Apple to update MacBook lines in time for holidays
Apple Computer plans to update both its MacBook and MacBook Pro lines of Intel notebook computers in time for the holiday shopping season, but may take some time before it does so, AppleInsider has learned.
People familiar with the matter say development of Core 2 Duo versions of all three models -- the 13-inch MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Pro and 17-inch MacBook Pro -- are now complete and all that's left is for Apple marketing to pull the trigger.
But those same people indicate that precise launch dates for the respective models remain fluid and Apple customers should expect the updates to arrive anytime between now and the time Thanksgiving rolls around in late November.
Similarly, it's unclear whether Apple will launch the new consumer MacBooks and professional MacBook Pro models simultaneously, or if it will space the releases to assure it maintains enough of Intel Corp.'s Core 2 Duo processors to properly facilitate each launch.
Similar specs expected
According to industry contacts, Intel began shipping the Cupertino, Calif.-based company mobile variants of its Core 2 Duo chips (Merom) during the last week of August. However, Apple opted to use those initial shipments in revamping its iMac all-in-one desktop systems earlier this month.
Upon their release, it's expected that the new MacBook and MacBook Pro lines will feature specifications very similar to existing offerings, mainly due to similarities in processor frequencies between Intel's Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processor lines. However, the Core 2 Duo line adds a 2.33GHz chip, which is expected to be available to buyers of higher-end MacBook Pro configurations. (A 2.33GHz Core Duo "Yonah" processor was recently released by Intel but not adopted by Apple.)
Notebooks: the latest music to Apple's ears
Notebook sales have been the fastest growing sector of Apple's computer business as of late, with the tandem of the MacBook and MacBook Pro combining for sales of nearly 800,000 units during its previous fiscal quarter -- a company best.
As would be expected, Apple's share of the US notebook market has also been on the rise, up from 6 percent in January to 12 percent in June (the last time such data was made available). And analysts on Wall Street remain bullish on the Mac maker's notebook prospects, with expectations that the company will continue to ride the mobile gravy train.
Last week, Credit Suisse analyst Robert Semple told clients that checks in Asia revealed MacBook shipments were tracking at approximately 200,000 units ahead of his initial 580,000 unit estimate for the company's September quarter. Despite these impressive figures, Apple is still struggling to to meet overall demand for the notebooks as a result of the recent educational and back-to-school buying seasons.
Semple revised his estimates for the quarter to 775,000 MacBooks plus some 250,000 MacBook Pro systems, bringing his combined notebook estimate to over 1 million units.
When all's said and done, Apple will have sold nearly 3 million notebook systems during the 2006 fiscal year, and even more so during the calendar year. While the company isn't updating its notebooks at the absolute fastest pace possible, it's clear it plans to do so more frequently than in the past. And it has to, especially if it has ambitions of maintaining recent share gains.
People familiar with the matter say development of Core 2 Duo versions of all three models -- the 13-inch MacBook, 15-inch MacBook Pro and 17-inch MacBook Pro -- are now complete and all that's left is for Apple marketing to pull the trigger.
But those same people indicate that precise launch dates for the respective models remain fluid and Apple customers should expect the updates to arrive anytime between now and the time Thanksgiving rolls around in late November.
Similarly, it's unclear whether Apple will launch the new consumer MacBooks and professional MacBook Pro models simultaneously, or if it will space the releases to assure it maintains enough of Intel Corp.'s Core 2 Duo processors to properly facilitate each launch.
Similar specs expected
According to industry contacts, Intel began shipping the Cupertino, Calif.-based company mobile variants of its Core 2 Duo chips (Merom) during the last week of August. However, Apple opted to use those initial shipments in revamping its iMac all-in-one desktop systems earlier this month.
Upon their release, it's expected that the new MacBook and MacBook Pro lines will feature specifications very similar to existing offerings, mainly due to similarities in processor frequencies between Intel's Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processor lines. However, the Core 2 Duo line adds a 2.33GHz chip, which is expected to be available to buyers of higher-end MacBook Pro configurations. (A 2.33GHz Core Duo "Yonah" processor was recently released by Intel but not adopted by Apple.)
