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Ethernet, Firewire and Optical are just a hindrance to product design. They really need to just go. There's new technology today that comfortably replace these.

Unfortunately not everyone is eager to change so quickly. It'll happen eventually. Maybe when something much newer replaces the new technology, then people will finally let CD's go.

All my friends use the CD-drive argument for choosing the macbook pro. When I ask them what they use the CD drive for, they go blank. It's a psychological thing.

Seriously, why can't some obstinate users just move on from these byzantine technology that belong in the museums. I think most people will celebrate the dqy when u can no longer find a laptop with optical, FW, ethernet, and a bunch of stuff that only people who are resistant o change would use.
 
This makes little sense for Apple to introduce a "third" MacBook product line, especially given it's history with keeping their product lines lean and simple.

I'm guessing that Apple might introduce Retina displays for the MacBook Pro's as a BTO option. Rember not too long ago there was a MR rumor post on how the retina display might add another $100 to the price of the laptop, so this could actually make sense of that particular rumor. Just a thought.

If this rumor turns out 2 have merit, then its likely that the new 13" will b called the macbook, while the larger machines of this new line would b branded MBP
 
This story is bogus

Why not drop the pro and air, have 4 laptops called MacBook 11,13,15 & 17. All of them have no DVD drive or HDD allowing for a slim design. Specs 11inch model: Retina display, 2 USB 3.0 ports, thundebolt port, i7 undervolted ivy bridge, 128GB+ SSD & 4GB+ ram. 13 inch model: Retina display, 2 USB 3.0 ports, thundebolt port, i5 quad core ivy bridge,SD card reader, ethernet port, FireWire, 128GB+ SSD & 4GB+ ram. 15 inch model: Retina display, 2 USB 3.0 ports, thundebolt port, i7 quad core ivy bridge, 128GB+ SSD & 8GB+ ram. 17 inch model: Retina display, 2 USB 3.0 ports, thundebolt port, i7 quad core ivy bridge, 128GB+ SSD & 8GB+ ram. Also 1080p iSight camera, Bluetooth 4.0, backlit keyboard and maybe even 802.11ac standard across range. Price $999 and up! If apple does this they can take over the world who agrees with me?

Preach on brother i agree, although i doubt they will put quad core in the 13inch, im hoping they do but thats unlikely

As for this article, who seriously belives this? apple got rid of the macbook and now its just the pro and the air, maybe in the next 2 years there will problay be a single line of a merged pro and air, but not yet, lets try to stick to the facts people
retina display maybe but who cares the resolution on the mac is awesome as it is already
i want usb 3.0
no optical drive
and hoping for quad core for 13 inch but i won't hold my breath
 
17" is going nowhere. This analyst is an idiot, he is not factoring the profit margins. Apple kills the 17 and people will just buy Samsung. A 15" with Retina is NOT a replacement for more screen real estate. People who keep repeating this are simply inept.
 
hey guys, just a thought…..

I cant personally remember the last time apple updated everything at once… ive been mac since about 2007…
now feel free to correct me if im wrong, but if they have waited for all of this time to do everything all at once, there has got to be something monumental right….

....liquid metal, curved screen, leap motion built in, that would be monumental.

As Apple showed with the 4s, disappointment can be monumental.

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A 15" with Retina is NOT a replacement for more screen real estate. People who keep repeating this are simply inept.

Or read. Or use word documents. Or excel. Or have two applications open at the same time.
 
A 15" with Retina is NOT a replacement for more screen real estate. People who keep repeating this are simply inept.

A 15" in Retina has a native screen resolution of 2880x1800, so if you turn off HiDPI mode, losing Retina graphics, you could run your screen at 1900x1200 if you like, which would increase the screen real estate. So yes, Retina screens could allow more screen real estate, not at Retina PPIs though. I think too many are confused as to just what Retina is all about...
 
Nah I believe Apple would be best to simply drop the 'Air' from MacBook Airs and have them known from then on simply as the base MacBooks, with the MacBook Pro featuring all of the expensive shiz such as Retina display, larger capacity (more expensive) SSDs as standard (why ya wouldn't adopt the Air's SSD sticks I don't know - they're brillliant!), and possibly even provision for a standard 2.5" bay for actual HDD bulk storage of the user's data.

