More Claims of MacBook Pro Adopting MacBook Air Form Factor in 2012 Redesign

[SAIRUS]

I think Apple will first need to change the base model of the iPhone to 32 gigs, to start to drive prices down of memory modules. Maybe this year we will get the 15" Air, and the Pros will remain.

That said, maybe Apple will push us to iCloud for more space!

We will eventually see the loss of optical media drives. It drives people to the App Store!

Personally I am a fan of blu-ray because I do like the best quality, but they need to figure out bandwidth saving options for digital content that can match it. Yeah I know most people can't tell the difference.

 

[modufour]

When?

When? But when? I have a late 2008 MBP and I'm still waiting for Ivy Bridge!!! When???

 

[Flood123]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; 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)



You can still buy a delorean too ....

Yes you can http://delorean.com/. Flux capacitor sold seperately. Where you're going, you won't need roads. See you in the future.

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I wonder if Apple will kill the iMac. Heck, I can see Apple just having Macbook Airs with integrated graphics as their only Macs someday.

I really hope not.

 

[Gomff]

The direction Apple has gone in recent years suggests a trend of funneling everything through them and skimming the customer for a percentage. We saw it with hard drives that are even more awkward to replace in the iMac, sealed non user replaceable batteries in their laptops, No Blu Ray in order to drive sales of movies through iTunes, Apple applications being sold exclusively through the app store (as well as third party apps that Apple takes a percentage of) and ditto with the iOS app store.

We've seen false, planned obsolescence in software, hardware and OS functionality & support with iBooks author not working in Snow Leopard, Logic Pro 8 not working in Lion, yet both being hacked to work anyway. GPU's in Mac Pro's that Apple says aren't supported but which work perfectly well.....The list goes on. Because of this, I wouldn't be surprised to see non user replaceable RAM, soldered in SSD storage and so on.

Another Apple trend in recent years has been the steady neglect of the pro market in order to pursue the more lucrative consumer market for whom lightness and convenience are more important than power and expansion capability. For this reason, it wouldn't surprise me if discrete GPU's also get canned for the sake of sleeker design and better battery life

Personally, I've come to accept that this is who Apple are now. I don't like it very much but I accept that they are a business and they are incredibly good at making money. I do have a gradually increasing resentment towards the disparity between the marketing mythology and the reality of what Apple has become.

 

[calderone]

Very glad I have my current MBP. Sounds like it may be my last.

 

[Shoesy]

I've got an air and it is amazing. If I needed more power I'd buy one of these in a heartbeat.

 

[PantherCreek]

Rip the DVDs.

End of discussion.

But how can you rip them without a DVD drive?

 

[Flood123]

But how can you rip them without a DVD drive?

external optical drive.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC684ZM/A

 

[KnightWRX]

Sure if you are a PROfessional janitor then a MBA will do.

My work probably involves more knowledge of computers than you would even know what to do with. Yet, a MacBook Air is quite overpowered for what I need to perform well at my job.

Most media PROs (audio, video, photo)

Ah, finally, a qualification to this "Pro" thing.

But when has it been called the MacBook Media Pro hum ? It just says Macbook Pro. There's more than 1 or 2 PROfessions in the world that require a computer to accomplish.

 

[Doc69]

The current 'chunky' design can barely handle the heat, how can the thin case handle the heat of the same internals?

Yeah, I can already hear the fans running at full speed...

 

[Murgatroyd314]

I am going to buy a new computer to replace my current 15" early 2008 MBP sometime in the next four months.

It will have a non-glossy screen.
It will have at least a half-terabyte of storage, preferably more.
It will have discrete graphics.
It will have user-upgradable RAM.
It will have a decent variety of ports.
It will not require a constant internet connection for anything important.
I would really like for it to run OSX, but that's less essential than the above.

In a few months, I will find out for sure whether it'll be another MBP.

 

[MorphyXXXX]

I hope the new MacBook Pros still have DVD drives. I know people will say "but waahhhh I never use mine!" Well, what about the plenty of people who's laptops are their portable DVD players?

