The purpose of the MacBook Air is not power; it is portability. Therefore what is needed is not a heavier and larger MacBook Air, but a lighter and smaller one! For power, just get a MacBook Pro.
The purpose of the MacBook Air is not power; it is portability. Therefore what is needed is not a heavier and larger MacBook Air, but a lighter and smaller one! For power, just get a MacBook Pro.
If this happens it will be because the two lines have been merged, with the existing 13inch MBP retired completely. I can see the point with the 15inch, but the 17inch it just seems daft - at that point you may as well introduce a 21 inch ultrathin for giggles
Apple has said that the Airs are the future of Mac laptops, and ultra thin Macbook Pros are a no brainer.
Also, losing the optical drive on all portable Apple products makes perfect sense. If anybody is old fashioned and still needs an optical drive for whatever reason, then just use an external drive.
SSD's are still very expensive for higher capacities, so these new Macbook Pros should be able to hold both a large traditional harddisk inside (1 terrabyte) plus a fast SSD which will be used as a boot drive.
Also, losing the optical drive on all portable Apple products makes perfect sense. If anybody is old fashioned and still needs an optical drive for whatever reason, then just use an external drive.
If anyone doubts the MBP will lose the ODD they need only to look at the Mac mini which is a desktop.
Many are assuming that the Pro and Air lines will be merged. I don't think that will happen. Both are targeted towards different (perhaps partially overlapping) market segments.
1) Air is for those who are not power users and care more about portability. Like business people and some students.
2) Pro is for those who are power users (video-editing, Photoshop, etc) who would like a somewhat lighter machine but want all the horsepower of the current Pro. Like graphic designers and scientist/engineer types.
That is why I think it makes sense for Apple to keep the two lines separate. They will most certainly remove the optical drive from the Pro, and offer a BTO option of a hard drive or SSD or both. And, make it thinner. All other components will remain similar to the current Pro - dedicated GPU, super-fast processor, etc. With better battery life perhaps.
I also think the current 13" Pro with a built-in optical drive will survive as a cheaper alternative to the 13" Air.
If they decide on a similar design to their current MBA's, I just don't see them being able to do much on the graphics/CPU side due to the thermal issues. The thin design leaves little room for cooling options. A quad-core CPU or big AMD graphics would not only make things hotter, but would suck the battery down quickly.
Now a current MBA in a 15" & 17" design would be nice though. If this rumor is indeed true, Apple seems to really be ramping-up their product designs and introductions. It's a great time for Apple from the looks of it.
I'm getting my new MBA by the end of the week. For my very mobile activities, the 13" is perfect. I'd love a larger screen, but in all practicality it would be too big. But I do like that option.
Maybe in another year or two I see what's going on. I did plan ahead and purchased a Thunderbolt-equipped 27" Cinema Display to go with the MBA, so that when the next breakthrough laptop comes out, I'll be ready with a big screen for it.
Here's what's likely to happen based on how Apple has worked in the past:
1) The optical drive will be removed - it's a foregone conclusion at this point. The Mac Mini got rid of it, and you can't make a thinner laptop if there are already parts with pre-defined sizes like an optical drive. This leads to point #2...
2) Apple will switch from standard 2.5" sized drives to MacBook Air-style SSDs, which sit on a single piece of silicon without any extraneous housing to save space. People will definitely be kicking and screaming about this one (The good thing is that the MacBook Air probably has the easiest HD to remove based on the number of screws you have to take out).
3) FireWire 800 will be removed from the laptop completely. Few people ever use it and for those that do, I'm sure there will be a Thunderbolt->FireWire 800 adapter out by then.
4) Ethernet port will either be moved to the opposite side of the laptop or removed completely. If I had to guess, it's probably going to be the latter since Apple assumes most people use their laptop wirelessly. As an appeasement, they'll likely create their own Thunderbolt->Gigabit Ethernet adapter to prevent a huge uproar.
I would not buy that machine, it would suck for programmers. Keep the macbook air for the consumer market, but don't remove the ethernet port or force us to use a small hard drive on the macbook pro.
