next MBP refresh?

Would we have to wait until ~ June for the next MBP refresh (QuickPath? quad-core cpu?) or would something be released sooner?

 

Yes. Nehalem is scheduled for Q3. And I doubt their will be a quad-core in a macbook pro in 2009.

 

so definitely nothing before Q3?

 

Apple plays its cards close to the vest. Anything you get here is speculation.

 

Well the 17" MBP is most certainly going to be refreshed to unibody before Q3, probably in Q1. But that's just to bring things in line with the 15" MBP. The MBP line itself won't see anything significant before Q3 and Nehalem. The best you might get is a small clock bump, like 2.53GHz to 2.66GHz which is pretty much an irrelevant thing to wait for. GPUs shouldn't change since Apple tends to keep GPUs for at least a year and two generations to amortize the cost of a contract. (Like both the X1600 and 8600 lasted 2 generations). There certainly isn't another external redesign in the offing, since I haven't heard any show-stopping flaws in the current design that would cause them to rethink things.

 

I am also waiting to buy a MBP when it has the icore7 inside it... do you guys that it will possibly come in October 2009? Or is it better of to buy a macbook pro somewhere in june-july when the price of the late 2008 has dropped down??

 

Intel hasn't even set a firm date on when mobile Nehalem will come out so there is no way to tell. And Apple seems to either pre-empt the market by getting first dibs and launching early or waiting a while after Intel releases something and letting other companies fight over the first chips. So it could go either way.

One thing is for sure though, Apple doesn't changes prices for existing products. The price points are usually stable until EOL. If there is a new price point it'll be introduced at the same time as the models are refreshed.

Depending on how long it takes to switch to Nehalem, there may be a mini-refresh for the current MBPs mid-next year, but it'll likely only be a minor clock speed bump, ie. 2.53GHz to 2.66GHz, nothing significant seeing there really isn't anything else on Intel's roadmaps.

 

from intel roadmap, i7 should be mainstream in desktop by Q3, 09, except if amd somehow got their cards straight and somehow becomes a potential threat again to intel at all, i doubt they will change it; as of right now and the foreseeable future, intel is a monopoly in terms of both efficiency and speed in the mbp/related segment. only weakness is their video card and it is cpu independent.

i think a speed increase in CPU is more likely for a refresh for the next MBP, as the above had mentioned, even intel suggested that even the mainstream i7 will require a different chipset than the current i7s, so it will more than likely to be using a different platform on the mobile counterpart as well than the existing "centrino2" components in the market now.

yes, you can say mbp isn't centrino2 inside because it doesn't have the same wireless card, but it is the same no less.

ps. why wait for computer nowadays? we haven't hit a speed bump yet interms of technological advancement, i would say if apple ever upgrades the video card beyond x6xx level, the hype is even more pronounce than a cpu upgrade of 10percent speed improvement as switching from 6 to 7 or even 8 yields better results.