Kuo: Apple Silicon Macs to Include 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air This Year, 14.1-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro Models Next Year

[Nozuka]

This sounds strange to me... Why would they bother converting the 13.3'' Macbook Pro to ARM, when they will release a redesigned 14'' shortly after?
Feels like wasted effort and they should just keep selling the current 13.3'' until the new one is ready.

 

[Frantisekj]

It's a rumour that makes sense.

Apple was always going to move as fast as possible on this.

Agree. It is much more reasonable to update low end in curent form and make complete redesign when miniLED will be available. It wont be cheap I guess so it will go for MPB first. And Apple may design them around A15 silicon. And it can be truly killing machine with great performance, security, battery life, low weight and God and Steve knows with what . Question will be how they will handle graphics.

 

[cardfan]

Definitely a pass on any of these. May be worth a look in 4-5 years if Apple can get any worthwhile devs to develop native apps. But remains to be seen.

 

[MauiPa]

This. Exactly this. Apple’s professional user population is not going to transition to a new chip architecture from day 1. Emulation is hogwash.

Obviously, you didn’t read the articles. Windows support is not defined, if that’s what your talking about. The is and apps written via Xcode are compiled/native. Even other apps are compiled at load, not emulated. So I presume you are talking windows.
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Every single iMac I have ever worked on has always and CONTINUES to look, MILES better than any PC equivalent. I really could not care less about bezels or not, as a piece of product design, something sat on a desk, it is STILL iconic and streets ahead of the competition. Fact.
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An let's not forget the PC equivalent!

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Haha. I was thinking the 20 year claim was hyperbole. Great post! It is time to reduce bezels, but that does sound like paid complaining more than a real issue

 

[JWreck]

I will be sad if they refresh the Air to be Apple Silicon, as we bought the new Air recently. I know refreshes happen and it’s just part of life, but really would have waited and continued using our 2012 MBP for a little longer if we had known.

 

[vionc]

I was hoping for a 14" Intel MacBook Pro.

This. Exactly this. Apple’s professional user population is not going to transition to a new chip architecture from day 1. Emulation is hogwash.

The last Intel product from any product line needs to be epic.

I get that people who aren’t totally convinced of the transition would like an Intel 14” MacBook Pro, but that’s never going to happen IMO.
The transition is just too important. They will want to -and need to- hold back the new form factor for the ARM machines to entice users to switch.

Other wise, everyones risk aversion will ruin the transition. Customers will just keep buying intel machines to avoid the Apple silicon hassle.

You will have to take the risk/inconvenience with the new AS to get the new pretty form factor.
Everything else doesn’t make any sense.

 

[lxmeta]

Pass!
After the show stopper issues I had with the 13” MBP and the 2019 Air, I’m back on my 2017 12”, and will at least wait 2 iterations before I bite the beta bug again! Sounds like >22 then.
I would have at least hoped for a fixed 14” Intel MBP with TB4 this year. This is quite annoying, I was up for an upgrade. (2020 MBP still has USB issues)

 

[Elijen]

Soon: -- Should I buy MBP 13" today or wait for MBP 14.1"? --
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This. Exactly this. Apple’s professional user population is not going to transition to a new chip architecture from day 1. Emulation is hogwash.

Good there is no emulation then.

 

[IscariotJ]

*sigh* I hope this isn't the case, I was hoping for a desktop model, preferably a mini ( seeing as the DTK is almost there ).

 

[Tesix2]

Apple aren't releasing a MBP of any size using Silicon this year.
A new design 24 inch iMac, with a single processor option, will be announced, as marketing can focus on design rather than performance.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

It doesn't make sense at first glance, but then historically Apple has used long transitions to move from old to new Macs.

The non-retina to retina MacBook Pro transition is a prime example. They moved the latter to the higher end option whilst keeping the former as a entry to mid tier, and over time reduced the dependancy on the non-retina models by slimming down the configs.

It always occurred to me that both the current 13 and 16 inch MacBook Pros required new chassis, even the 13 inch though being virtually identically, would have required new tooling and manufacturing just for that Magic Keyboard - the only notable upgrade. Suddenly dropping this design after such little time wouldn't make any sense for Apple.

