Which new Intel Mac will come first?

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
I know much of this has been speculated on before, but there seem to be many disparate threads about predictions for each category of Mac that has yet to be migrated, and a thread about predictions of the April Fools event that will probably not happen.



What's most puzzling about Apple's Intel transition is that they have largely not yet accomplished the raison d'être of the whole migration, which was to offer more powerful laptops than the aging G4 chips on offer now. This is in spite of the fact that all the consumer desktops have already gone Intel, which is curious.



This leads me to make some speculative conclusions:

[list=1][*]Migrating the desktop lines more or less involves simply replacing the motherboard, which is relatively simple.[*]Migrating notebooks is hard, as evidenced by the initial hardware kinks in the MacBook Pro.[*]Apple did the bare minimum to get the notebook crowd on board the transition, which was the 15 inch MacBook Pro, leaving the other "Pro/Power" lines untouched.[*]Supply problems have preventing Apple from getting MacBook Pro wait times down, until they had to pillage the Intel MacMini for parts and significantly slow down that desktop's shipping times.[/list=1]



I'm no expert, and I'm relying solely on philisophical analysis, but I'm getting the impression that complications in notebook conversions/redesign is really what's holding things back, and why people appear to be so dissapointed.



The PowerMac (Mac Pro) transition is held up for a different reason. Merom is not yet out yet, and it makes no sense to downgrade the PowerMac from a dual/quad core G5 to an inferior Core Duo processor.



I'm just trying to start a discussion. Feel free to prove me wrong.



So which new Intel Mac will come first? I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that it will be the June release of the 17 inch MacBook Pro, with the iBook/MacBook lines coming out even later. Apple gave itself a year to complete the transition to Intel.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    dhagan4755dhagan4755 Posts: 2,152member
    No, the MacBooks (iBook replacements) will come out shortly. The 17-inch MacBook Pro may come out at the same time or later in Q2 '06. That one really is up in the air.



    As is this report.
  • Reply 2 of 11
    drboardrboar Posts: 477member
    The TowerMac will have to wait until they can release a quad, a quadcore or two dual cores.



    Replacing the portable and Mini first make sense as the step up from a G4 makes up for the loss in performance in non native apps using Rosetta.



    With the G5 towers especially the high end ones the apps have to be native and the "torque" to be there. A G5 iMac or Intel iMac you can buy because it is a quite and cool computer. If you fork up the money for a quad you expect much more performance.



    There is also the issue of Mac as a gaming computer. Sound management has lagged for 15 years compared to PCs.It is still passed through the CPU and 5.1 sound that have been standard on sound cards for years should be there as well. Here Apple has a lot to do both in OS, developer support and hardware.



    I will stick with my sawtooth for a while8)
  • Reply 3 of 11
    The iBook replacement is coming next, though we don't know if it's going to continue to be called iBook, or something else (e.g. MacBook or some variant thereof).



    The PowerMac will go Intel, some time during the third quarter.
  • Reply 4 of 11
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Robin Hood

    The iBook replacement is coming next, though we don't know if it's going to continue to be called iBook, or something else (e.g. MacBook or some variant thereof).



    The PowerMac will go Intel, some time during the third quarter.




    I agree. As analysts have claimed, Apple will want to have a low cost laptop out for the US educational buying season.
  • Reply 5 of 11
    I can't wait to see what specs the new PowerMac will bolster, but if the name become TowerMac, I will be dissapointed at first. I hope they keep the PowerMac name for this computer, cause its "powerful." But I think itll host the quad core intel is bragging about.
  • Reply 6 of 11
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    I think the Pro Macs will depend on how the Pro apps run on Intel. The current release may be good enough for running on a laptop, but compared to dual or quad G5 towers the current PowerMacs may still come out on top. If that's the case I doubt we'll see new towers until Intel's followup processors are out, otherwise sooner is a possibility.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    fran441fran441 Posts: 3,715member
    Power Macs will be the last Macs to be updated.



    Released so far:



    iMac

    MacBook Pro 15"

    Mac Mini



    Upcoming:



    iBook (Possibly MacBook)

    MacBook Pro 12"/17" (If they keep the 12" model)

    Power Macs (Possibly Renamed)



    Apple wanted to start the transition with the consumers, but they also knew they needed an updated PowerBook since they had been running on G4s for 5 years. They also, however, needed to make sure that they kept a 'top of the line' PowerPC Laptop as most of their own pro apps were not yet Universal. That's why we can still buy a 17" PowerBook G4.



    The iBook is the next logical machine for an update. They haven't been updated since July and are due for a revision. I expect the iBook to be nearly on par with the MacBook in terms of features and possibly even specs, but I'm also afraid that they will have integrated graphics.



    After the iBook is introduced, I doubt we'll see many major revisions on Apple's product line until WWDC. By this point, we should see Universal apps from most of the major developers including Microsoft and Adobe. This is when we will see the end of the PowerPC reign in the Professional lineup. There will probably be a relaunch of the MacBook Pros with 12", 15", and 17" models with enough power to clearly set them apart from the iBooks. The new Towers will probably run circles around everything and have that 'wow' factor we've been waiting for. The current G5s will be about 10 months old at that point so it's the perfect timing for their jump to Intel.



    Just my 2 cents.
  • Reply 8 of 11
    dhagan4755dhagan4755 Posts: 2,152member
    Sounds good, Fran. I think you're mostly right. I think the 17-inch MacBook is coming with the lower range MacBooks. An iMac revision will come in June with better graphics, and faster processors. Then I think after those are all launched, it will be about the iPod until WWDC in August.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    javacowboyjavacowboy Posts: 864member
    I reaffirm my prediction that new Intel hardware will not ship until June. Whether Apple chooses to do a quasi-vapourware announcement before then remains to be seen.



    Given the fact that Apple has been steadily correcting hardware bugs with the MacBook Pro (with minor, silent revisions), I doubt they would dare release another Intel notebook too soon.
  • Reply 10 of 11
    I agree, the next product will be an Intel consumer notebook, and I hope it is before the August educational buying season because I'm waiting on buying a new computer till the new Intel book replacement comes, just a thought though...



    Powerbook now MacBook Pro

    iBook should be MacBook

    PowerMac I figure it should be called either TowerMac or MacPro



    MacMini the same



    BUT!! The iMac, shouldnt it just be Mac now?
  • Reply 11 of 11
    gargar Posts: 1,201member
    Here we go again
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