MacBook Pro 2011 predictions

[smartalic34]

As much as some posters would like to think, the MacBook Pro isn't designed for "professionals." It's simply the more powerful line of computers, with the "Pro" differentiating it from the less powerful lines (aka the MacBook and MacBook Air). It used to be called the PowerBook, remember? MacBook Power sounds cheesy, so they used a "synonym."

I don't understand why so many argue over Apple and whether they cater to professionals. They don't. They have simply designated their most powerful notebook line as "Pro" because it's synonymous with "better." Pros will use the better computers, and the MacBook Pro has a lot to offer for many professionals - therefore the term makes sense, but it isn't designed for a "pro." It's designed for someone who wants (or needs, but can also just want) a more powerful machine compared to the rest of the notebooks Apple offers. It's a relative term, not an independent one.

 

[MBX]

I want 16GB Ram in the next MBP, OK?

 

[c0l3a5h3r]

Probably Next Month

Based on the previous MacBook Pro refresh cycle I think we can count on seeing a new MacBook this February. I'm hoping for faster processors for the 13" Macbook.

 

[Pentad]

As much as some posters would like to think, the MacBook Pro isn't designed for "professionals."

I'm sorry to say that I agree with this. There was a time with the MBP was considered a very high end professional computer for professionals in a number of fields. However, Apple has greatly slipped in options and offerings compared to other manufacturers.

Of all the things that the MBP lacks the one that I find amazing is that they still offer a puny 4 gig of memory on their top of the line model. Gosh, I remember when Apple notebooks garnered praise from professionals.

I know, I know, Apple only offers 4 gig because the public will still buy it and by their last report they have no reason to move back into the professional market.

I am at a crossroads with Apple and the next gen MBP will determine if I stick with Apple or move to another manufacturer. A colleague has a 16 gig Elitebook by HP that is a very nice machine for his research.

I'm fearful that Apple will just bump the CPU and GPU (SB with some sort of graphics card bump) but keep the pokey USB/FireWire ports with an anemic 4 gig of memory. Yet, the price will remain the same...

I hope Apple proves me wrong...

-P

 

[rjbruce]

· 4 gigabytes of ram - expandables to 8 gigabytes but soldered onto logic board

Solder makes me sad...

 

[DudeMartin]

Based on the previous MacBook Pro refresh cycle I think we can count on seeing a new MacBook this February. I'm hoping for faster processors for the 13" Macbook.

Apple needs to include faster processors because if they don't, they're reputation might be at risk; utilizing C2D in the April 2010 model left them on thin ice as is (left their balls exposed).

 

[Richard1028]

utilizing C2D in the April 2010 model left them on thin ice as is (left their balls exposed).

Lol. Apple sold a ton of C2D's in that quarter and they're still selling.

You guys don't get it. Apple-addicts really don't care what's under the hood as long as it handles basic needs. The very fact they've gotten away with C2D's this long is proof of that.

Then they put "Pro" in the name just to make you feel better about it.

 

[joecool99]

Lol. Apple sold a ton of C2D's in that quarter and they're still selling.

You guys don't get it. Apple-addicts really don't care what's under the hood as long as it handles basic needs. The very fact they've gotten away with C2D's this long is proof of that.

Then they put "Pro" in the name just to make you feel better about it.

agree. apple is not on a thin ice! with $50 billion cash pile those suckers can do whatever they want. average consumer doesn't know anything about the "guts inside" as long as it works... it's all they care about.

 

[DudeMartin]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

No - financially they are not. And I never said that people didn't buy MBPs because of C2D.
But if they keep using old processors, they will start getting a bad rep for being behind on processing power. Using C2D in April pissed off enough people already.

 

[kardiackeith]

I wonder what % of people are like me, and aren't overly concerned with the specs, but want a 15 inch monitor.

That's all I want. A larger monitor for my laptop. Is that too much to ask?

 

[Hellhammer]

I do not see Apple suddenly offering a lot of customization options.

Neither do I. I simply described a real pro laptop, something that Apple will never make as they don't care about pros. Sure, pros can use, there is nothing wrong with that. But IF MBP was solely designed for pros, it would be a totally different beast.

 

[zodqyv]

I wonder what % of people are like me, and aren't overly concerned with the specs, but want a 15 inch monitor.

That's all I want. A larger monitor for my laptop. Is that too much to ask?

You are in luck.

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

 

[calaverasgrande]

gee, why doesnt apple add usb 3.0, esata, hdmi and light peak? Well have you seen a thinkpad lately? I have. They have all the latest ports and its ugly as hell. There is no rhyme or reason to where the ports are located aside from how thy could fit them on the logic board. Heck the 1394 is in the front? Sure some folks may use the esata, some folks may use the hdmi, but mose folks only use the USB and the power jack.

I think apples approach has generally been to place an emphasis on OS stability and incremental hardware changes. I myself as an IT professional am not really concerned with having the latest greatest GPU or CPU. I am more interested in having a a solid OS.

 

[cool11]

I'm sorry to say that I agree with this. There was a time with the MBP was considered a very high end professional computer for professionals in a number of fields. However, Apple has greatly slipped in options and offerings compared to other manufacturers.

Of all the things that the MBP lacks the one that I find amazing is that they still offer a puny 4 gig of memory on their top of the line model. Gosh, I remember when Apple notebooks garnered praise from professionals.

