Judging by Apple’s recent emphasis on mobile devices, it wouldn’t be wrong to predict that traditional Mac computers will be phased out eventually or maybe evolve into something ne. But according to a shady new report, Apple is working with suppliers to bring a radically new Mac to its product line by the end of the year.
An alleged anonymous source at Apple’s Asian suppliers claims that Apple is actively working with them to bring a radical new Mac product to its current lineup. The source doesn’t elaborate on how the new product will be different, yet we can speculate that it will move us further away from traditional computing. Currently, Apple’s Mac lineup is comprised of standard desktops and laptops, largely designed the way computers were a decade ago. With the advancements made in OS X Lion, the latest release of the operating system that runs on Macs, made the system feel a lot more like its mobile counterpart, iOS.
Apple has already begun this trend. Over the last few months, the company has been putting much emphasis on the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro’s smaller and lighter brother, marketing it as “The future of MacBooks”. Perhaps this new Mac will be marketed as the future of desktop computers? Perhaps a much lighter-weight iMac with enhanced multitouch functionality that can be somehow carried around?
The news was broken by a Japanese site, which also correctly predicted the iPad’s March launch date, yet it has failed in many other occasions, therefore take this new report with a grain of salt. Apple’s product line might already look fairly concise and complete, yet there’s clearly still room for new products, possibly to meet the huge gap that’s still present between its iOS devices and traditional computers. Perhaps we need brand-new form factors to get us there, hopefully sooner rather than later, with OS X Lion on top of it or a future iteration of OS X.
Whatever this product might turn out to be, Apple has a good track record of starting trends in the computer industry: just two years ago, the iPad completely changed the tablet landscape and is now the standard to which other products are measured by. Yet, let’s keep in mind that the website where this report was originally published has a rather week track record of making good predictions based on real information, therefore there might not be a new Mac model at all. Until then, let’s stay hopeful.
(via Macotakara)
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