Having 3 MacBook lines I would imagine would absolutely go against Apple's simplicity ideals and I'd be very surprised even if they adopted it just for less than 12 months. I also wouldn't hold ya breath on Retina displays this generation because Apple is known for disappointing us rumour watchers!
 
I think most people misunderstand this. I think Apple might release a third line of Macbook during WWDC, but it will be TEMPORARY. The Macbook Pro's with CD/DVD:s will of course be phased out over the next 1-2 years.
 
Considering the fact that Apple is quasi-rebranding Mac OS X to simply OS X in Mountain Lion, could they be moving away from the MacBook name altogether? I mean, I know it sounds crazy, but could we be seeing the return of the iBook with this new line? If you think about it, "iBook" has had, and could again have, the same sort of brand recognition as "MacBook". Sure, it's complete speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised if this did happen. Thoughts, anyone?

Hadn't even thought about that; you do bring a very interesting point, one that I would actually vote for. :)
 
How about the

MacBook Ultra? For the high end Retina displays
MacBook for the education market
MacBook Air for the executive/casual user
 
MacBook Ultra? For the high end Retina displays
MacBook for the education market
MacBook Air for the executive/casual user

And the:

MacBook Extreme for the gamers
MacBook Pro for the professionals
MacBook Cinema for the movie fanatics
.
.
.
 
I would like to see:
11" and 13" MBAs
13" MacBooks (optical drive, ethernet,non-retina)
13" and 15" MBPs (no ODD, dual SSD/HDD, discrete graphics, retina, matte option)

13" MacBook to target education and single computer folk; phased out in 1-2 years.
 
Apple should equip the 15" with a hybrid SSD/HDD system like their fantastic iMac line. The SSD blade from MBA is a thing of beauty, why not use it on the thicker MBP and give the users more capacity with the 2ndary HDD. Now a 1TB or even 2TB HDD is affordable and think about how much data you can consolidate in a single laptop without stuffing those pesky little Western Digital HDDs in your backpack plus those pesky tangled mess called USB cables.

----------

And the:

MacBook Extreme for the gamers
MacBook Pro for the professionals
MacBook Cinema for the movie fanatics
.
.
.

If you are a movie fanatic, you won't be watching movies on a 17" screen laptop. You'd buy one of those 55" Samsung LCDs with BluRay setup and 7.1 speakers. But I do agree Apple should ID/target this gaming market segment. \
 
A 15" in Retina has a native screen resolution of 2880x1800, so if you turn off HiDPI mode, losing Retina graphics, you could run your screen at 1900x1200 if you like,

I think you have this backwards.

With HiDPI mode on you screen will present like a 1900x1200 screen. [ effectively you will get "subpixel" resolution when drawing lines and text so that antialising will improve and high resolution images will "shrink" , but look better. ] In short the icons and screen elements would be the same size as a monitor with 1900x1200 pixels... the 'virtual' pixels you see will just look better.

HiDPI mode is on machines now. It halves the pixels presented. Ars covered this in their Lion coverage ( here is a screenshot graphic from their article) :

hidpi-display-modes.png


soure article http://arstechnica.com/apple/2011/07/mac-os-x-10-7/14/#hi-dpi
HiDPI is Apple's solution to "Resolution Independence". As long as things are a even multiple they are independent. :)


When you turn on HiDPI with the higher pixel displays in Mountain Lion it will do the same thing.... give you effective virtual pixels that are less than the native number.

The default mode on the newer boxes will likely be that HiDPI is on all the time.

When you turn off HiDPI the icons/objects/etc on the screen are going to shrink smaller. 12 pt Font won't be 12 pt anymore .... much closer to 6 pt. That mode will be OK for view photographs and video on the screen but it likely won't be nice to work in for text.

That's why folks are saying they need a physically larger screen with more real estate. Sure you can pack the same number of pixels of the current 17" display into a 15" display. The issue is whether you have going to be able to read the text or "see" what is on the display since things will be significantly smaller.
 
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I'm not holding my breath.

