There you go.
hahaha, perfect. That guy should have looked at the buyer's guide lol
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MacBook Pro Supplies Tightening Ahead of Potential Refresh
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hahaha, perfect. That guy should have looked at the buyer's guide lol
That's a ridiculous prediction, but even more so if you're including the MBP into it. No way Apple is going to force consumers to wait until late 2011 to get their hands on the 2nd gen i-Core Intel chipsets.
They would if it was a Mac mini, white MacBook, or MacBook Air. They wouldn't if it was a 13" Pro. But I don't think they'll put it into that machine either,
So which is it? Hrm......
Wow, the back and forth between fpnc and Yebubbleman is interesting.
My take:
This upcoming refresh will only be for the MBPs. Yes, White will be left in the wilderness. It will be Sandy Bridge. Optical drives will be standard but Apple will make it possible to replace that with something else as an option.
I can see Apple doing this to study customer buying preferences for the MBPs and Air. Then mid 2011 White gets a refresh. More Apple studies.
At this point what I say is the best guess on my part. 2012 MBP or White 13" gets the axe. I say MBP 13" as the MBP and Air lines start to share design and specs.
On another note, did Apple break down sales of laptops by models in the most recent earnings call?
Wow, the back and forth between fpnc and Yebubbleman is interesting.
My take:
This upcoming refresh will only be for the MBPs. Yes, White will be left in the wilderness. It will be Sandy Bridge. Optical drives will be standard but Apple will make it possible to replace that with something else as an option.
I can see Apple doing this to study customer buying preferences for the MBPs and Air. Then mid 2011 White gets a refresh. More Apple studies.
At this point what I say is the best guess on my part. 2012 MBP or White 13" gets the axe. I say MBP 13" as the MBP and Air lines start to share design and specs.
On another note, did Apple break down sales of laptops by models in the most recent earnings call?
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Ridiculous? I don't know. Unlikely, perhaps. Unfortunate, very definitely.
Problem is, I can't see Apple moving only the 15" and 17" models to Sandy Bridge while leaving the 13" models stuck for another year (or whenever) with the Core 2 Duos. Frankly, there should be enough room within the 13" form factor and enough price flexibility between the $999 white MacBook and 11" MacBook Air and the low-end(?) $1799 15" MacBook Pro to offer a 13" MacBook Pro model with the Sandy Bridge CPU. Up until now the only reason (I believe) that this gap has existed is that Intel's IGP in Arrandale was just too weak to displace NVIDIAs chipset. Now it appears that with the additional performance boosts offered by Sandy Bridge Apple may be able to forego the NVIDIA chipset without looking too ridiculous with Intel's IGP. Sandy Bridge should offer such a significant performance boost over the Core 2 Duo that practically no one will regret or question such a processor change on the next generation 13" MacBook Pro (if it happens, which it may not).
Of course, in an ideal world (for me) I'd like Apple to just drop the internal optical drive from the next MacBook Pros and use that space and cost savings to improve the entire line in other ways. Certainly if they did that on the 13" MacBook Pro that could virtually guarantee that Sandy Bridge could be used in that form factor (with an accompanying small increase in price on the base model).
Beyond this, my dream configurations for the MacBook Pros would include the following (if the form factor drops the optical drive to allow these additional features):
Discrete graphics processor for the 13" MacBook Pro (nothing really killer here, just something notably faster that Intel's IGP).
Larger battery for even greater runtime or if not longer runtime then equivalent runtime given Sandy Bridge and possible GPU upgrades (for all configurations).
Dual drive option on the 15" and 17" MacBook Pros (one SSD, possibly a blade, and one large-capacity HD).
More ports on the 13" and 15" models (parity with the 17" MacBook Pro).
I don't expect all of the above (like I said, it's my dream upgrade), but I 100% agree that it would sure be nice to get Sandy Bridge early this year rather than waiting for Ivy Bridge in 2012.
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I am waiting for an update to the 15" Pros actually. The Student ADC discount is more than the standard academic discount for the more high end units (ie. MBP and Mac Pro) and is worth it if you are getting those items only (you need to pay $100 to get the membership). I recall Apple revamping and/or discontinuing the Student ADC memberships though so I am not sure if they are still offered.
Finally somebody who shows some arguments of why Yebubbleman will be wrong, because in several threads I have read, the only thing Yebubbleman is stating in his posts is the fact that the Macbook Pro 13" will be discontinued, with no convincing arguments at all... The fact that you repeat something over and over again in numerous threads, doesn't mean you are right.
Mr Know It All is shown his place and immediately he goes in defence with ad hominem arguments because somebody touches his ego.
Therefore I agree with fpnc and think the 13" MBP will definitely stay, hopefuly with the best upgrade possible, not just some minor changes.
Mr Know It All is shown his place and immediately he goes in defence with ad hominem arguments because somebody touches his ego.
Therefore I agree with fpnc and think the 13" MBP will definitely stay, hopefuly with the best upgrade possible, not just some minor changes.
The real issue is that the current 15 and 17 could take Sandy Bridge and its integrated graphics and keep their second graphics card. The 13 can't take the Intel core series (which have to have an integrated graphics card) and a second graphics card. So the 13 will either have to have Intel integrated graphics (not really acceptable to the Professional community as they are widely considered to be weak) or a complete redesign to create space for the 2-card solution.
