The FUTURE of the Macbook Pro

[szolr]

The way I see it there's a definite spark to this path: 13 inch Macbook Pro models phased out in favour of the Macbook Air.

The Macbook Air will gain better specs as prices drop. Better specs will mean Apple can have more assembled at once. So production costs will be reduced per machine. Which will lead to more people buying them as the price of the end product stays relatively constant but the tech specs improve. So we'll be getting Macbook Airs with around 256 GB SSD standard instead of 128 on the 13 inch. 128GB standard on the 11 inch. Hopefully the CPU speed will top 2.0GHz-ideally it will match the current 13 inch Macbook Pro at 2.4GHz i5. (Ivy bridge will of course appear further down the line.) More RAM would sacrifice battery life, so I don't foresee that any time soon. No way until 6 or 8GB becomes standard on the iMac and Macbook Pro.

Now a 13 inch Air with a 2.4 GHz i5 processor, 256 GB SSD and Intel HD Graphics 3000 seems awesome to me. One things for sure-the day when 512 GB SSD comes as standard with an Air, I'm ditching the Macbook Pro. The specs of the Pro with flash storage, the higher res display and thinness of the Air would be the ultimate laptop!

But anyway back to the Macbook Pro. 15 and 17 inch models would stay I reckon. And they'd become more professional. i.e.- more power. Maybe slightly thinner. But would you prefer a 5 mm thin laptop with an i3 processor or a 1.5 cm thin laptop with an i7 processor? (OK; not the best analogy I know. But you get the point-if you want thinness, you'll probably be jumping ship to the Air in a bit.)

The Pro would probably be gaining i7 quad core processors across the board-at higher clock speeds than currently. 750 GB or 1TB standard 7200rpm HDDs. The ODD would remain. No USB 3 til Intel sort themselves out on that. But more Thunderbolt ports (and eventually no Firewire or USB 2 ports). Improved GPUs with 1 GB GDDR5 RAM standard. A maximum upgrade of 2 GB maybe. And perhaps some more elements of the Mac Pro-RAID etc? That's just a wild guess really.

But I strongly think Apple's shifted the Macbook Pro lineup more away from pro users in recent years and more towards consumers. Perhaps that needs a slight rectification. And with the newest Macbook Airs having made the Macbook obsolete and encroaching on the low end Macbook Pro territory, I foresee that rectification being pondered.

 

[tjb1]

I will bet everything thing I own that this turns into an optical drive troll fight thread...jus sayin.

 

[twocircles]

I'd like to take a different approach to looking at the future of the MacBook Pro. With the untimely loss of Steve, Apple has needed to send the market and stockholders the message, "Business as usual." I think we have just seen this in the launch of the iPhone 4S and with the silent mid-year MacBook upgrade. The rest of this year, we'll see more similar tweaks to current products, and that's probably all we will see. But within the year, Apple will need to send the message, "Innovation as usual."

The iPhone 5 and iPad 3, will hopefully be very appealing, but these are likely to be natural evolutions of current products. I hope we will be seeing something much more wowing. I will leave reality up to the folks at Apple who are much cleverer than I am.

I my fantasy world, however, here is what I would like to see. Apple has proven, to me at least, with the iPad 2 that the future of the laptop is the tablet form, not the twist and flip hybrid, more like an iPad, perhaps with a nested Bluetooth keyboard. I think a smart innovation that would surprise us all next year that is certainly within reach is a 11" and 13" MacBook Pad or some name running OS X. This could be the future of the MacBook Air.

I work on a college campus. The MacBooks of various iterations easily outnumber all other laptops 2 to 1. We saw a lot of iPads coming to class early in the semester, but not so much now. My own daughter opted for an iPad 2 and a 27" iMac, but I think more students are opting for iPhones and MacBooks to meet their needs. These, of course, are only my casual perceptions in the parts of campus I frequent.

Anyway, Apple likes to put the guts behind the screen. Look at iMacs, etc. We usually think of iPads being used as a handheld device, but for most long-duration work, I have noticed a lot of students placing their iPad on a tilted surface and using either the on-screen keyboard or Bluetooth keyboard again like laptop or miniature iMac.

