Well, that’s all that’s leaked out so far unfortunately leaving many customers without a clue of what’s to come next. New aluminum MacBook and MacBook Pro designs are rumored to come out as well as other MacBook Pro/Air features leaking down such as multi-touch, LED backlights, and backlit keyboards. When are they expected? Rumor has it quarter three, but some guesses lead to July 29th, 2008.
I personally would look forward to seeing aluminum casing on the MacBooks the most due to number of cracks on the cases due to pressure between the magnetic lock and the “cheap” plastic, however, I’d like to see a LED backlit display as well. Assuming the mini is revised, all of Apple’s products would have successfully transformed to aluminum, potentially creating a new standard for all Apple products and quite possibly may be seen in new Windows Based PC’s.
Now we all know that the mini has basically been ignored, and are there any rumors about it? Yes, two of Apple’s desktops, the Mini and the Pro are due for updates as well the Cinema displays. The mini and display are far out of the average update cycle, and the Pro is out of it too in just a week.
As if all of these weren’t enough, some rumors has been presented that Apple may even lower prices to compete with consumer laptops (the new prices would be similar to the student discounts should the rumor be correct).
Well, there’s a lot of stuff there, and we all know the best of rumors are always wrong, so I’ll be saying from me knowing Apple what I think will actually happen:
MacBook Pros
A complete design? I can’t see it happening. I can expect some minor changes to the design, but I honestly believe that most changes will be hardware based. Blue-ray drives and SSD will probably end up being added with a few minor design changes and that will be the end of it. This hasn’t been touched much, but I believe that a black keyboard may be added similar to the one on the MacBook Air as they are easier to type on and look a lot better when typed on and just go with the laptop.
MacBooks
Macbooks are very hard to say, but a few things that Apple may end up doing, LED backlit displays were talked about a lot and the current displays on MacBooks are really lacking in quality compared to the MacBook Pro’s, so it’d only be fair to assume they’d be added. Backlit keyboards, why not? The Air and the Pro had them, and I can’t see a reason why the MacBook shouldn’t. Multi-touch, maybe. It was added to the Air and the Pro and I can’t really say if it will be added or not, though my thoughts aren’t too definite. Aluminum casing, I can’t see that happening, but you never know…
Mac Pros
I don’t see too many design upgrades here. If anything, new Blue-ray drives, more powerful components, stuff on the inside and not the out.
Mac Mini
Now these have been left untouched for a long time and need to get a decent update. First off, the hardware inside of them is pathetic. They need bigger hard drives and more ram by default as well as a better video card.
Displays
I honestly have no idea here, I rarely use Apple Displays, but love the way they look and can’t imagine what they may add on to them.
The Big One: Price Drops
Prices do fall overtime. For example, when the first G4 PowerBook was released in 2001, it went for about $3000. In 2003, the 17″ PowerBook was about $3200 (not 100% sure on this one). Now, not even the 17″ MacBook Pro will cost you that, so yeah, Apple has changed their prices and they don’t stay the same for too long.
But one thing that hasn’t changed that much is the price of the iBook/MacBooks. They were one thousand dollars before, they still are today. In my honest opinion, MacBooks should be lowered to $850, but I doubt Apple will go for it, and if anything, they’ll go down $100.
Anything else, I can’t see or expect too much of a change price wise, but should MacBooks get all of the rumored features, it would be extremely hard to even imagine a change at that point.
Well, any comments or new rumors floating about? Feel free to post below.
Filed under: General, Mac Pro, Macbook/Macbook Pro, News
