iMac and MacBook Pro Upgrades in First Half of 2011?

[lostforwords]

I think they'll take away the optical drive, or at least in the 13 and 15inch models. Especially since they announced the Air was the future of Macbooks.

I'm kinda glad I got the MBP when I did. I've used the drive almost everyday since I got it. I make CDs for the car, watch films and play games. I'd be lost without it, and an external drive wouldn't fit in my laptop bag.

The iMac is looking tempting though, mostly because of the chance of a lowered price..

 

[steve2112]

Great now every other post in the Macbook Pro forum is going to be "What second/minute/hour/day/month is the macbook pro going to be available for sale and can you tell me everything it's going to have because you should know".

Guess i'll hang out in the Mac Pro forum for a few months

Don't forget the inevitable "My MBP just burst into flames. Should I buy a replacement now or wait?"

Of course, afterward will come the inevitable "This update SUCKED!!!11!!"

. I think I'll have to wait till pigs fly before we get Bluray.

So, right after Angry Pigs comes out?

 

[silentnite]

I planned this one right good thing I didn't wait... guess I'll start saving again.

 

[morespce54]

The iMac has historically gone in two major refresh cycles, one refresh they change the case the next they bump up the screen size/s. For the first few the larger size then become the larger size. The USD price points for each model have remained very stable over the iMac's history.

So new panel size by history would be bigger screen in at least the large model for the same price as current. Every thing else seems to work with supply price point so CPU, GPU, RAM, HD, DVD will all just be the best they can buy for the same component cost as model.

So I'd expects to see a new large model size this round any way 30inch maybe, with the smaller model moving to 24inch not 27inch.

Weren't they having problems with the 24" in previous versions?
But now, the components must be supplied be other vendors...

 

[drsmithy]

I really hope to see super drive-less Macbooks. With all that spaces you can have dedicated gfx and much more battery.

It blows my mind Apple didn't drop the optical drive in favour of more battery life and/or compute power years ago (especially given what they did with the first iMacs). The proportion of people who actually use them *at all* today must be tiny (in comparison to those who would benefit from what could replace them), and the proportion of people who use them frequently enough not to be better served by an external device truly minuscule.

A quick straw poll of a dozen laptop users here in the office showed that only one of them had ever used their optical drive, with an average machine age of about 2 years.

 

[msw123307]

blu-ray isn't going to happen, although i wish it were. i should be able to watch my collection of movies without having to scour for a 1080P torrent and then wait for it to download.

 

[chirpie]

Internet is very cheap nowadays.
I have 24Mbps unlimited for 20$ monthly fee.

So, where to get the BluRay quality?
One word: Torrents

I have 20Mbps unlimited and I also frequent the torrent sites and NONE of them will have a 50 GB version of the movie. They're all downgrade rips of the format that I want them to be as good as. Oh yeah, most are ILLEGAL.

Like I said, I'm waiting for an equal, not something inferior. (The one advantage of the torrents for me is subtitle flexibility. Man, how I wish I could download additional subtitle streams to my player. For all the extras I could care less about, that's the kind of additional functionality I'd like to see more of.)

 

[Nein01]

I've never understood people's obsession with blueray. Optical disk technology is an archaic remnant: it's slow, it's expensive, it's susceptible to damage, and it's generally less convenient than internal storage. Just let it die man.

It has a role to play, obviously, but it seems so clear to me that it should take 2nd place compared to all of the advantages of shipping a computer without an optical drive at all. Apple is trying to phase this technology out, not bring it back in. Blue Ray just isn't a sensible move for them.

If you want to watch a movie, rip it to your hard disk.

Amen to that!

Just use a friggin external OD

 

[MattInOz]

Probably, yes. Because for many people now, "portables" are their only (or their main) machine, and there are still enough business users who need DVD drives and don't want to carry a external drive (sort of defeats the purpose of portability) just in order to shave a cm off the thickness of their laptop. Another year or two and the situation will likely be quite different.

But looking at the size and weight of the SuperDrive inside a 13incher take that out and keep the size the same you'd have room for all sorts specs that improve portablity.

If you just swapped it for battery, well ok move the hd into that space extend the battery across the front you'd be talking maybe double the battery life. With some room to spare for say SSD primary drive or low end discrete GPU.

I dont think Apple want to thin down the pros anymore. I think they have feel they have the sweet spot right there noes it about craming us much power into that space that can fit.

The Air is about pushing the size down, you try pushing the pros down as well and your just creating market confusion.

 

[drsmithy]

Their were many stories on black friday that claimed that iPad's (9.7") and MacBook Air's (11") were both a huge success, maybe a smaller iMac will have the same success.

Hard to see why. It makes sense that in a market where portability is a significant factor, more portable products will be successful. However, one could hardly argue that portability is a significant factor for desktop computers, even AIO form factor ones.

 

[MattInOz]

Weren't they having problems with the 24" in previous versions?
But now, the components must be supplied be other vendors...