A MacBook Pad would be about the size of a piece of paper or a portfolio notebook, though a bit heavier. It would have two primary mode of use in your arms or lap or set up as a display with a wireless keyboard.

Personally, I read a lot of pdf articles each week. The iPad just does not have enough screen real estate to be comfortable. It also does not have enough power to run full featured programs. On a laptop, I am trying to fit a portrait page onto a landscaped screen. Doable, but I usually use my desktop and lose portability. A 13" or even a 15" portrait screen would be ideal. As much as I would like to see this, I doubt that is will happen in 2012, but I think it will happen.

As for the MacBook Pro, in old-fashioned marketing terms, it is a cash cow. In other words, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. It will be used to hedge bets to provide a familiar alternative as the technologies change.

In 2012, I think MBP will get a thinner profile.

With Apple's commitment to Thunderbolt and its slow take-off, we may still not see USB 3.0, but we will eventually.

Despite valid arguments to the contrary, Apple seems committed to making ODD disappear from their products, see Mac Mini and MBA. I think they foresee DVDs, etc. going the way of the CD and floppy disc and becoming more and more occasional in use, perfect for an external drive with its own power supply.

Hi-Res screens may become standard, and I think graphics will be bumped up again.

I think the forum called the addition of a SSD-hybrid HDD correctly, but this will only be enough SSD to allow for instant on/resume, speed up currently running programs and facilitate multitasking and swapping. I think 8 to 16 GB was mentioned. That sounds about right. These drives exist already.

With SSD entering the picture, RAM needs and architecture will start being rethought. Increasing RAM may no longer be and option and sort of a mute point.

We could see 750 GB HDD standard by the end of the year, but I think they are going to be stingy with 7200 rpm, which will be an upgrade.

Eventually, MBP will either carve its own niche of die hards who love the clamshell design, which will be like super version of today's MBA although 15" and 17", or if demand dies, be morphed back into the new tablet lines as a workhorse.

I'm sure fact will be much stranger than fiction.

 

[Erasmus]

I disagree with the statement that losing the optical drive would make the computer more portable. It's not like it weighs much, and shaving an extra 0.05 inches off the thickness isn't going to affect portability noticeably either.

I still think the MBP would be better without the ODD, simply because Apple could fit more battery, and an extra hard disk bay in there. Thereby making it slightly heavier, but IDGAF about its weight

All Apple needs to do is release their own, warranty-approved Optibay/DataDoubler, and everyone would be happy. Chances of them doing that? Rather slim

 

[GermanyChris]

Whatever case design it is gonna be, you can be sure that it will still be a powerful machine for a "Pro" user. There will be no redundancy because the MBPs will still be heavier, thicker and faster than the MBAs, even with a tapered design for the former.

But with the tapered design, it will most likely still be as thick as the current ones at the top of the keyboard, just the bottom will get thinner. Is that really such a big advantages? The thickest point still dictates whether it fits in your bag or not! Will it get much lighter because of the new design? I doubt so!

Wouldn't a MBP without the ODD and a bigger battery be much more portable than one with tapered design?

Something new: Has anyone thought about new materials the new MBP will come with? Maybe a carbon fiber/aluminum alloy hybrid for reduced weight? Some other hardened plastic?
And what about a small touchscreen implementation next to the keyboard? Like an iPhone-style launchpad to quickly select your apps?

The weight isn't in the case is the battery and HDD..

 

[mape2k]

The weight isn't in the case is the battery and HDD..

That's why I stated that a tapered design will not make the MBP lighter

In 2012, I think MBP will get a thinner profile.

But anyway back to the Macbook Pro. 15 and 17 inch models would stay I reckon. And they'd become more professional. i.e.- more power. Maybe slightly thinner.

How would they make the case thinner without having a teardrop design? Currently, the case is just as thick as an Ethernet port. Unless they drop that, there is no thinner case without a teardrop design.

 

[jlc1978]

Something new: Has anyone thought about new materials the new MBP will come with? Maybe a carbon fiber/aluminum alloy hybrid for reduced weight? Some other hardened plastic?

I think new materials or better ways to use existing ones is certainly a possibility.

And what about a small touchscreen implementation next to the keyboard? Like an iPhone-style launchpad to quickly select your apps?