This is exciting regardless what is announced I am so stoked! I just have a feeling that the 17in MBPs are not gonna just 'end', its not like it is like the bulky plastic white macbooks, even those are still really great durable machines - though they are no longer in circulation they at least dropped in price considerably before they bid farewell, so if that happens to the 17" MBPs then I'm gonna grab one before they go thanks. Then wait till the slim 17" retina models come out :D

I don't like predictions I like watching trends come and go, then snatch up the best in between those periods and make my dollar stretch!
 
I'm not sure I see the need for it? Between the Air and the Pro we have a good balance, the only problem really is that the Air isn't exactly cheap as an entry-level Mac laptop.

If they wanted to round out the line-up then they'd be better off coming up with a cheaper low-end Air, for example by making the current 64gb low-end model cheaper while other models go up in speed and capacity.

As it is the loss of the Macbook, which got a lot of students onto Mac laptops, has never really been replaced by anything in Apple's lineup, and I think it's an gap that really ought to be fixed.


The only alternative I could see is if Apple were to try and eliminate the Pro and Air by creating a hybrid model that gives the Air form-factor, but scales up to Pro level performance.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but was it Tim Cook mention that Apple needed more product lines to remain competitive and profitable without siloing the current line up?
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but was it Tim Cook mention that Apple needed more product lines to remain competitive and profitable without siloing the current line up?

When the heck did he say that? If anything, he would state EXACTLY the opposite...the rumor above is absolute BS - Apple will NOT introduce a new line, it will streamline the current one even further.

MBA merging with MBP 13", plus a reduced number of MBP models (minus the 17", which doesn't make any sense anymore - you need bigger screens as a professional editor? That's why you have the iMac or Mac Pro).
 
This can't be true...
Thinner, MBP level processing power, and with Retina Display?????
I can't see why people would want to buy MBP anymore, so why bother having a MBP line where the new "MacBook" is better?

The only reason I could see would be something like a $300 price difference.
 
I really hope this does not happen.. Pro should remain pro ..

Agree. I need a computer that can run "Pro" programs. Preferably only "Pro" programs so my kids don't spill lemonade on it. The optical drive can go for SSD and larger HDD. Two i7 with 4 cores each and a reasonable 64GB RAM would be ok.
-> Owner of hard-to-kill MBP 2007 with sticky keyboard and optical drive last forced open with large screwdriver.
 
When the heck did he say that? If anything, he would state EXACTLY the opposite...the rumor above is absolute BS - Apple will NOT introduce a new line, it will streamline the current one even further.

MBA merging with MBP 13", plus a reduced number of MBP models (minus the 17", which doesn't make any sense anymore - you need bigger screens as a professional editor? That's why you have the iMac or Mac Pro).

The quantifier was "not siloing", I actually am not agreeing with the rumor rather pointing out that siloing and segregating a product line wouldn't be in Apple's interest.

I thought Cook pointed the idea out of expanding the products available without watering down the lines with the cash reserves. Adding a 15" MBA to the mix I get, adding two new MacBooks I just don't get.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong but was it Tim Cook mention that Apple needed more product lines to remain competitive and profitable without siloing the current line up?

I believe this was at the recent D10 conference? If I recall correctly Cook said that as a strategic guideline for Apple. This is not necessarily a specific strategy for any of the sub areas that Apple has products in. This is a guide between those product areas (e.g., Mac , iPad , etc.). It is why the dropped "Computer" from their name several years back. Apple needs to do something beside the "Computer" (i.e., general PC) silo.

Apple needs a competitive Mac along with a competitive iPad along with a competitive iPhone. If they just try to make one of those competitive and coast on the others then the organization will fail over time at being competitive overall and profitable overall.

Having the goes into a positive feedback loop of negative outcomes if try to apply it to an individual silo itself. If Apple comes up with sub-sub-sub product lines aimed at extremely narrow and lengthy features then will stretch the limits of product segmentation too far. You get a bloated, confusing product line up and much higher internal cannibalization that is driven by the bloated line up versus cannibalization driven by external factors ( new better technology , changing user preferences , etc.)


For example, you couldn't build an effective iPad 12 years ago. (with the same design constraints and price point the iPad has now. ) So Apple didn't . If Apple purely focused on being the best Mac company they could be they would have missed the iPad. They also have to willing to take the lowest end Mac "losses" to pick up the iPad gains in some cases. (primarily, externally factors driven cannibalization. Other companies invented the core technology that enabled the iPad over those 12 years.... Apple just used them. )


When the heck did he say that? If anything, he would state EXACTLY the opposite...the rumor above is absolute BS - Apple will NOT introduce a new line, it will streamline the current one even further.

