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Why is the MBP with optical disk still the best selling MB if nobody wants or needs the optical drive?
Because they want to watch DVDs on such laptops, and do not yet want to pay to move their libraries to digital only.

Because it's more affordable while sporting the same performance. It's that people don't need retina displays (if you ask them to lay down some dough for it), the optical drive is just a BS argument.
 
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This is actually very good news and I pray Kuo is right.
I was thinking about trading in my Mid-2012 Air for current base version 15" cMBP with Hi-Res Antiglare, but after this report I will probably keep my little buddy for a couple of weeks longer and then buy mid-2013 cMBP. With Hi-res antiglare, obviously.

I am still not very keen on retinas. Yes, the screen is amazing, but tell me one more thing Retina can do, that cMBP can't do cheaper. Don't worry, I'll wait...
 
Dont really give a crap about Retina display MacBook Air.

I just want a thin, light, powerful laptop to use.

13'' MBA is perfect, Retina display would only make it thicker and less battery.

Hopefully Apple can drop the price down $100 again like last year.
 
It's an opinion. I think Apple would rather spend time and money on the rMBP than on the cMBP. It's clearly where they want to go. I think they thought that the rMBP would sell better than it has so they could discontinue the cMBP, use those resources toward continued development of the rMBP, and simplify the line. Again, this is my opinion and by no means fact.

Never try running a business :D

To maximise profits, you always want two products that are reasonable substitutes but sell at different prices. That way you get the high margin from people willing to pay a lot, and you still get the lower margin (usually multiplied by a large number) from those who want to pay less. Plus, the better product pulls people to the store, and if they end up buying the lesser product for less money, then you still made a sale. The lesser product is much easier to sell if you can say "it's almost as good as the superior product, but much cheaper".
 
Does that hurt you, NO, plenty of people still want an optical drive and plenty of people still use wired network.

I think it is actually excellent news.

I agree...

And it's not only the people that still want an optical drive, but also those who want to install their own SSD, or a second hard drive in it, and those who want to install 16GB RAM without having to pay an eye for it. And of course, those who DONT want an retina display, or those who think that some kind of upgradability and ease to repair is important...

Personally, I prefer the cMBP over the rMBP.
 
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Why is the MBP with optical disk still the best selling MB if nobody wants or needs the optical drive?

Because it is the cheepest one.

I have used just 3 times the optical drive in the last five years, to make a copy of some important data, because I didnt had flash drive at that moment or cloud storage. I dont want optical drive. In fact, i dont want any mecanical elements in my laptop except the fan.
 
Here's my dilemma: The rMBP is exactly what I need for photography, as it allows you to quickly determine if an image is sharp or not without having to zoom in (and wait for the full resolution image to load) and then zoom back out again. Selecting 200 images down to 20 would be many times faster thanks to this. And the SSD would speed up things like accessing many large RAW files, too.

But 8GB of RAM on the base model, and even on the high end model?? WTF? I mean okay, sure, it will be fine for another year or two. But you can't upgrade. So take a super expensive machine, and make it even more expensive just to future proof it (buying extra RAM in 2 years would cost nothing). Photoshop ALONE will eat up 8 GB or RAM without any problems within minutes. Sure, swapping is faster due to the SSD, but still slower than more RAM.

Oh and wait, the screen may be super high res, but it has a significant chance to have image retention. If you're a retoucher, that's absolutely unacceptable. Imagine working on an image for 20 mins, and then switch to another image only to find faint lines from the previous one superimposed. It would drive me nuts. Well okay, I mean it's not like they market the machine as having the best screen in the world and being aimed at professionals. Oh wait.

I'd rather it be as thick as the current MBP, with upgradeable RAM, HDD, and battery. It could be the same machine, same specs, just thicker. It would make it a lot cheaper, too, and add value by making it upgradeable. Honestly, my machine just sits on the table 99% of the time, but for the 1% when it doesn't, I need a laptop, not an iMac.

So who is this machine really for? Rich consumers who don't need RAM, and expandable HDD space? Pros would always take a more upgradeable machine over a slightly thinner one (if you want thin, get the Air!).
 
I agree...

And it's not only the people that still want an optical drive, but also those who want to install their own SSD, or a second hard drive in it, and those who want to install 16GB RAM without having to pay an eye for it. And of course, those who DONT want an retina display, or those who thing think some kind of upgradability and ease to repairing it is important...

Personally, I prefer the cMBP over the rMBP.

I have never ever updated or changed the battery, the RAM or the HDD of any personal laptop in my life. Very very very few people do those stuff.
 
intel has already stated that it was going to send both the faulty haswell chips with the updated batch to hardware manufacturers and they would have to accept both.

