Nature of update this year?

[rekhyt]

What's the nature of the rMBP update going to be this year? Any thoughts?

There are a number of things that point to the possibility of a silent update.
-1. Broadwell delayed until 2015, or very late 2014, hence it's probably going to stay with Haswell.
-2. Rumours of a 12" MBA with retina being released might mean that the rMBP will have to be consigned to the shadows this year.

 

[mrweirdo]

I almost wonder if this is the time Apple could bump up the display or offer a second display option. Talking izgo or possibly even 4k on the 15".

Otherwise yes we are unlikely too see anything new for the rMBP. At most might be that RAM SSD capicity increase or a slight price drop(doubfull on this).

 

[rekhyt]

I almost wonder if this is the time Apple could bump up the display or offer a second display option. Talking izgo or possibly even 4k on the 15".

Otherwise yes we are unlikely too see anything new for the rMBP. At most might be that RAM SSD capicity increase or a slight price drop(doubfull on this).

A bump in terms of specs – RAM, SSD, discrete graphics moved to second tier as opposed to being only third tier –*would be absolutely fantastic.

 

[Count Blah]

A bump in terms of specs – RAM, SSD, discrete graphics moved to second tier as opposed to being only third tier –*would be absolutely fantastic.

Except that a lot of apple's revenue comes from the upgrades - see iPad with a paltry 16gigs of storage.

But as you said, having a dGPU in a second tier would fit their style, except for the fact that apple desperately wants to move to a model where they still charge premium prices, but with an iGPU.

 

[mrweirdo]

I guess it will be one of those wait and see on a spec bump.

Then display wise honestly I think a retina upgrade might be a bit soon unless they go IZGO. 4k in particular would place a heavier load on the GPU not good for Haswell and negates any boost in performance with Broadwell. I'm sure at some point will want to upgrade the display resolution in order to avoid getting an "Ultra HD lite" reputation(2k vs 4k) with the average consumer because it probably wont be long until we start seeing notebooks with 4k displays.

I wouldn't be surprised if they chose to do it with Broadwell in 2015 however since they seem to have developed a habit of lowering video performance during refreshes lately :/