Late 2016 MBP: Interesting naming scheme

[Brookzy]

[Nerdy post incoming... prepare to be uninterested unless you're an Apple Kremlinologist like myself (surely Cupertinologist?!) ]

Watching the introduction of the new MBPs I was curious what the technical model names would be for each device - especially the base model without Touch Bar.

Traditionally identifying features in the naming structure have been size and year. In 2012 "Retina" was added to distinguish Retina models from non-Retina. Would this now happen with Touch Bar, giving us MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016) and MacBook Pro (13-inch, Touch Bar, Late 2016)?

Well, a support document added today has answered this question. The official model names for the 13-inch are:

• MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)

So there we have it! "Retina" will likely no longer be part of model names going forward (say goodbye to the non-4K 21.5" iMac at the next refresh!), and this is a real throwback - models have not been differentiated by their ports since 2003-2004 IIRC.

These also break modern precedent in terms of having information after the model year.

And, they must surely be the longest model names Apple has had!

 

[cambookpro]

Oh my, that's rather a mouthful. What would be wrong with MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016, Touch Bar)?

Also, do we need a new acronym for these; people here tend to use cMBP and rMBP, what will these become? nrMBP?

 

[Brookzy]

Oh my, that's rather a mouthful. What would be wrong with MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016, Touch Bar)?

Also, do we need a new acronym for these; people here tend to use cMBP and rMBP, what will these become? nrMBP?

There must be a reason they didn't use "Touch Bar". Perhaps they don't intend it to permeate the lineup like Retina did? Hmm...

As for the acronym - MBP2T3P or MBP4T3P, natch!