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

[FluJunkie]

Am I the only one that see's this?

Its obvious the Macbook line is going to be fashioned after the Air for portability and we will use Thunderbolt enclosures with GPU's installed for the heavy lifting when we are home.

Dual purpose machine, ultimate portable and ultimate powerful.

If that's "obvious" then it means I'll be making the obvious purchasing decision: a Lenovo.

To be frank, I don't buy laptops so I can plug them in at home. I have a desktop for that. Additionally, the Thunderbolt enclosures aren't suited for actually GPU usage. The day this notion gets dispelled can't come soon enough.

I'd love everything to come sized like a Macbook Air. But if it comes at the expense of losing any discrete GPU options, or being married to the Air's anemic 4 GB of RAM, I'll pass.

And I thought MacBook Pros were made, actually, for professional needs. What's the point in only being able to do heavy tasks at home, or haul multiple peripherals to achieve this goal?

Exactly. The whole point of a Macbook Pro is to be able to do your work on the road.

 

[DeepIn2U]

And you'll pay $2000 for the laptop and $2000 for the docking station/monitor.

Apple's profit margin continues to climb....

I'm curious what is the point of OSX SL/Lion (the latter moreso with current hardware trends like the Air) having

Support for multiple CPU and GPU cores
via Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL

Odd. Does the Intel HD 3000 / 4000 support OpenCL or Grand Central Dispatch or will the need for Thunderbolt external GPU allow this to function; and if so can it do this on the fly?

 

[Cubytus]

Even with OpenCL and Grand Central Dispatch out since a while, I have yet to see any widespread application take advantage of it. And what would be the point of yet another big, fat external enclosure to achieve what was possible in a slim and elegant form factor before?

Daisy chain or star-network, there are too many "needed" peripherals already. The MBA already needs a USB hub to be usable.

Present MBP resume time on the road: 3 secs, typing password included. Approximate current set-up weight: 5lbs (Laptop+charger)
Approximate battery life: 7h.

Projected Apple's laptop resume time on the road: 3 secs, typing password + 5 sec for external ODD to be recognized + 1 min finding power outlet + 15 seconds negotiating its access with other people around it + 5 secs plug-in and recognition time. = 1'28"
Approximate projected weight: laptop: 3lbs + charger 0.5lb + external OD drive 0.75lbs + external GPU 1.75lbs = 6lbs.
Approximate projected battery life: 3h

20% heavier, double the volume, half the battery life, for the same power.
Doesn't look Apple-like.

"Sir, would you power up all your device for us to verify?" (airport checkpoint).

 

[Tadros]

I'm sorry, but this has to be a joke.

As I said earlier, the SuperDrive isn't going anywhere, at least for the 15' and 17' MacBook Pro's. SSD's will NOT be implemented until the prices drop to about the same range as current disk based HDDs. MacBook Pro's will NEVER only depend on Thunderbolt. Ethernet ports are NOT going anywhere. Audio In isn't going anywhere either.

If Apple will like to be completely impracticable then all this will come true. But Apple likes efficiency. For example, I use ALL the ports on my 17inch MacBook Pro while in my recording studio. My USB ports run my iLok key, my HDPVR, and an external HDD. My Thunderbolt port runs my monitor. My FireWire 800 port runs my audio board. My ethernet port runs my internet at 42 Mbps download and 35 Mbps upload, which my wifi (current gen AirPort Extreme) can not replicate unless I am inches away from it. My Expresscard slot runs my eSata card for another external hard drive. And finally, my SuperDrive burns session DVD's for clients as well as CDs of their music and CD's for my car.

It's unrealistic to think that their Pro line will lose any of these features. Unless they completely get rid of the pro line, which in turn they will lose all their Pro users. i would never buy another Mac for Pro use if ANY of these features were excluded. I know they are stubborn and don't want to enter into the BluRay or the USB 3.0 market, but i honestly feel like they should. You all are talking about Apple moving forward, then why aren't these adapted? iTunes quality music will NEVER match CD quality, cause the files are too compressed. iTunes movies will NEVER match BluRay quality, cause the files are too compressed! So no i will not be purchasing any music or videos from iTunes, as I haven't. Even Steve Jobs didn't like to listen to digital music, he was a vinyl user!

If they want to allenate the consumers that kept them afloat in their darkest times and loss their business, none of us have a problem moving back to Windows. PCs are cheaper, Windows isn't as bad as it used to be, and more programs are compatible. Even things that kept people as Apple users have better options that are compatible with Windows. Logic < ProTools, Final Cut Pro X < Avid. Sorry guys.

