Waiting for the 2018 MBP

[Dave245]

He called it "unlikely". He hasn't confirmed anything officially. I mean there's a good chance his prediction right, but let's not take rumor as fact.

Otherwise I agree – if we don't get a WWDC refresh then the new MBPs most likely come around September/October together with new iMacs and maybe Mac Minis or a first Mac Pro preview, with the strong possibility of a dedicated event.

He did say people familiar with the matter so his inside sources which are usually very accurate:

“The company is working on refreshes to the MacBook Pro and 12-inch MacBook with new Intel Corp. chips, and is planning a new low-cost laptop to succeed MacBook Air. But those won’t be ready until later this year, according to people familiar with the plans. Apple is also working on a redesigned iPad Pro line with Face ID, but that’s also expected later.”

it’s not 100% impossible obviously the only people who know for sure are Apple themselves, I guess we will find out on Monday. Personally I would love to see new hardware at WWDC, I’m really dude a Mac update and I’d also love to see a iPad X with Face ID and so on.

 

[Pbhogal]

WWWDC keynote is 2 hours I can’t see it only being focused on software the hardware coming will be iPhone SE 2 and MacBook Pro refresh
Apple has had no meaningful event since October March iPad was just education based !!

 

[Ma2k5]

WWWDC keynote is 2 hours I can’t see it only being focused on software the hardware coming will be iPhone SE 2 and MacBook Pro refresh
Apple has had no meaningful event since October March iPad was just education based !!

Well they will apparently talk about the Apple Watch.

They may manage to spend 30 minutes on the animoji changes too (seriously, i hope this will die, even people who I associate with which are part of the snapchat/insta generation seem to not care for it).

 

[afir93]

He did say people familiar with the matter so his inside sources which are usually very accurate:

“The company is working on refreshes to the MacBook Pro and 12-inch MacBook with new Intel Corp. chips, and is planning a new low-cost laptop to succeed MacBook Air. But those won’t be ready until later this year, according to people familiar with the plans. Apple is also working on a redesigned iPad Pro line with Face ID, but that’s also expected later.”

it’s not 100% impossible obviously the only people who know for sure are Apple themselves, I guess we will find out on Monday. Personally I would love to see new hardware at WWDC, I’m really dude a Mac update and I’d also love to see a iPad X with Face ID and so on.

Yup, thanks for basically proving my point. As good as these sources may be, his report classifies as as rumors and educated/well-founded guesses, not as an official confirmation, and shouldn't be taken as such.

That said... our chances for a WWDC release aren't looking bright. I speculated 1-2 pages ago that the delayed macOS 10.13.5 release could be a hint towards new Mac hardware to come, but now that 10.13.5 has been officially released before Monday after all, that argument kind of falls apart. (Unless someone finds hints towards new Macs in the new macOS version... which I'm not really getting my hopes up for at this point...)

If we really get a September/October release though, then I'm really wondering if there's anything to justify such a long wait. The only times where MacBook Pros have taken longer than one full year to release were when bigger redesigns happened, as far as I remember (i.e. the 2016 one); spec bumps were 12 months at most, oftentimes even less. The release window for Intel's 8th generation also fits perfectly for a June release if one compares it with the previous years, whereas a release around October would put Apple far behind the curve compared to competitors who would have an advantage of almost half a year in terms of quad/hexa core laptops vs Apple's dual/quad core's. So why the unusually long wait for what will most likely be a minor update from an R&D-perspective but a major one for the consumer?

Some people are saying that fixing the keyboard might be such a reason, but if Apple hasn't managed to come up with a solution in the >20 months since the initial 2016 MBPs and the more than 3 years (!) since the very first inclusion of the Butterfly Keyboard, then I have a hard time believing that the at most 3-4 months of additional R&D that an October-release would allow for would make such a difference. If anything, the fact that Apple has released multiple iterations of the Butterfly Keyboard in which their issues were not (or only partially) fixed over the last 3 years makes me think that they'd rather release the 2018 MBPs in a state where their keyboard issues are only mostly fixed but not entirely, instead of delaying it for 4-6 months and losing out on all that profit and market share "only" to fix it entirely.

 

[hajime]

We will see next week. If it doesn't get announced at WWDC, then give it until Tuesday to see if a silent update happens.

