Future updates for rest of Mac line

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
So, now that Sandybridge has been installed in the Macbook Pros, when do you think we can expect to see updated iMacs and Macbook Airs? I have one of the aluminium Macbooks and it got dropped a few months back. It's ok at the moment but every now and then behaves a bit sick. Given I have a system at home I could manage with an Air on the move but assume a SandyBridge equipped Air would be far superior to the current Core2Duo system if I don't have to purchase now.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 52
    iMac to Sandy Bridge in a few months. At least one Thunderbolt port there.



    Mac Pro to Sandy Bridge this fall. At least one Thunderbolt port there.



    Mac Mini to Sandy Bridge when Steve Jobs remembers it exists. Likely two Thunderbolt ports.



    MacBook Air when a Sandy Bridge chip exists that can be put in it. Single Thunderbolt (two and no USB?).



    Oh, MobileMe's EOL, so what about hard drives in the future?
  • Reply 2 of 52
    Haven't heard any confirmation that MobileMe is EOL. In fact the opposite - that it was to be beefed up and some of it meant to be free.
  • Reply 3 of 52
    Hi!



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    iMac to Sandy Bridge in a few months. At least one Thunderbolt port there.



    Could you elaborate more in timetable? Around June, maybe? Plan to buy one in a few months...



    Will also buy a MBP, but for this I'm in the safe side!
  • Reply 4 of 52
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    I reckon the iMac line is next as there are already CPUs out for it. I think their issue right now will be the display change. I don't get the whole 21.5"/27" deal. 24" is right in the middle and would be better for a number of reasons. It's one panel for the entire lineup. It's going to be cheaper to buy anyway. It's more affordable to get a dual display setup.



    The iPad release will come first though so I'd expect iMacs at the end of next month, possibly coinciding with ruining the Mini with Intel IGPs.



    I expect just one thunderbolt port on every machine though the Mac Pro may have two. Then the next Air update should see an end to the macbook - I suspect this won't happen until Ivy Bridge but they could just be waiting for Toshiba to get their 25nm NAND out so that the storage meets a certain minimum standard.



    A ULV quad i5 + Ivy Bridge GPU + 128GB SSD will handily kill off the white Macbook.
  • Reply 5 of 52
    Thks Marvin!



    Would Apple hold all iMacs in one panel only? On the other hand, I totally agree that it's a big gap from 21,5" to 27"!
  • Reply 6 of 52
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    I reckon the iMac line is next as there are already CPUs out for it. I think their issue right now will be the display change. I don't get the whole 21.5"/27" deal. 24" is right in the middle and would be better for a number of reasons. It's one panel for the entire lineup. It's going to be cheaper to buy anyway. It's more affordable to get a dual display setup.



    The iPad release will come first though so I'd expect iMacs at the end of next month, possibly coinciding with ruining the Mini with Intel IGPs.



    I expect just one thunderbolt port on every machine though the Mac Pro may have two. Then the next Air update should see an end to the macbook - I suspect this won't happen until Ivy Bridge but they could just be waiting for Toshiba to get their 25nm NAND out so that the storage meets a certain minimum standard.



    A ULV quad i5 + Ivy Bridge GPU + 128GB SSD will handily kill off the white Macbook.



    Thanks for this Marvin. I'm sorry - I'm Ivy Bridge illiterate. What's the expected timescale on those?
  • Reply 7 of 52
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Now that the MBPs have quad-core chips, I think it is time for the iMac to move to quad- and 6-core ones, with the exception probably of the lowest end. Are there any viable 6-core options?
  • Reply 8 of 52
    iMac
    • Thunderbolt port.

    • SDXC card slot.

    • Quad-core across the board with a possible "entry" model using the dual-core i7.

    • Anti-glare screen option.

    Mac mini
    • Will most likely get the same components as the 13" MacBook Pro. If Apple is not going to put AMD Radeon graphics in, hopefully, they put in the 2.0 GHz quad-core i5.

    MacBook
    • One speed only, the 2.3GHz dual-core i5.

    • Intel's integrated graphics.

    • Thunderbolt port.

  • Reply 9 of 52
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Alvaro View Post


    Thks Marvin!