As for Thunderbolt being a capable replacement for ALL these ports... no. As we learned in the audio/video field, the less convertors you have in your chain, the cleaner your signal will be and the easier things will run. If i start linking everything to a thunderbolt port, not only will it not be cost effective, but I doubt everything a Pro needs will run smoothly or elegantly.

Pro machines aren't meant to be small, they are meant to be beasts. When you buy a MacBook Pro, or even a Mac Pro, you are buying it for POWER and FLEXIBILITY! Limiting it's hardware will not be a good business plan at all, it just won't happen.

People also forget that not all software is available through the internet and disks are needed. Apple will continue to grow if it continues to hold it's developers connections, but if they don't then it's a bleak future. For example, even with my fast internet speeds, it took an hour to download the newest version of ProTools. Why waste an hour of my life when i can stick the disc into my DVD drive and install it? Until the Internet is fast enough for consumers, until servers allow faster download speeds, and until Internet costs drop, Disk based media is a necessity.

My Dream MacBook Pro (I know it won't happen, shut up)

Continue having the latest Intel chipsets
Continue having both onboard AND discrete graphics cards
3 USB 3.0 ports
2 Thunderbolt Ports
1 Ethernet Port
1 Firewire 800 port
1 HDMI port
Audio in/out
BluRay Superdrive
Expresscard port

I know USB 3.0, BluRay. and HDMI will probably never make it to the MacBook Pro, it's just sad when you can buy other Laptop/Notebook brands that will include all of them and have more ports, the same processor and graphics card all for around $1000 - $1500 cheaper.

 

[ShootingStarPho]

Aesthetic or Utility?

Aesthetic is obviously an important aspect to Apple products. Its an initial lure to many customers, but what makes them fall in love with the machines is the fact that the devices are highly functional, quick, simplistic in performing tasks, finding files, and are simply more reliable than many other machines.

I look at the MacBook Air as a lovely little notebook for more 'air'-y tasks, like reading/composing emails, browsing the web, basic office tasks and maybe one or two small multimedia projects, possibly. It's kind of computer 'air-head' computer; it is not an insult to those that own and/or prefer them, but I am doubtful that a MacBook air is truly useful to anyone working with intensive coding, video-editing, music production, photoshop editing, 3-d modelling simulations, data aggregation and analysis etc - unless they have it as a lighter traveller version to another computer elsewhere, like their Mac Pro or MacBook Pro. It is also obvious that the optical drive is still somewhat desirable; unless all thin MBP come paired with an external disk drive, this will be problematic for enough users that it would become a slight issue, I'm sure. It's so obvious that the fullest extent of connections is also removed, making the 'air' simply that: useful for light-hearted varieties of work/play. I work with many researchers in a university and can say that they certainly couldn't downgrade their MBP's to airs without compromising most of the utility with them.

The MacBook Pro is truly a powerhouse for a laptop, although not 'perfect', it can handle nearly anything you wish of it. The 'Pro' is intended to indicate that the user will fully make use of the inner workings.

I think that the size of the machine is truly limited to the extensive ports that are often used. I can truly only imagine that the bezel could become thinner as it approaches the touchpad to appear similar to the air models, still leaving the ports in their positions, but if anything is removed, I think the 'Pro' would just be an empty title.

Personally, I feel that the utility is what makes the MacBook Pro so popular. MacBook Airs are really for those that don't demand much of their laptop. People will buy them, yes, but I'm not aware of any MBP users that ditched the pro for an air, so amalgamating these different incarnations requires a much consideration from Apple.

....he wrote as he typed on his 17" MacBook Pro.

 

[CASLondon]

Am I the only one that see's this?

Its obvious the Macbook line is going to be fashioned after the Air for portability and we will use Thunderbolt enclosures with GPU's installed for the heavy lifting when we are home.

Dual purpose machine, ultimate portable and ultimate powerful.

This misunderstands the way a macbook pro is used by those who use it for pro purposes, for instance, in video and film production.

Right now, with tapeless cameras beginning to dominate, my macbook pro goes in the field on shoots, P2 and XDCAM cards are popped out of cameras and into the expresscard slot, the data cloned to 2 external hard drives (moving to thunderbolt these days), and quick assemblies of dailies strung out in AVID Media Composer, and the laptop maybe even connected to a external monitor and 3rd party hardware such as MOJO or AJA. The computer is used in the field just as heavily as at the desk.