The 24 never gave us any real issues.
I thought they where dropped in favor of the 27 with led backlight

Then there were problems with the 27 panels as well, due mostly to teething issues with led backlighting.

 

[drsmithy]

2. Most external monitors sold are around 17-19" (I have a 19" LG connected to my 2008 macbook)
4. Desktops becoming less mainstream due to notebooks, tablets, and smart phones. (In fact I was in a marketing class and even notebooks are passe due to smart phones and tablets for most people)

I'd be interested to see the evidence for the use of "most" in these points.

 

[pr5owner]

That's dumb. A lot of us like the bigger (or smaller) screens. 1920x1200 on a 15" screen is useless for the vast majority of people over 35.

i disagree, sony has full 1080p on a 13" screen and it looks AMAZING, i hate low quality displays that look like crap with pixels you can see from 3m away.
they probably wont use a 16:10 ratio tho so it would be 1920x1080 (not 1200)
to be honst 1080p on a 15" actually isnt enough if your doing alot of work with windows side by side, a better resolution to use is 2048x1156, that way both windows can have a width of 1024
if your saying high resolution crisp displays are dumb then the iphone4 is a piece of crap.

also it would look more like this

11.6" 1366x768
13" 1366x768 | 1600:900
15" 1600:900 | 1920x1080
17" 1920x1080

 

[Mattsasa]

so... 4 macbook pro sizes

or 3 sizes with different gpu option in one of them?

Yeah, you have something there!
Or they should at least rename the iMac to just Mac.

MacBook - MacBook Air - MacBook Pro
Mac - Mac Pro

nope it should be---
mobile:
Mac - Mac Air

desktop:
mac mini-??mac??-mac pro

 

[Kinetic_world]

Who thinks the power button will get moved to the keyboard?

 

[MacSignal]

The reason why the MacBook Pros MUST be updated early next year is Intel's soon-to-be-released Sandy Bridge processor. If the source of this "rumor" was going to make such an obvious prediction then they should have at least mentioned Sandy Bridge. As for the "four models," it could be pretty simple -- 13" with Sandy Bridge's integrated GPU, 15" with the integrated GPU, 15" with a discrete GPU (perhaps from ATI), 17" with a discrete GPU.

<edit>Well, I see theLimit beat my post by a few minutes. I wish I could say great minds...but, seriously, this is just so obvious that I wonder why we're even discussing the merits of this "rumor."

This seems like the most plausible scenario to me. Another vote for 16:10.

 

[Sensamic]

I bet 2011 is the year when they will add eSata or USB 3.0. If they do, I'll buy one right along.

 

[radomu]

I can't wait for this, I seriously need to upgrade my computer soon.

 

[Ieo]

I just want to see an imac with a GPU deserving of the premium price charged for the unit. $2200 and the best GPU I can get is a 5750? Please....I know heat is an issue for an all-in-one, but there are better options for what they're charging.

It would also be nice to see imacs coming with an AFFORDABLE option to have a couple of those flash memory sticks thrown in to use as a boot drive. The current factory SSD option is downright ridiculous.

 

[Axemantitan]

I think we'll see a speed bump and a NEW GPU. It will probably come out before Lion I'm guessing.

I'd like to see Blu-ray added and 512mb of video ram in all of the MacBook Pros with 1GB option. I think I'll have to wait till pigs fly before we get Bluray.

Even the new Commodore 64 has a Blu-Ray option!

 

[Eidorian]

Mobile quad cores come first with Sandy Bridge.

 

[mscice]

Very interesting rumour

I know that quad core cpus with SB will be released by intel mid Feb. I think this what will happen:

1. plastic macbook will be dropped
2. current mbp will become macbook (i3 cpus)
3. 2 15" model will be introduced (dual core i5 SB) + Nvidia's Optimus technology. 4GB ram will be standard, flash drive will be standard one with 128GB/256GB.

that's my guesses, i also think optical drive will not be dropped yet.

Next update in sep/oct will be quad core SB + LION my guesses that is.


however only 2.5 months left to see the real outcome.
cheers all

 

[mouse123]

Would like to ask. If I were to buy an iMac this month and in the following month, Apple releases the new updated iMacs, will I be able to ask Apple for an exchange for the new ones? Is that possible?

 

[nightpwnsj00]

Still hoping for an antiglare screen option on the 13" MBPs. I plan on buying my MBP at the end of January before I head off to college, so it would be wonderful if the keynote is around there.

 

[dylin]

Drop the white MB?

Im not sure why everyone is saying they are going to drop the current MB.

If then ended up replacing the MB with the entry level 13" MBP as the MB, then there would be no major differences between pro and consumer.

The 13" MBP has firewire 800, as well as an SD card slot. It may not seem like much but that already provides more of a prosumer feel, and has much more choices for data transfer.

I guess the only other differences between the current MB and entry level MBP would be that the MBP comes 4GB of ram, aluminum chassis, and a backlit keyboard.

Im not saying that the replacing of the MB isnt going to happen, im just saying that there is a high chance they will keep the plastic MB.