I know, I know, Apple only offers 4 gig because the public will still buy it and by their last report they have no reason to move back into the professional market.

I am at a crossroads with Apple and the next gen MBP will determine if I stick with Apple or move to another manufacturer. A colleague has a 16 gig Elitebook by HP that is a very nice machine for his research.

I'm fearful that Apple will just bump the CPU and GPU (SB with some sort of graphics card bump) but keep the pokey USB/FireWire ports with an anemic 4 gig of memory. Yet, the price will remain the same...

I hope Apple proves me wrong...

-P

Even the worst pc laptop today, has 4gb ram.
So, apple still insists to sell its most expensive laptop series(mbp) with 4gb as standard.
It seems that they do not aim to 'pro' market but rather to 'amateur' market.

 

[skiltrip]

I wonder what % of people are like me, and aren't overly concerned with the specs, but want a 15 inch monitor.

That's all I want. A larger monitor for my laptop. Is that too much to ask?

I'm the opposite. I'm not overly concerned with the monitor size. I want higher CPU specs in the 13".

 

[skiltrip]

Neither do I. I simply described a real pro laptop, something that Apple will never make as they don't care about pros. Sure, pros can use, there is nothing wrong with that. But IF MBP was solely designed for pros, it would be a totally different beast.

And the price would be even higher. Look at the Mac Pro price tag. Imaging a simarly spec'd portable computer. Ouch.

 

[skiltrip]

Even the worst pc laptop today, has 4gb ram.
So, apple still insists to sell its most expensive laptop series(mbp) with 4gb as standard.
It seems that they do not aim to 'pro' market but rather to 'amateur' market.

In all honesty though, the vast majority of users don't need more than 4gb. I do pretty heavy audio work and I rarely pass the 4gb mark. (I pit 8gb in though so I wouldn't have to worry about it). I agree though, that especially on the upper tier mbp, Apple should be putting 8gb on board. Or stop the insane upgrade price to up the ram. They know they are raping customers, yet they do it anyway.

 

[torbjoern]

Opening programs is almost PURELY a function these days of how fast your hard drive is. My friends' MBA runs circles around my Mac Pro when it comes to booting up the OS and opening applications. Why? Because it has a SSD and my Mac Pro has (boy do I need to upgrade) a traditional 7200RPM HDD.

The Mac Pro's 2.8Ghz 8-Core Xeon processor is meaningless when it comes to this particular task because CPU isn't the bottleneck.

Furthermore, for general use (web surfing, iTunes, Word, etc.), the main bottleneck to almost every user these days is RAM, not processor speed. Having to page out to the HDD when RAM runs out causes the slowdown/sluggishness you feel sometimes (because HDD is a slower form of memory than RAM). More RAM = less chance of pageouts. It's the reason why I can have 20 applications open on my Mac Pro (14GB RAM) but only 5-6 on my friends' MBA (which has only 2GB of RAM) and still have silky smooth performance.

Again, the processor speed, has very little to do with how "snappy" an application feels given these low level tasks.

An excellent summary over the practical implications of high specs in hardware.

 

[grahamnp]

The computing experience can't really be summed up by how long it takes to open apps. Yes, the speed or lack of can make a huge impression but it is only a small part of what we all do. Kudos to Apple for making SSDs standard in the MBA but it does not justify the inferior parts that we get elsewhere.

 

[cool11]

I read articles about so many extraordinary technologies that may come to new models, liquid metal, retina display and so on, and I wonder: I would like to have an 'antistatic' screen, with no dust on it,.
How difficult is to provide something like that?

Do I have to scavenge my screen every two days?
(and I live in a 'clear' room).

 

[K42]

In all honesty though, the vast majority of users don't need more than 4gb. I do pretty heavy audio work and I rarely pass the 4gb mark. (I pit 8gb in though so I wouldn't have to worry about it). I agree though, that especially on the upper tier mbp, Apple should be putting 8gb on board. Or stop the insane upgrade price to up the ram. They know they are raping customers, yet they do it anyway.

In Holland, 8 GB instead of 4 will cost you 360 Euro (tax included).

For comparison, having Dell upgrade an XPS 15 from 4GB to 8 costs 330 Euro (tax included).

So yes, Apple is more expensive than Dell, but their level of insanity is still within reasonable bounds compared to Dell's.

 

[bilg]

I'm not too mad about the RAM upgrade charge. Yes, Apple charges WAAAYYYY too much for a 4gb upgrade for a total of 8. I honestly don't know how they get away with charging that much. but as an IT technician, I'm a big fan of crucial.com's mem upgrades, where buying top-notch matching 4gb sticks costs you somewhere around 100 bucks...instead of a arm and a leg

proof: http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartspecs.aspx?mtbpoid=5C1705FFA5CA7304

 

[bilg]

side note:

This might be an interesting clue...or just another one of Apple's teasers

The way that we look at it is it’s the Mac of the future shipping today, and it was a phenomenal part of our growth on the Mac last quarter. It has gotten off to an unbelievable start. The customers love it. They love the precision of it, they love the thinness, the weight, the instant on and the list is long, I think. And so we’re really happy with how it’s doing out of the starting block. And as you know, we’ve only been shipping it for less than 90 days, and so we’ve just gotten going.

says Apple’s Tim Cook

 

[aCondor]

Using C2D in April pissed off enough people already.

I know, look at all these pissed off customers!

 

[WardC]

Something like this?