I dont know why anyone would be excited for that. Im not going to be one of the early adopters of haswell to get crap hardware that they know is faulty under certain conditions. actually please do. buy early so they can get through all that bad stock for me.
 
Dont really give a crap about Retina display MacBook Air.

I just want a thin, light, powerful laptop to use.

13'' MBA is perfect, Retina display would only make it thicker and less battery.

Hopefully Apple can drop the price down $100 again like last year.

Actually I don't care either. I have the ipad mini and I am fine that its non retina. The screen looks great, and the batt life is awesome. I travel alot, and love the ipad mini for updating blogs and light editing of photos & videos shot on my iphone. However, i was thinking of getting a MacBook Air for heavier video editing while on the road. I'll wait for the update, but I'd be cool if the Air didn't get a retina....for the battery life alone.
 
Go on then enlighten us all - who did invent BluRay?

It wasn't Sony 100%. They didn't "invent" Blu-ray. But with comments like that, along with not showing any data for your 45/55 split, It's safe to assume you will continue this little game without providing any real data. Have a good time.

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So who is this machine really for? Rich consumers who don't need RAM, and expandable HDD space? Pros would always take a more upgradeable machine over a slightly thinner one (if you want thin, get the Air!).

These co-called "Pro's" are few and far between. You are not a "Pro" because you can't afford to update your laptop every year or two to the best specs, but instead would rather tinker with adding in additional RAM and such.
 
Never try running a business :D

To maximise profits, you always want two products that are reasonable substitutes but sell at different prices. That way you get the high margin from people willing to pay a lot, and you still get the lower margin (usually multiplied by a large number) from those who want to pay less. Plus, the better product pulls people to the store, and if they end up buying the lesser product for less money, then you still made a sale. The lesser product is much easier to sell if you can say "it's almost as good as the superior product, but much cheaper".

It was a pretty stupid idea for Apple to scrap the MacBook line in that case. Essentially, the 13 inch 'Pro' is the MacBook line rebranded.

Personally, without the ability to upgrade my own RAM and HDD/SSD, I'll be avoiding the Retina models. I had a hard drive hiccup back in 2011 with my old 2007 MBP and if I hadn't been able to swap in a spare hard drive and recover from a backup within a few hours, I would have been heading up a river of excrement without any means of propulsion: All of my OU coursework was on it and my deadline was less than 3 days away.

I think Apple have goofed with the whole non-upgradeable rMBPs. I can deal without the optical drive, because I have an external blu-ray drive I can use. But having everything else pretty much soldered to the motherboard? It's a bad move.
 
Here's my dilemma: The rMBP is exactly what I need for photography, as it allows you to quickly determine if an image is sharp or not without having to zoom in (and wait for the full resolution image to load) and then zoom back out again. Selecting 200 images down to 20 would be many times faster thanks to this. And the SSD would speed up things like accessing many large RAW files, too.

But 8GB of RAM on the base model, and even on the high end model?? WTF? I mean okay, sure, it will be fine for another year or two. But you can't upgrade. So take a super expensive machine, and make it even more expensive just to future proof it (buying extra RAM in 2 years would cost nothing). Photoshop ALONE will eat up 8 GB or RAM without any problems within minutes. Sure, swapping is faster due to the SSD, but still slower than more RAM.

Oh and wait, the screen may be super high res, but it has a significant chance to have image retention. If you're a retoucher, that's absolutely unacceptable. Imagine working on an image for 20 mins, and then switch to another image only to find faint lines from the previous one superimposed. It would drive me nuts. Well okay, I mean it's not like they market the machine as having the best screen in the world and being aimed at professionals. Oh wait.

I'd rather it be as thick as the current MBP, with upgradeable RAM, HDD, and battery. It could be the same machine, same specs, just thicker. It would make it a lot cheaper, too, and add value by making it upgradeable. Honestly, my machine just sits on the table 99% of the time, but for the 1% when it doesn't, I need a laptop, not an iMac.

So who is this machine really for? Rich consumers who don't need RAM, and expandable HDD space? Pros would always take a more upgradeable machine over a slightly thinner one (if you want thin, get the Air!).

Man, laptops are for fast work on the go. If your are photographer you will take your rMBP for a trip, weekend work or something like that. Its not suposed to be a work station for professional users and if you need it for work station, well buy the highest end model and upgrade all components to fit your need.
 
I agree...

And it's not only the people that still want an optical drive, but also those who want to install their own SSD, or a second hard drive in it, and those who want to install 16GB RAM without having to pay an eye for it. And of course, those who DONT want an retina display, or those who thing think some kind of upgradability and ease to repairing it is important...

Personally, I prefer the cMBP over the rMBP.

