I'm expecting it to be no more than 3.5nm thinner at its thickest point (so it can still take a 9.5mm 2.5" drive) and to be tapered like the MBA (but following the same angle so that at its thinnest edge at the front it's still thicker than the MBA).
I'm starting too a lot more IPS displays cropping for sale this year. I think I'd prefer a HiDPI display over IPS, but I hope that both are possible. If not, then at least one. That said, there are enough hints in Lion and Mountain Lion that make me think it will happen in the next release... but that could be emotionally fueled wishful thinking.
I think the Mac Pro is toast, but we have seen both the Mac Pro and Mac mini survive after long bouts of being ignored.
PS: Wild prediction: At the ML demo Apple will announce a change in accounting for Macs and will start offering OS X updates for free.
Sounds reasonable Re: tapering. I think it will take design cues from the Air which has been a hot seller. They do look amazing side on in an Apple store. Razor thin...looking.
HiDPI. Wets the appetite. If the retina is in the iPad...it seems doable in the Macbook Air 11 inch..? Will the HiDPI make the cut this round of releases? Or next?
Personally, I think last year was pretty evolutionary for many Apple releases. I'd like something big to put the boot into PC sales while Mac sales are climbing to unprecedented levels. Apple went all out for the screen on iPad. Hopefully, we can see an over due (in my view) boost to computer resolutions. Even TVs have caught up with computer resolutions more or less. Even with the sandbagging and let's get on with the next level of computer resolutions which have been static for some years now. This could be a key differentiator for Apple in the holy vs PC war.
*re Mac Pro. **Looks nervously. The 'pregnant' pause on the Mini a while back suggests hope. They have to refactor it's size and value. I think the artificial price point ABOVE the iMac doesn't help Pro sales. (The top end iMac vs low end Pro offers a stark value contrast. Some people hate the screen. I love it. I can't wait until I'm ready to upgrade my iMac so I can get my hands on that 27 inch screen...)
I think there should be duality. Buy a mini-tower for the same price as the entry iMac. But you sacrifice screen for GPU/CPU boost..to the top end iMac price range you get a top end single cpu tower. Again. You get more cpu/gpu power for the same price but forgo the screen.
(It seems like only yesterday that Jobs boasted of the price range and the gpu power of the old G3 blue and white towers. I guess the iMac has eaten Apple's tower lunch. But when your tower starts a whole 1k more than it used to at Job's return to Apple we can hardly expect sales of Apple towers to be soaring in unit sales...against the back drop of increased AIO power and the move away to laptops.)
Dual processor? The current Maxi tower above 2k seems fine. All dual processor.
For me, not difficult. But I'm not Apple, I guess.
Mmm. Mountain Lion for free. That would really help make the Mountain Lion/iOS userbase to keep relative parity as Apple hybridises the development of them.
I didn't upgrade to Lion. (On Snow Leopard.) But I'll happily take Mountain Lion. I'm quite sold on the polish of the iOS eco system ideas making it across. For free? Be a knock out move.
Something else PC buyers will have to factor in when Mac vs PC'ing. :P
Comments
I'm expecting it to be no more than 3.5nm thinner at its thickest point (so it can still take a 9.5mm 2.5" drive) and to be tapered like the MBA (but following the same angle so that at its thinnest edge at the front it's still thicker than the MBA).
I'm starting too a lot more IPS displays cropping for sale this year. I think I'd prefer a HiDPI display over IPS, but I hope that both are possible. If not, then at least one. That said, there are enough hints in Lion and Mountain Lion that make me think it will happen in the next release... but that could be emotionally fueled wishful thinking.
I think the Mac Pro is toast, but we have seen both the Mac Pro and Mac mini survive after long bouts of being ignored.
PS: Wild prediction: At the ML demo Apple will announce a change in accounting for Macs and will start offering OS X updates for free.
Sounds reasonable Re: tapering. I think it will take design cues from the Air which has been a hot seller. They do look amazing side on in an Apple store. Razor thin...looking.
HiDPI. Wets the appetite. If the retina is in the iPad...it seems doable in the Macbook Air 11 inch..? Will the HiDPI make the cut this round of releases? Or next?
Personally, I think last year was pretty evolutionary for many Apple releases. I'd like something big to put the boot into PC sales while Mac sales are climbing to unprecedented levels. Apple went all out for the screen on iPad. Hopefully, we can see an over due (in my view) boost to computer resolutions. Even TVs have caught up with computer resolutions more or less. Even with the sandbagging and let's get on with the next level of computer resolutions which have been static for some years now. This could be a key differentiator for Apple in the holy vs PC war.
*re Mac Pro. **Looks nervously. The 'pregnant' pause on the Mini a while back suggests hope. They have to refactor it's size and value. I think the artificial price point ABOVE the iMac doesn't help Pro sales. (The top end iMac vs low end Pro offers a stark value contrast. Some people hate the screen. I love it. I can't wait until I'm ready to upgrade my iMac so I can get my hands on that 27 inch screen...)
I think there should be duality. Buy a mini-tower for the same price as the entry iMac. But you sacrifice screen for GPU/CPU boost..to the top end iMac price range you get a top end single cpu tower. Again. You get more cpu/gpu power for the same price but forgo the screen.
(It seems like only yesterday that Jobs boasted of the price range and the gpu power of the old G3 blue and white towers. I guess the iMac has eaten Apple's tower lunch. But when your tower starts a whole 1k more than it used to at Job's return to Apple we can hardly expect sales of Apple towers to be soaring in unit sales...against the back drop of increased AIO power and the move away to laptops.)
Dual processor? The current Maxi tower above 2k seems fine. All dual processor.
For me, not difficult. But I'm not Apple, I guess.
Muses,
Lemon Bon Bon.
I didn't upgrade to Lion. (On Snow Leopard.) But I'll happily take Mountain Lion. I'm quite sold on the polish of the iOS eco system ideas making it across. For free? Be a knock out move.
Something else PC buyers will have to factor in when Mac vs PC'ing. :P
Lemon Bon Bon.