2011 Macbook Pro....Slim like Air

I heard today that in the early part of this year potentially March or April that Apple is going to release a new macbook pro that's going to be almost a slim as the Air.
Have any of you heard anything....
If this is true I will wait before purchasing the 15" that I was going to buy now.

No one has heard anything. Only Apple knows when the next MBP line will be introduced and what it will consist of. The decision to buy now or wait is yours.

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Sounds like something pretty cool but if it in fact will be as thin as an Air, I hope it doesn't have similar build characteristics. I bought an Air but returned it in two days because I learned you can't upgrade the internals later on. Not RAM, HDD not anything. At the time I didn't know about that. (talk about researching a $1,500 dollar investment) To be as thin as an Air possibly means that it'll have similar build qualities. Permanently soldered components to stray away from bulkier slots etc. is what I mean. I sure don't hope so.

I think the new MacBook line will soon evolve into maybe these categories:

The MacBook will loose the CD drive, and I am sure the price will fall slightly. I hope they also offer the black color choice too! Or it might disappear completly, but I am not sure what will replace it!

The MacBook Air will stay the same.

The MacBook Pro will also loose the CD drive and get thinner! This will be like the Air but not as thin and it can be upgraded later on. I am not sure how the pricing structure will be on the Pro but hopefully not an increase. And just maybe the 13" Pro may disappear...

I am sure the SSD's may become standard across the range as well - after all these are the new generation of MacBook's.

Just my pure idea!

normanio said:

Sounds like something pretty cool but if it in fact will be as thin as an Air, I hope it doesn't have similar build characteristics. I bought an Air but returned it in two days because I learned you can't upgrade the internals later on. Not RAM, HDD not anything. At the time I didn't know about that. (talk about researching a $1,500 dollar investment) To be as thin as an Air possibly means that it'll have similar build qualities. Permanently soldered components to stray away from bulkier slots etc. is what I mean. I sure don't hope so.

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This was exactly my first thought. Slimmer is cooler, and as technology advances laptops will inevitably get thinner. However, right now the only way I can think of to make things thinner is to go the way of the Macbook Air and make it unupgradable. That's a deal breaker for me. I wouldn't get an Air if it was $700.

AUZambo said:

However, right now the only way I can think of to make things thinner is to go the way of the Macbook Air and make it unupgradable.

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Remember that one of the BIG reasons why Apple is able to make the MacBook Air thinner (and lighter) is it has no CD/DVD drive.

- Nick

I doubt I would ever upgrade my Mac if they dropped the CD/DVD drive.

First of all, its a shame, I can't play any of my over 100 blu ray movies on this MacBook Pro--If they get rid of the CD/DVD drive how do you add your CD's to your iPod or iPhone or iPad??? That would be a very bad move. Very Bad---I'm from the old school, still buy CD's & BD's--

mrbmarco said:

...how do you add your CD's to your iPod or iPhone or iPad???...

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External superdrive.

^ That is way to much effort. It also takes up more space, having that lie around. I think getting rid of the CD/DVD drive would ruin macs for a lot of people, myself included.

kribensis12 said:

^ That is way to much effort. It also takes up more space, having that lie around. I think getting rid of the CD/DVD drive would ruin macs for a lot of people, myself included.

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Really? What happened to the floppy drive? Seen one on a notebook computer lately? It's called technological progress.....

You also have to remember that a key part of Apple's business model is distributing content through direct channels: they don't want you to buy a music CD, they want you to download via iTunes, they don't want you to buy physical media at all! Movies? Download via iTunes, stream to an Apple TV, iPad, etc.

While the CD/DVD became ubiquitous enough over the years to be incredibly cheap and did multi-duty in a PC (software/OS, music, movies, etc.), they've finally gotten a number of cost effective, non-optical distribution mechanisms (iTunes, App Store, and for the local, physical copy, solid state drives, like how the MBA bundles OSX).

I know that licensing is a factor, but I think it's that cost and control combined with the Apple push toward all I discussed above. Apple just doesn't want to participate in the "optical interim".

All that being said, I still believe we're highly bandwidth limited. I don't want my video experience to be choppy, unavailable, poor PQ/SQ, lacking additional features. When I want to watch Inception, I want it to be the best experience possible, and for me, right +now+, that's physical media (Bluray to be specific).


Just my $0.02

kribensis12 said:

^ That is way to much effort. It also takes up more space, having that lie around. I think getting rid of the CD/DVD drive would ruin macs for a lot of people, myself included.

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Don't buy one - problem solved.