I'm sure the MacBook Pros won't merge with the MacBook Airs as the Pros aren't designed to be thin, so the same sacrifices won't be made with the Pros as is made with the Airs. For example, MacBook Pro hard drives will still be min 500GB.

> 2012
> Still use DVD's

 

[Mojo1]

We will see, past trends have shown they don't really care.

Agreed. Apple is steadily moving toward only serving the consumer market. The reliance on glassy LED displays, not to mention lower-quality internal components. Its emphasis on form over function in its iMac and Thunderbolt display designs. The apparent reduction in R&D for its pro hardware and software.

It's sad that Apple has largely abandoned the users who kept it afloat back when its share price was around $14 and there was speculation that the company was on its last legs. I'm not disputing that Apple's focus on consumer-oriented products saved its bacon. But considering its success and all the money it has in the bank, I don't think that it is asking too much for Apple to consider the needs of its customers who prefer anti-glare and higher-quality displays that don't cause eyestrain, proper ergonomic adjustments and Macs other than the all-in-one iMac.

 

[MacSince1990]

Read between the lines, dudebro!

Macbooks will no longer have discrete GPUs.

***Speculation alert***

No more pros or airs. Just macbooks, 11,13,15,17. Ultra thin, no discrete GPUs. Forthcoming thunderbolt options will be available for gaming dock setups.

This is absolute nonesense.

I believe it more than possible that Apple could shave a few mm off the MBP design by getting rid of the Optical Drive (I wouldn't like that, but it wouldn't be a deal-breaker), but there's no way they can move to SSD yet. Why? As anyone with a brain would point out, you can't buy a 512 GB SSD for cheap ($800+ usually), and PRO users need more than that.

It wouldn't be a Professional line anymore, it would just be your average soccer-mom laptop, for utter lack of a decent term.

Ivy Bridge will improve graphics performance, but not nearly enough for it to not have a discrete GPU. Anyone excited for a change like this isn't a pro user... isn't even a prosumer, much less a power user.

They'd still have to use ULV CPUs in their computers, which, oh wait, would mean stepping back to dual-core CPUs (at 2.2 GHz or so).

Not going to happen.

 

[gnasher729]

HOWEVER, there's still one huge problem - storage space. What will the MBP options be for people that need more than 256gb of hard drive space?

SSD's above that point are nowhere near reasonably priced. I don't see how they are going to get around that unless they can somehow fit a 2.5" HD in the air form factor.

Here's the current options: MBP starting at £999. 2 TB hard drives = £200. 2 x 600 GB SSD = £1600, 2 x 512 GB SSD £1080. (Each price including around £20 for replacing the optical drive with a carrier for another hard drive). So SSD is about 10 times more per GB. Of course, the MBA has only space for one SSD drive, so you would get 1/4th of the capacity for more than 2.5 times the money or almost 1/3rd of the capcity for 4 times the money.

 

[Fairfax]

Isn't the fact that Steve Jobs himself said that "this is the future of notebooks" when showing off the redesigned Air enough proof that the teardrop design of the Air is what the Pro will adopt?

I'd love the new 2012 Pro to be all silver again. Not a fan of the black keys and black bezel (the antiglare looks fantastic, like the Air). Silver keys and silver hinge again.

Glad to read I am not the only one who would like to see the new macbook pros be all silver again.

 

[tkermit]

I wouldn't mind a 13" MBP that looks like this:

Get rid of the Superdrive, replace it with a conventional 2,5" HDD and in addition to that make a 'Blade' style SSD standard just like on the MBAs. Oh, and keep the RAM upgradeable, please!

 

[Dobiewonkanobie]

I am amazed how quickly people are making assumptions about, shooting down and crying over a product that doesn't even exist yet. Yeah, it will likely be amalgamation of two products. All these assumptions that it will be "dumbed-down" are based on nonsense. Apple always surprises with what they are capable of engineering and supply wise. You can surmise all day long but it won't do any good until the final product is revealed.

 

[dank414]

I'm totally down for the redesign, even without the optical drive. I just hope they'll allow the option to expand memory up to 32gb (I only need 16, but who knows). Airs should be almost capable on doing the rest with Ivy processors and 3D/video people should be almost satisfied with the performance (but they should be on a desktop and using farms).

