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Intel's Processor Roadmap Leaves Uncertainty for Apple's 2014 Mac Updates

danielsutton said:
Looking forward to a successor for the 17" MBP.
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It's already here and its called the 15" rMBP with scaling.
And don't you dare say that Apple won't do it!
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I promise! I'm just saying, they already did show us what they think is the successor for the 17" MBP. :p
They pulled something like this for the Mac Pro, making us think that it would slowly die off, before releasing the new vastly redesigned cylindrical model. Methinks Apple will redefine the pro laptop in the same way that they redefined the pro desktop. :)
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You betcha! They redefined 17 to mean r15. Bold move Apple. :cool:
 
smiddlehurst said:
Okay, sorry, but this just doesn't make sense. The Intel-based PC (as in Personal Computer not Windows) is a mature product. Performance has largely reached the point that major gains are not only difficult to come by but also increasingly pointless as the majority of users don't come anywhere close to maxing out the processing power they have now. The issues being discussed in this report are going to affect the entire PC industry, not just Apple, and you won't see major upgrades from anyone this year unless their existing kit was under-equipped in the first place.

It's the other areas of the computer that can be improved but here Apple's already ahead of the curve. Every device that can realistically pack one in has a high quality, high resolution display. More-or-less everything has an SSD instead of a hard drive and the majority are now on PCI-E based drives that are considerably faster than the norm. Battery life is up there with the best in the industry. There just isn't much low hanging fruit left to take and the harder stuff is either incremental or needs other components to enable it.

Speaking of which I wonder if this years refreshes are going to be more graphics-driven than CPU. Nvidia are currently waiting on TSMC to get their 20nm process on stream before delivering the bulk of the new Maxwell-based products Based on results from the new 750 cards using that architecture it could be a significant jump for Apple as they're more constrained than most by a GPU's power requirements. A 20nm Maxwell could - in theory anyway - deliver a big performance difference and might tie in nicely with Apple's focus on GPU-compute in the Mac Pro. Vastly smaller scale of course but there's certainly the possibility of some trickle-down benefits. Certainly if Apple are considering pulling the trigger on a retina-iMac they're going to need every last drop of GPU power they can muster.

There's some other interesting options too - taking the iMac to SSD-only for example might make for some interesting design possibilities - but I suspect this year will be more of a minor upgrades and possibly price drops year. That shouldn't be a surprise if it happens mind, as I said the PC is a mature product and big changes just don't come along very often any more.
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another word..it's going to be a boring year?

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mdelvecchio said:
you dont seem to understand how the industry works. if you use a supplier's parts (Intel chips) you're dependent on Intel's schedule.

further, if youre expecting mature product categories to be re-invented annually, you are set for a lifetime of disappointment. have fun w/ that.

meanwhile, im using my tools and am very happy w/ them. my last imac lasted 6 years before i gave it away.
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so...why would intel be behind?
 
Peace said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Apple's ARM chips will be in Macbook Air's.

That's one of the reasons for making the 64-bit chip.

Just watch. WWDC2014

;)
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No way they will use ARM, since its far inferior to x86 in almost every way.

The 64bit chip has nothing to do with it except changing the architecture to support more efficient / faster performance for low level processing.

It's like telling Apple to go back to PPC, there is no way they would do such thing. It just not cost efficient and consumer friendly. Overall its a downgrade path, and not a small one either.

PS: Even Microsoft regret going after ARM with RT, it's essentially pointless and useless crap that does nothing but a Mobile Phone with bigger screen.
 
I can see the mini being the ATV, it's what TC meant about some folk considering it a new category, 30m sold, roll it into the mini, 5x the revenue, app store for ATV is rolled into the mac app store, others have tried htpc's but nothing mass market, increasing mac % share at the same time as it's OSX w/an overlay, going back to the days of old of front row, but in the process the mini's shrunk considerably, I just hope I'm wrong.
 
Scale of 1 to 10:

How crazy am I for holding out for this mythical 12" retina air?

The idea behind it seems to fit my desires in a laptop perfectly. But I am going to need to pull the trigger by probably the June timeframe.
 