If we don't see anything next week, then that is a soft sign that Vega might be coming to Macs sooner rather than later, and that would include MacBook Pros. To put it another way:

A June 2018 release would mean MBPs with Polaris.
An Oct. 2018 release could mean MBPs with Vega.

Usually do they make new product announcements only on the first day? How often do they do it during the week?

 

[The Reasonable One]

I'm going to wait now. I really can't be bothered with changing laptop for a new current design. I did the mistake of buying the 2016 model when it first came out and had several problems with it, although fortunately NOT the keyboard as I have a full size bluetooth version which I use most of the time, being a Sibelius user! I have enough tech in the house anyway so don't rely on one machine all the time.

Dude I just saw your sig after reading about how much tech you've got in the house. I'm in serious awe and really jealous.

But if I may ask why do you have a intel and an AMD build? As in do they each specialize in a specific task or are you just splurging a bit. If you are splurging you're one lucky bastard but I feel like you must have a reason for each given the price of the processors alone.

this isn't meant to be prying I'm just really curious!

 

[EugW]

Usually do they make new product announcements only on the first day? How often do they do it during the week?

They don't do hardware announcements later during the week. They're in the keynote, and that's it. However, if it doesn't get announced in the keynote, sometimes a product gets updated anyway, silently, very soon after the keynote.

In terms of the MacBook Pro, an update next week would be with the same form factor and the effectively the same GPU, so from those standpoints, could warrant a silent update. However, the change from dual to quad-core and from quad to hex-core is something I'd think Apple would want to announce, making a silent update less likely.

 

[hajime]

They don't do hardware announcements later during the week. They're in the keynote, and that's it. However, if it doesn't get announced in the keynote, sometimes a product gets updated anyway, silently, very soon after the keynote.

In terms of the MacBook Pro, an update next week would be with the same form factor and the effectively the same GPU, so from those standpoints, could warrant a silent update. However, the change from dual to quad-core and from quad to hex-core is something I'd think Apple would want to announce, making a silent update less likely.

Thanks. By "very soon", do you mean within the same week? Can we assume that if there is no announcement next week, then it is basically just buy the current MBP or wait for the next round in the Fall?

 

[EugW]

Thanks. By "very soon", do you mean within the same week? Can we assume that if there is no announcement next week, then it is basically just buy the current MBP or wait for the next round in the Fall?

You can never assume anything, but by very soon I mean like later in the day.

BTW, this is ancient history but I got burned real bad by not waiting for what I really wanted, way back in 2002. I had an iBook but didn't like the G3 and desperately wanted a 12" PowerBook. My friends all said it wouldn't appear any time soon, because nobody wants a 12" PowerBook. I was convinced Apple would release one sooner rather than later, but wasn't sure when. So, I waited, and in November 2002 Apple announced yet another 15" PowerBook Titanium, the PowerBook G4 1.0 GHz with SuperDrive. There was no 12" PowerBook, and I was very disappointed it wasn't going to come any time soon. I knew there was going to be an event in January, but I figured they're not going to release yet another laptop just weeks after they released the Titanium SuperDrive model. So I ordered the 15", and received it in December.

But... Literally just 1 month after I got the 15" PowerBook, Apple released the 12" PowerBook, at Macworld Expo January 2003.

 

[R.P.G]

WWWDC keynote is 2 hours I can’t see it only being focused on software the hardware coming will be iPhone SE 2 and MacBook Pro refresh
Apple has had no meaningful event since October March iPad was just education based !!

Ohh.. they can just talk about Animoji for the whole 120 mins... Craig will show every Animoji one by one.. I bet he can do that..

 

[EugW]

Ohh.. they can just talk about Animoji for the whole 120 mins... Craig will show every Animoji one by one.. I bet he can do that..

They'll waste eons talking about Apple Watch (with those damn animoji I'm sure) and HomePod, neither of which I care about at all.

Actually, to be honest, since I'm set for Mac hardware for the foreseeable future (2017 iMac + 2017 MacBook), the only thing I'm really hoping to see is Netflix/Amazon/iTunes/etc 4K streaming support on Macs.

 

[TheralSadurns]

You can never assume anything, but by very soon I mean like later in the day.