There is no point to have even a faster, quad core MBA in the field and a docking station at home.

 

[seveej]

That said, I think a lot of countries are more connected than the US. South Korea and Finland come to mind.

On the face of the statistics, yes.
But there are other aspects to this.
Take Finland for example. Although a decent high-speed ADSL service does not cost gazillions, most of the media-data is nowhere near. On my 100 Mbps cable modem I get a max download speed from within the same town at about 10-12 MBps, from neighboring countries (underwater cable) of 7-8 MBps, from southern Europe in the league of 3-4 MBps and from beyond an ocean (say e.g. Japan, Australia, US) of 1-3 MBps. The average download speeds are far far worse - so much so in fact, that I did not notice any real difference when I bumped my connection from 10 Mbps to the current 100 Mbps.

On the other hand, even within statistically well connected countries, there are huge differences. When I was typing my previous post I was visiting my parents, who live in the northernmost suburbs of the capital region, merely 40 km (as the dove flies) from the absolute network hub of the country. There is only one ISP, which offers a decent (in terms of price vs. performance) fixed connection there, at 40€/month*, my parents get 1/0,5 Mbps. I've fought the ISP for three years now, as the average uptime of the connection is around 65% (I installed a small software which pings my home server 40 km away, to get some proof). During the time the connection is up
the average real DL speed is around 35-55 kBps. Sometimes when the cables are having a good day, I can get into the hundreds.

Naturally there are wireless connections to think of, but the only network catering iPhones (Sonera) is pretty much useless - I wish I could even get EDGE speeds, but usually were talking smaller single digit speeds (3-5 kBps). And before you mention it, there are NO natural obstructions hampering the signal, the base stations are simply too far-spaced.

I do not expect my parents to be potential iTelevision or iTunesMatch users, but even if they were (as I'm sure some in the townlet would be), there is no way to get any sufficient speeds without some fiber optic operator billing you for laying some kilometers of dedicated cable.

RGDS,
Pekka

* 40€/month is incidentally more than I pay for my 100 Mbps connection in the city...

 

[mdgm]

USB 3 Ethernet adapter faster?

USB 3 wouldn't be the way to go because of high CPU requirements. A Thunderbolt adapter would be the way to go, but still built in ethernet is a basic essential feature in a Pro computer. Shouldn't need an adapter for basic functionality like that.

 

[Steve121178]

this is really bad. Why mess with the "Pro" line? 15 inch and 17inch aren't really meant for consumers. Prosumers and Pros use these laptops. Hence MacBook "Pro."

*proper chuckle* They are just laptops! If they are aimed at "Prosumers and Pros" then so are 99% of Windows laptops that have equal or better specs.

There is nothing that special about the MacBook Pro's specification, there never has been. To say that they are aimed at "Pros" and not consumers just because they have discrete graphics and a bigger screen is complete and utter nonsense.

 

[MorphingDragon]

It doesn't require built-in Ethernet. I use Ethernet only when at work and I rarely drag my MBA to work with me. I usually work from home with it or on the go where I use Wi-fi or Bluetooth for connectivity.

----------



There's nothing more versatile and flexible than a home NAS. All my computers get access to the same storage, share files and when I buy a new computer, I don't have any data to move over.

Seriously, I've been running this setup since about 2007. Works like a charm, I'm not ever going back to local storage in my computers.

I actually have a Linux box running Barracuda File Server as well. ***** heavenly.

Odd. Does the Intel HD 3000 / 4000 support OpenCL or Grand Central Dispatch or will the need for Thunderbolt external GPU allow this to function; and if so can it do this on the fly?

Yes, in theory.

We won't see widespread adoption of parallel computing until Implicit Parallel languages are developed. No amount of extending sequential programming languages will help this, its just too hard to get it right. Much easier and more efficient to get a computer to do it. There are languages being developed, however the most mature one I know of is the one my University is working on, and its no where near commercial viability. It lacks things like Garbage Collection and a Widget Toolkit.

 

[JoeG4]

some people fell for the "pro" moniker hook line and sinker lol

 

[Tadros]

*proper chuckle* They are just laptops! If they are aimed at "Prosumers and Pros" then so are 99% of Windows laptops that have equal or better specs.

There is nothing that special about the MacBook Pro's specification, there never has been. To say that they are aimed at "Pros" and not consumers just because they have discrete graphics and a bigger screen is complete and utter nonsense.

