Supply chain reaffirms only three new Apple notebooks this fall, likely no 11" MacBook Air
Apple is expected to release just three new MacBook models this fall, according to a research report released on Tuesday, possibly reaffirming claims that the company is planning to drop the 11-inch model of the MacBook Air.
"Apple's three new notebook products are also expected to see strong sales in 2017, helping the vendor to regain a double-digit percentage on-year growth," DigiTimes Research wrote. The firm noted that global notebook sales will likely be down in the final tally of 2016, in part because of Apple's late MacBook updates.
The statement would be consistent with a Monday Macotakara report claiming that Apple is planning to announce new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros in the next few days, and upgrade the 13-inch MacBook Air. The trio could ship by the end of October.
While the 11-inch Air is Apple's cheapest laptop at $899, it achieves that price point with a relatively cramped display. For the same price, customers can buy a 12.9-inch iPad Pro equipped with an identical 128 gigabytes of storage.
It's not clear what kind of upgrades the 13-inch Air might get, but the new Pros are widely rumored to be getting an OLED "Control Strip," with context-sensitive commands. Also rumored for the MacBook Pro is the addition of a Touch ID sensor, which might not only simplify security but enable Apple Pay without a separate device for authentication.
"Apple's three new notebook products are also expected to see strong sales in 2017, helping the vendor to regain a double-digit percentage on-year growth," DigiTimes Research wrote. The firm noted that global notebook sales will likely be down in the final tally of 2016, in part because of Apple's late MacBook updates.
The statement would be consistent with a Monday Macotakara report claiming that Apple is planning to announce new 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros in the next few days, and upgrade the 13-inch MacBook Air. The trio could ship by the end of October.
While the 11-inch Air is Apple's cheapest laptop at $899, it achieves that price point with a relatively cramped display. For the same price, customers can buy a 12.9-inch iPad Pro equipped with an identical 128 gigabytes of storage.
It's not clear what kind of upgrades the 13-inch Air might get, but the new Pros are widely rumored to be getting an OLED "Control Strip," with context-sensitive commands. Also rumored for the MacBook Pro is the addition of a Touch ID sensor, which might not only simplify security but enable Apple Pay without a separate device for authentication.
Comments
1. 14" Retina Macbook - with more ports
2. 14" Retina Macbook Pro - with more ports and OLED strip
3. 16" Retina Macbook Pro - with more ports, OLED strip and dedicated GPU.
Yeah I just think they should use MBA marketing name for the 14" model to clarify to consumers.
Microsoft tried Arm in their, oh I can't remember the name of it, oh oh wait, Surface line. Breaking software compatibility with an object that was claiming to be a laptop not only confused customers, but failed from having a barren landscape of compatible software. Now Mac would likely be better than this, but IOS apps are all designed for touch input. Touch input doesn't work on a computer from a usability perspective. This means there wouldn't be that much IOS software available or worse yet it would be a bunch of apps designed for touch shoehorned into the trackpad/mouse/keyboard user experience.
I believe Apple is working hard on this and the necessary emulation, but the hardware will need a few more iterations to make the move seamless for all users.
Last I checked, they do. It's called the 12.9" iPad Pro. All Apple needs to do is add the support for a mouse.
What the hell would I do with a Macbook Pro running iOS that the iPad Pro can't already do?
I get a Macbook for the exact reason iOS is too limited. It is great for phones and tablets, on the go type stuff but macOS is still king in terms of function compared to iOS.
I am sure we will get there one day but iOS is not ready.
Thunderbolt only runs on Intel chipsets.
How, exactly, would iOS, which was explicitly designed for touch screen use, be used without a touch screen?
The moment Apple brings an iOS laptop is the moment I will (sadly) switch to Windows, because it would be a signal that they're killing of MacOS, which I think is far, far superior to iOS on desktop, for many reasons.
I fear you are right.
There's a strange trend where Apple seems to want to get rid of mechanical parts (the mechanical home button, the 'old fashioned' keyboard), but replaces them with inferior solutions.
The iPhone7 home button feels horrible as well.
I'm all for change, but as of late Apple is making strange decisions, also on the software side (the absolutely dreadful Control Center on iOS10 being an example)