BTW, this is ancient history but I got burned real bad by not waiting for what I really wanted, way back in 2002. I had an iBook but didn't like the G3 and desperately wanted a 12" PowerBook. My friends all said it wouldn't appear any time soon, because nobody wants a 12" PowerBook. I was convinced Apple would release one sooner rather than later, but wasn't sure when. So, I waited, and in November 2002 Apple announced yet another 15" PowerBook Titanium, the PowerBook G4 1.0 GHz with SuperDrive. There was no 12" PowerBook, and I was very disappointed it wasn't going to come any time soon. I knew there was going to be an event in January, but I figured they're not going to release yet another laptop just weeks after they released the Titanium SuperDrive model. So I ordered the 15", and received it in December.

But... Literally just 1 month after I got the 15" PowerBook, Apple released the 12" PowerBook, at Macworld Expo January 2003.

On the OTHER hand. Screw the PowerBook 12" as it was one of the newer aluminum ones. I LOVE the older TiBooks. If we ignore the color-chipping etc... best looking and feeling PowerBooks ever! Plus I love the color! Space gray... pah... the TiBook's color is where it's at !!!

 

[navaira]

Ohh.. they can just talk about Animoji for the whole 120 mins... Craig will show every Animoji one by one.. I bet he can do that..

"Can't innovate my ass, crocodile, balloon, bus, strawberry, hamburger, and ice cream anymore?!"

 

[leman]

I guess we will see on Monday. I am still holding my fingers cross d for a MBP refresh. Interesting detail: Computex kicks off on Tuesday and AMD is expected to reveal mobile Vega chips. Isn’t it an interesting coincidence that WWDC is a day before?

 

[Dave245]

I guess we will see on Monday. I am still holding my fingers cross d for a MBP refresh. Interesting detail: Computex kicks off on Tuesday and AMD is expected to reveal mobile Vega chips. Isn’t it an interesting coincidence that WWDC is a day before?

I wouldn’t read too much into it as Apple don’t usually do things to match or not with other companies, if a product is ready they will release it if not they won’t. Although nothing will be 100% until we watch the keynote on Monday Mark Gurman has said that there won’t be any hardware shown at the event.

 

[Frederik on MacRumors]

So if Apple do release new MBPs on Monday (contrary to rumours), which model are you planning to go for? The 13 or 15?

I am torn between the 13” and 15” myself. I think I will go with the 15” as I prefer more screen estate. Nevertheless, I don’t need the dedicated graphics and would love the smaller footprint of the 13”.

 

[EugW]

I guess we will see on Monday. I am still holding my fingers cross d for a MBP refresh. Interesting detail: Computex kicks off on Tuesday and AMD is expected to reveal mobile Vega chips. Isn’t it an interesting coincidence that WWDC is a day before?

WWDC keynotes are always on Monday.

 

[leman]

WWDC keynotes are always on Monday.

I know, I know, but don't take my hope away My financial planing is messed up if we don't have new Macs soon...

 

[TheralSadurns]

I wouldn’t read too much into it as Apple don’t usually do things to match or not with other companies, if a product is ready they will release it if not they won’t. Although nothing will be 100% until we watch the keynote on Monday Mark Gurman has said that there won’t be any hardware shown at the event.

Actually... that is NOT true. The thing with Gurman is that he is careful with how he phrases things... and you have to take him LITERALLY. This is what he said (emphasis mine):


"Mac hardware upgrades have been a key talking point at past WWDCs. At last year’s conference, for example, Apple upgraded nearly its entire Mac line, previewed the iMac Pro, launched new iPad Pros, and showed off the HomePod smart speaker. But this year, a suite of new gadgets is unlikely.
The company is working on refreshes to the MacBook Pro and 12-inch MacBook with new Intel Corp. chips, and is planning a new low-cost laptop to succeed MacBook Air. But those won’t be ready until later this year, according to people familiar with the plans. Apple is also working on a redesigned iPad Pro line with Face ID, but that’s also expected later."

So what does he say, literally?