So the question becomes - is it a refresh of the current model, in which case 15 and 17 can go Sandy Bridge, but the 13 would have to be handicapped, or is it a complete redesign. A complete redesign would probably warrant some kind of big Apple event? What's on the horizon?
Can't see them reducing the price of the Air three months down the line, by the way.
There's no law that says the 13" MBP can't have discrete graphics
People make this claim as if it were a fact.
Only the Apple motherboard engineers know whether it's possible to include a separate graphics chip (not "card") on the board.
Parts get smaller, more integrated (so you need fewer of them), a port could be removed or moved, the battery could be made slightly smaller (since Sandy Bridge can use less power, this wouldn't necessarily reduce battery life).
Apple's engineers may surprise you.
People make this claim as if it were a fact.
Only the Apple motherboard engineers know whether it's possible to include a separate graphics chip (not "card") on the board.
Parts get smaller, more integrated (so you need fewer of them), a port could be removed or moved, the battery could be made slightly smaller (since Sandy Bridge can use less power, this wouldn't necessarily reduce battery life).
Apple's engineers may surprise you.
As a general rule of thumb, I usually give Apple at least two years between each major redesign on their prosumer systems. The interesting thing is that the 15" unibody MacBook Pro and the unibody MacBook were both released in Oct. 2008 which means that both have now been on the market for just over two years (just a bit over two years and two months to be exact). In the period between these major updates Apple usually brings spec and CPU/GPU upgrades, which since switching to Intel works out fairly well as Intel is on a so-called tick-tock upgrade cycle that generally runs about one year for each tick or tock ( http://www.intel.com/technology/tick-tock/index.htm ). So, Apple does a major revision about every two years (architecture and/or form factor) and then gets a significant bump in the CPU right in the middle of that two year cycle. What this means is that the unibody products might be set to have a major redesign in the next few months. And guess what, that fits right in with the next major "tock" on Intel's CPU architecture roadmap (Sandy Bridge).
Given all of the above, I think it's quite possible that the unibody products are going to see a major revision with their next release. I can also find no good reason for this not to affect the current 13" MacBook Pro, Sandy Bridge is good enough to finally displace NVIDIA's chipsets from that product and besides the recent system chipset settlement between Intel and NVIDIA has pretty much forced NVIDIA out of the chipset business (at least on the non-Atom, X86 systems).
The MacBook Airs have just had a major form-factor redesigned so they are currently out of cycle (so to speak). This leaves only the white MacBook and it really can't move to Sandy Bridge just yet because that has to happen first on the MacBook Pros (and the move to Sandy Bridge from the Core 2 Duo would represent a major redesign for the white MacBook).
Of course, this two year cycle isn't fixed in stone, but the only other significant CPU event that is going to happen relatively soon is Ivy Bridge (probably early 2012) and that could mean that Apple would wait another year before they redesign the unibody products (although they could do the redesign mid-cycle, let's say late summer 2011).
In any case, while the above might appear to be a reasonable analysis of the coming updates it doesn't mean that Apple will do exactly this. They may do a mid-cycle redesign or there may be some other issue that will keep them from doing a major rework on the 13" MacBook Pro. I'll have to admit, I've really being waiting quite impatiently for a redesign on the unibody MacBook Pros. If the 13" gets a Sandy Bridge CPU and the price does not skyrocket then I'm fairly certain that it will be my next Mac purchase.
I personally think they are going to discontinue the 13" MBP to focus more on the "Pro" side of their MacBooks. Next year, the 13" MBA should have better specs than the current 13" MBP.
I agree 100%. In fact other manufactures have managed discrete graphics in systems similar to the 13" MacBook Pro's form factor. Of course, you're not going to find many systems (or any systems) that are an exact duplicate to either of Apple's full-featured 13" MacBooks. Once you figure in Apple's profit margins and some of the Mac's unique features it's hard to make direct comparisons to determine what may or may not be possible.
Of course, and what I was trying to say was that if it's just an unannounced bump, with new processors dropped into the existing architecture, a refresh, the 13 probably won't get anything.
I can't see such a major event just being dropped into the store one day, so how far in advance will we hear of an Apple event?
DSGi UK (Currys & PC World) update: down to 193 mbp 13" in central warehouses. This number was 300+ yesterday. Most likely those were shipped to stores.
does apple really have motherboard engineers? i thought the boards were made by foxconn or nvidia.
last year's i Core had a separate IGP. the new models it's all integrated on the same CPU die. shouldn't be an issue going forward
The Macbook is down to 2 in central warehouse at the moment.
As I mentioned yesterday 15" and 17" is very low too, I will try to get you the exact number today, but you should find yourself unable to order the 17" from currys.co.uk (Last time I checked it re directed you to another model)
my guess is that apple is up to something when they underwent the maintenance couple days ago , more than just a revamped looks .
i believe they have a reason for that
but 2 february ?
The sooner it comes the better!
Maybe it's even possible another refresh before the year ends AH!
Maybe it's even possible another refresh before the year ends AH!