

I think he's confusing it with the 13" Air, and thinking that the 'Air' line consists of just the 11". I can't recall recently seeing a 13" Pro in the wild anywhere, in fact I'd forgotten Apple made them until I walked in to an Apple Store recently.

Really, why would anybody choose the 13" Pro over the Air ? It has a faster CPU and (potentially) more memory, but it's much heavier and has a lower screen resolution. If you're going to pay the weight penalty, you might as well get the 15"

(and I"m speaking as someone who's owned a 11" & 13" Airs, 12" Powerbook, a 13" Macbook and a 15" Pro).
 
I hope they keep use the prices of the MBP as i want buy an 13" model and i hope that the hdd/sdd is larger then the MBA currect models. would be a shame if they would go from like 500GB HDD in there basemodel to just like 128GB SDD
 
I'm not really sure if Apple will discontinue the 17" MacBook Pro, however:

I really think that Apple needs to open up their roadmap to the professionals, or at least state their intentions. I understand that Apple loves its secrecy, but the times of glee and awe over a surprise new Mac Pro announcement at WWDC are long gone, and the public's attention is placed squarely on iOS.

Professional users have had growing concerns for some time, which have only been compounded by the discontinuation of the xServe, the sloppy release of Final Cut Pro X, and no sign of a Mac Pro for what is now approaching two years.

It may be un-Apple like, but I think they have nothing to lose, and everything to gain by saying 'Hey guys, we'll be releasing another Mac Pro/MacBook Pro 17" for professionals. We remain committed to our professional users, and have some great updates in line for you. Thanks for your loyalty, Apple'

They can keep the features a surprise, if they need/like; the professionals just need to know they exist, so they can better plan for the future.
 
I would buy a 17" immediately if it fell from the same tree as a Macbook Air.

Light, thin, big screen - awesome.
 
This report and its figures do not make sense when stacked up against other rumours. So the 13" MBP is the best selling model? Why are we being told then that the MBP will become thinner and the 13" MBP might be gone completely. Someone is making things up, but I am not sure who. It's best to ignore these things in my opinion. Every year we hear rumours that the next whatever will have everything but the kitchen sink. Yet the refresh comes and the product looks nearly the same and has better/updated internals and that's it.
 
**** the 15''..!!

If the 17'' doesn't come out.. im not gonna buy the bloody small 13'' or 15''..!! no way..!! u lost 1 customer for sure..!!
 
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