Agree

Razeus said:
If Apple does another CPU chip change to their own ARM, I'm going to be pissed. :mad:

But then again, so we really need faster chips at this point for the average Facebook, email, & Spotify consumer? Nope. We need more optimized software.
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at this point the spec race is kind of pointless. I think Optimizing software and increasing the storage is more important yet another speed bump. 256 GB SSD for a $1,800 computer is ridiculous. Especially when companies are pushing digital.
 
Rogifan said:
If Apple drops Intel what does that do to running Windows on Macs?
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I am totally against that practice. :D

But seriously, even Microsoft has stated they have a version of 8 running on ARM. I don't see the issue, but again, why bother?
 
shansoft said:
No way they will use ARM, since its far inferior to x86 in almost every way.
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Yup, ATM it's pretty much impossible they'd switch to ARM, at least in their higher-end models.

Unless they do the same as with the 17" lineup. They deem ARM-based notebooks the most lucrative line and simply kill everythign else. As they did with the most powerful MBP line, the 17". They didn't find it as lucrative as the less powerful models and simply discontinued it. It's perfectly possible the same happens with x86 CPU's.

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goobot said:
You can't have something that doesn't exist.
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Sure I know - my question was rhetorical.
 
Don't you think that Intel probably keeps its customers informed with some kind of time frame for chip updates and changes? This seems logical to me.
 
Gudi said:
It's already here and its called the 15" rMBP with scaling.
I promise! I'm just saying, they already did show us what they think is the successor for the 17" MBP. :p
You betcha! They redefined 17 to mean r15. Bold move Apple. :cool:
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No it's not. 17" simply has a lot more screen estate, fully independent of the resolution, than 15".

And I haven't even mentioned the 17" having more volume to possibly have a second HDD bay - which would be VERY useful to avoid having to use external HDD's as mass storage...
 
Can someone explain to me how the current mac line is showing age? The rMBP was just refreshed in October. The MacPro was just released. That leave the MacBook Air and imac
 
koban4max said:
so...why would intel be behind?
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A lack of competition. No need to kick arse when you are only competing againsts yourself. Which is why people gettin snippy over android is so mind boggling. Apple needs a strong android, or else we will just get eye candy/meaningless updates that are chock full of bugs - oh wait we just for iOS 7 - so scratch that line of thinking.
 
malexandria said:
at this point the spec race is kind of pointless. I think Optimizing software and increasing the storage is more important yet another speed bump. 256 GB SSD for a $1,800 computer is ridiculous. Especially when companies are pushing digital.
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I agree. Apple should focus on providing more useful storage/RAM specs and better software optimization.

For instance, I just tried iCloud (and iPhoto, so that I can use iCloud) to integrate better with my ATVs.

iCloud is a joke with 5 gigs, which also has to fit the back ups for all my iDevices.

iPhoto is practically unusable with my library of less than 20k photos: it keeps spinning every time I do anything. This is on a $2.5k 2gHz i7 Air from 2012 with 512gb drive and 8 RAM.

But I had stopped using iPhoto a while back, because it is such a sorry piece of software and because it corrupted/destroyed the metadata of my whole photo library a few years ago. Aperture is better, but it still crashes much more often than Adobe's Lightbox.

I don't mind paying a premium for Apple's design, within reason, but Apple needs to step up its game and improve/innovate.

BTW, if they change the chips inside the Apple laptops to some proprietary concoction, it'll likely be the death knell for Apple's PC line -- I don't think I have the stomach for another transition through emulation and later all new software.
 
cppguy said:
No, not the Haswell.
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alright ill bite. fireup netflix.com right now and do a binge watch of house of cards on your macbook pro (keep in mind it runs silverlight) and do the same on the ipad retina... see which one runs out of juice quicker and see which one stays cooler overall
 
Crazy talk...!

ok, is it just me or is the idea of a six and a half month old hardware as "aging" completely ridiculous...!
 
Yes, that is sadly so.
If Apple forgave Mac products to have the same margins they get on iOS products, Macs would be 20% cheaper and have higher performance components. Then you'd see sales rise incredibly.
$500 Mac Minis based on desktop Haswell chips would still make Apple more money than $500 iPads. Apple's loss.


AppleScruff1 said:
Their bread and butter are the iOS devices. They'll get to the rest of the lineup as they see fit, IMO.
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