Apple to Reportedly Launch Thinner MacBook by End of 2015

[melendezest]

My initial thought is that makes no sense from a man who prides himself on supply chain optimization. Going from three screen sizes to four? And then on top of it your only making them 1" apart? Yeah, that's going to cause A LOT of consumer confusion. Trying to explain the screen size is different, but one is a "pro" and the other is "consumer"? Try it on your parents or your non tech friends and see how that goes.

The confusion would come from the 1" difference in size.

Having different screen sizes is not an issue; Apple did it successfully for decades with their 13", 15", 17" configuration.

The screen size difference between those is obvious, and they cater to different users/use cases.

In my opinion, Apple should expand (or rather, bring back) their lineup size-wise to an 11", 13", 15" 17" configuration, while keeping the Air/Pro separation. Air would be thinner, lighter, less ports (as it is now), cheaper, and the Pro would be thicker (to this accommodate more ports), heavier (necessary evil), but more powerful (discrete graphics across the board, for example).

 

[rajat8676]

Are you sure it's late 2015 & not late 2014?

 

[thekev]

The MBA is already anorexic w/ it's poor screen and weak processor. I prefer something more toned and fit that has the chops to do the miles with a respectable time.

I was just being silly.

 

[gugy]

all i want is 17" retina MBP.

Sure, it would be nice, but I would settle with a 15" one.

 

[Antoni Nygaard]

why does it say "end of 2015" in the title when all the talk is about late 2014 or early 2015?

 

[pacalis]

A thinner MacBook... only by a detachable keyboard and a touch screen, so please welcome the all new iSurface device, the "MacBook Air"

Ya, where are all these new products Cook was promising.

Everything the last two years have been a minor spec boost. And the TB Display hasn't been updated since before the first rMBP in 2011.

 

[akatsuki]

I wouldn't be surprised if Broadwell means that the Macbook Air and Pro lines merge. Once the MBA goes Retina and given the advances in on board GPUs, I don't think there will be much incentive to go with a Pro.

Then you might see just the MacBook line in 12 and 15 with 2-3 choices in processor speed for each.

 

[eezacque]

I want a MacBook but don't need it.

Anyone else have this issue?

Most Apple addicts have.

Windows users are more like "Don't want a Windows machine, but I need it"

 

[sumsingwong]

What's thinner than Air?

Then name it that.

Macbook Helium?

 

[cube]

And the point is ... ?

 

[Kaenon]

I want a MacBook but don't need it.

Anyone else have this issue?

Yes, and I decided to buy one two nights ago...

Now with this rumor, should I take it back and wait some more....?

 

[brilliantthings]

I bought a 13" because the 11" was too small for my requirements. I will have to testdrive a 12" before purchasing.

Also, using the current large bezeld 13" they could squeeze a 14" retina display without increasing overall size. Now that I would go for

Yes. Not sure that a 12" screen would be large enough. The 13" suits really well. Would be a shame to have to consider a rMBP just to keep 13" screen size.

 

[melendezest]

An cMBP with Haswell would be a week one purchase for me. I've got a 2011 with maxed memory, a big SSD and bigger HDD. I do miss USB 3, but other than that I prefer my 2011 to their latest crippled rMBP. I normally replace my laptop ever 2-3 years, but I'll be using this one until it breaks beyond repair. And I'm actually pretty tempted to buy a 2012 and keep it new in the box as a backup in case this one does break.

Do it. Don't wait. Things will not get any better than those.

I'll be doing the same thing; keeping my 17" forever. If Apple had released an updated cMBP in that size, that's what I'd be hunting for.

 

[diane143]

Ugh! I was actually just starting to plan a replacement for my late-2008 aluminum MB.

I really like the 13" size but also love the HD size rather than the SSD.

How have people with large photo libraries and a lot of graphic files dealt with the smaller SSD sizes? Carrying around an external doesn't sound appealing at all......

 

[KPOM]

Ya, where are all these new products Cook was promising.

Everything the last two years have been a minor spec boost. And the TB Display hasn't been updated since before the first rMBP in 2011.

Did you not see the rumors about the wearable device on September 9?

 

[name99]

Broadwell will be in shops by Christmas. So Intel will offer broadwell to Apple in October/November

Broadwell-Y will (supposedly) be in shops by Christmas.
This is an ultra-low-power part (with performance to match). It is lower spec than anything Intel ships today. That's why it's been given it's own marketing name --- core M --- so that the existing brands of i3, i5, i5 are not "polluted"/"confused" by it's wimpiness.
It's not clear where Intel thinks it will sell --- maybe in Surface Pro-like tablets (with half the performance).

Regardless Broadwell-Y does not seem to be at all relevant to MacBook Air (or to any other high-end ultra books). The CPUs that ARE relevant to this segment are not expected to ship for five to six months (and the quad core CPUs relevant to the iMac and, probably, the mac mini, in ten to eleven months).

 

[FrozenDarkness]

Macbook Mini and Macbook Air

 

[rainmanbk]

What about this? Doing a very unscientific measurement in my head from the one time I saw a Macbook Air, don't you think that MASSIVE bezel could be reduced with a bigger screen effectively keeping the size of the 11" Air?

Best of everything. Retina, bigger, same physical size.

 

[andreiru]

its thin enough as it is - how is that possible

 

[0000111]

Heh. He's 20 years older than me and has about the same hairline as I do. Granted, less than two years ago I had my adolescent hairline..

I'm guessing you either had kids, got married, became the president, or did some combination of the three.

Do we really need thinner MacBook Airs
this ain't innovation anymore

Perhaps they'll combine the rMBP 13' with the MBA. They're quite similar in the bottom models, especially considering that the 13' MBP doesn't have a GPU.

 

[Mackan]

End of 2015? Must be 2014...

 

[Boxcar Edit]

all i want is 17" retina MBP.

Me too. Apple, are you listening? 17". Screen size. We needs it.

 

[cfedu]

why does it say "end of 2015" in the title when all the talk is about late 2014 or early 2015?

Thats what I thought at first too, but it says "by" not "at". So as long as it is released by the end of 2015, it is correct. Macrumors must have less faith in intel then most.

 

[JAT]

I've had a button-less trackpad design on my MBP since 2010, how is that novel?

I thought those models still had a hidden, clickable button. Whereas, the future was supposed to have zero physical feedback/button, like an iPhone screen.

 

[Vanilla Face]

How have people with large photo libraries and a lot of graphic files dealt with the smaller SSD sizes? Carrying around an external doesn't sound appealing at all......

The Macbook Air is configurable to 512GB of flash storage and the Macbook Pro is configurable to 1TB. If you need more than that from a portable you might want to look into some cloud services.