Says the non Pro user who owns a MacBook Air

 

[Boisv]

*proper chuckle* They are just laptops! If they are aimed at "Prosumers and Pros" then so are 99% of Windows laptops that have equal or better specs.

There is nothing that special about the MacBook Pro's specification, there never has been. To say that they are aimed at "Pros" and not consumers just because they have discrete graphics and a bigger screen is complete and utter nonsense.

Congratulations Steve. That post was painfully ignorant.

I'm a professional videographer. I own and run two production houses. I do my work on a MacBook Pro, work that I can't do on a MacBook Air. It's work that I can't do without a dedicated video card, firewire, and the ability to run Motion and Color. It is important to us that the MacBook Pro continue to exist and continue to have certain features. You may get by just fine with your 13" Macbook Air, but professionals don't.

With all due respect, it doesn't sound like the professional market is something you should be commenting on. This isn't just about a laptop, it's about a very important tool on which we create our livelihood. It's about putting food on the table and putting our kids through college. We don't buy MacBook Pros just to play Portal.

----------

Phew, having said that I have high hopes for these new MacBook Pros. I'm not worried. I understand the current MacBook Airs lack key features professionals needs, but I'm betting these reconstructed, streamlined MacBook Pros will be beefier than them. I want to basically see a MacBook Air with a 17" screen, firewire, a dedicated video card, RAM access, solid state HD, and ethernet. That would be awesome.

Oh, and a retina screen would make my head pop.

The optical drive is a sad loss, but external drives are cheap and are usually far more reliable than Apple's crappy, easily broken super drive. If Apple isn't going to adopt blu-ray, then I'd rather go with an external blu ray burner anyway.

 

[Steve121178]

Says the non Pro user who owns a MacBook Air

What point are you making?

Not that means much, but I've had two MBP's in the past...

 

[KnightWRX]

Congratulations Steve. That post was painfully ignorant.

I'm a professional videographer. I own and run two production houses. I do my work on a MacBook Pro, work that I can't do on a MacBook Air. It's work that I can't do without a dedicated video card, firewire, and the ability to run Motion and Color. It is important to us that the MacBook Pro continue to exist and continue to have certain features. You may get by just fine with your 13" Macbook Air, but professionals don't.

With all due respect, it doesn't sound like the professional market is something you should be commenting on. This isn't just about a laptop, it's about a very important tool on which we create our livelihood. It's about putting food on the table and putting our kids through college. We don't buy MacBook Pros just to play Portal.

You keep using "PRofessional" when you mean "Professional videographer". I'm a "Professional Unix Systems administrator" and the MBA is a fine tool for my job. A MacBook Air Pro would work just as well.

Also, the bolded parts. Motion and Color run on a MBA, albeit with a performance hit. Also, the MacBook Pro 13" has no dedicated video card, yet still bears the moniker Pro. How do you explain that ?

The fact is, there's more than one line of "Professionals" out there, you videographers need to stop appropriating the term as if it only belongs to you.

----------

Says the non Pro user who owns a MacBook Air

He's right. And I'm a Pro stating it and using a MacBook Air for my own profession. There's nothing especially "Pro" about the Macbook Pro. It's just a laptop.

 

[josephrose]

Macbook Pro Air-alike 17 inch - generous spec possibilities hoped for

Hello All,
This might sound like more 'fantasy Macbook' design stuff, but I speak as someone who currently has to travel internationally with multiple laptops.
1) I need the capability to buy a 17" Macbook airpro (for want of a better name) with, for example, 8GB RAM, but with the ability to increase this to 64GB or 128GB.
2) This machine should be capable of being a 'one stop shop'. I should be able to run an entire 'test lab' of VM servers on it if needed, or a powerful set of client applications on it, or ideally both at once.
3) More and more, the need to be able to demo solutions quickly means that large VMs are available to download , which include a large number of distributed components. I need to be able to run these ALONGSIDE VMs of my own, which are being built or scripted and built, to a particular specification, while running client applications of my own, which may or may not be Windows-based such as Outlook 2010 or Visio 2010, with the option to run Mac applications natively (I have an iMac 27", but it runs various other operating systems on top of OSX Lion, using Parallels 7 - I want more of this flexibility, and even more power, in a laptop that weighs very little).
4) I like the idea of SSD in chip form to reduce size and weight, but I want the ability to add up to 2TB of SSD chips.
5) I want to buy a system in a low-spec configuration, with the ability to increase the spec over weeks or months, as money allows. The laptop is my primary tool as a consultant. If Apple hasn't realised yet that consultants is a large part of who buys the top-spec Macbook pros today, and are always asking for more features and more power, then maybe they never will !
6) Lenovo has started offering multi-CPU socket laptops. Dell has the Precision M6600 with up to 32GB RAM and maybe more in the future.
Apple , please can we have:
Base config 8GB RAM, max 128GB
Up to 4 CPU sockets, with one populated
Macbook Air style thickness and lightweight
17" screen with retina display option (320+ dpi resolution - you can't say the technology doesn't exist)
Up to 2TB SSD, but the ability to add more, starting at 128GB, 256GB and 512GB entry points.
The ability to add very fast cache memory to the SSD.

