Citing a report from Bloomberg, Andrew Cunningham of ArsTechnica indicated that there may be more than just software updates at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) next month.
Most notably, both the MacBook Pro and the 12-inch MacBook are supposedly being refreshed with Intel's latest "Kaby Lake" CPUs, which boost clock speeds and include slightly better GPUs that can accelerate the encoding and decoding of some 4K video streams. The 12-inch MacBook was last updated a little over a year ago, while the MacBook Pros were only introduced in October.
Cunningham also surmised that Apple could also update the MacBook Air design with new processors, since, despite the design's age and non-Retina display, its position as Apple's cheapest laptop is still helping it sell well. The current Air dates to mid-2015.
The update would be a bit of a burn for anyone who rushed out to buy a new MacBook Pro in October and November after a year and a half without an update. But an update would at least be a sign that Apple is serious about adopting new Intel architectures as they're available.
The MacBook Pro's October refresh was awkwardly timed, coming very late in the Skylake architecture's life but a handful of months before new Kaby Lake CPUs suitable for MacBook Pros would be released. A summer release would get Apple back in sync with Intel's calendar for future refreshes.
As always, Apple's plans are subject to change, and, in recent years as Apple's stable of operating systems has grown, WWDC has remained mostly software focused. The last big hardware announcements at WWDC were in 2013, when Apple pre-announced a new Mac Pro and introduced a new MacBook Air refresh alongside a couple of other odds and ends. Rumors have also suggested we could see a new iPad and an Amazon Echo-esque Siri speaker at WWDC, which would be quite a bit of hardware given that everyone will also likely to see new major releases of iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS at the same keynote.
Most notably, both the MacBook Pro and the 12-inch MacBook are supposedly being refreshed with Intel's latest "Kaby Lake" CPUs, which boost clock speeds and include slightly better GPUs that can accelerate the encoding and decoding of some 4K video streams. The 12-inch MacBook was last updated a little over a year ago, while the MacBook Pros were only introduced in October.
Cunningham also surmised that Apple could also update the MacBook Air design with new processors, since, despite the design's age and non-Retina display, its position as Apple's cheapest laptop is still helping it sell well. The current Air dates to mid-2015.
The update would be a bit of a burn for anyone who rushed out to buy a new MacBook Pro in October and November after a year and a half without an update. But an update would at least be a sign that Apple is serious about adopting new Intel architectures as they're available.
The MacBook Pro's October refresh was awkwardly timed, coming very late in the Skylake architecture's life but a handful of months before new Kaby Lake CPUs suitable for MacBook Pros would be released. A summer release would get Apple back in sync with Intel's calendar for future refreshes.
As always, Apple's plans are subject to change, and, in recent years as Apple's stable of operating systems has grown, WWDC has remained mostly software focused. The last big hardware announcements at WWDC were in 2013, when Apple pre-announced a new Mac Pro and introduced a new MacBook Air refresh alongside a couple of other odds and ends. Rumors have also suggested we could see a new iPad and an Amazon Echo-esque Siri speaker at WWDC, which would be quite a bit of hardware given that everyone will also likely to see new major releases of iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS at the same keynote.
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