Apple pulls legacy non-Retina MacBook Pro from retail store displays

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware
Apple Stores are beginning to remove the 13-inch non-Retina MacBook Pro from their showfloors, in what may be a sign the company is preparing to completely phase out the product with a spinning optical disc drive, AppleInsider discovered on Monday.




While the computer is still largely in stock and available to buy, some stores are no longer putting it out for shoppers to try in person, according to a tip received by AppleInsider and confirmed with follow-up checks with several Apple Stores around the U.S.

A clerk at an Austin location notably said that their store had pulled non-Retina units from the showfloor just last week, and that other stores were doing the same.

A phase-out would make sense, as the company last updated the computer in 2012, reserving future upgrades for Retina models. In fact all of Apple's major products now have Retina displays, with the exception of the MacBook Air.

Accordingly the company has marginalized the non-Retina Pro in sales and marketing. It sits at the bottom of Apple's store page for the Pro, and isn't even mentioned on the main product page. In the course of research, a clerk at a New York City Apple Store steered AppleInsider towards buying a Retina model, arguing that the non-Retina system would quickly become outdated, and that a refurbished Retina would make more sense when trying to save money.

Apple is moreover believed to be preparing a redesigned MacBook Pro with an OLED "touch bar," and likely other upgrades as well, one possibility being a Touch ID fingerprint sensor. The machine should go on sale sometime later this year.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 26
    It needs to go to around March 11th, 2017 to be the longest-produced Macintosh model ever. Currently the Macintosh Plus holds the record.
    edited June 2016 NemWanteaearlegreyhotspheric
  • Reply 2 of 26
    mcarlingmcarling Posts: 1,106member
    A long overdue move. Good riddance.
    ksec
  • Reply 3 of 26
    john.bjohn.b Posts: 2,742member
    The spinning HDDs need to be next on the obsolete list.
    netroxmcarlingtallest skilelijahg
  • Reply 4 of 26
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    Holy cow this thing was still given floor space at Apple stores?!?
  • Reply 5 of 26
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    What's a spinning optical drive?  ;)  I removed the one from my old MBP and added a second hard drive (SSD) years ago!
    fastasleep
  • Reply 6 of 26
    Holy cow this thing was still given floor space at Apple stores?!?
    You betcha. At my local store, it's being used to drive a Thunderbolt display. Feels like a brick now compared to the other MacBooks.
  • Reply 7 of 26
    slurpyslurpy Posts: 5,382member
    About time. Seeing this in Apple Stores always annoyed me. Design is ancient. 
    mcarling
  • Reply 8 of 26
    DasbritDasbrit Posts: 1member
    Sad, one of the best MacBooks ever made. You could actually upgrade it and replace the battery.
    kermit4krazyteaearlegreyhotsingularitypulseimagesLinz Hendersontallest skilcnocbuicincyteeelijahgbaconstang
  • Reply 9 of 26
    foljsfoljs Posts: 390member
    Dasbrit said:
    Sad, one of the best MacBooks ever made. You could actually upgrade it and replace the battery.
    And yet, see the reactions in this thread.
    edited June 2016 singularitypulseimagesLinz Hendersonelijahg
  • Reply 10 of 26
    Holy cow this thing was still given floor space at Apple stores?!?
    I have it on display at my Best Buy store. We get a lot of interest but I generally get people toward MBA (for people who were price conciterate) or RMBP for people who wanted the name. I'd be happy to drop it.
  • Reply 11 of 26
    Dasbrit said:
    Sad, one of the best MacBooks ever made. You could actually upgrade it and replace the battery.
    I bought one just last week for those very reasons. I could have gone with a rMBP, but for £150 extra I installed a 960GB SSD and 16GB RAM. It's perfect as a portable studio and live performance tool. Logic Pro & Ableton Live fly on it with the upgrades. 
    baconstang
  • Reply 12 of 26
    toddzrxtoddzrx Posts: 254member
    I'm surprised to hear this is still on display at Apple stores; I thought it had been pulled from shelves years ago, and only available for purchase on-line.  I can't imagine there were many people that were interested in trying it out, since most buyers were probably updating from an older MacBook but still needed or wanted an optical drive or be able to upgrade more components (HDD, etc.) on their own.

    As an aside: I hope this is a sign that Apple is moving towards an all-Retina/all-SSD computer line-up.  Time to revitalize sales with products that are up to date but also have good value for the purchase price (unlike the 5400RPM HD in the base iMac Retina, for example).
  • Reply 13 of 26
    Dasbrit said:
    Sad, one of the best MacBooks ever made. You could actually upgrade it and replace the battery.
    I bought one just last week for those very reasons. I could have gone with a rMBP, but for £150 extra I installed a 960GB SSD and 16GB RAM. It's perfect as a portable studio and live performance tool. Logic Pro & Ableton Live fly on it with the upgrades. 
    And it's four years old inside, meaning it will be cutoff from updates much sooner than a Retina machine will.

    Penny wise and pound foolish, in essence. 
  • Reply 14 of 26
    chiachia Posts: 713member
    Dasbrit said:
    Sad, one of the best MacBooks ever made. You could actually upgrade it and replace the battery.
    I bought one just last week for those very reasons. I could have gone with a rMBP, but for £150 extra I installed a 960GB SSD and 16GB RAM. It's perfect as a portable studio and live performance tool. Logic Pro & Ableton Live fly on it with the upgrades. 

    You can get a new  nearly 1 TB SSD drive for less than £200 in the UK?

    Please post details so that I can buy one too!
  • Reply 15 of 26
    cnocbuicnocbui Posts: 3,613member
    What's a spinning optical drive?  ;)  I removed the one from my old MBP and added a second hard drive (SSD) years ago!
    Its one of those things I had to buy a while ago because my MBPR didn't have one. 
    baconstang
  • Reply 16 of 26
    Had the 17" mbp, was an awesome machine, lasted for years and was upgradable - it's a shame we can't do that anymore.
    baconstangcnocbui
  • Reply 17 of 26
    Can be upgraded with up to  4 Tb of storage.  2 x 2 Tb using the optical bay.  still a pretty good machine for those that need to keep a lot of video or audio on hand.  Wish they would give  it one more cpu and internals upgrade, i'd buy one.
    baconstang
  • Reply 18 of 26
    It needs to go to around March 11th, 2017 to be the longest-produced Macintosh model ever. Currently the Macintosh Plus holds the record.
    And the shortest lived Macintosh...the Power Mac G4 (PCI graphics) 400 MHz model: August 1999 to October 1999, replaced with the slower 350 MHz model.
  • Reply 19 of 26
    This MBP has definitely served its time, but has done well - I have a mid 2012 version and consider this as one of the best apple portables I have owned. It wasn't that expensive and 4 years on, my i7 model still delivers adequate performance for my needs (Database / GIS / Office). I do however look forward to an upgrade. Other notable mac portables include the Powerbook 180 (great design), and Powerbook G3 Pismo with twin battery bays - with care you could get 9hrs of use.
  • Reply 20 of 26
    Still the best laptop design Apple has made.

    RIP.
    Linz Henderson
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