Notebook Refresh to Be Highlight of WWDC, Non-Retina MacBook Pro to Continue?

[ziggyonice]

Non-Retina to continue to be sold?

Well duh — consumers are going to decide with their wallet. It's significantly less expensive compared to the Retina version. Has very little to do with the optical drive or slimness. Has everything to do with price.

This seems like a disappointing refresh for something as large as WWDC. If Apple wants to push ahead with "the next generation of notebooks," they need to suck it up and drop the price of the rMBP to match the non-Retina versions.

 

[Bear]

Why does MacRumors say Don't Buy - Updates soon for the classic MacBook Pro and Neutral - Mid-product cycle for the Retina MacBook Pro?

It's based purely on the average number of days between releases. And the rMBP was last updated in February. This minor update is counted in to the release cycle as if it was were a normal update. So the recommendation in the buyers guide can be skewed from it.

 

[69650]

No, there is not. There is very, very little demand for it in fact.

I was chatting to a guy from Sony only yesterday. Their new Ultra HD (4k) range of TV's are coming out in Sept here in the UK with prices around £2500 for a 55" model. He also said that Sony and Universal are already working on the BluRay Ultra HD films to launch at the same time. They expect demand to pick up considerably over the following 12 months as the prices start to fall.

 

[GizmoDVD]

With the over $1000 you save by buying a non-Retina 15" with 16GB of ram and a fast big drive, you can add a Thunderbolt display, and have a screen that is MUCH more enjoyable than a Retina display, and STILL pay less!

(You'll actually have 2 screens, which as a pro Photographer, is the only way to fly!)

Except neither has a Retina display.

The laptop also comes with a a bulky drive.

But really, great work.

 

[341328]

I will never buy a laptop where I can't upgrade the RAM and HD / SSD.

 

[GizmoDVD]

I was chatting to a guy from Sony only yesterday. Their new Ultra HD (4k) range of TV's are coming out in Sept here in the UK with prices around £2500 for a 55" model. He also said that Sony and Universal are already working on the BluRay Ultra HD films to launch at the same time. They expect demand to pick up considerably over the following 12 months as the prices start to fall.

No, there is little demand for it. Talking to a SONY rep will obviously tell you what huge demand there is. Currently Sony is planning on releasing several "fake" 4K movies, to once again confuse consumers next month.

Much like 3D (which lasted longer), 4k will be ignored. Consumers are not going to go re-buy movies, players, TVs so The Karate Kid looks a wee bit sharper.

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I will never buy a laptop where I can't upgrade the RAM and HD / SSD.

So by the end of the year, you will no longer be buying any Apple laptop BRAND NEW, ever, ever again.

 

[sseaton1971]

There's no reason they couldn't keep the ethernet and optical. It's the screen we're talking about here. They could fairly easily reconfigure it to make use of a retina display. The only reason the actual rMBP doesn't have those is because of the new cooling and motherboard design. Incorporating the rMBB gpu into an older hardware design isnt exactly going to be a hard thing for Apple to do. They probably already did it during the prototype stages several years ago.

I think the lack of ethernet and an optical drive has more to do with the thinness of the rMBP and the large battery. Plus, Apple wants to move technology forward by removing features that are becoming less needed.

I hope they keep the cMBP for those who need the legacy features and large storage at a somewhat reasonable price. If the rMBP can come down to the price of the current cMBP and include large SSD storage, then I could easily get by with an external optical drive and an Ethernet adapter.

 

[bbapps]

Kuo believes that the updated versions of the non-Retina MacBook Pro could begin shipping very soon after WWDC, but that the new Retina MacBook Pro models will begin shipping somewhat later due to production bottlenecks on the displays.

Code for cMBP will start shipping with CS1-chip set, rMBP will wait on the CS2-chip set.

 

[Bear]

So you would carry around a USB Optical drive just in case?

People do have different requirements and for some people an optical drive is very much a necessity. So it's not "just in case."

Non-Retina to continue to be sold?

Well duh — consumers are going to decide with their wallet. It's significantly less expensive compared to the Retina version. Has very little to do with the optical drive or slimness. Has everything to do with price.
...

Part of it is wallet, but for some people, it has to do with the optical drive.

I will never buy a laptop where I can't upgrade the RAM and HD / SSD.

Personal preference. Although a very understandable one. If I were to buy a Mac with memory that wasn't upgradeable I would be looking at buying the maximum memory.

As for the disk not being upgradeable at least if you fill up an internal drive, you can use external drives. However, I would be sure to get the internal drive large enough that I wouldn't have to cart an external drive with me everywhere.

 

[Parasprite]

Hey! News on a Sunday, I rarely see news on a Sunday.

Oh, analyst. Never mind.

 

[69650]

If you live in a country that uses optical disks instead of the internet, chances are that the cMBP is worth at least a one-year salary, so likely, you won't buy neither a cMBP, nor an rMBP or even an entry-level 10" MBA.

