As we patiently wait for Tim Cook to kick off Apple’s WWDC keynote in just under five hours time, the last of the WWDC rumors and reports are spilling in. One of the more questionable pieces comes from KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who believes the new MacBook Pro won’t get that thinner, lighter, MacBook Air-like form factor we’ve all been hearing about. But that a resurrected MacBook will instead.
Kuo says Apple’s new MacBook Pro will look exactly like the current one, and that — as some reports have suggested — the only changes will be internal. However, the most exciting news will be regarding a “new MacBook,” which will boast that slimmer, sleeker form factor that has been the focus of speculation in recent months.
Macworld reports:
Kuo believes the “new MacBook” will be slimmer (18mm for the 13in model and 19mm for the 15in); it will forgo an optical disc drive; it will feature a Retina display (2,560-by-1,600 for the 13in and 2,880-by-1,800 for the 15in); the edges of the the display will be 50 percent narrower than the MacBook Pro; and the capacity of the battery will be 15-20 percent greater than the MacBook Pro.
He predicts that the price of the new laptop will start at $1,199 (that’s around £771 ex VAT, or £925.2 inc VAT). However, Kuo doesn’t expect this model to be available until August.
It certainly seems to me that this move is highly unlikely, but it is Kuo’s next claim that is even more bizarre. He believes that this will be the MacBook Pro’s final year, and that in 2013, Apple will kill off the high-end notebook entirely, leaving just the “new MacBook” and the MacBook Air in its portable lineup.
Although the MacBook Pro hasn’t quite been as successful as it once was since Apple reinvented its MacBook Air, it’s still an incredibly popular machine, and it’s difficult to believe that the Cupertino company would discontinue it.
I smell something nasty.
Source: Macworld
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
4 responses to “MacBook Pro Will Remain Largely The Same, But MacBook Will Be Resurrected With Air-Like Design [Rumor]”
Kuo is right but it’s not a big deal. It’s just a name, in reality the “new MacBook” IS the new MacBook Pro, but to allow for a transition period and not shock the market, they kept both names. It is also possible that the Air name disappears, and that the current Air will become part of the “new MacBook” line, and the MacBook Pro gets redesigned next year. Whichever way you look at it, there will be two lines in the end, one for consumers and one for pro users, regardless of what they call it.
The macbook airpro?
I think he’s probably right.
Yup, what Unis said and what I said back when Mr Kuo first made this prediction on April 23. This isn’t a big deal. They’re going to come up with a new optical-driveless form factor that looks almost exactly like the MacBook Air but with beefier specs and keep the existing line around for another year or so for the people that can’t live an optical drive.