I am guessing that Apple will do with the MacBook Pro what they did with the Mac mini. Remove the optical drive and offer a hard drive or SSD or both. And, make it thinner. Everything else can remain the same - dedicated GPU, super-fast processor, etc. Offer only the 13" with a built-in optical drive to differentiate it from the Air.
Like others have said, the optical drive is the only big sacrafice I'd be willing to make in my MacBook Pro if Apple wanted to make it slimmer. And I even use mine from time to time, but I'm willing to use external for those times. Take out the optical, move the hard drive into that vacated space (yes, it still needs to have a hard drive, SSD won't cut it in either capacity or cost). Then they can flatten the battery and extend it across the entire front of the case. Maintaining the same battery capacity while allowing them to taper the case to be thinner at the front.
Hard drive, discrete GPU and fast CPU are a must, even if just as available options. 7D RAW files need all of that. An SSD will not make up for a weak GPU or CPU when decoding those files, not even close.
Firewire? Eh, throw in a Thunderbolt to powered FW adaptor and I'm good. You can even drop a USB port. I use use Firewire far more often. Oh, and don't drop the matte screen option!
It will depend on ARM / Intel. If either can make really energy efficient cool running and screaming fast CPUs, apple can certainly stuff those into a really small and elegant enclosure.
I really like the current black glass bezel around the current MBP screen. (Or is it technically just a border?) The MBA line currently has an aluminum bezel. Not deal-breaker at all for me, but I'd prefer the black border.
That's what I initially thought too. It just struck me that it might be this because of the rumors that it's in the late stages.
If anyone doubts that the optical drive is gone from the next MacBook Pro, go back to Saturn. I received a new 17" MacBook Pro yesterday (at work) — it had shipped directly from assembly in China — and there were NO optical restore discs included in the box. It came with Lion pre-installed, Lion was actually the desktop pattern on the MacBook Pro image on the box. It boots off the Internet to download its OS if it can't find one. Also, the keyboard layout has changed slightly; the Dashboard key has been supplanted with a Launchpad key. All very much the same as the new MacBook Airs. It makes me wonder on the timing of this new rumor given that Apple has essentially gone through the effort of altering its keyboards for new Lion features on existing models (who knows how complicated this is to change) & adjusting firmware settings to boot off the Internet.
I don't see Apple going too much thinner on the Pro. You're not going to be able to have quad-core processors and AMD graphics in anything much thinner. My testing of the newest 17" MacBook Pro was good; it didn't get that hot. It was mildly warm.
I can't see eliminating Ethernet. That would be a huge mistake. Firewire 800, yes. Ethernet, no. They'll probably be able to retain an Ethernet port by tapering the new Pro design similar to the Air, moving some ports, like USB and Thunderbolt, to the right-hand side, where the optical drive once was. Removing the optical drive should allow them to shave some heft off the overall design, and move some of that battery into the area obviously once occupied by the optical drive.
Also removing that optical drive might help the 13-inch Pro get the same level of graphics capabilities that the bigger models have had all along. That would be a huge differentiating factor between it & the Air.
I could see Apple doing a split storage scenario where they offer the blade flash storage like the Air with the option of an additional traditional hard drive for those that need more storage. This would align it similar to the new mini. However, if that was the way Apple was going, why didn't they put that feature in the newly released mini too?
This rumor could be just an expansion of the MacBook Air line. I've been thinking for awhile that Apple needs thinner Air-like versions of the 15- and 17-inch models. Now that the Airs have apparently taken off, I think this will differentiate the lines much more so than the white MacBook ever did. I know a lot of people that like thinness of the Air but want a larger screen. A lot of people want larger displays but don't require or need all of the power that the MacBook Pro offers.
Apple has said that the Airs are the future of Mac laptops, and ultra thin Macbook Pros are a no brainer.
Also, losing the optical drive on all portable Apple products makes perfect sense. If anybody is old fashioned and still needs an optical drive for whatever reason, then just use an external drive.
SSD's are still very expensive for higher capacities, so these new Macbook Pros should be able to hold both a large traditional harddisk inside (1 terrabyte) plus a fast SSD which will be used as a boot drive.
Exactly, not even sure why this is a rumor.