I doubt it - Apple always has been about design; and a touchscreen is both ugly and would add little beyond the current launchpad implementation. I think we would sooner see a touchscreen display than a separate touchscreen if Apple could get the price point right.

That said, if Apple could figure out a way to turn the touchpad into a display that only turns on when you want to select and app (sort of an iPOD touch whose screen is normally opaque) then they may be on to something. Again, cost is probably a big driver of whether such a thing comes into existence.

Apple has, through products and patents, a willingness to rethink how something is done so they can keep the functionality while moving the design forward. One of their strengths is how they integrate design with engineering with design making engineering develop innovative solutions; which makes both better in the long run.

 

[GermanyChris]

That's why I stated that a tapered design will not make the MBP lighter





How would they make the case thinner without having a teardrop design? Currently, the case is just as thick as an Ethernet port. Unless they drop that, there is no thinner case without a teardrop design.

I wasn't referring to the tapered case..just CF/ALU blend or plastic..

I don't much care taper away

 

[TSE]

I think people that are hoping for the new Pros to essentially be as thin as the MacBook Airs are going to be disappointed.

 

[Mak47]

Why shouldn't Apple make the MacBook Pro thin/tapered like the Air if they have enough space to cram in high-end components + ventilation? I don't understand people who moan and want a really thick computer.

And you think the Mac Pro has no aesthetics...?!

Honesty, I agree with you...and no, I don't think the Pro has no aesthetics, it looks awesome (and I own and use two of them in my studios) but let's be honest, the thing's a beast. That said, it provides us with more functionality than smaller machines, so that is what we go with.

The reason I don't think they'll go the super thin route with the MBP is mainly that they need to differentiate the product lines and secondly because (assuming things stay to the scale they are now) the MacBook Pro is dramatically more powerful than an Air. That means it needs a bigger battery, more memory, and while the ODD is now largely unnecessary, swappable hard drives aren't really (at least for now) optional for Pros. If an HDD goes bad it needs to be swapped out ASAP. As portable Thunderbolt storage options become more widely available this won't be as significant an issue.

All of those things add up to a laptop than can be thinner, but is unlikely to be as thin as the Air.

 

[Mak47]

The MacBook Pro is a (wait for it) PRO product. Which means it's tailored to fit professional needs, not consumer needs. To suit music professionals, Apple needs the ODD on the MacBook Pro.
Also, if you're going to argue against this, there is a reason why Apple Loops are released in CAF.

I am a music professional. I have two studios, both of which use Mac Pros. I can take my MacBook Pro out for on-site recording jobs but those are few and far between.

The ODD is utterly useless for us. We use external drives in our studios that can burn discs if it's absolutely necessary, but most clients receive their finished product on a USB drive or remotely over the web. The only time we ever burn discs anymore is when we have someone who is totally technophobic and doesn't have a computer at home. These people are few and far between.

There was a time when we would burn reference discs to check out mixes on, but that is overly time consuming and carries expenses over time. It's much easier to do a quick sync to an iPod and reference that way--which is how everyone listens to music today anyhow.

In our state this also gets us around charging sales tax. Because we provide no tangible item, there is no sales tax. For our clients this means a substantial savings that they are all too happy to accept.

 

[jacob.schmidt]

I really hope to see a redesign in early 2012, like, uhm, in feb..

I was settled on a 13" Air, but missed the upgradeability.. And more cpu-power..

I could get the 13" Pro, but it just doesn't do it.. Might as well get the air then..

 

[dave197]

Blueray drive anyone?

 

[Risasi]

I seriously doubt they would put a Blueray into the MBP. To what end? To watch HD movies on a small screen? And then, are they going to switch to 16:9 1920x1080 res screens?

I hope they don't do this...

 

[brendanryder]

I seriously doubt they would put a Blueray into the MBP. To what end? To watch HD movies on a small screen? And then, are they going to switch to 16:9 1920x1080 res screens?

I hope they don't do this...

agreed. If anything, they'd take the dvd drive out to save space

 

[thekev]

I think the fact that some people are already torn as to whether a 13" MBA or Pro would be best for their needs could be a sign that the two models are already treading on each other's toes somewhat. So unless their ultimate aim is to phase out the Pro in favour of the Air, at least for the 13", I can imagine that they might be wary of converging them too much with approaches like thinner, no ODD and putting in an SSD as standard. I would guess that we might see further attempts to cram in as much power as they can for the price and perhaps even a low end ATI (seeing as nVidia seems to be out of favour in the current models) graphics chipset.

