Rumor: Intel moving up Ivy Bridge announcement to April 23

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014


A new rumor claims Intel has moved up the announcement of its next-generation Ivy Bridge processors from the original date of April 29 to April 23 as PC makers ready the second generation of ultrabooks, expected to arrive in May.



Sometimes-accurate Taiwanese industry publication DigiTimes claimed on Thursday that sources from notebook players had revealed Intel's change in plans. The launch comes as Asustek, Acer, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard are expected to release Ivy Bridge-powered ultrabooks next month.



Multiple sources have pointed to late April for the Ivy Bridge launch. One report claimed late last month that Intel would announce the new processors between April 22 and April 28 and begin selling them on April 29.



Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pros will likely be the first Macs to feature the new Intel chips. Sources out of the Far East said last month that the updated laptops could arrive by the end of April. AppleInsider reported on Tuesday that several resellers are listing current-generation 15-inch MacBook Pros as "out of stock," often a reliable sign that a refresh is imminent.



Reliable sources told AppleInsider in February that Apple is planning a major revamp of its notebook offerings that will bring 15-inch MacBook Pros closer in line with the design of the company's 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs. Slimmer 17-inch models are also expected to arrive later this year.





An illustration of Apple's notebook lineup planned for the 2012 calendar year.







Following the release of its new laptops, the Cupertino, Calif., company is expected to release updated Ivy Bridge iMacs as early as June or July.



Other hints that Intel is nearly ready to release its Ivy Bridge architecture also came on Thursday when reports surfaced that Intel is shipping its second-generation Thunderbolt controllers for use with Ivy Bridge chips.



Thursday's report also quoted Intel vice president Kirk Skaugen as saying that ultrabook prices will fall from $999 to $699 in the new few months as volume shipments drive costs down. PC makers have been hard at work at reducing the average price of ultrabook laptops in order to better compete against Apple's MacBook Air.



Intel declared earlier this month that ultrabooks trump the MacBook Air in functionality and value.



[ View article on AppleInsider ]

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 21
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    DigiTimes.



    Quote:

    Sometimes-accurate Taiwanese industry publication DigiTimes…



    … Zero times counts as 'sometimes' now?



    I think instead of the recap of old posts relevant to the current topic at the end of each story, there should be a recap of the times the story's source was right.
  • Reply 2 of 21
    Intel wants to flood that market with MacBook Air wannabes?
  • Reply 3 of 21
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    [...] Intel declared earlier this month that ultrabooks trump the MacBook Air in functionality and value.



    Keep talking like that, Intel, and Apple will transition MacBook Airs to ARM-based SoCs even sooner.

    It's inevitable. ARM published their 64-bit instruction set last winter. Just a matter of time.
  • Reply 4 of 21
    shaun, ukshaun, uk Posts: 1,050member
    I still think they may seek to rationalise the MB range with this refresh/redesign: 11? & 13? MBA plus 15? & 17? MBP. Hopefully not long to wait now.
  • Reply 5 of 21
    shaun, ukshaun, uk Posts: 1,050member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    Intel wants to flood that market with MacBook Air wannabes?



    Intel just wants to sell more chips whoever the customer is. They must be losing a lot of PC sales to the iPad.
  • Reply 6 of 21
    drblankdrblank Posts: 3,385member
    What I think it funny is that according to this article, the Ivy Bridge chips haven't been announced, yet Intel and others are already promoting the Ultrabook laptops with the Ivy Bridge chips. So, what gives? Have they been announced or not? Have they started shipping processors to be installed in the computers, or not?



    If Apple has laptops being built, are they just sitting in a warehouse waiting for the chips to be installed and then for the final stages? From what it sounds, they haven't started assembling these laptops, which puts out the replacement models our until end of May.
  • Reply 7 of 21
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    Intel wants to flood that market with MacBook Air wannabes?



    That's what Intel doesn't get. Total computer sales are probably not going to change significantly with their Ultrabook efforts. People are either buying a new computer or they're not. Pushing Ultrabook might switch a few people from buying a MBA into buying an Ultrabook or possibly change someone from buying a conventional laptop into buying an Ultrabook. But it's not going to change the total size of the market perceptibly.



    What it WILL do is continue to drive the market toward a commodity, low value proposition. Unlike Apple who emphasizes performance and features and usability in their systems - and manages to obtain a significant premium price, the competition seems to be incapable of much but driving the price down and commoditizing the market. In the end, that puts pressure on Intel to reduce the price of their chips (not to mention the enormous amount of money they're spending on promoting MBA wannabes.



    I just can't see how the Ultrabook promotional efforts benefit Intel in any way.
  • Reply 8 of 21
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    Intel wants to flood that market with MacBook Air wannabes?



    I think it's more that they want to drive the industry towards lower power over higher performance as that's where the growth will be.



    Instead of selling customers on being twice as fast, they sell them on being half the weight, longer battery life, slimmer design.



