Apple just barely revealed its new MacBook Pro, but rumors about the next-generation model are already giving fans something to get excited about in 2017.
The next MacBook Pro will supposedly come with a much-lower price tag, according to one of the most accurate Apple analysts in the biz, Ming-Chi Kuo.
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The KGI Securities analyst told investors in a recent note that he expects Apple will bring big price-cuts to the MacBook Pro along with some internal upgrades. Kuo also claims the 2017 update will finally give the MacBook Pro up to 32GB of RAM.
Apple usually drops the price on computers a year after major upgrades. The MacBook Air was viewed as an over-designed laptop for the rich. Subsequent price drops and internal upgrades quickly turned into one of Apple’s most popular portables ever, so it’s reasonable to expect the same thing to happen with the MacBook Pro.
Waiting on CannonLake
“The new MacBook to be launched in 2H17 may support 32GB DRAM, eventually attracting more core users,” Kuo wrote, according to MacRumors. “This depends on whether or not Intel ships Cannonlake CPU on time in 2017, which features 15-25% less power consumption of LPDDR 4, versus the existing LPDDR 3.”
CoffeeLake CPUs will be used if Intel’s Cannonlake chips aren’t ready. That will keep max RAM support at 16GB for another year.
Apple unveiled the new MacBook Pro at an event at its headquarters in Cupertino last week. Major features include a new OLED Touch Bar that adapts to apps, providing dynamic buttons in place of the function keys. Designers at Apple also made the device thinner than ever. New internals were added for faster CPU performance with four USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports on the side.
Price cuts on the next MacBook Pro won’t arrive until the second half of 2017 though. So if you’re desperate to get your fingers all over the new Touch Bar, you might as well pull the trigger now and use one of these ways to get a discount.
Buster Hein is a freelance writer who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Twitter: @bst3r.
9 responses to “MacBook Pro’s two biggest problems may get fixed in 2017”
Excited is not a word I would use.
I don’t know if next year’s processors are going to be any cheaper than this year’s. The only thing that MAY happen is they drop the price of the current models to make way for next year’s models. I don’t think they’ll be cheaper, they might have cheaper VERSIONS and they might bring the TouchBar for more models that are less expensive, but I don’t think they are going to get cheaper for the next HIGH END models.
Here’s something to consider.
The AVERAGE price for Windows is $700 for a laptop and $1500 for an Apple laptop. Why is this? it’s because PC mfg sell lower priced laptops with cheaper i3, Centrino, and Pentium chips with lower resolution screens and slower HDDs instead of SSDs, and they don’t integrate things like Thunderbolt with their lower priced models. Apple doesn’t want to to a lower level if it’s not profitable. The problem as a result of how PC mfg manage their business is they go after the low end market, PLUS, they constantly have to heavily discount products because they simply make too many models and they end up with excess inventory where they have to dump at drastically reduced pricing.
The average PC mfg works on a 25% Gross Margin and they retain about 5% Net Profit, which simply isn’t a what a well managed company should operate. That’s why you see PC mfg’s doing things like layoffs, or changing CEO’s every so many years and in the case of Dell, they delisted from the Stock market, or you’ll see companies sell off to someone else, which is what Compaq, IBM, and others had to do to get rid of business divisions that simply don’t make decent profit margin.
Apple has already gone through bad times and they refuse to do that again, so they manage the company at a 40% Gross Profit margin which allows them to retain 20% Net Profits. That’s how IBM, Compaq, HP USED to manage their PC companies years ago, but the PC market has eroded since Asian companies are vying for market share, so they always have severe competition over market share and their profit suffer as a result. Apple simply just makes what they make and they have to maintain decent profit margins and they simply refuse to play the market share game since the product would suffer. Imagine if Apple made an i3, Pentium or Centrino laptop, with a slow HDD, a poor resolution screen, etc. etc. they sold for $400. It would SUCK. It would just damage Apple’s reputation and their margins would suffer.
I think most of these PC mfg are just dumb for going after the ultra low and end and spitting out tons of different models of desktops and laptops. Go look at how many different models of laptops Dell, Lenovo and HP make. It’s ridiculous, it’s confusing to the customer and it ends up causing low profits for the mfg. Maybe one of these days these PC mfg will learn, but until then, they are just managing their respective businesses poorly.
“I think most of these PC mfg are just dumb for going after the ultra low and end and spitting out tons of different models of desktops and laptops.”
It’s dumb to cater to people who can’t afford a $1500 laptop?
I think the cost argument for MacBooks is flawed now with the advent of the Surface (as well as others) MS now have a home made system that is in the high end with good build quality etc that is cheaper.
Also most people understand the simple sliding scale of cost vs quality I see a lot of people who are freelance or consultants now carrying they’re own high end Dell machines or Surfaces instead of MacBooks. You can argue they’ve copied Apples design ethos (because they have) but there is a real lack of innovation with Apple at the moment so competition is catching up
Funny this ‘rumor’ get ‘leaked’ now. Someone’s ears must have been burning.
So no 64gb Ram MacBook Pro in 1917?
Goodbye Apple, I will switch to Windows…
The 13″ non-touchbar should be cheaper now, considering no performance upgrade. Slightly thinner and lighter is a pathetic selling point for ‘pro’ considering the dongle hell they are asking people to pay extra for.
Microsoft and Apple are fighting to see wich company has the most expensive premium devices.
There´s no way Apple is going to be second on that.
On the past two or three years, did the macbook pro price got lower?. I don’t think so.
Prices will always go up, unfortunately .