Exactly, I have that same opinion.

But anyway, if they want to keep cMBP (and I hope they do!) they really need to put in higher resolution LCDs. It's 2013 and they still offer 13" MacBook Pro only with 1280x800 WTF? It's by far the lowest resolution/PPI on the market! No change since 2006! The same goes for the 15-incher (at least that one can be configured with a decent 1680x1050, but still - for this money, Hi-res should be the standard option)
 
Now, serious... It still sells very well because it's a lot cheaper and people don't get the difference between an SSD and a hard-drive, not because there's an old optical disk.

I get the difference, but do not feel the reduction of storage is a viable reason for choosing.

If the rMBP would cost the same as the MBP, people would dump it for the thinner retina version in a second.

If you were saying that if it were to have exactly the same HD spec (in terms of space for the same price) in the rMBP as there is in the MBP then I would agree. I would just use the USB Superdrive.

But you are not so I do not agree. ;)
 
Here's my dilemma: The rMBP is exactly what I need for photography, as it allows you to quickly determine if an image is sharp or not without having to zoom in (and wait for the full resolution image to load) and then zoom back out again. Selecting 200 images down to 20 would be many times faster thanks to this. And the SSD would speed up things like accessing many large RAW files, too.

But 8GB of RAM on the base model, and even on the high end model?? WTF? I mean okay, sure, it will be fine for another year or two. But you can't upgrade. So take a super expensive machine, and make it even more expensive just to future proof it (buying extra RAM in 2 years would cost nothing). Photoshop ALONE will eat up 8 GB or RAM without any problems within minutes. Sure, swapping is faster due to the SSD, but still slower than more RAM.

Oh and wait, the screen may be super high res, but it has a significant chance to have image retention. If you're a retoucher, that's absolutely unacceptable. Imagine working on an image for 20 mins, and then switch to another image only to find faint lines from the previous one superimposed. It would drive me nuts. Well okay, I mean it's not like they market the machine as having the best screen in the world and being aimed at professionals. Oh wait.

I'd rather it be as thick as the current MBP, with upgradeable RAM, HDD, and battery. It could be the same machine, same specs, just thicker. It would make it a lot cheaper, too, and add value by making it upgradeable. Honestly, my machine just sits on the table 99% of the time, but for the 1% when it doesn't, I need a laptop, not an iMac.

So who is this machine really for? Rich consumers who don't need RAM, and expandable HDD space? Pros would always take a more upgradeable machine over a slightly thinner one (if you want thin, get the Air!).

Everybody would like the rMBP to be upgradeable, except for Apple. The rMBP is really an excellent machine, but it is expensive and it gets more and more expensive if you keep adding components to make it future-proof.

If you are a consumer, than you may want a machine that is a delight, although it is expensive. But if you are a professional, then you have to weigh the costs and benefits of it. If you use the laptop for work, you'll have to end up with the more efficient solution, the one that brings the best and fastest results with the lowest cost. And Apple is drifting away from that, as it doesn't allow users to replace parts.

Would you consider going back to a PC? Windows PCs will get retina-like displays in the near future, after the release of Haswell.

BTW, loved your signature.
 
Actually I don't care either. I have the ipad mini and I am fine that its non retina. The screen looks great, and the batt life is awesome. I travel alot, and love the ipad mini for updating blogs and light editing of photos & videos shot on my iphone. However, i was thinking of getting a MacBook Air for heavier video editing while on the road. I'll wait for the update, but I'd be cool if the Air didn't get a retina....for the battery life alone.

Getting a MBA for college so 1) Dont want a laptop that's way to expensive like $1600+ 2) Dont want it heavy as I have to carry it around all day.

Taking CS so I dont need that much power, MBA seems to work fine.
 
Honestly, my machine just sits on the table 99% of the time, but for the 1% when it doesn't, I need a laptop, not an iMac.

Sounds like you would benefit significantly from an external monitor like an NEC or Apple Thunderbolt Display when you're at your desk. That way you enjoy the best of both worlds.
 
Because it is the cheepest one.

I have used just 3 times the optical drive in the last five years, to make a copy of some important data, because I didnt had flash drive at that moment or cloud storage. I dont want optical drive. In fact, i dont want any mecanical elements in my laptop except the fan.

It's roughly the same price as the MBA so why isn't the MBA the best selling model?

Whether some people on here like it or not a lot of people in the real world still use optical disks. I still buy CDs and rip them into iTunes for example.
 
Disappointing. Very disappointing. No rMBA. Delayed Haswell rMBP. And the cMBP will continue in production. I hope Kuo is wrong this time.

The rMBP is a retina Air. Clearly it's not named that, but functionally, that's exactly what it is
 
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