    It doesn't matter what design Apple goes with, the competition will try to copy them:



    http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/products/la...ml?oid=5188986



    They still aren't carving them out of solid metal though and don't all use glass trackpads so they will find it difficult to match the quality.



    If Intel is moving up their announcement, there's a chance that the MBP could arrive as soon as a week on Tuesday. I wonder if they'll bother with an event. It will be a redesign but it likely won't be a new design. It will most probably look like a larger Macbook Air.



    They could then rename the line back to just Macbook.



    Mac Mini. 3 Models: cheap i5, performance i7, server quad-i7

    iMac. 3 Models: 21-24" quad-i5 value, 27" quad-i7 performance, 27" Pro maybe 4-6-core Xeon (replacing tower)

    Macbook. 4 models: 11" entry model i5, 13" everyday model i7, 15" performance model quad-i7, 17" Pro model faster quad-i7
  • Reply 9 of 21
    cvaldes1831cvaldes1831 Posts: 1,832member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    DigiTimes.







    … Zero times counts as 'sometimes' now?



    I think instead of the recap of old posts relevant to the current topic at the end of each story, there should be a recap of the times the story's source was right.



    Even worse, the alleged original announcement day was a Sunday (April 29). No one (especially a bellwether like Intel) in Silicon Valley announces new product on a Sunday.



    This was ridiculous right from the get go. You knew that being a Digitimes rumor, it was bound to be wrong.



    This website really needs a "special" Circular File page for posting rumors from DigiTimes, Gene Munster, Katy Huberty, Rob Enderle, et al. Go ahead and plaster the page with banner ads.
  • Reply 10 of 21
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    I think it's more that they want to drive the industry towards lower power over higher performance as that's where the growth will be.



    Instead of selling customers on being twice as fast, they sell them on being half the weight, longer battery life, slimmer design.



    It doesn't matter what design Apple goes with, the competition will try to copy them:



    http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/products/la...ml?oid=5188986



    They still aren't carving them out of solid metal though and don't all use glass trackpads so they will find it difficult to match the quality.



    If Intel is moving up their announcement, there's a chance that the MBP could arrive as soon as a week on Tuesday. I wonder if they'll bother with an event. It will be a redesign but it likely won't be a new design. It will most probably look like a larger Macbook Air.



    They could then rename the line back to just Macbook.



    Mac Mini. 3 Models: cheap i5, performance i7, server quad-i7

    iMac. 3 Models: 21-24" quad-i5 value, 27" quad-i7 performance, 27" Pro maybe 4-6-core Xeon (replacing tower)

    Macbook. 4 models: 11" entry model i5, 13" everyday model i7, 15" performance model quad-i7, 17" Pro model faster quad-i7



    Hmm. Mini aside. They essentially have two line ups. One for desktops and one for laptops.



    'Pro' just becomes the top end of each line. Interesting idea.



    It's certainly very streamlined! :P



    I wonder if they'll do that though. The Macbook 'Pro' and 'Air' carry a bit of brand equity. Maybe it's just semantics.



    If they all become 'air' like in appearance then it might be academic.



    And for the iMac. Interesting. A 6 core Xeon in the 'Pro' iMac model would be a water shed moment. Putting the iMac's aspirations beyond doubt. I'd have thought the low end chip would be cheap enough to get a 'Pro' iMac in at £2000 straight. (Or £1995...) I wonder how the thermals on that would hold up? That and a decent AMD 7000 series chip would have me salivating. That way you have a mini-tower come workstation performance product that gives you most of the punch you'd need at the price.



    They could drop the price of the iMac for the 21 incher, bring in a 24 incher at £999 and put the 21 incher with a couple of hundred off, say £795. Really. It's ridiculous not having a desktop with monitor and keyboard etc for under a grand (I'm not sure £999 counts.) It would make the iMac a bit more accessible. Historically, it has been. They may even drive the 27 inch screen down to the £999 point. It would certainly drive a few more iMac sales. The 27 inch is gorgeous.



    Interesting post, Marv'.



    I wouldn't put it past Apple. It makes sense. Hard to argue with...



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 11 of 21
    It's interesting in that it 'consumer/prosumerises' both lines into 'one.' *(Looks at the prosumerisation of Final Cut as an example...) It pushed the notion of bringing power to the masses.



    You don't get 'absolute' power at any cost. But the trade offs are worth it. Eg portability. Space saving...Slim designs. Power efficient specs. Included screens. The unrivalled Apple eco-system. THE operating system.



    And the products can be augmented by Thunderbolt for HD, SDD...eh...external GPU options on the horizon.



    Ram is dirt cheap with 8 gig costing next to nothing.



    No major roadblocks on performance.



    I noted you didn't include the 'Pro' labels in this scenario save for the extension of the simplified product lines. To be honest. I'm getting pretty fed up with the 'Pro' Monica.