...sources said that senior executives including steve jobs said when pointing to a MBA 'this is the future'. Clearly more evidence that all apple portable will take their design from it's thin styling.
The new Mac mini is a clear signal from Apple that they're going to be aggressive in ditching the optical drive. It's obvious the next Macbook Pro won't have an optical drive. So they'll need to be redesigned. It's equally obvious they'll take cues from the Airs and be slimmer.
Comments
The purpose of the MacBook Air is not power; it is portability. Therefore what is needed is not a heavier and larger MacBook Air, but a lighter and smaller one! For power, just get a MacBook Pro.
If this happens it will be because the two lines have been merged, with the existing 13inch MBP retired completely. I can see the point with the 15inch, but the 17inch it just seems daft - at that point you may as well introduce a 21 inch ultrathin for giggles
Also, losing the optical drive on all portable Apple products makes perfect sense. If anybody is old fashioned and still needs an optical drive for whatever reason, then just use an external drive.
SSD's are still very expensive for higher capacities, so these new Macbook Pros should be able to hold both a large traditional harddisk inside (1 terrabyte) plus a fast SSD which will be used as a boot drive.
Also, losing the optical drive on all portable Apple products makes perfect sense. If anybody is old fashioned and still needs an optical drive for whatever reason, then just use an external drive.
If anyone doubts the MBP will lose the ODD they need only to look at the Mac mini which is a desktop.
1) Air is for those who are not power users and care more about portability. Like business people and some students.
2) Pro is for those who are power users (video-editing, Photoshop, etc) who would like a somewhat lighter machine but want all the horsepower of the current Pro. Like graphic designers and scientist/engineer types.
That is why I think it makes sense for Apple to keep the two lines separate. They will most certainly remove the optical drive from the Pro, and offer a BTO option of a hard drive or SSD or both. And, make it thinner. All other components will remain similar to the current Pro - dedicated GPU, super-fast processor, etc. With better battery life perhaps.
I also think the current 13" Pro with a built-in optical drive will survive as a cheaper alternative to the 13" Air.
Now a current MBA in a 15" & 17" design would be nice though. If this rumor is indeed true, Apple seems to really be ramping-up their product designs and introductions. It's a great time for Apple from the looks of it.
I'm getting my new MBA by the end of the week. For my very mobile activities, the 13" is perfect. I'd love a larger screen, but in all practicality it would be too big. But I do like that option.
Maybe in another year or two I see what's going on. I did plan ahead and purchased a Thunderbolt-equipped 27" Cinema Display to go with the MBA, so that when the next breakthrough laptop comes out, I'll be ready with a big screen for it.
Go Apple!
Here's what's likely to happen based on how Apple has worked in the past:
1) The optical drive will be removed - it's a foregone conclusion at this point. The Mac Mini got rid of it, and you can't make a thinner laptop if there are already parts with pre-defined sizes like an optical drive. This leads to point #2...
2) Apple will switch from standard 2.5" sized drives to MacBook Air-style SSDs, which sit on a single piece of silicon without any extraneous housing to save space. People will definitely be kicking and screaming about this one (The good thing is that the MacBook Air probably has the easiest HD to remove based on the number of screws you have to take out).
3) FireWire 800 will be removed from the laptop completely. Few people ever use it and for those that do, I'm sure there will be a Thunderbolt->FireWire 800 adapter out by then.
4) Ethernet port will either be moved to the opposite side of the laptop or removed completely. If I had to guess, it's probably going to be the latter since Apple assumes most people use their laptop wirelessly. As an appeasement, they'll likely create their own Thunderbolt->Gigabit Ethernet adapter to prevent a huge uproar.
I would not buy that machine, it would suck for programmers. Keep the macbook air for the consumer market, but don't remove the ethernet port or force us to use a small hard drive on the macbook pro.
I am guessing that Apple will do with the MacBook Pro what they did with the Mac mini. Remove the optical drive and offer a hard drive or SSD or both. And, make it thinner. Everything else can remain the same - dedicated GPU, super-fast processor, etc. Offer only the 13" with a built-in optical drive to differentiate it from the Air.