I know many people who still use optical disks for various reasons. Students or people living in rented accommodation who don't want a 12 month broadband contract, people living in rural areas with slow internet connections, people who don't want a phone line so use mobile broadband with a limited data cap. Please don't assume that we all have super fast broadband in the west.

Even in many third world countries they are by-passing fixed line networks because they are too expensive to install and maintain and instead most people use low costs mobiles. Go to India or many parts of Africa and you would be amazed how everyone has a mobile phone.

 

[341328]

So by the end of the year, you will no longer be buying any Apple laptop BRAND NEW, ever, ever again.

Yep. Cause I use Windows 8 99% of the time, switching to a new hardware supplier is easy

 

[bbapps]

I know many people who still use optical disks for various reasons.

I go to many conferences where they give the initial release of the material on CD, may update it latter on-line, etc..

 

[skaertus]

What corners are left to cut? Oh yeah, they could solder chips for the SSD onto the logic board instead of having the SSD be a blade.

There is nothing really left to cut in the Air. Also the phrase "cut corners" has the meaning of "to do something in the easiest, quickest, or cheapest way, often harming the quality of your work". Do you really want the quality of the Air to suffer?

I want the Air to keep a quality product. There are some ways to increase efficiency in its design, but I agree there's not much to be cut off it.

 

[gnasher729]

Not everybody who wants a Mac laptop either wants, or can afford, a retina display.

There is a large group of people who wants a Retina display, and can afford it, but cannot justify spending the money, or cannot accept the compromises they need to make.

 

[DisMyMac]

Why? And what are you looking for?

Air, Pro, and Thunderbolt display all need a boost. It has to be in May though, or else that means waiting longer.

 

[69650]

No, there is little demand for it. Talking to a SONY rep will obviously tell you what huge demand there is. Currently Sony is planning on releasing several "fake" 4K movies, to once again confuse consumers next month.

He wasn't a rep but never mind. The point still stands that Ultra HD TVs will start to replace current HD TVs over time starting later this year. Technology naturally moves on from one thing to the next. You will see a big push by the manufacturers for Ultra HD ahead of next summers football (soccer) World Cup and a major push on BluRay Ultra HD films by Christmas 2014.

There is nothing "fake" about Ultra HD films being made. The 4K cameras have been around for a while and film makers have been gradually migrating across.

Comparing this to 3D is complete nonsense. Just look at the way BluRay has taken off once they lowered the price of the HD flat screen TVs and lowered the price of the BluRay disks. Nobody would buy a DVD instead now.

 

[thehustleman]

Disappointing. Very disappointing. No rMBA. Delayed Haswell rMBP. And the cMBP will continue in production. I hope Kuo is wrong this time.

Only thing good about it is the cMBP is still in production.

Too bad about the retina not making an appearance

 

[gnasher729]

With the over $1000 you save by buying a non-Retina 15" with 16GB of ram and a fast big drive, you can add a Thunderbolt display, and have a screen that is MUCH more enjoyable than a Retina display, and STILL pay less!

(You'll actually have 2 screens, which as a pro Photographer, is the only way to fly!)

I can't quite see how you would save any money buying a non-Retina 15" MBP, considering that the Retina MBP with otherwise identical specs is actually cheaper.

 

[Giuly]

Even in many third world countries they are by-passing fixed line networks because they are too expensive to install and maintain and instead most people use low costs mobiles. Go to India or many parts of Africa and you would be amazed how everyone has a mobile phone.

And these guys are able to afford MBPs? In the West, you can afford an external hard drives, USB flash drives or SD cards, all of which are gracefully accepted by an rMBP. Media distribution is handled by iTunes, Netflix and Hulu, not DVDs. One legally acquired movie on DVD actually costs as much as one month of broadband access.

 

[Eraserhead]

And these guys are able to afford MBPs?

That's the point I came here to post!

I would have though people in rural parts of the developed world without proper internet would be more of an issue.

 

[cgk.emu]

They're not obsolete anyway. Would it be obsolete if Apple pulled it off production? I don't think so, because it should still run everything fine.

It's not obsolete if it still does what you want it to do.

 

[skaertus]

Why does MacRumors say Don't Buy - Updates soon for the classic MacBook Pro and Neutral - Mid-product cycle for the Retina MacBook Pro?

Because the buying advice is based on the timeframe of release of products. The rMBP and the cMPB had different release cycles in the past, and that reflects in the buying advice.

 

[Newton70]

If true, a brilliant move by Apple management since the personal computer market is seeing such explosive growth.

 

[skaertus]

Too bad about the retina not making an appearance

That, my friend, is still speculation. Kuo may be right, or he may be wrong. Apple may release the rMBP together with the others, it may discontinue the cMPB, it may update only some models, or it may not release any Mac at all. We'll see what happens.