Some reduction in weight and size seems inevitable though, but I doubt they will be reduced by all that much.

The question of how much power does my next computer require has gone on for quite a long time. Seeing as Haswell is supposed to be a more significant change than the initial Ivy Bridge die shrink, I'd expect to look for significant changes by around 2013. By that time things may start to shift with SSDs. I wouldn't be surprised to see the macbook pro eventually take on the hard drive design of the air which uses a mini pci ssd rather than a sata connection. A big thing for ATI/AMD in the past year has been power reduction. They've been shipping even workstation cards with lower wattage numbers so Nvidia may really be out there if the goal is to go .... thinner (cheesy movie reference).

Yes, I think the future of macbook pro is macbook air with upgradble ram and ssd and external GPU.

I think upgradeable ram is one of the things we're likely to see go away over time in laptops, or at the very least it may become a more difficult upgrade. It wouldn't bother me much if Apple would raise their baseline ram configurations. The 11" air ships with the minimum supported ram configuration under Lion. It only really annoys me because you can't upgrade it later, and not all users will know this when they purchase one.

The future of the MBP hinges on either super cool processors or a completely revamped cooling design.

Once either of those two things happen, the sky is the limit... they can keep adding CPU and GPU power and I will keep buying.

R

Intel seems to be focused on the former there. I've looked around for estimates on things like tdp for ivy bridge and haswell onward. In many cases the top of the range in terms of wattage seems to drop with the lower tier remaining about the same. Pressure from ARM seems to be driving intel right now.

Exactly.There is no need for tapered edges, they would look odd on a MBP as it so much thicker than a MBA

It's not like they couldn't go that route, but it just doesn't add much to the design.

Something new: Has anyone thought about new materials the new MBP will come with? Maybe a carbon fiber/aluminum alloy hybrid for reduced weight? Some other hardened plastic?
And what about a small touchscreen implementation next to the keyboard? Like an iPhone-style launchpad to quickly select your apps?

I agree tapered designs are dumb. The macbook air replacing the macbook at the low end was actually pretty logical. This kind of material design though would be a huge step backward. Carbon fiber is light but it's not a very clean process. Environmental issues aside (aluminum recycles well) aluminum has the ability to act as a heat sink. It absorbs heat pulling it away from components which is critical to such a tight case design. Carbon fiber doesn't provide this advantage. The biggest reason I could see for moving away from aluminum would be due to the interaction with wireless signals, but I hope they don't go to carbon fiber.

 

[yukari]

I just want to know, when can we expect the redesigned MBP??? February or June???

 

[Risasi]

I suspect June or July, and I half suspect updated Airs at the same time. Four models; 11/13" Air, 15/17" Pro.

The only caveat being if one of the other vendors tries to rush Ivy Bridge laptops to market I think Apple will try to beat them. However I suspect that they have already negotiated a deal with Intel that Apple gets first dibs.

 

[paolo-]

But I strongly think Apple's shifted the Macbook Pro lineup more away from pro users in recent years and more towards consumers. Perhaps that needs a slight rectification. And with the newest Macbook Airs having made the Macbook obsolete and encroaching on the low end Macbook Pro territory, I foresee that rectification being pondered.

Not sure I agree with you on the rest (I don't see thunderbolt being the only port any time soon). The ladder used to be macbook to macbook pro, now apple has two lines that complement each other, you can get a great MBA and a great MBP. So I wouldn't be surprised to see the MBP become a more pro machine. Maybe scrap the DVD and put two HDD, it's optional in the iMac and Mini right now, would be a logical step in the MBP? I think they'll keep the 13" pro, they still need a cheap but powerful machine, the jump from 13" MBA to 15" MBP is pretty big.

The MBP might be quite different inside but not so much outside. If Apple comes up with a new design, it will be a new direction. We might be near the end of the black plastic, glass and aluminium era. You know, Apple usually gets one style, it slowly creeps through every product, usually when everything gets unified, it's time for something new, you know, translucent to all white plastic to black plastic, glass and aluminium.