Notebooks: the latest music to Apple's ears
Notebook sales have been the fastest growing sector of Apple's computer business as of late, with the tandem of the MacBook and MacBook Pro combining for sales of nearly 800,000 units during its previous fiscal quarter -- a company best.
As would be expected, Apple's share of the US notebook market has also been on the rise, up from 6 percent in January to 12 percent in June (the last time such data was made available). And analysts on Wall Street remain bullish on the Mac maker's notebook prospects, with expectations that the company will continue to ride the mobile gravy train.
Last week, Credit Suisse analyst Robert Semple told clients that checks in Asia revealed MacBook shipments were tracking at approximately 200,000 units ahead of his initial 580,000 unit estimate for the company's September quarter. Despite these impressive figures, Apple is still struggling to to meet overall demand for the notebooks as a result of the recent educational and back-to-school buying seasons.
Semple revised his estimates for the quarter to 775,000 MacBooks plus some 250,000 MacBook Pro systems, bringing his combined notebook estimate to over 1 million units.
When all's said and done, Apple will have sold nearly 3 million notebook systems during the 2006 fiscal year, and even more so during the calendar year. While the company isn't updating its notebooks at the absolute fastest pace possible, it's clear it plans to do so more frequently than in the past. And it has to, especially if it has ambitions of maintaining recent share gains.
Comments
BTW, is it just me or are those Personal Web ads &*$%^!@ annoying?? I could barely read the beginning of the article for all the imbedded movies being shown on the page.
Edited to add: hey. first post on a new thread! And I wasn't even trying... Yayy me.
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Kenya
Edited to add: hey. first post on a new thread! And I wasn't even trying... Yayy me.
Must be an MDNer.
No Merom MBPs until as late as Novemeber??? I can't wait that long so I guess I'll just buy this weekend. I was really looking forward to the bigger hard drive and the standard 1 gig ram.
I wouldn't be surprised to see an update tomorrow or next week at the photokina press event. I'm not totally certain, but photokina seems to make the most sense. The last several times Apple announced anything at a pro trade show, they announced or updated a Pro app and announced or updated some Pro hardware too.
The regular MacBooks might wait a little longer though.
As far as specs, I think heat concerns may keep clock speeds the same while performance goes up through optimizations. 1GB of RAM will probably also be standard for every MacBook above the base model. They could conceivably drop the price slightly on the base model to make it more tempting.
Nearly everyone else has them for sale now.
If the specs from Dell translate over to the mbp it looks good - up to 4 gig ram, option for 512 gcard
hideous looking http://www.dell.com/content/products...=19&l=en&s=dhs
from NOW and end Nov ... oho NO!
Yes, thanks -- is this not clear to everyone? They'll be out BY Thanksgiving, which doesn't mean "ON Thanksgiving." It means any day between now and then. I tried to make that as clear as possible without building expectations too high. I'm not even sure if Apple knows its exact plans for both models at the moment. Apple plans change all the time and are contingent on many subtle factors. The point of report is this -- MacBook and MacBook Pro will both get Core 2 Duo this year.
Must be an MDNer.
If I only knew what that means...
If I only knew what that means...
The way I interpret it, it's an idiom for an avid reader of a different Mac news site.
I thought that some reports had the MBP also getting a design refresh. After so many years with the existing look, and since every other model has been revised for Intel, you'd think there would be something happening.
Finally, the MacBooks are seriously backordered, so nothing soon on that front, and by Thanksgiving they may as well wait for Macworld in Jan.
(posted via a Treo 650 -- any chance for a mobile.appleinsider.com?)
No Merom MBPs until possibly as late as Novemeber??? I can't wait that long so I guess I'll just buy this weekend. I was really looking forward to the bigger hard drive and the standard 1 gig ram.
BTW, is it just me or are those Personal Web ads &*$%^!@ annoying?? I could barely read the beginning of the article for all the imbedded movies being shown on the page.
Edited to add: hey. first post on a new thread! And I wasn't even trying... Yayy me.
--
Kenya
After all these are just rumors. Did you read the part that its just a matter of when apple marketing pulls the trigger. I'm thinking tomorrow or photokina at the latest. good luck with your "yonah" macbook pro.