Like others have said, the optical drive is the only big sacrafice I'd be willing to make in my MacBook Pro if Apple wanted to make it slimmer. And I even use mine from time to time, but I'm willing to use external for those times. Take out the optical, move the hard drive into that vacated space (yes, it still needs to have a hard drive, SSD won't cut it in either capacity or cost). Then they can flatten the battery and extend it across the entire front of the case. Maintaining the same battery capacity while allowing them to taper the case to be thinner at the front.
Hard drive, discrete GPU and fast CPU are a must, even if just as available options. 7D RAW files need all of that. An SSD will not make up for a weak GPU or CPU when decoding those files, not even close.
Firewire? Eh, throw in a Thunderbolt to powered FW adaptor and I'm good. You can even drop a USB port. I use use Firewire far more often. Oh, and don't drop the matte screen option!
As much as I like the sleek and slim design of the MBA the thing that has always detered me is the lack of disk drive.
Uh, which kind? The ODD or an HDD?
Because both are useless and outdated. The former can be bought externally for $30.
I hope they sell these new ones as MacBook Airs options and not a replacement of the Pros.
Wish they did this months ago.
But have we not heard this all before?
That's iPhone 5.
That's what I initially thought too. It just struck me that it might be this because of the rumors that it's in the late stages.
If anyone doubts that the optical drive is gone from the next MacBook Pro, go back to Saturn. I received a new 17" MacBook Pro yesterday (at work) — it had shipped directly from assembly in China — and there were NO optical restore discs included in the box. It came with Lion pre-installed, Lion was actually the desktop pattern on the MacBook Pro image on the box. It boots off the Internet to download its OS if it can't find one. Also, the keyboard layout has changed slightly; the Dashboard key has been supplanted with a Launchpad key. All very much the same as the new MacBook Airs. It makes me wonder on the timing of this new rumor given that Apple has essentially gone through the effort of altering its keyboards for new Lion features on existing models (who knows how complicated this is to change) & adjusting firmware settings to boot off the Internet.
I don't see Apple going too much thinner on the Pro. You're not going to be able to have quad-core processors and AMD graphics in anything much thinner. My testing of the newest 17" MacBook Pro was good; it didn't get that hot. It was mildly warm.
I can't see eliminating Ethernet. That would be a huge mistake. Firewire 800, yes. Ethernet, no. They'll probably be able to retain an Ethernet port by tapering the new Pro design similar to the Air, moving some ports, like USB and Thunderbolt, to the right-hand side, where the optical drive once was. Removing the optical drive should allow them to shave some heft off the overall design, and move some of that battery into the area obviously once occupied by the optical drive.
Also removing that optical drive might help the 13-inch Pro get the same level of graphics capabilities that the bigger models have had all along. That would be a huge differentiating factor between it & the Air.
I could see Apple doing a split storage scenario where they offer the blade flash storage like the Air with the option of an additional traditional hard drive for those that need more storage. This would align it similar to the new mini. However, if that was the way Apple was going, why didn't they put that feature in the newly released mini too?
This rumor could be just an expansion of the MacBook Air line. I've been thinking for awhile that Apple needs thinner Air-like versions of the 15- and 17-inch models. Now that the Airs have apparently taken off, I think this will differentiate the lines much more so than the white MacBook ever did. I know a lot of people that like thinness of the Air but want a larger screen. A lot of people want larger displays but don't require or need all of the power that the MacBook Pro offers.
Let's not forget the MBP's are 4 cores not 2 like the MBA.
Actually, the new MacBook Airs that were just released are quad core machines.
Apple has said that the Airs are the future of Mac laptops, and ultra thin Macbook Pros are a no brainer.
Also, losing the optical drive on all portable Apple products makes perfect sense. If anybody is old fashioned and still needs an optical drive for whatever reason, then just use an external drive.
SSD's are still very expensive for higher capacities, so these new Macbook Pros should be able to hold both a large traditional harddisk inside (1 terrabyte) plus a fast SSD which will be used as a boot drive.
Exactly, not even sure why this is a rumor.
...sources said that senior executives including steve jobs said when pointing to a MBA 'this is the future'. Clearly more evidence that all apple portable will take their design from it's thin styling.