Macbook Pro Rumors Approaching WWDC

With Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) less than a month away, and confirmation that Leopard will go into beta then, the laptop line of Mac's are under the heavy guns of rumor-mongering.

Both AppleInsider and ThinkSecret have information on a large order of LED backlit 15.4" screens, possibly for the MacBook Pro's. Also tied with the MBP's is a significant chance of Inte's new Santa Rosa platform moving to them as well.

 

Looks like both LED screens and Santa Rosa look probable for WWDC.

These are basically the Leopard laptops sans Leopard.

 

Ugh i hope the new macbooks support leapord too. will they have Macbooks built for leapord as well??

 

Whatever happened to those 15.4" MacBooks that were supposed to be made by Foxconn?

If they update the MBP, they might as well update the iMac along with it, seeing as they are essentially the same. I guess they will update the MacBook and Mac mini to Santa Rosa sometime later, after Intel gets some semi-decent drivers for GMA X3100.

 

Uhm... of course they will? Leopard will be possible to run on all current hardware and on hardware that's a few years old - that is the Apple way. So Leopard at least should be Universal Binary or have a PPC version, while 10.6 (whenever that comes out) might or might not be Intel-only depending on how long has passed into the Intel transition when that comes out. Since that should be about 2 years or more after 10.5 (Leopard), I would say the chances are pretty good that it will be Intel-only by then (would be about 4 years from the start of the transition by then), but even that is not certain.

Now, to have all the possible perks of the system you might need a newer computer, we just don't know that at this point - but that's a different story altogether...

Bottom line: Leopard will not be Intel-only and there is no need to buy a new computer to run it.

 

The 15.4" Macbook was a rumor that still hasn't shown much substance - but who knows. I'm more interested in the possibility of a 12" Macbook Pro myself

As for what gets updated when, that's always a bit of a toss-up when it comes to Apple - but yes, as you said, iMac and MBP are more or less the same so chances are they will be updated simultaneously, with Macbook and Mac Mini following later (but if they do wait, I'd still say they should come before the fall term starts - students are probably the biggest single customer group for Macbooks).

An interesting thing to note here is that the Mac Mini hasn't even had an upgrade to Core 2 Duo yet, which is a little-debated fact, actually - I guess either a) they reasoned the demand for them wasn't there or b) they have had some issues with their design. Either way, an update of those should be in the works, it's possible they just decided to wait for Santa Rosa and the GMA X3100.

The only real answer, though - as always with Apple - is to wait and see.

Patience is a virtue... and Apple makes sure you exercise it

 

Well I definitely like LEDs and Santa Rosa, but what's the word on a DX10 graphics update?

 

There is an update out for Intel X3100.

 

I want to buy a Mini sooooo bad and retire my G4 eMac, but i'll have to wait until the Mini's get Leopard and the next CPU update. I highly doubt the Mini's will be paired with the S.R. chipset seeing they are still on the Intel Core Duo and not the Core 2 Duo's. The more likely scenario is for the Mini's to finally get the Core 2 Duo's. I see the iMacs, Macbooks and the MPB will get the S.R. offering since they are both running Intel Core 2 Duo.

 

Santa Rosa is an architecture that uses Core 2 Duo cpus, so I don't see why this would somehow disqualify the Mini? It would just mean that they skipped the intermediate step, which wasn't a necessary one.

And I also want to get a Mini to replace my Power Mac G4, but I'm in no rush as far as that goes so I can wait and see what comes.

 

The reason I don't think it will make the S.R. leap is because Apple's profit margins are already low on the mini. They also need to give buyers a reason to buy the more expensive iMac , MB and MBP. Don't get me wrong I would love for the Mini to go S.R. caused i'd buy one in a second, but realistically I don't see it happening.

Truthfully I would love for you to be right and for me to be dead wrong.

 

I think you will not see any hardware upgrades at WWDC. For one, Apple is getting into the habit of just releasing new hardware without announcements. Second I think it will all be a lot of iPhone and Leopard. I don't think the iPhone will be available, but I think they will announce that they are taking orders and they will show the final version, along with the feature complete preview of Leopard including the secret features. But don't expect any new hardware.

 

So, Cash, do really think they will just randomly announce SR Macs sometime in the Summer, or even later?

 

The timing would make sense though, allowing production to get rev'd up for Back-To-School & put fresh hardware out there to compete with the already rolling out PC's with Santa Rosa. Ontop of that, with OSX Tiger on them it'll allow Apple to sell upgrade copies of Leopard when it launches.

Unlike Microsoft with Vista, they don't have to hope everyone jumps on the Leopard band-wagon quickly, seeing as there profits are all in the higher-end hardware.

 

Trust me the iphone will come out at WWDC and be available for purchase immediately

 

Thats a wise (and maybe obvious, but who knows) assessment.

 

Well yes, Steve said as much at MWSF07 in January - he specifically said June would be the release for the iPhone in the United States. What is in doubt is whether there will be computers released then also or not.

The latest rumors say new products today (May 15th), so we'll see in a few hours if there's any stock in those rumors...

 

Apple's Store is being update as I type so yeah new products will get released very shortly.

 

Ya I do. I think the MBP will get SR this summer and maybe LED screens, but I don't necessarily think they will announce it. If memory serves the Intel Mac Pro was the last announced computer and that is nearly a year ago. Every revision has just shown up. Maybe it will receive an announcement if LED screens are implemented, but right now Apple is very much focused on iPhone. I doubt they will let anything steal its thunder. Except maybe Leopard preview.