They may. Strategy is not tactics. Sometimes you have to briefly reverse direction to get out of a local maximum and on to a better global maximum.

Over time, the MBA wiped out the legacy MacBook/iBook line. However, it took several years to get there. Over those years people going used to the concept that a laptop with practically all of the sockets and disks removed could still be a viable laptop. Over time Apple tweaked the design until finally the MBA 11" wiped out the MacBook.

These forums are filled that huge numbers of repsones when the rumor says Apple is going to take away a feature or two. Remove the ODD and Firewire ..... "oh it is the end of the world" ..... for 300 - 600 responses. Apple is going to remove Ethernet ... another 200-300 responses.

Now imagine what would happen if Appe willy nilly announced they were cancelling the Air and Pro lines at the same time. Especially, in the context they had eliminated the MacBook. Imagine the panadomium. That would be a good 1000 posts about "OMG Apple is going to force everyone into using iPads. " kind of thread.

If these new MacBook come out and people can look them over in the stores for 11 months then if they later come out and say the Air and Pro are dead at least people know (well those with some sense ) that this isn't an "iPad" move but a Mac move.

Like the MBA I think Apple is going to "park" these new entries above the MBP in price for a year or two then then start to "merge" the price points. At the "merge" the MBP and MBA will get wiped out. It wouldn't be surprising either if the MBP 13" and MBA 13" switched entry price points. (e.g,. MBP gets dGPU. )


If these "new" versions come standard with large SSDs (over 128GB) and "Pixel doubled" (Retina) displays it is going to be hard to make them beat the others on price and keep Apple's standard margin. Similarly, Thunderbolt is going to grow at normal pace and won't be fully deployed for at least two years. TB only has one year, of those two, under its belt. And if betting on Haswell to get them out of some thermal/performance jams ... chuckle ... like Intel is going to arrive on time with that. Probably not given their track record over the last 12 months. Apple is a couple of years ahead of all of those being a foundation they can layer the whole laptop line on for the broadest spectrum of users. A "big bang" replacement wouldn't likely work.


(minus the 17", which doesn't make any sense anymore - you need bigger screens as a professional editor? That's why you have the iMac or Mac Pro).

That's a bonehead comment. The need is there. The substantive problem is that those truly in "need" are relatively small in number.

The 17" users who "needed" ExpressCard or the fastest CPU/GPU combo or several other factors really didn't need the 17" screen iteself. It was just coupled to the biggest screen. These days the 15" has all the PCI-e expansion , CPU , GPU abilities the larger form factor has.

Similarly, those that just needed the pixels ( e.g., needed to put all the pixels of a 1080p video stream on the screen at once with pixels supported by the native screen panel ) can also likely "get by" with a 15 screen if more pixels than the 17" had. Many video and photographers fall into this bucket. ( a full screen playback/slideshow of the underlying video/RAW files is going to use all of the pixels if looking for tiny glitches in the recorded material. )

The only ones that are left are the ones that needed larger "effective" pixels but also needed alot of them visible at the same time. That's going to be a smaller group that the number of 17" sold now. If the 17" is already at 1% .... that's indicative have entered a sub-silo that is tooooo narrow.
 
Noone thought that there will be no 3rd line of MB's?

MC975X/A is connected to MC965LL/A which is... 13 inch Macbook Air. In other words. There will be no redesign for MBP, just new 15 inch Macbook Air, with ULV Processor, AND low power Discreet GPU(Geforce GT 640M-LP/Radeon HD7730M), Retina display. No ethernet, no optical drive. Everything is quite fair, don't ya think? Besides, Apple would get then 2 lines with MB's with 3 computers in them. 11, 13 and 15 inch Macbook Air, and 13, 15 and 17 inch Macbook Pro.

Edit. In my opinion. Macbook Pro line will get only spec bump. 3615QM/4GB RAM 1600MHz/GT650M-HD7750M/500HDD - 3720QM/8GB RAM 1600MHz/GTX660M-HD7850M/750GB
 
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