When do you think the new Retina MacBook Pros will be announced?

I would guess August, a few weeks before Mavericks goes live.

 

I would put my money and hopes on July lol just because of BTS promotions and there's no way apple can promote the current gen of retinas during this and then less than 60 days later turn around and throw a brand new one in the market, for two reasons. One, they would miss the rush of students buying for college which is actually increasingly becoming a huge income for them, and two the ones who would settle for the current gen and weren't aware of the new update coming so soon would probably be disappointed with apple to say the least. I think it would just be a financial and PR nightmare to release the new rMBPs mid or late august. My bet is on july. Iris pro is supposed to be in the hands of manufacturers by end of June and I think that may be what apple is waiting for.

 

Probably september 2013 which will be announced with new iPhone....

 

I think it's a tough call with mavericks just round the corner.
if they release it too close to mavericks coming out, they'd have to offer it for free to anyone who purchases a MBP, which i'm sure they'd want to avoid if they could. I think because of this, they'll either try and release it as soon as possible (which according to many people could be the start of july when the iris pro graphics are available) or launch it with mavericks itself, which i'd guess would be september/october time?
I think they'll release it before school starts again personally, so to me it makes sense to get it out good and early before mavericks to stop customers feeling like they were tricked out of the new OS.
first half of July is my guess

 

I do not think we will see them this year.

 

I'm in the July camp. A lot of updated products in the fall and the Air already has Haswell, so they won't let the Air have all the updated hardware for around 4 months before the Pro does.

 

I think it will correspond almost directly to when the Haswells with the Iris 5200 are released. Currently, they have no release date more than Q3, which is anywhere between July 1st and September 30. Right now, the only processors released with the same TDP as the rMBPs (45-47W) are HD 4600, which are awful compared to the Iris Pro 5200. So Apple will wait until those are out there.

My prediction is Iris Pro 5200 in the 15 rMBP and the lower TDP (28 down from 35) processor in the 13 rMBP, which will give it an Iris 5100 (unfortunately, that'd be in the laptop that could really use the 5200, since it won't have discrete graphics) but really great battery life.

So, this means that everyone's prediction should be when will those chips be released? It could be July (my prediction) or all the way out to September (which would be close enough to October to not matter). Apple also couldn't announce it at WWDC because Intel hasn't given a release date. And it would have killed sales to say "coming soon, with cool features, but we can't say when."

Also, I'm gonna get the 13" rMBP as long as it has the 5100. Hoping for a nice price drop or storage/ram bump in the base model.

 

Being objective, I think the 13" and 15" haswell rMBP releases deserve an apple event (which will likely occur at least in fall and with probably the release of mavericks). Not doing so would implicitely prove that haswell and iris do not provide any substantial added value (performance, battery life,...etc) over the current rMBP models, which by the way have been updated silently only 4 months ago!

Sorry for spoiling many souls hopes, but let's be realistic: it doesn't make sense for apple to hold anytime sooner a second event or to release silently the haswell rMBP (and eventually cMBP) by august just because there is a supply issue with haswell. In that case, they would have given a sneak peak (in the same way they did with the 3D OpenGL cylinder image of the MacPro ) and would have announced a release date!

People who are eager to buy haswell MBPs have no other options than to be patient, but I suspect that except the improvement in the integrated GPU, the overall performance between the the Ivy Bridge and Haswell won't be drastical for MBP users who use their laptop as a desktop replacement. There will likely be improvement in the WiFi, camera, pci flash, and aesthetics...

Those who can't wait, especially students who want to benefit from BTS rebates, I would suggest the new haswell MBA for its portability and long-lasting battery, the early 2013 13" rMBP if you need more CPU power and a retina display, or the early 2013 15" rMBP or even cMBP 15" for more CPU/GPU requirements. If you are budget-conscious, you can find good deals in the refurbished section!

My 2cents...

 

this makes a lot of sense in my head.

didnt they do this before btw?

macs and iphones at the same time (as well as ipods)

 

I suspect the rMBP will be released alongside the MP and Mavericks later this fall (Sept./Oct.). I really think Apple is positioning the MBA as their introductory product, targeted toward mainstream users with a relatively low introductory price (for Apple, anyway). Furthermore, I think they released the MBA now to coincide with the BTS promotion, as the MBA is clearly designed with college kids in mind.

Mavericks seems optimized to take advantage of Haswell's integrated GPU, so it makes sense that its release would coincide with hardware updates. Again, I think the MBA was released now simply to quell the BTS rush. Otherwise, it would have made more sense to release it along with Mavericks, too. I suspect Apple chose to delay the release of Mavericks, rMBP, and MP due to production bottlenecks (retina screens) and component availability (Haswell processors).

I'm just speculating, but the product cycles for the rMBP, MP, and maybe even the iMac suggest a fall release date. And as we know, Apple has previously released Macbooks after the BTS period (e.g., late-2008 MB and MBP, released on Oct. 14).

Given the MP announcement, I'm optimistic that the rMBP will receive TB2, although this likely makes no difference in my case.