Ultra-Thin 15" Mac Notebook Getting Closer to Production

[carlemil]

unifying the macbook line

So Apple is going to unify the entire Mac notebook line.

This is as Tim Cook as it Gets!
Combine the best from all the offerings, and simplify the offered product line.

Strategic moves like such, shows how great an operational CEO Tim Cook is to become.

"Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it."

 

[Michael CM1]

These guys aren't ready to converge just yet. Some people need portability yet processing power, hence the name MacBook Pro. The SSD sizes also aren't hitting the spot where you can affordably use them instead of a 500GB 7200rpm drive.

I definitely hope this is a new MacBook Air model because I might be more inclined for one of these than a 15" MacBook Pro. But it's hard to know until I see exactly what this new notebook would be. For instance, can it run Photoshop and Firefox with 15 tabs open? What's the max RAM on it?

 

[shompa]

The un-upgradable RAM is a key-issue with the air models. I really hope they won't ditch the 13" Pro model as it provides at least easier RAM and HDD upgrades if you wish to.

Slim is nice and I get that but upgradability is better(as long as the slimness doesn't take too much of a hit - and to be honest, the current Pro's are really slim and lightweight compared to some of the laptop PC's out there..).

Just buy 8 gig ram at start?
You can swap the SSDs in macbook air today. I can't see why you would not be able to do that with with a 15 inch macbook air?

Laptop and upgradability is a almost an oxymoron. Beside memory and SSD, what more can you upgrade?

90%+ of customers does not upgrade. Apple targets these customers.

 

[rocknblogger]

I wonder how they are going to manage to squeeze everything in there.

Do you guys think it will be as user upgradeable as the current Macbook Pros or do you think it will be more like the Airs where you cant change anything?

This. I don't want to lose the ability to upgrade/repair my Macbook Pro. While I welcome a thinner and lighter design if it's not going to be user upgradable I think I'll have to buy the last model that is and stick with it as long as possible.

On my current MBP I upgraded to an SSD and 8MB RAM for a lot less than what Apple would have charged me.

What I really need to do is get a Mac Pro as my workhorse

 

[Prodo123]

This is as Tim Cook as it Gets!
Combine the best from all the offerings, and simplify the offered product line.

Strategic moves like such, shows how great an operational CEO Tim Cook is to become.

"Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it."

Forcing the professional/prosumer market to merge with the consumer market is not a good idea at all.
People want the MBP for power. Most of these people are professionals that need this power.
People want the MBA for mobility. When they buy the MBA they don't care about power, and are mostly consumers.
By merging these two markets, you get a laptop that's:
1. too big to be as mobile as an ultraportable
2. too weak to satisfy the professional/prosumer market
which will shy away many customers.

Product line wise, it's a good idea. Revenue wise, it's not.

 

[Speedy2]

The MBP won't die for some time to come, and surely not in 2012.

High capacity SSDs are still way too expensive and scarce to replace harddrives, and integrated GPUs aren't fast enough to replace dedicated GPUs.

The MBA will be the future, as these issues will fix themselves. Optical media are dying out along with most of the plugs and cables. But for now, the MBP is still Apple's best selling computer, and that's for a reason.

 

[ThanksSteve]

Yep, I think that the MacBook and MacBook Pro are book going thin only in the next year or two. With iCloud and some tech advances it will be possible.

 

[Man9z0r]

90%+ of customers does not upgrade. Apple targets these customers.

Are you kidding?!? I don't mind paying the Apple tax on the laptop itself but for me and just about everyone I know we always get the smallest hard drive and memory knowing we can get it for way cheaper! I payed 50 bucks for my 8 gig ram upgrade. Just tell me how much apple charges for that!?!?

 

[thealkimist]

So Apple is going to unify the entire Mac notebook line.

Um No. For every person here that thinks Apple is going to converge the two macbook lines, think again.

If you are a person that just uses your computer for basic production and consumption with the occasional photoshop or media editing program, you do NOT need a macbook pro.

The limitations of the MPA cannot support those who need to run high processing graphics software like Maya, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, etc.

The release of a 15 inch macbook air is a great idea since even the 13 inch screen is a bit small for a lot of mass users.

 

[Prodo123]

Are you kidding?!? I don't mind paying the Apple tax on the laptop itself but for me and just about everyone I know we always get the smallest hard drive and memory knowing we can get it for way cheaper! I payed 50 bucks for my 8 gig ram upgrade. Just tell me how much apple charges for that!?!?

Apple charges $200 BTO option for 8GB, $400 for standalone. That's when it's DDR3 RAM; when you talk on-board soldered ram, expect $100 more.
Then there's some people who want 16GB RAM...would love me some 16GB

 

[SandynJosh]

I wonder how they are going to manage to squeeze everything in there.

Do you guys think it will be as user upgradeable as the current Macbook Pros or do you think it will be more like the Airs where you cant change anything?

It will be EXACTLY the way you want it, even though you don't know what you want yet.

 

[chuckles:)]

Mb it will be tapered but not as thin? They could ditch the optical drive and ethernet and start thick with firewire 800 at the back.

that being said, if thunderbolt gets a bit cheaper, i could see them phasing out firewire altogether.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

The faster processors are kinda pointless when the standard MacBook pro ships with a 5400rpm hard drive. I hope the next revision includes ssd drives in the base model.