    Would Apple hold all iMacs in one panel only? On the other hand, I totally agree that it's a big gap from 21,5" to 27"!



    I don't know if they would, they might bring one in the middle or just bump up the low-end. I think they should do it though. 1080p on a 24" is an ideal size IMO.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mpw_amherts


    I'm sorry - I'm Ivy Bridge illiterate. What's the expected timescale on those?



    They are supposed to be due in the second half of this year. Last year Otellini said they already had 22nm samples ready. I would expect them at CES 2012 but you never know.



    The new Xeon chips should have 8-cores per chip and are also due in the 2nd half of the year so maybe they will be 22nm. This will be when an updated Mac Pro arrives.
  • Reply 10 of 52
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by troberts View Post


    iMac
    • SDXC card slot.




    Already has it...



    http://www.apple.com/imac/features.html#ports
  • Reply 11 of 52
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post


    Already has it...



    http://www.apple.com/imac/features.html#ports



    My bad. I knew it already had a slot for an SD card, but I did not think it supported SDXC.
  • Reply 12 of 52
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by troberts View Post


    Mac mini
    • Will most likely get the same components as the 13" MacBook Pro. If Apple is not going to put AMD Radeon graphics in, hopefully, they put in the 2.0 GHz quad-core i5.

    MacBook
    • One speed only, the 2.3GHz dual-core i5.

    • Intel's integrated graphics.

    • Thunderbolt port.




    maybe this is just me, but now that the MBP is i5 and i7, and the iMac will probably follow suit, I think the Mac mini/MacBook/MBA will go up from Core2 to i3 to keep a difference in the ranges.
  • Reply 13 of 52
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ajprice View Post


    maybe this is just me, but now that the MBP is i5 and i7, and the iMac will probably follow suit, I think the Mac mini/MacBook/MBA will go up from Core2 to i3 to keep a difference in the ranges.



    i3 is not really any better than C2D on the mobile side though, only the desktop side. They have to go i5 minimum for mobile to see any real benefit.



    The dual-core vs quad-core will make the difference between the higher and lower end. If they put a quad i7 in the Mini, that would be very nice but likely too expensive.
  • Reply 14 of 52
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    The AIR:
    It could be awhile before the AIR gets a Sandy Bridge like processor. The obvious problem is processor power. Intel will very likely have ultra low power Sandy Bridges in the pipe line but honestly I don't keep up to speed on this stuff anymore. Well other than I've heard new Sandy Bridge spins are slated for the second half of the year. The big problem here is that the AIRs would loose the NVidia chipset.



    I'm still holding out for an AMD chip in the AIRs so that might paint me as crazy. My hope would be that AMD would have a very low power chip with suitable performance available by then.
    The iMacs
    These could be updated anytime. Or they could wait for Lion.



    Why wait for Lion, well to support whatever new feature Lion might have in hardware. Here I'm thinking/hoping that would mean higher resolution displays. Eventually Apple will need to support resolution independence, even though it doesn't look like Lion is getting it (at least at this point in time).



    Another reason to delay the iMacs is simply to wait for Intel to catch up production wise. Just for that reason alone we could be talking a couple of months. This of course depends upon the processor choosen for the iMac rev. However any rev to the iMac that doesn't have a Sandy Bridge derived processor is dead in the water as far as I'm concerned.



    When it comes down to it the iMac is a hard machine to nail down.
    The Mini:
    Obviously this machine could be updated anytime. Everything is inplace for an update to happen. One could assume that the Mini will get the Thunderbolt chip and the ports. Somebody else brought up the idea of two Thunderbolt ports and frankly this would be nice, but that capability has to be already built into the TB chip. I honestly think there is a good chance it is built in, the chip is awfully big for two ports in and two ports out.



    If the Mini does get TB you can say good buy to anysort of external GPU. The likely hood is that will happen without TB anyways. Since the SB GPU is about parity with the current NVidia this can be seen as a regression. On the other hand the Mini will get an incredible performance bump when it gets SB and TB.