So my guess is that the current chassis for the 13 inch will be here to stay for at least another year. Apple will replace the Intel CPUs with ARM, and offer configs of a similar nature to today; Good, Better, Best. The rest of the industrial design therefore need not change.

The next gen. 14 inch will be introduced later this year as a highest end option, and gradually, the 13 inch will become a lone product that is the entry level model.

Same with MacBook Air. It surely can be no coincidence the thermal design of the current device is completely unsuited to the featured Intel CPU.

 

[Mr.Blacky]

What about desktop Macs? Are they staying Intel or what?🤨

 

[ksec]

I am very worried about a new form factor. Are they going for thinner MacBook Pro again? Glass Keyboard?

 

[CyberBob859]

It doesn't make sense at first glance, but then historically Apple has used long transitions to move from old to new Macs.

The non-retina to retina MacBook Pro transition is a prime example. They moved the latter to the higher end option whilst keeping the former as a entry to mid tier, and over time reduced the dependancy on the non-retina models by slimming down the configs.

It always occurred to me that both the current 13 and 16 inch MacBook Pros required new chassis, even the 13 inch though being virtually identically, would have required new tooling and manufacturing just for that Magic Keyboard - the only notable upgrade. Suddenly dropping this design after such little time wouldn't make any sense for Apple.

So my guess is that the current chassis for the 13 inch will be here to stay for at least another year. Apple will replace the Intel CPUs with ARM, and offer configs of a similar nature to today; Good, Better, Best. The rest of the industrial design therefore need not change.

The next gen. 14 inch will be introduced later this year as a highest end option, and gradually, the 13 inch will become a lone product that is the entry level model.

Same with MacBook Air. It surely can be no coincidence the thermal design of the current device is completely unsuited to the featured Intel CPU.

My feeling is that the 13" model coming later this year will actually be a 12" with slim bezels to fit a 13" screen. And the performance and battery life will actually be good enough to kill off both the 13" Air and the 13" MacBook Pro (low-end, 2 Thunderbolt ports.) I can easily see a range of configurations from $999 to $1699 that have various memory and cellular options. It will allow Apple to simplify its consumer product offerings.

The 14" and 16" models coming next year will be the replacement for the MacBook Pro line.

 

[Kylo83]

I want bootcamp and won’t ever go to arm

 

[newyorksole]

Maybe we’ll see one of these babies with LTE.

 

[mi7chy]

One of the key benefits of switching to ARM is avoiding the Intel tax but if they're targeting Macbook Pro then they're going for extreme profit. Given the software limitations at launch, a better approach with higher chance of adoption would be a MacBook Air version at ~$899. Hope they don't prematurely kill it with greed.

 

[justin216]

What this points to is that Kuo doesn't know a whole lot more than the rest of us this time. He might have picked up some vague info he thought indicated something but he was wrong about the iMac and now he's spinning on the 13" MBP. I still think it makes depressingly more sense (just bought one) to start with the 16" if they have something good enough to beat the current model. If they release the 13" first and its better than the 16" it will eat higher end sales. If its not that great then Apple Silicon Macs will be a disappointment out of the gate.

I mean, by that logic, they should do the iMac Pro or Mac Pro first, because otherwise, even a 13" MBP with AS could be more powerful (in some tasks) than a workstation. Granted, I don't expect that to be the case, I'm more expecting a ~20% bump in performance with better thermals and battery life.

I would anticipate the next two years to be a mess with regards to product differentiation, regardless of which model they do first, second, etc. It stands to reason to me that the first model or two would be same or very similar chassis with just the motherboards swapped, so they can start getting some user data from the field. Then the second wave will hit next year with more refinement, fixes, new chassis designs, etc, tackling more of the higher-end segment perhaps (MBP16, iMac Pro, Mac Pro).

