Mac Book Pro To Be Replaced By New Mac Book Air

Steve Williams · Mar 14, 2012

Rumor: Apple to launch 15-inch MacBook Air in April, 'effectively killing the Pro'

A Mac accessory maker who spoke with Electricpig at the CU Exposed show this week indicated that Apple is "likely" to launch its 15-inch MacBook Air in April. The anonymous source said the thin-and-light notebook would be similar to current MacBook Air models, with ports on both sides and no optical drive or Ethernet port.

The vendor reportedly speculated that the new 15-inch MacBook Air would "effectively (kill) the (MacBook) Pro for the average consumer." They suggested that the new MacBook Air could even replace the 15-inch MacBook Pro, leaving the "Pro" moniker only to Apple's high-end 17-inch model......

http://www.appleinsider.com/article...air_in_april_effectively_killing_the_pro.html

vinylphilemag · Mar 14, 2012

I hope not. IMHO, a 15" screen is the sweet spot between enough screen real estate and not humping a huge "laptop" around everywhere, and the MBP has features I wouldn't want to be without.

JackD201 · Mar 15, 2012

Same here. I want my optical drive.

Bruce B · Mar 15, 2012

and I want my ethernet port.

FrantzM · Mar 15, 2012

Bruce B said:
and I want my ethernet port.

Was gonna say that .. I am not sure Apple will entirely ditch the Ethernet port. As it is they are making a serious push toward the Enterprise market and often Enterprise customers need their Ethernet Port..Faster and more secure ...

rblnr · Mar 15, 2012

FrantzM said:
Was gonna say that .. I am not sure Apple will entirely ditch the Ethernet port. As it is they are making a serious push toward the Enterprise market and often Enterprise customers need their Ethernet Port..Faster and more secure ...

Agreed, no way they're forcing people into wireless only. I just hope it's a jack not a dongle. That sounds suspect

JackD201 · Mar 15, 2012

That's right, Ethernet! I need it for Rekordbox!

Steve Williams · Mar 15, 2012

well I am betting that there will be no ethernet or optical drive on the new 15" macbook pro and yes they are wanting us to go wireless

FrantzM · Mar 15, 2012

Ethernet is a no-brainer..The connector is small enough and it actually pulls less power than wireless on the batteries ... Likely the'll leave it if they indeed are targeting the enterprise market. You can see the push in the new security features of IOS 5.1 and the new OSX... Ethernet easily goes Gigabit ... With all current flavor of wireless you are lucky to get a real throughput of 50 mbit/s and that would suppose the device is alone on the network and close to the Access Point, with no interference an overly optimistic assumption ..Fast but not that fast in reality despite claims of 300 Mb/s Most of the time much less

Steve Williams · Mar 15, 2012

Well again my bet is NO ethernet as indeed they WANT us to go wireless. Ethernet will be available only on the 17" and higher laptops

rblnr · Mar 15, 2012

Wireless can still be flaky at times, and in the commercial/professional market where a decent chunk of Pros reside, that (and slower speeds) can't be tolerated. It's OK on an Air, not acceptable on a Pro IMO.

Also, the Air is so thin at it's thickest point that it probably couldn't accommodate an Ethernet jack. The resident thunderbolt/displayport and USB ports both have lower profiles. A Pro with an Air-like shape might have to be a bit thicker somewhere to accommodate an Ethernet port. Otherwise it's some kind of dongle.

Bruce B · Mar 15, 2012

No ethernet is a deal breaker for me.... especially when I do video on my Macs. Try to upload a Hi-def video to an ftp server over wireless!! The client will be waiting for days!!

Steve Williams · Mar 16, 2012

Bruce B said:
No ethernet is a deal breaker for me.... especially when I do video on my Macs. Try to upload a Hi-def video to an ftp server over wireless!! The client will be waiting for days!!

Buy a 17" Bruce

JackD201 · Mar 16, 2012

I'm hoping Apple doesn't do it. There are gonna be a lot of P'd off 15" Pro owners who don't want or need a desktop replacement sized solution. Particularly those of us that travel a lot. Believe it or not there are still a whole lot of hotels that offer free internet only via Ethernet. If we are forced to use our phones as access points the roaming data charges are crippling. Even if the supply some sort of adapter dongle thing, it's just another small piece that can be easily lost or left behind.

FrantzM · Mar 16, 2012

Apple has been able to somewhat dictate its offerings to the public. The Enterprise sector however is different. Iam in IT and a lot of my colleagues in the IT world, especially on the enterprise side are very reluctant to introduce the iPhone in their enterprise environment. They don't want to be dictated, rather they want someone who would listen to their concerns. It is one thing to be pretty and another to be able to work with the much more stringent enterprise security features and performance requirements. Wireless in not that secure and in comparison to Ethernet slow. It wouldn't a vast redesign to include Ethernet on a laptop however small that they won't it to be, the enterprise world hates dongle..Ask anyone who has lost the dongle during a trip

rblnr · Mar 16, 2012

OK, so gentlemen's bet Steve -- I predict an ethernet port and you say wireless only. We'll see in April it sounds like.

Jay_S · Mar 16, 2012

The Air needs some more upgrades before it can completely replace the MacBook Pro. The Air screen is not as good, and the graphics are limited to Intel HD 3000. There are other differences that matter to power users (not necessarily me). I think that it will happen but the Air still needs some work.

Steve Williams · Mar 16, 2012

Jay_S said:
The Air needs some more upgrades before it can completely replace the MacBook Pro. The Air screen is not as good, and the graphics are limited to Intel HD 3000. There are other differences that matter to power users (not necessarily me). I think that it will happen but the Air still needs some work.

I thought the MB Air has a new processor

JackD201 · Nov 7, 2012

I just got a Retina MacBook Pro to replace my now 3 year old MBP. You could title this post, "Why I am Considering Murder".

To my surprise (my fault for total lack of due diligence) I was all set to do the data migration firewire in hand when, GASP!, no firewire! I let the migration assistant go step by step and the screen says connect both units to the same network via ethernet, $$#&$#&^%$*&^^%(^%*^%*$%$!!!!!!!!!!! No Ethernet Either!!!!!!!!!

So I rummage in the box. This is Apple, I've been using Power Books since they were black and had plastic clam shells. No ^%$%$*$&$% adapter cable.

At least for the first generation of Thunderbolt, supply the friggin' adapters!

If Jobs were alive this would have given him a seizure and killed him again. Damn you Cook! Get on the ball will ya!

DonH50 · Nov 7, 2012

So what does is have for wired connectivity? USB that you have to pipe to Ethernet?

Mac Book Pro To Be Replaced By New Mac Book Air

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