• A suite of NEW gadgets THIS YEAR (not this WWDC) is unlikely. Suite meaning MANY new devices. Doesn't rule out a FEW
• "Those won't be ready until later this year". Which those? MacBook Pros, MacBooks, AND the Air replacement? Or does he refer to ONLY the Air replacement? Read the sentence carefully. It's really ambiguous.
• new iPad Pros with Face ID are "also expected later". It doesn't read that they are coming in the fall or anything. And expected is vague in itself.

Most likely his own sources are a bit unsure... might be a situation with the Mac Pro and the iMac Pro. That is is NOT ready just yet. But they might STILL show it off. So to me, to sum it up, his article reads like 'don't expect WWDC to be choke full of devices... but maybe one thing or another might still show up apart from software!'

 

[Dave245]

Actually... that is NOT true. The thing with Gurman is that he is careful with how he phrases things... and you have to take him LITERALLY. This is what he said (emphasis mine):


"Mac hardware upgrades have been a key talking point at past WWDCs. At last year’s conference, for example, Apple upgraded nearly its entire Mac line, previewed the iMac Pro, launched new iPad Pros, and showed off the HomePod smart speaker. But this year, a suite of new gadgets is unlikely.
The company is working on refreshes to the MacBook Pro and 12-inch MacBook with new Intel Corp. chips, and is planning a new low-cost laptop to succeed MacBook Air. But those won’t be ready until later this year, according to people familiar with the plans. Apple is also working on a redesigned iPad Pro line with Face ID, but that’s also expected later."

So what does he say, literally?

• A suite of NEW gadgets THIS YEAR (not this WWDC) is unlikely. Suite meaning MANY new devices. Doesn't rule out a FEW
• "Those won't be ready until later this year". Which those? MacBook Pros, MacBooks, AND the Air replacement? Or does he refer to ONLY the Air replacement? Read the sentence carefully. It's really ambiguous.
• new iPad Pros with Face ID are "also expected later". It doesn't read that they are coming in the fall or anything. And expected is vague in itself.

Most likely his own sources are a bit unsure... might be a situation with the Mac Pro and the iMac Pro. That is is NOT ready just yet. But they might STILL show it off. So to me, to sum it up, his article reads like 'don't expect WWDC to be choke full of devices... but maybe one thing or another might still show up apart from software!'

You are way over thinking it! Mark Gurman has inside information and it’s unlikly that there will be no hardware at WWDC. Doesn’t mean 100% like I said BUT it’s unlikely that there will be hardware. WWDC is often a software focused event anyway, last years updates was a one off and not somthing we will see every year (in my opinion).

 

[afir93]

You are way over thinking it! Mark Gurman has inside information and it’s unlikly that there will be no hardware at WWDC. Doesn’t mean 100% like I said BUT it’s unlikely that there will be hardware. WWDC is often a software focused event anyway, last years updates was a one off and not somthing we will see every year (in my opinion).

Software-focused, yes, but that statement alone doesn't mean much. The focus can be on software (and usually is) and there can still be a good number of new hardware announcements. If we look back at all the hardware announcements we had at WWDC over the years, we had:

2003 - Power Mac G5,
2004 - 20" and 30" Apple Cinema Displays,
2006 - The Mac Pro,
2007 - The iPhone release date was announced,
2008 - iPhone 3G was announced,
2009 - MacBook Pro spec bump for 15” & 17”, 13” MacBook spec bump, also rebrand as "Pro". The MacBook Air got a spec bump, and we got the iPhone 3GS,
2010 - announcement of the iPhone 4,
2012 - MacBook refresh and Retina displays on the new MacBook Pros,
2013 - MacBook Air spec bump and 2013 Mac Pro,
2017 - New MacBooks, MacBook Pros, iMacs, iPad Pros, MacBook Air spec bump (small), HomePod and iMac Pro announcement.

And these are just the "big" announcements, not counting minor stuff like some new accessories, cables, colors or price adjustments which we got at almost every WWDC in some extend.

Again, this is not to say that Gurman is wrong – but I agree with TheralSadurns that he has phrased that passage quite vague, most likely fully intentional, and it's a logical implication of that that his sources might not be entirely sure about it themselves and he probably doesn't want to jeopardize his track record by making any definite and precise but potentially false statements about them.