 

[fokmik]

One of the key benefits of switching to ARM is avoiding the Intel tax but if they're targeting Macbook Pro then they're going for extreme profit. Given the software limitations at launch, a better approach with higher chance of adoption would be a MacBook Air version at ~$899. Hope they don't prematurely kill it with greed.

By going to ARM, is avoiding Intel tax, timing wasted, heat, iGPU and battery life

 

[lxmeta]

My feeling is that the 13" model coming later this year will actually be a 12" with slim bezels to fit a 13" screen. And the performance and battery life will actually be good enough to kill off both the 13" Air and the 13" MacBook Pro (low-end, 2 Thunderbolt ports.) I can easily see a range of configurations from $999 to $1699 that have various memory and cellular options. It will allow Apple to simplify its consumer product offerings.

The 14" and 16" models coming next year will be the replacement for the MacBook Pro line.

I can see that! This way it would make sense, and not kill off the MBP high end sales that quickly. Considering how tiny the real redesign of the 2020 MBA/MBP was, there is only little investment lost. People who still need 100% Intel would keep buying the MBP 16” or the i7 of the 13”.
I still would like a last intel based MBP 14” to bridge the time until the transition is ironed out beyond the early adopters that are more pain resistant...

 

[fokmik]

Its clear the way to go for the non dGpu macs....lets see how it goes and how the ARM igpu compare to the Amd dGpu, if they cannot match the power, they should stay with amd dGPu since they have full control on amd silicone

 

[theluggage]

This sounds strange to me... Why would they bother converting the 13.3'' Macbook Pro to ARM, when they will release a redesigned 14'' shortly after?

Bear in mind that Apple effectively make three 13" Laptops: (1) MacBook Air, (2) low-end 13" MacBook Pro with 2 TB ports and low-power CPU and (3) high-end 13" MacBook Pro.

...so there would be room in the new line-up for (say) a 13" ultra-portable 'Air' a 13" "MacBook" and a 14" "MacBook Pro" - or some other such permutation - probably along with new branding (which will be an even more closely held secret than the tech specs). Arguably, there will be less scope for product differentiation based on processor power (given that even an iPad gives a 15" MBP a run for its money) so a 13" vs. 14" option might make sense.

Also, what wouldn't make sense is a 14.1" "old tech" display just before switching to mini-LED - and Apple might not want to bet the farm on Mini-LED being available on time (unless they're going to start making their own displays as well as CPUs...)

Meanwhile, once Apple have designed an A15 (or whatever) logic board for a 13" chassis, it ain't going to be rocket science adapting it to a 14" chassis...

That said, I wonder about the whole 14.1" rumour - it smacks to me of 'well they increased the 15" to 16" so obviously they're going to add an inch to the 13" as well'. Not sure these two things are the same: 13.3 -> 14 is a bigger jump than 15.4 -> 16 (especially taken proportionally) and I think ~13" is kinda a sweet spot for medium-size laptops that fits well with the minimum useful width of a 'full sized' keyboard - if I wanted a bigger screen I'd jump to a6" (...and, maybe with the ARM Macs that won't be such a huge cost jump, since discrete GPUs won't be a 'thing').

 

[fokmik]

I still would like a last intel based MBP 14” to bridge the time until the transition is ironed out beyond the early adopters that are more pain resistant...

Since you want an mac with no dGpu, i suggest for you to wait until fall and see the apple to apples differences...because i suspect the non dGpu ARM macs will be better on everything than the intels counterparts
i bet the Arm 13" mbp will be better than the intel one at
1) Cpu performance
2) iGpu performance
3) Heat
4) battery life

 

[kemal]

The Air is the perfect choice because it was designed for AS. See LTT for how the thermal design fails on the intel chip inside. Since when does one not have the fan blow on the heatsink? Answer: when the AS CPU is not the hottest chip in the chassis.

 

[MacPoulet]

This doesn't make sense to me. I thought they would switch the MacBook Air to Apple Silicon before the upper-tier MacBook Pro. If there ever was a computer that could use ARM, it's the Air. A fanless 13" with great battery life and good performance would set a new standard in the industry.

That was the 12” MacBook, it died.

(I really like mine though)