Has anyone heard more about the redesigned Macbook & iMacs?

I'd imagine the redesign would be for the Core i5/i7 chips if anything, can't see them changing the unibody design just yet...
 
So is a change really going to happen? Was considering getting a 13.3" MBP but the whole glossy screen issue prevented me and Id rather not get the 15" one due to the additional size and cost.

Glad Ive stumbled on this as I guess I need to wait a bit - wanting to dual boot Win 7 so wasnt going to buy til that came out anyway...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
TUAW said:
Personally, it all sounds kind of hokey to us -- Apple's already got their back-to-school lineup all set, and while there probably is room for one more update before the holiday season, it's hard to believe they're going to announce some extremely minor updates in a desperate grab against Windows 7.
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Only Apple know what Apple will do but other than a Spec bump or two I seriously doubt you are going to see new designs. After all the current designs are fairly new and pretty darn good.
 
randal24 said:
I'd imagine the redesign would be for the Core i5/i7 chips if anything, can't see them changing the unibody design just yet...
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But the macbook isn't unibody - it's the same plastic shell it's had for years. That's what they're talking about a re-design of.

I don't know what they'd do but I suspect there will be something coming soon - the macbook line is unlikely to die altogether but right now it's not sufficiently different from the macbook pro 13".

I'm a fairly lousy product strategist but I'd be looking to make the Macbook a 12" Ion or similar based netbook style machine retailing for around £500. Sufficiently different not to tread on any other products toes but expensive enough to make apple a tidy profit. Not powerful enough for serious work but just fine for web browsing and taking notes, perfect for students.

Basically an apple version of nokia's booklet. That'd be my move.

And I'd kill the chin on the imac while I was at it. But I'm a fairly lousy designer too. There's money in the imac so they can afford to spend some effort redesigning that though...
 
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Kainz said:
This is my hybrid 2008 Macbook...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kainz/sets/72157621819810497/

Apple will most likely phase out the white polycarbonate model soon. No point making them when you're mass producing an precision alu enclosure.
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I'd strongly disagree - with no macbook line (the white plastic model is the only macbook now) the cost of entry is very high for a mac laptop. Given that laptops are a bigger growth sector than desktops, just dropping your cheapest model and demanding £900+ for your entry level model would be dumb. And moving the 13" unibody to the macbook pro line clears the macbook line to be repositioned in the market.

I'd put money on them not dropping the macbook...if they were going to then the thought process would surely have killed the mac mini instead of refreshing it last time round. It uses parts not used anywhere else in the product line, isn't wildly popular and is in the no growth desktop sector. Why not kill it? Because if you do the cost of entry for a new mac is very high...
 
I'm not saying they're going to kill off the MacBook line, I'm saying that the white polycarb versions will most likely go in favour of the unibody enclosure. How they will bring down the price of a unibody macbook I have no idea though. Maybe give it a weaker GPU from the present 9400M?

Btw you can still get unibody macbooks dirt cheap off their refurb store. Mine pictured above is just a couple of months old, and I got a higher spec than advertised. I don't think even Apple know what the thing is...

wush said:
IMO the black plastic MacBook was one of the best looking laptops they've made :)
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Why did they stop doing those? I see them appear on the refurb store every now and again and they look awesome.
 
Kainz said:
I'm not saying they're going to kill off the MacBook line, I'm saying that the white polycarb versions will most likely go in favour of the unibody enclosure. How they will bring down the price of a unibody macbook I have no idea though. Maybe give it a weaker GPU from the present 9400M?

Btw you can still get unibody macbooks dirt cheap off their refurb store. Mine pictured above is just a couple of months old, and I got a higher spec than advertised. I don't think even Apple know what the thing is...


Why did they stop doing those? I see them appear on the refurb store every now and again and they look awesome.
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But they need to maintain separation, they aren't stupid enough to make a product which will just steal sales from the expensive macbook pro lines.

It'll also be difficult to make cheaper. Can't cut the RAM, can't realistically make the CPU slower, can't change the graphics (integral part of the chipset). But the unibody enclosure is very expensive so killing that off is one option - I can't see them making the macbook unibody - there's no way to differentiate it from the macbook pro then...
 
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