    In any event this sort of update can happen anytime and only depends upon Intel being able to ship parts in the required quanities. The performance of the CPU out to go up in a manner similar to the 13"MBP. Not bad really.
    The Mac Pro:
    Who cares? Really it is out of the price range for most of us. Further if you really need the Mac Pro you wouldn't be on this site asking about it!
    The XMac:
    I couldn't let this opportunity pass me by. XMac will come after Lion is out. The goal of this machine is to fill the gap between the Mini and the Mac Pro. They will wait for Lion simply to be able to increase the marketing chatter to drive sails.
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by mpw_amherst View Post


    So, now that Sandybridge has been installed in the Macbook Pros, when do you think we can expect to see updated iMacs and Macbook Airs? I have one of the aluminium Macbooks and it got dropped a few months back. It's ok at the moment but every now and then behaves a bit sick.



    Which generation Aluminum? I ask because dropping it could have dislodged a cable that needs to be reseated. It is worth checking out, especially if it is a disk drive cable.

    Quote:

    Given I have a system at home I could manage with an Air on the move but assume a SandyBridge equipped Air would be far superior to the current Core2Duo system if I don't have to purchase now.



    Well yeah when such a machine is shippable. It might be better to get your current machine up to speed because it could be months before a SB based AIR ships. If a process shrunk SB is needed it could be a year or more. If you don't want a full size laptop then you either need to wait or get the current AIR and suffer with a dodgy CPU. It isn't good to be waiting with a flaky computer.
  • Reply 15 of 52
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post


    The XMac:
    I couldn't let this opportunity pass me by. XMac will come after Lion is out. The goal of this machine is to fill the gap between the Mini and the Mac Pro.



    You're like a 50-year-old man who believes in Santa Claus.



    Quote:

    They will wait for Lion simply to be able to increase the marketing chatter to drive sails.



    Insert Titanic/xMac reference here.
  • Reply 16 of 52
    zephzeph Posts: 133member
    I think it is wrong to reserve the most powerful CPU's for the 27" iMacs.



    I'd prefer the 21.5" for luggability, but would be forced to take the 27" if I wanted the i7. Hope Apple changes that with the next line-up.
  • Reply 17 of 52
    rbrrbr Posts: 631member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zeph View Post


    I think it is wrong to reserve the most powerful CPU's for the 27" iMacs.



    I'd prefer the 21.5" for luggability, but would be forced to take the 27" if I wanted the i7. Hope Apple changes that with the next line-up.



    You are 'right' of course, but I doubt that Steve would agree. He tends to be like that.
  • Reply 18 of 52
    trobertstroberts Posts: 702member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ajprice View Post


    maybe this is just me, but now that the MBP is i5 and i7, and the iMac will probably follow suit, I think the Mac mini/MacBook/MBA will go up from Core2 to i3 to keep a difference in the ranges.



    Keeping the Mac mini dual-core would not cause it to pose a threat to the iMac line, even using an i7. I was thinking about putting the i3 for the MacBook, but by using the i5, Apple could get those processors for less. I originally didn't include the Thunderbolt port for the MacBook, but Apple wants to push this connector so I included it.
  • Reply 19 of 52
    rbrrbr Posts: 631member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by troberts View Post


    Keeping the Mac mini dual-core would not cause it to pose a threat to the iMac line, even using an i7. I was thinking about putting the i3 for the MacBook, but by using the i5, Apple could get those processors for less. I originally didn't include the Thunderbolt port for the MacBook, but Apple wants to push this connector so I included it.



    Adoption of Thunderbolt would be nearly pointless if not adopted across the product line during refreshes.
  • Reply 20 of 52
    maddanmaddan Posts: 75member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RBR View Post


    Adoption of Thunderbolt would be nearly pointless if not adopted across the product line during refreshes.



    Actually from a profit perspective it is pointless to put a Thunderbolt port in a Mac Mini at this time. The Mac Mini will need two of them and when that happens USB and Firewire will probably be eliminated from the Mini. It does make sense to put it in every Mac notebook, the iMac and the Mac Pro as soon as they are refreshed.



    There is also another reason why a midrange xMac desktop should come out the same time as Lion. There's no longer an Xserve and it appears the server software will be included in Lion. Such a midrange headless desktop that can also be used as a server could be much more lucrative for Apple than the Xserve ever was and as long as it has a separate graphics card it can have a Thunderbolt port too.
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