As we approach the WWDC 2016 – which is set to kick on this coming June 13th at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco – the majority of the pre-conference attention is being paid to what Apple may announce from a software perspective as part of the opening keynote. Looking beyond that, consumers are generally concerned with the future of the iPhone and pay little attention to Apple’s range of MacBooks.
In an effort to refocus our attention back on these OS X powered machines, a report doing the rounds on the Internet is suggesting that Apple is all set to introduce a new MacBook Pro lineup this month.
The information comes in from a “reliable Chinese supplier”, and corroborates previous reports about the potential for Apple to unveil a new MacBook range with improved aesthetics and hardware combinations.
Those earlier leaks have claimed that the new notebooks would ship with USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 3 ports in place of USB-A, Thunderbolt 2 and Apple’s MagSafe 2 charging mechanisms that have served the MacBook Pro range so valiantly in the past. However, if Apple is indeed planning on unveiling a revamped MacBook Pro this month – whether that’s as part of the WWDC opening keynote or later in the month at a dedicated press gathering – then it certainly isn’t going to be the integration of USB Type-C that will raise excitement levels and garner interest.
Once again, backing up earlier rumors, the report speculates that the new notebook range will benefit from secure Touch ID login, akin to the iPhone and iPad, as well as an OLED touch panel that will sit above the keyboard as a replacement for the function keys that are pre-programmed to perform certain tasks.
The report also mentions the arrival of a new 15-inch MacBook Air model. Given Apple had just refreshed the 13-inch MacBook Air back in April this year with 8GB RAM now being standard on the machine, it’s unlikely MacBook Air will get another refresh of sorts this year, but anything can happen.
One of the interesting things about today’s report is that it definitely corroborates a number of previous leaks that we’ve been privy to from a design and feature perspective, but it doesn’t exactly fall in line with the predictions made by well-placed KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Kuo has previously gone on record with a research note suggesting that Apple could be looking to introduce a new MacBook Pro range during the fourth quarter of 2016, which would be in direct disagreement with today’s suggestion that we could see the new MacBooks on sale as soon as August.
As always, we really won’t know until we know, so let’s hope that we get some hardware announcements at WWDC 2016 alongside the unveiling of iOS 10 and OS X 10.12, even though many other reports suggest WWDC this year will be all about software.
(Source: Macotakara [Google Translate])
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