    We did used to call Macs 'Power Macs' and 'iBooks' and stuff. It might be nice to get back to 'Macbook' and leave it at that. Just have the 'Pro' label as a top end specification...



    I guess we'll see what Apple does.



    Lemon Bon Bon.
  • Reply 12 of 21
    foljsfoljs Posts: 390member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cvaldes1831 View Post


    Even worse, the alleged original announcement day was a Sunday (April 29). No one (especially a bellwether like Intel) in Silicon Valley announces new product on a Sunday.



    This was ridiculous right from the get go. You knew that being a Digitimes rumor, it was bound to be wrong.



    Where do you people get such bizzarro ideas?



    I've been following the rumor scene since like 2003. DigiTimes is right a lot of times.



    And it's not like a rumor is an official news story ready to be reported.



    DigiTimes can be totally correct on it's report regarding an Apple product rumor despite the product not being announced at the day they same. The rumor can be true at some point, and then Apple can change course of action.



    For example, Apple might want to start selling MPBs at June and instructs their industry partners on this. DigiTimes can report that they heard that from their sources, and then some event occurs (maybe videocards are late, maybe Intel can't ramp up production, maybe Apple changed their minds) and the actual selling date is now September.



    What I'm getting at is: a rumor not coming true does not automatically equate that it was some fabricated bullshit story, or that it wasn't true at the time of announcement.



    You have to take rumors for what they are: partial information from some point in time, for things that might even change before the actual product is released.
  • Reply 13 of 21
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by foljs View Post


    Where do you people get such bizzarro ideas?



    I've been following the rumor scene since like 2003. DigiTimes is right a lot of times.



    Really?



    Not according to this:

    http://stupidapplerumors.com/news/20...h-rumor-Report
  • Reply 14 of 21
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    Intel has their famous tick-tock strategy, where they have a new architecture and a new process every other year. Apple seems to be adopting a tick-tock software strategy: Leopard - Snow Leopard, Lion - Mountain Lion, something big, followed by corrections and improvements, then something big again.



    And they line up! 2012 is a year of polish: Ivy Bridge is the polished Sandy Bridge and Mountain Lion is the polished Lion.
  • Reply 15 of 21
    winterwinter Posts: 1,238member
    Digitimes could say the next line of Macs could help you learn to fly. Literally, as soon as you start typing on one, you will learn to fly. Add a high quality photoshopped picture of Jony Ive with wings and it will make my day because it will be more interesting than probably about 75% of the mainstream media headlines that day.
  • Reply 16 of 21
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    Really?



    Not according to this:

    http://stupidapplerumors.com/news/20...h-rumor-Report



    People just obsess over the times when they are wrong. Really AppleInsider has been dead wrong at times, it is part of the risk of working with rumors. DigiTimes sometimes reports complete crap that maybe a wiser publication wouldn't. You really just have to do your own filtering.
  • Reply 17 of 21
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    People just obsess over the times when they are wrong. Really AppleInsider has been dead wrong at times, it is part of the risk of working with rumors. DigiTimes sometimes reports complete crap that maybe a wiser publication wouldn't. You really just have to do your own filtering.



    I don't recall AI making too many of their own predictions. They usually just report others predictions. I think the news about the Mac mini being canceled came from them but I'd have to look it to verify. Do you have any specific examples?
  • Reply 18 of 21
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Ivy Bridge is more than just polish as the GPU got a major overhaul. Of course Intel doesn't have much of a choice here as AMD is battering them fairly well with their APUs. There are even rumors that AMD will have their next generation 17watt APU out before Intels 17 watt Ivy Bridges. That being Trinity which will have a 50% faster GPU than Ivy Bridge.



    So I honestly believe Ivy Bridge is more than maybe even Intel wanted to do. They where simply forced into it due to market conditions.



    In general though I think you are right. Even with Apple though Lion has been fairly well polished. Mountain Lion will be a solid step forward, especially if coupled with HiDPI screens.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ascii View Post


    Intel has their famous tick-tock strategy, where they have a new architecture and a new process every other year. Apple seems to be adopting a tick-tock software strategy: Leopard - Snow Leopard, Lion - Mountain Lion, something big, followed by corrections and improvements, then something big again.



    And they line up! 2012 is a year of polish: Ivy Bridge is the polished Sandy Bridge and Mountain Lion is the polished Lion.



  • Reply 19 of 21
    winterwinter Posts: 1,238member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    So I honestly believe Ivy Bridge is more than maybe even Intel wanted to do. They where simply forced into it due to market conditions.



    I see this as a good thing if true. Competition is always good for the free market. I wish there was more sometimes.
  • Reply 20 of 21
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Winter View Post


    I see this as a good thing if true. Competition is always good for the free market. I wish there was more sometimes.



    I still wish that Apple would deliever some AMD hardware. If for nothing else than to put intel on notice. Maybe the GPU demands of HiDPI will create an opening for AMD.
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