Slimmer, Faster MacBook Pro ‘Airs’ Are In Development For 2012 Release [Rumor]

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It’s been three years since the last major design refresh of the MacBook Pro, and we’ve been hearing whispers for almost a year that the next major update would see Apple’s professional line of laptops take on some of the characteristics of the MacBook Air line: slimmer profiles, ubiquitous SSDs, no optical drives.

If those updates sound swell to you, good news. Inside sources say Apple’s already working on the skinnier MacBook Pro, and the new LCD displays have already been developed.

Of course, Apple just spec bumped the MacBook Pro line last week, so if history is anything to go by, we’re looking at June 2012 as a possible release target for the Air-ified Pros at best.

How do you feel about the idea of the MacBook Pro line losing their optical drives and (possibly) getting smaller (but faster) storage options? Let us know in the comments.

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