Honestly at this point I'd just call you a troll who has no idea what he's talking about but I guess I'll respond anyway. Whether it's an ultra-portable or a notebook is irrelevant. I provided an example as to why it would be possible and you have done nothing to prove otherwise.
Of course it's possible, it doesn't make business sense. Why don't you try and address the question rather than deflecting with personal attacks?
Apple wants flash storage in all of their machines. The MacBook Air also used to have a HDD so your argument is as flat as can be. Also they have different needs? Last I checked anyone who owns a MBP most definitely wants an SSD over an HDD.
Of course they do, because SSD is Apple's vision of the future for notebooks. Most consumers want them too because they're faster, use less power and are resistant to drops.
But everyone still has to live in the real world. SSDs don't have enough storage space for a lot of consumers, and many consumers don't want to pay the huge $/GB premium that comes with them. Apple has to deal with this fact by base-lining their MBPs with a traditional HDD. This also makes them cost competitive. (which we'll get to later).
No, they aren't. As can be easily seen when you upgrade a lower end machine to to be closer to that of a higher end machine using Apple's BTO options.
Those models usually have fundamental differences such as different amounts of VRAM or an entirely different enclosure which doesn't make it a fair comparison. Basically, Apple designs a notebook to hit a certain margin and then prices BTO options to hit other margins. Whether or not these BTO upgrades reflect actual real world prices is seemingly arbitrary. If you disagree, provide a specific example.
This is the biggest hunk of garbage I've read in this entire thread. For notebook computers flash memory is PERFECT. Apple isn't about low cost, buddy. The storage amount in an SSD is more than enough for a notebook computer.
Is more than enough? OK, provide me some numbers from a random study with a sample size of at least 1000 showing that the vast majority would be fine being limited to 256 GB of hard drive space. Otherwise, you're spouting baseless opinion. My argument is also helped by the fact that no one else in this thread agrees with you.
Apple is about lowering costs because over the past few years, the cost of the MBP has gone
down to appeal to a wider market.
No, they stated that it was the next generation of MacBooks. I just love how you are stating all of these things as is they are fact. "They are not going to eliminate the optical drive", "flash storage is a pipe dream" without providing any real evidence other than your opinion.
If you're specifically splicing words out of my statement, it doesn't look good for your argument. I clearly stated that flash storage as a baseline for MBPs is a pipe dream in the near future. The same for optical drives. I gave logical reasons for each of these citing consumer needs and cost. If you can't digest that logic, I can't help you.
I've provided two examples to back up what I've been saying. One was that of the MacBook Air already has flash storage as default when you are claiming that having flash storage on any machine as baseline is a pipe dream.
Nope, made no such claim.
Then the second being the latest rumor that Apple is removing all physical media from their stores only to add to the move to completely digital via the Mac App Store. You are just wasting my time with your frivolous arguments.
To make room for more profitable merchandise. No comment was made on how they'd accommodate the software that has yet to be released in the Mac App Store, with no guarantee of this happening. If apple removed the optical drive from all of their notebooks, hordes of fanatics would be breathing hellfire about how they have to pay for an external drive that is inconvenient and bulky. Apple could do a fork off to a MBP with no optical drive, but there is going to be a MBP with an optical drive for a good while.
Although TDP is 10W higher on quad cores, the figure represents worst case scenario. In most of the real world scenarios, battery life and heat dissipation will be less than current generation MBP.
While that is absolutely true, I don't know whether Apple is wanting to maintain a large TDP margin, hold on to every last ounce of precious battery life, or just avoid MBPs having quad cores whereas some of their desktops don't. In any event, come Haswell they won't have a choice.
