Rumor: New MacBook Pros will be announced by Apple this month, begin shipping in August
Apple is set to revamp its notebook lineup in the coming months, and could pre-announce a drastic change to its MacBook Pro hardware as soon as this month, a new rumor claims.
Citing details from a "reliable Chinese supplier," Macotakara reported on Wednesday that Apple is set to announce a new MacBook Pro lineup in June. Aligning with earlier leaks, the report claimed that the redesigned notebook will feature USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports, ditching legacy USB-A connectors, as well as Thunderbolt 2 and MagSafe 2 charging.
Confusingly, Wednesday's report also claimed that Apple is planning to announce a "new MacBook Air" this month as well, but said it was "unclear" whether the products would be unveiled at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference. It was said Apple plans to cancel production of the 11-inch model and focus on 13- and 15-inch versions to launch in August.
However, Apple's current MacBook Air lineup was given a minor update already this year, with 8 gigabytes of RAM now the standard on the 13-inch model. It's widely expected that the current MacBook Air lineup and design is on the way out, and is only being kept around to allow Apple to achieve low price points with its notebooks.
Given that Wednesday's report talks of a 15-inch MacBook Air --?a size that has never been available for that model -- it's possible that the "new MacBook Air" it purports is in the works could, in fact, just be Apple's next-generation MacBook Pro. It's expected that the MacBook Pro lineup will gain a thinner-than-ever design, which would make it more Air-like than before, and could be the cause of confusion regarding branding within Apple's supply chain.
In addition to a svelte chassis and USB-C inputs, the new MacBook Pro is also rumored to gain secure Touch ID login, and a dynamic OLED display touch bar that will replace the row of function keys above the traditional keyboard. But well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo doesn't expect that the new MacBook Pros will hit the market until the fourth quarter of 2016, which would contradict Wednesday's claims of a possible June announcement and August launch.
Pre-announcing hardware is not an unprecedented move for Apple, as the company offered a sneak peek of its redesigned Mac Pro at WWDC in 2013. The cylindrical desktop didn't actually arrive in the hands of consumers until just before the end of that year.
However, reports have suggested this year's WWDC will be a software-focused event, with new hardware not expected to be unveiled at next Monday's keynote presentation. Of course, that could be an effort by Apple to control expectations, especially if a redesigned MacBook Pro isn't going to hit store shelves until August or later.
All should be revealed at Apple's June 13 WWDC 2016 keynote, which is set to kick off at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern. AppleInsider will be there in San Francisco live with full, exclusive coverage.
Citing details from a "reliable Chinese supplier," Macotakara reported on Wednesday that Apple is set to announce a new MacBook Pro lineup in June. Aligning with earlier leaks, the report claimed that the redesigned notebook will feature USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports, ditching legacy USB-A connectors, as well as Thunderbolt 2 and MagSafe 2 charging.
Confusingly, Wednesday's report also claimed that Apple is planning to announce a "new MacBook Air" this month as well, but said it was "unclear" whether the products would be unveiled at next week's Worldwide Developers Conference. It was said Apple plans to cancel production of the 11-inch model and focus on 13- and 15-inch versions to launch in August.
However, Apple's current MacBook Air lineup was given a minor update already this year, with 8 gigabytes of RAM now the standard on the 13-inch model. It's widely expected that the current MacBook Air lineup and design is on the way out, and is only being kept around to allow Apple to achieve low price points with its notebooks.
Given that Wednesday's report talks of a 15-inch MacBook Air --?a size that has never been available for that model -- it's possible that the "new MacBook Air" it purports is in the works could, in fact, just be Apple's next-generation MacBook Pro. It's expected that the MacBook Pro lineup will gain a thinner-than-ever design, which would make it more Air-like than before, and could be the cause of confusion regarding branding within Apple's supply chain.
In addition to a svelte chassis and USB-C inputs, the new MacBook Pro is also rumored to gain secure Touch ID login, and a dynamic OLED display touch bar that will replace the row of function keys above the traditional keyboard. But well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo doesn't expect that the new MacBook Pros will hit the market until the fourth quarter of 2016, which would contradict Wednesday's claims of a possible June announcement and August launch.
Pre-announcing hardware is not an unprecedented move for Apple, as the company offered a sneak peek of its redesigned Mac Pro at WWDC in 2013. The cylindrical desktop didn't actually arrive in the hands of consumers until just before the end of that year.
However, reports have suggested this year's WWDC will be a software-focused event, with new hardware not expected to be unveiled at next Monday's keynote presentation. Of course, that could be an effort by Apple to control expectations, especially if a redesigned MacBook Pro isn't going to hit store shelves until August or later.
All should be revealed at Apple's June 13 WWDC 2016 keynote, which is set to kick off at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern. AppleInsider will be there in San Francisco live with full, exclusive coverage.
Comments
If they don't do it then, they'd have to wait until September and do it at the iPhone event.
OT but my rant for the day! I sold her MBP on ebay last week, got a great price but then the winning bidder cancelled after two days and near the end of the auction. I selected the second best bid (only a few $s less) but too late the auction ended hours later. I was billed $76 by eBay for the experience and the winning buyer that dropped out had the nerve to send me a message saying she'd had a large fee and was a bit annoyed! Like it was my fault? IMHO winning bids should not be allowed to cancel like that! I will not be using eBay again to sell. I sold it on Craigslist for free, the next day without any problems.
I really hope, there will be no new lousy Macbook Pro-s and that Apple will announce proper updates this fall, when proper hardware is available.
Same here. Been skipping upgrading based on what the updates have turned out to be but I really need to move my #1 down to my #2 and get a current #1. All I want is great performance, I really don't get much of a charge out of trackpad features or a touch bar. These are things I feel frankly that Apple used to do great and now do mostly as hardware candy, with mediocre implementation. Thinner? Doesn't do me any good. What an annoying goal to continually reach for. Why not leave that to another line? Let the Airs be ultra thin and stop squeezing every millimeter of space out of the MBP. It reached diminishing returns long ago.
Also, I'm one of those sad souls who had such a bad week with El Capitan that I'm back on 10.10.5 and fortunately haven't taken 10.6.8 off my #2 because that's the best system for 75% of what I do. A new MBP is going to be El Capitan and it's a concession I'll make unenthusiastically.
Most of the Skylake bugs are sleep state related; Apple can either program to ignore those or they've already got OS X ready to handle it.
Apple is likely announcing early, at WWDC, and the actual MacBookPros are not coming until they ship with macOS 10.12.
There is also the remote possibility that they ship sooner, with basic OS support, but no unique app support until 10.12.
But I doubt it. Apple is very unlikely to show off a brand new thing, demonstrate what it can do today, and THEN demonstrate what it will be able to do with next OS and developer support. No.
I'd put more stock in Ming-Chi Kuo and Sept/Oct release. Reason, Intel has a new revision of Skylake (fixes) called Kaby Lake due to be released any day now. Since a 4th quarter release would allow them to use Kaby Lake CPU's instead, 4th quarter makes more sense, it takes Intel time to ramp up manufacturing on the chips.
OS X 10.11.6 beta is running flawlessly so far on my 2010 MBP i7, a 2016 MBA, a 2013 Mac mini and new Mac Pro 6 core. I don't think my Mac SE HDFD would fair too well though