7) The ability to have all this 'spec' may seem over the top to some, but in my line of work. I might have 1 or more big clients, who provide a laptop (typically it's the humble Lenovo T400, which really is the VM Beetle of laptops, quietly selling millions of units) - I am sick of carrying all these machines ! I want to image the T400 and boot it as a VM. If I have enough memory and CPU I can do this.
8) Batteries. The air has proved that you can get very good battery life. I want the ability to run on batteries when in the airport, but SWITCH OFF the battery charging when connected to the mains, i.e. only start charging when the battery hits 20% or something, that way the battery lasts longer. This technology exists too (IBM/Lenovo) and it's about time all laptop makers had this capability, rather than just letting the batteries last 1-2 years max when plugged into the mains... it's a bit snidey really.

Sorry Apple, yet again, an existing customer looks at the stuff that's already there and says, yep, not bad, but I want my cake and eat it, then I want even more cake

 

[deconstruct60]

I'm sorry, but this has to be a joke.

As I said earlier, the SuperDrive isn't going anywhere, at least for the 15' and 17' MacBook Pro's.

I wouldn't bet the farm on that. There are lots of useful things Apple could do with that space and for the users who still need one ... an external SuperDrive will still work.

My Dream MacBook Pro (I know it won't happen, shut up)

....
3 USB 3.0 ports
2 Thunderbolt Ports
....
Expresscard port

With 2 Thunderbolt (TB) ports Apple would most likely kill the Expresscard port. Think about it. ExpressCard provides a 1x PCI-e lane or USB 2.0. That is largely redundant in the context of 3 USB ports (at least one or two being USB 3.0. I doubt Apple will do 3 SuperSpeed ports) and two, 4 times faster, PCI-e delivering TB ports. The only thing the ExpressCard is doing is delivering a quirky connector to legacy equipment and at a much slower speed. All of the data stream functionality is delivered by other ports. Reusing legacy equipment is the only function.

I don't see VGA , serial ports , ADB , SCSI ports on Macs these days. ExpressCard is extremely likely to join that group.

LaCie has a TB to eSATA adapter coming.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1305703/

You could hook up two external SATA drives to it (which is more than your ExpressCard can do). Other vendors will probably offer something cheaper (with just one eSATA connector) with just one TB connector. Having 2 TB connectors means you can hook the monitor and eSATA dock rather easily.

Apple is highly unlikely to throw their design under the bus so that you can leverage the sunk costs of a ExpressCard eSATA card. Bumping up the TB port count does have benefits. If that means a purely legacy port losses its real estate spot on the side of a Mac Pro ... it will probably be toast.



If there was a larger enough market some vendor might even come up with a eSATA + BluRay/SuperDrive combo dock. All the more likely if Apple nukes the SuperDrive from every Mac. The writing is written in neon bright paint on the wall folk. Lion OS not shipping on DVD. Other Apple software not shipping on DVD. Other Mac App store software not shipping on DVD. Small (8GB) USB Flash Thumb drives being extremely affordable and larger than a DVD.

 

[InuNacho]

You could hook up two external SATA drives to it (which is more than your ExpressCard can do).

Sonnet Tempo
6Gb/s eSATA ExpressCard Host Adapter
RAID 0 and 1 | Up to 2 eSATA devices

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet%20Technology/SATAIIIE2E34/

 

[KnightWRX]

an external SuperDrive will still work.

A point that a lot seem to miss. For the few times you do need that ODD, just use an external.

 

[Cubytus]

Also, the bolded parts. Motion and Color run on a MBA, albeit with a performance hit. Also, the MacBook Pro 13" has no dedicated video card, yet still bears the moniker Pro. How do you explain that ?

Maybe they wanted a name for backing up upon the FireWire port they removed in its first version? Consumers rarely need such a high-performance port. The MB lost it, due to Steve Jobs famously saying "Consumers video cameras are going USB" to justify removing it in the non-Pro line.