If we do get new MBPs at WWDC, then he could essentially come out and say "Well I only called it unlikely so I wasn't wrong, and in regards to these products not being ready until later this year, I was solely referring to the non-Pro MacBooks for those". And if there are no MBPs at WWDC, he can simply claim "See, told you so". Whereas if he simply stated in the article "There won't be new MacBook Pros at WWDC 2018" and that turns out wrong, there is no way to straighten up that statement in retrospect. He goes into a lot of detail about several other predictions like the AR features or the digital health thing, so it's not like he doesn't know what he's writing about and how he needs to phrase things.

 

[Dave245]

Software-focused, yes, but that statement alone doesn't mean much. The focus can be on software (and usually is) and there can still be a good number of new hardware announcements. If we look back at all the hardware announcements we had at WWDC over the years, we had:

2003 - Power Mac G5,
2004 - 20" and 30" Apple Cinema Displays,
2006 - The Mac Pro,
2007 - The iPhone release date was announced,
2008 - iPhone 3G was announced,
2009 - MacBook Pro spec bump for 15” & 17”, 13” MacBook spec bump, also rebrand as "Pro". The MacBook Air got a spec bump, and we got the iPhone 3GS,
2010 - announcement of the iPhone 4,
2012 - MacBook refresh and Retina displays on the new MacBook Pros,
2013 - MacBook Air spec bump and 2013 Mac Pro,
2017 - New MacBooks, MacBook Pros, iMacs, iPad Pros, MacBook Air spec bump (small), HomePod and iMac Pro announcement.

And these are just the "big" announcements, not counting minor stuff like some new accessories, cables, colors or price adjustments which we got at almost every WWDC in some extend.

Again, this is not to say that Gurman is wrong – but I agree with TheralSadurns that he has phrased that passage quite vague, most likely fully intentional, and it's a logical implication of that that his sources might not be entirely sure about it themselves and he probably doesn't want to jeopardize his track record by making any definite and precise but potentially false statements about them.

If we do get new MBPs at WWDC, then he could essentially come out and say "Well I only called it unlikely so I wasn't wrong, and in regards to these products not being ready until later this year, I was solely referring to the non-Pro MacBooks for those". And if there are no MBPs at WWDC, he can simply claim "See, told you so". Whereas if he simply stated in the article "There won't be new MacBook Pros at WWDC 2018" and that turns out wrong, there is no way to straighten up that statement in retrospect. He goes into a lot of detail about several other predictions like the AR features or the digital health thing, so it's not like he doesn't know what he's writing about and how he needs to phrase things.

It would be nice to see hardware don’t get me wrong but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Also if you look at Mark Gurman’s pinned Tweet he says “no iPad Pro/Mac’s at the event”

I’m very interested by the “deeper IOS/Mac integration” tho and what they will bring.

 

[afir93]

I’m very interested by the “deeper IOS/Mac integration” tho and what they will bring.

That sounds interesting. Maybe macOS will finally get HomeKit support, iMessage feature parity or AirPlay 2. It's a little ridiculous that we have Siri on the Mac, but one of the arguably most useful Siri features, namely being able to control HomeKit-devices with voice commands, isn't available on the Mac for basically no good reason (and also no Home app, for that matter).

 

[Dave245]

That sounds interesting. Maybe macOS will finally get HomeKit support, iMessage feature parity or AirPlay 2. It's a little ridiculous that we have Siri on the Mac, but one of the arguably most useful Siri features, namely being able to control HomeKit-devices with voice commands, isn't available on the Mac for basically no good reason (and also no Home app, for that matter).

I think that would be great especially with the Homepod being controlled with Siri or AirPlay 2.

I also think if Apple are serious about the iPad Pro being a computer for a lot of people and possibly a Surface competitor (they haven’t said that but it seems obvious) then they should make apps like Final Cut Pro X work multi platform for both the Mac and the iPad Pro.

 

[shyam09]

You are way over thinking it! Mark Gurman has inside information and it’s unlikly that there will be no hardware at WWDC. Doesn’t mean 100% like I said BUT it’s unlikely that there will be hardware. WWDC is often a software focused event anyway, last years updates was a one off and not somthing we will see every year (in my opinion).

On the note of overthinking - what if Apple's leak crackdown scared Gurman's trusted sources into giving him a false update on WWDC, so his predictions are essentially opposite!

I'm joking, of course.