 

[ct2k7]

I really hope to see a redesign in early 2012, like, uhm, in feb..

I was settled on a 13" Air, but missed the upgradeability.. And more cpu-power..

I could get the 13" Pro, but it just doesn't do it.. Might as well get the air then..

Well, you won't see Ivy Bridge in them.

 

[szolr]

Maybe scrap the DVD and put two HDD, it's optional in the iMac and Mini right now, would be a logical step in the MBP? I think they'll keep the 13" pro, they still need a cheap but powerful machine, the jump from 13" MBA to 15" MBP is pretty big.

But the 13 inch Pro pricing... The i5 model is the same as the higher end 11 inch Air and the i7 model is in between the price of the the 2 13 inch Airs. So maybe Apple could lose the i5 13 inch Pro? I see where you're coming from with that point though and confess the price range is a flaw in my argument for losing both 13 inch Pros.

The option to replace the DVD drive with another HDD (or maybe an SSD) would be brilliant.

----------

Blueray drive anyone?

What for exactly?

Look at the TV2. Apple could forget the concept of a unified TV set and add a DVD slot to this. I would get one for every TV in our house then. It'd be a massively more popular product. BUT Apple want you to buy their content on iTunes and then stream it to the TV. The next Apple TV is rumoured to support 1080p. If it does and costs the same as now, what's the point in having a Blu Ray drive? I sure wouldn't bother getting a new Blu Ray player.

I don't really fancy watching blu rays on a 13 inch screen either

 

[dave197]

But the 13 inch Pro pricing... The i5 model is the same as the higher end 11 inch Air and the i7 model is in between the price of the the 2 13 inch Airs. So maybe Apple could lose the i5 13 inch Pro? I see where you're coming from with that point though and confess the price range is a flaw in my argument for losing both 13 inch Pros.

The option to replace the DVD drive with another HDD (or maybe an SSD) would be brilliant.

----------



What for exactly?

Look at the TV2. Apple could forget the concept of a unified TV set and add a DVD slot to this. I would get one for every TV in our house then. It'd be a massively more popular product. BUT Apple want you to buy their content on iTunes and then stream it to the TV. The next Apple TV is rumoured to support 1080p. If it does and costs the same as now, what's the point in having a Blu Ray drive? I sure wouldn't bother getting a new Blu Ray player.

I don't really fancy watching blu rays on a 13 inch screen either

To offer an option to those who watch films etc on their laptop, it is a multipurpose device right?

i personally wouldn't want one as i don't really watch films however there are people who do.

theres a fair few laptops with blueray drives so would it not be good for apple to offer it as an option?

 

[szolr]

theres a fair few laptops with blueray drives so would it not be good for apple to offer it as an option?

No. This is Apple we're talking about. "Think different" remember. Why the hell would they just follow the crowd? Unlike Acer, Dell, HP Apple have the iTunes store where they distribute content and get a cut from it. They sell HD movies, and TV shows there. Putting blu ray drives in their desktops let alone laptops could potentially jeopardise their sales on iTunes of video content. They will not risk that.

 

[jlc1978]

To offer an option to those who watch films etc on their laptop, it is a multipurpose device right?

i personally wouldn't want one as i don't really watch films however there are people who do.

theres a fair few laptops with blueray drives so would it not be good for apple to offer it as an option?

Blu-ray has a fair amount of copy protection requirements that Apple probably doesn't want to implement; especially since they already offer HD via iTunes.

 

[thekev]

But I strongly think Apple's shifted the Macbook Pro lineup more away from pro users in recent years and more towards consumers. Perhaps that needs a slight rectification. And with the newest Macbook Airs having made the Macbook obsolete and encroaching on the low end Macbook Pro territory, I foresee that rectification being pondered.

We still have the 13" macbook pro occupying the preceding price territory of the old macbook which is good. The 11" macbook air is the one thing I see as a little awkward on pricing. To hit the $1000 price point it gives up quite a lot. With the 13" model you still get a highly responsive machine. A big point of frustration is that anything flash heavy or graphics intensive still turns these things into jet engines. If anything I'd like to see them focus more on improved temperatures in the macbook pros rather than shaving off every possible millimeter of density.