The fact is, there's more than one line of "Professionals" out there, you videographers need to stop appropriating the term as if it only belongs to you.

It was understated that traditionally 'Pro' Apple users are media professionals.

He's right. And I'm a Pro stating it and using a MacBook Air for my own profession. There's nothing especially "Pro" about the Macbook Pro. It's just a laptop.

If it's just a laptop to you, why didn't you bought just any slim notebook? There are plenty and less expensive options out there.

 

[lucasmonger]

What about LiquidMetal?

Awhile back, Apple signed a deal with Liquidmetal Technologies for exclusive use of their metal in computers. Just wondering if any of those early rumors might come into fruition where the traditional MacBook and MacBook Air models machined out of a solid piece of aluminum might be replaced with a LiquidMetal model?

 

[CASLondon]

You keep using "PRofessional" when you mean "Professional videographer". I'm a "Professional Unix Systems administrator" and the MBA is a fine tool for my job. A MacBook Air Pro would work just as well.

Also, the bolded parts. Motion and Color run on a MBA, albeit with a performance hit. Also, the MacBook Pro 13" has no dedicated video card, yet still bears the moniker Pro. How do you explain that ?

The fact is, there's more than one line of "Professionals" out there, you videographers need to stop appropriating the term as if it only belongs to you.

----------



He's right. And I'm a Pro stating it and using a MacBook Air for my own profession. There's nothing especially "Pro" about the Macbook Pro. It's just a laptop.

Don't be a delicate flower. No one is saying anything about which lines of work are "pro". The fact is, video production, CAD/CAM, animation, etc, are the most computer intensive lines of work and test computer capabilities the furthest. Therefore this discussion is the most relevant to these guys.

The fact is, the way film/video has evolved has actually intensified this. I didn't NEED to bring a laptop on set a few years ago, now that expresscard34 slot has been seized on by the camera/memory manufacturers. Its part of the "professional" workflow

On the other side, post production has moved off of very costly, specialized systems involving 5 and 6 figures worth of capital to little one to several man boutiques, working on off-the-shelf hardware (i.e. mac pros, and macbook pros, kona cards, matrox boxes). There are new credits, where there used to be assistant cameraman now we have "data wranglers".

The 13" mbp never part of the film world, I'd say mostly software guys and still photographers looking for second, easy form factor device to dump their work in the field.

And don't be ridiculous about motion color etc running on MPA, even top of the line 17" mbp can struggle with these, and davinci resolve, etc. Technically they might boot, but unusable really.

 

[KnightWRX]

Maybe they wanted a name for backing up upon the FireWire port they removed in its first version? Consumers rarely need such a high-performance port. The MB lost it, due to Steve Jobs famously saying "Consumers video cameras are going USB" to justify removing it in the non-Pro line.

Exactly. A Dedicated Video card does not a "MacBook Pro" make. And frankly, even the Firewire bit is stretching, the only reason the MacBook Unibody got renamed to MacBook Pro was so Steve wouldn't lose face backing out from his statement.

It was understated that traditionally 'Pro' Apple users are media professionals.

Only from media professionals as far as I've seen. They seem to want to monopolize the term and ignore all other "professions" out there.

If it's just a laptop to you, why didn't you bought just any slim notebook? There are plenty and less expensive options out there.

Can you find me a slim notebook that matched the specs of mine, back in October 2010, for the same or lower price ? Because I sure as heck couldn't. The 2010 MBA was darn cheap when it got introduced for the specs it had. It is just a laptop, it just happened to be exactly what I wanted for the best price out there for the specs.

 

[FuFuFu]

I think there will be both ... MacBook Air Line up to 15" and the current MacBookPro line, but they won't see a great redesign.

Apple is not so stupid to drop their Pro line. They just continue to build the already developed devices, new Intel chips in and thats it.

 

[KnightWRX]

Don't be a delicate flower. No one is saying anything about which lines of work are "pro". The fact is, video production, CAD/CAM, animation, etc, are the most computer intensive lines of work and test computer capabilities the furthest. Therefore this discussion is the most relevant to these guys.

I'd argue gaming. So game tester ? Professional game testers everywhere take exception to your comment.

Again, you're just proving my point, I'm not being a delicate flower, I'm just pointing out the fallacy of saying a "MacBook Pro" is not "Pro" because one line of professionals "can't use it" if it doesn't have X or Y.