If you need such fast hard drives why do you buy then a MBP with a 2.5" HDD? And btw, apps do not load the data directly from the disks, so disk speed is not as important as it may seem. The problem is not the speed of SSDs or HDDs, the problem is the RAM <--> CPU bandwidth. And regarding the 5400 rpm --> http://hothardware.com/Reviews/1TB-WD-Scorpio-Blue-25-HD-QuickTake/
and
--> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_storage_density#Effects_on_performance

 

[OutSpoken]

just upgraded my late 2009 mbp with a ssd and 8 GB ram, it feels like a new up-to-date machine but i'm always up for a new design

Sounds like my next mod, I have already done the 8GB ram and that gave my MBP a new lease of life, but an ssd would be cool. I'm still getting excellent use out of my mid 2009 MBP.

The next edition to my line up will probably be an iPad (iPad3) before I get another macbook.

 

[Prodo123]

It will be EXACTLY the way you want it, even though you don't know what you want yet.

I know exactly what I want, and it's being able to upgrade whenever I want without buying an entirely new laptop.

 

[Fazzy]

Looks like these new models will be the Pros. Glad i decided to go with an Air instead of a pro, my case design will be current a little longer

 

[cameronjpu]

Are you kidding?!? I don't mind paying the Apple tax on the laptop itself but for me and just about everyone I know we always get the smallest hard drive and memory knowing we can get it for way cheaper! I payed 50 bucks for my 8 gig ram upgrade. Just tell me how much apple charges for that!?!?

If that's you and everyone you know, then you know a lot of real nerds. Not Apple's target market. Don't take it personally!

 

[D.T.]

I think we're going to see a new form factor, not quite as thin as the Air line, but thinner than the current Pro. I think it will retain the symmetric thickness like the current Pro (vs. the "wedge" design of the MBA).

No optical, retain user upgradeable RAM (maybe to 16GB), HDD+SDD hybrid (or just straight SSD). Definitely a discreet GPU and robust CPU options, plus standardizing to the [currently] optional higher resolution display (1680x1050), if not even higher.

 

[CupOfJoeD]

What I want in this Next refresh! Wish List!

I would love a:

15 in Macbook Pro (whatever its called)
Clearance of the Optical Drive and here's the catch
an SSD that is minute to run ONLY the OS as a standard
everything else could be on a HDD, or have one HDD as a storage option
and a SSD as the default option.

Dedicated graphics with the inclusion of the Ivy Bridge Processor.

High Res Display as a standard! That would OWN, they could even call it the
Retina Display for Macbooks...

More Ports! at least like 2 Firewire Ports, 3 USB ports, I mean they should have more ports because the DVD drive will be cleared. Umm let's see... THAT'S it!!!

Thanks... Apple nonetheless!

 

[bushido]

Sounds like my next mod, I have already done the 8GB ram and that gave my MBP a new lease of life, but an ssd would be cool. I'm still getting excellent use out of my mid 2009 MBP.

The next edition to my line up will probably be an iPad (iPad3) before I get another macbook.

yea it was a nice investment, next will be replacing the useless superdrive with a hdd to support my system sdd

---

they won't do a FullHD display unless the content on iTunes gets upgraded from 720p. they don't want their customers to actually see the pixels on their crappy converted files

 

[entatlrg]

Man, I waiting for this is going to suck. A 15" MacBook Air is something I'd line up for!

Suppose a surprise release of this before the end of the year is just dreaming.

This may be something Jon and Steve worked together on over the past many months no doubt.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

I think that the MacBook Air and Pro lines will eventually converge... Its just a matter of time.

• Production of these laptops will end up cheaper and easier if they all fall into the similar Unibody designs (akin to the current MBA, different sizes prevailing).
• Marketing wise, its easier for Apple to refer to their laptops under one single guise (MacBook) rather than multiple names.
• The distinction between Consumer, Pro-sumer and Professional users are being squashed all the time, and Apple are doing everything they can to get OS X and their applications to run on minimal resources.
• Customers are less likely to be deterred from one particular line (Pro) if they think they don't need a certain amount of processing power.
• Apple can offer 'solutions' to customers of all needs through a single product line, rather than having one feature missing, one gained etc...

It just begs the question of what will happen to the Mac line, if this did indeed happen. Would Apple still keep the 'Pro' branding for the Mac Pro, and could the supposed new design for this have anything to do with a shift to more evenly spaced products? Very interesting.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Soldered RAM doesn't cut it and a 256GB SSD is too small.

I think we will get the following next year:
- Larger "MacBook Air", although i do not see a huge market
- MBPs with redesigned boards, so that Apple can use a bigger battery in these models (they remove the ODD)

The necessary components for ultra thin MBPs are not available or too expensive (1 TB SSDs for example), so a redesign in 2012 would only increase the price (+50 % and more), and i do not see the market for ultra thin, ultra expensive MBPs-not in 2012. Everything else is probably only wishful thinking.

 

[alphaod]

We'll soon find that this actually a Samsung notebook…

Well we know Intel has their $300 million "Ultrabook" fund.
And we know Samsung loves to innovate groundbreaking designs~

 

[DTphonehome]

I can definitely see them taking design cues from the MBA, but I think it's premature for them to converge into one line. The MBP still offers voluminous hard drives, upgradeable RAM, and higher-powered processors. I think we'll likely see a new MBP without an optical drive, but with a 128GB SSD and an HD as well. Video production (which is what a lot of MBPs do in the real world) needs vast HD space, and forcing users to carry an external Thunderbolt drive (because FW800 will probably go away) isn't very practical. I think the processors will stay a couple steps ahead of the ones in the MBA line as well. As for GPU, I think they'll still offer discrete graphics... there would be enough space as long as they don't thin it down as much as the MBA.