The macbook pros certainly require a firewire 800 update, since this is a pro device and disk speeds do matter for FCP editing, photography scratch drives, etc.
I do want FW800 just to support my existing drives at their best potential, though I'll take an ExpressCard/34 adapter if I had to. Neither the card nor a 15" MBP with the connector exist that I know. There were claims of an EC/34 card in process, one site said this in January, another site said this in August I think, but nothing has materialized yet.
I really think eSATA is going to be the way to go for performance, Firewire 800 is pretty slow compared to using the native connection, about a 2x difference for my PMG5. There is an eSATA card for EC/34 that works in the MBP right now.
The way I interpret it, it's an idiom for an avid reader of a different Mac news site.
Got it...
After all these are just rumors. Did you read the part that its just a matter of when apple marketing pulls the trigger. I'm thinking tomorrow or photokina at the latest. good luck with your "yonah" macbook pro.
Um, yes, I realize these are are just rumors. If they were confirmed or actual facts, they'd probably be on the Apple site. And yes, I read the whole article, in fact I read it twice. I'm not advocating anyone buy an MBP now if they dont need it. I, however, need one now so I will buy one now. And thank you for your well wishes about my "Yonah" MBP, How very nice of you
PC: And I'm a Pc. I feel good today, like some kind of speed increase.
Mac: Well, I feel like that everyday since apple is always has the latest technology in all of its product lines.
PC: I just made this cool new app for vista in visual studio 2005. I'll just email it to you.
Mac: OK I'll just open vista in parallels and run it. What's this? How come my computer won't recognize it?
PC: You didn't get the refresh?
Mac: What refresh? I have a dual core processor.
Pc: OH theres this new processor called core 2 duo which is 64-bit. You can create and run 64-bit apps which must be why you couldn't open the new 64-bit app that i sent you.
Mac: Well I have to go to sleep, my computers running a little hot right now.
Pc: Well core 2 duo is better with things like that.
Mac:zzzzz
PC: Well looks like i beat you at your own game. Must've been one of those Macbook Pros.
I'll leave you with a quote:
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...586#post966586
if you just keep on waiting you'll never buy an imac. Every day technology is advancing. If you want an imac to be the latest and greatest it will probably be the latest and greatest imac for 9 months, so why not buy one now?
It's been... interesting.
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Kenya
Mac: Hello, I'm a Mac
PC: And I'm a Pc. I feel good today, like some kind of speed increase.
Mac: Well, I feel like that everyday since apple is always has the latest technology in all of its product lines.
PC: I just made this cool new app for vista in visual studio 2005. I'll just email it to you.
Mac: OK I'll just open vista in parallels and run it. What's this? How come my computer won't recognize it?
PC: You didn't get the refresh?
Mac: What refresh? I have a dual core processor.
Pc: OH theres this new processor called core 2 duo which is 64-bit. You can create and run 64-bit apps which must be why you couldn't open the new 64-bit app that i sent you.
Mac: Well I have to go to sleep, my computers running a little hot right now.
Pc: Well core 2 duo is better with things like that.
Mac:zzzzz
PC: Well looks like i beat you at your own game. Must've been one of those Macbook Pros.
But Firewire 800 can power the drives without having to plug the drives into AC power. For many situations this is preferred, and drive enclosures now exist with both Firewire 800 and eSATA options.
The fact that the MBP doesn't have an 800 port is .... odd.
I wouldn't be surprised to see an update tomorrow or next week at the photokina press event. I'm not totally certain, but photokina seems to make the most sense. The last several times Apple announced anything at a pro trade show, they announced or updated a Pro app and announced or updated some Pro hardware too.
The regular MacBooks might wait a little longer though.
I also think Photokina is the way to go. My only concern is that I''ll wait for the updated MBP and it will be nothing spectacular... at least to me. I don't need FW800 or DL DVD burning although I want those features. My last computer was a now deceased iMac DV SE 500 mhz, so anything will be an improvement
Are you buying the Merom MBP when it hits the streets? If there's a new case design I want pics!
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Kenya