- MacBook Pro: In line with his predictions from last year, Kuo believes that Apple will do away with the non-Retina MacBook Pro line in 2013, moving to an all-Retina lineup at cheaper price points than the current Retina models. Kuo also believes that Apple will tweak the design of these thinner Retina MacBook Pros, despite having just introduced the current form factor last year.
I'm thinking that they'll keep the older models for another year until they release a 15" air at a price-point between the current 13" air and the 15" nonretina pro. Until that time, there wouldn't be a 15" mac laptop for under $2k...a bad business decision.
Also, among the non-techie crowd, many people are still opting for the 13" pro simply because they feel that they are getting more for their money. They don't know the difference between an ssd and a hd, so when they see a bigger number of GB, they assume it is better. Same with the CPU. They see a smaller number of ghz and assume that pro is much faster. They also don't want to give up a dvd drive yet.
I think the 15" pro retina will come out in Q2, as that is when intel is suppose to be releasing haswell. I agree that there will be a slight case redesign, as is common after a first gen new case design in years past. This will likely include a removable battery (but not officially user replaceable) and various small tweaks that they discovered over a year of repairs of the older model. Also, wireless AC seems likely, as haswell is suppose to support it natively.