 

[Dobiewonkanobie]

It's also not logical to defend a product that doesn't exist yet

In all seriousness though, we get inflamed and "bitchy" because we care. We want Apple to keep making hardware that meets our needs. For me personally, I've had a hard time adjusting to the new iOS mentality; Back in the PPC days, Apple seemed more committed to "pro" users since they were a large percentage of Apple's user base. Apple has a new user base now and myself and others are worried that Apple has forgotten their most loyal customers in favor of their new iOS masses.

To Apple (or any other major company) you're only as loyal as your last purchase. Like you said their customer base is changing and other products they sell may start to reflect that. Only time will tell if that approach serves them well.

 

[azentropy]

My work probably involves more knowledge of computers than you would even know what to do with.

LOL... That is Extremely doubtful.

 

[KnightWRX]

LOL... That is Extremely doubtful.

Well, since my line of work involves keeping computers (not PCs, real computers) running in tip top shape, with a bit of programming on the side, unless you're some kind of semi-conductor or processor architect, then it's not that doubtful at all.

 

[Dobiewonkanobie]

It's quite baffling that Apple fans, people who claim to care about quality, say such idiotic things as "blu-ray is dying" or "blu-ray is dead". Apple fans supposedly buy Macs because of "quality" so why don't they want the absolute best in video quality for movies and other types of video?

There is absolutely no alternative to blu-ray at the moment. Nothing even comes close. iTunes HD downloads? Half the resolution and 1/10th the bit-rate, using the same video encoding. On Demand stuff from your cable/video provider? Almost always MPEG-2 at around 15Mbps, or lower bit-rate H.264. Netflix? Barely in the same league as iTunes HD video.

If you claim to buy a Mac because of the overall "quality" then its quite hypocritical of you to not want the absolute best in other things too, such as wanting blu-ray support.

I know some say "thats what my home theater is for". And as I've explained many times before, there are millions upon millions of legitimate reasons why one might want to watch a movie on their computer.

It's going to be an extremely long time before there is even a real "alternative" to blu-ray disc that has even remotely similar video quality. Internet connection speeds being able to stream that kind of quality of video are currently extremely expensive and, in some cases, capped. There is just no real alternative or competition to blu-ray disc. None. If you care about quality, blu-ray disc is the only way to go.

Also, who still actually believes there was a "pro" market for Apple products? The whole "Pro" nonsense out of Apple has always just been a way to sell people even more expensive hardware. Apple's "Pro" machines are completely lackluster compared to real "pro" machines from other hardware vendors. The MacBook "Pro" has always been just a consumer machine with a metal case and a higher price tag. Same goes for the Mac "Pro".



What DRM scheme? All of the DRM blu-ray disc uses is already built-in to iTunes, Mac OS X, and DisplayPort. They already have MPEG-2 and H.264 licenses and decoding. Blu-ray license fees are all a one stop shop now. Every Mac with a dedicated GPU from the Radeon HD 2000 series, GeForce 8000 series, or integrated GPU starting with the 9400M is capable of decoding all of the video formats used by blu-ray disc in hardware. There literally is absolutely no reason Apple cannot support blu-ray disc.

You skimped on the millions and millions of reasons so I'm sticking with the main reason: probably because 99% of the people who watch BR watch in on their TV, not on a laptop. More people are watching non BR movies than those that are. It just doesn't make sense to include something that will raise the price and only be of concern to a minority.

 

[kalsta]

I'd love the new 2012 Pro to be all silver again. Not a fan of the black keys and black bezel (the antiglare looks fantastic, like the Air). Silver keys and silver hinge again.

i feel the opposite, i prefer the black bezel over the silver one. ^^ all silver is boring. To each their own however

I like the look of the black keys and black bezel. BUT… the only reason we have a black bezel is because of Apple's horrendous decision to put a shiny piece of highly reflective glass in front of every display, and for that reason I pay the extra for an anti-glare display.

But I say keep the black backlit keys. They look much better than the silver ones on my previous MPB.

 

[kevin2i]

Meh. I'm buying a Dell Inspiron next time. I need a CD-ROM to browse my encyclopaedia software.

you forgot the /s.