KGI Securities’ “research analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has in the past offered accurate information on Apple’s Mac product roadmap, recently took on a new position with KGI Securities and has published a new report today indicating that Apple may be preparing to drop the 17-inch MacBook Pro from its lineup due to weak sales,” Eric Slivka reports for MacRumors.
“Kuo’s prediction comes as Apple is expected to introduce new notebooks that serve as a hybrid between the current MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, offering greater power than the Air but greater portability than the Pro,” Slivka reports. “Kuo believes that Apple will elect to drop the 17-inch size as part of this revamp in order to streamline the company’s product offerings.”
Slivka reports, “According to Kuo’s estimates for the first calendar quarter of 2012, Apple sold roughly 3.1 million notebooks, with nearly half of them being the 13-inch MacBook Pro, far and away the company’s best-selling Mac product. But while Kuo predicts sales of nearly 1.5 million units of the 13-inch MacBook Pro, he sees much lower sales of roughly 500,000 15-inch models and only 50,000 17-inch models. Kuo estimates Apple’s first quarter MacBook Air sales at roughly 1.1 million, split nearly equally between 11-inch and 13-inch models.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We used to use 17-inch MacBook Pro units as or desktop/mobile computers. Things have changed dramatically. iPad, for one. For another, MacBook Air. We believe it makes more sense to put iMacs on the desks and, when going mobile, to be as mobile as possible, which is why we use 11-inch MacBook Air units (our favorite Macs – ever) along with our iPads. So, we didn’t purchase 17-inch MacBook Pros last go-round. We assume a lot of Mac users made the same move, significantly affecting sales of Apple’s biggest MacBook Pro.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
I love my powerful 17″ MacBook Pro.
I use my 17″ Laptop everyday, everywhere, all the time, for a myriad of mainly business uses and a fair amount of personal use. This will SUCK if they discontinue it!!!!!!!!!!!!
I need the extra screen space and it’s not an optimal solution to use an iMac at my desk only as I have multiple office and on site needs of my files. CAD drawings, spreadsheets, Project Programs, Accounting, multiple programs open at the same time all day, etc. This really sucks!!!!!
I have iPad, iPhone, iMac, etc. as well but they don’t cut it for many of the uses I need my 17″ MacBook Pro for all day long, every day, from the crack of dawn until Midnight most days………
1
I second this sentiment. It would be utterly devastating to me if the 17″ MacBook Pro were discontinued. I am an engineering consultant and the 17″ MacBook Pro is my primary work machine. At my age, I really appreciate the readability of the larger display.
I completely concur with this statement. I have owned two 17″ MBP’s, and will eventually replace my current one with a new – hopefully 17″ – MBP.
As is said in some “other” situations… size matters.
Absolutely concur. I have owned 17″ MacBook Pro’s since they were first available. Would be completely lost without it. I have a myriad of files and apps that get used all the time. I need the screen real estate AND the portability AND the power. And I don’t want or have the time to shuffle files to and fro (large Photoshop files among them) and keep duplicate systems running. My business owns several iMacs and laptops, as well as iPads and iPhones – but my main work machine is my 17″ MacBook Pro and I’d be lost (and pissed off) without it.
What they should do is really use that extra space for an HDD/SSD combo and more power. Currently, at the same specs as the 15″ model, it made more sense for me to buy a 15″ MBP
My hopes are dashed.
I haven’t even seen a 17″ MBP for a while now. The other MBP models are common enough, but it looks like either owners of the 17″ aren’t willing to carry their machines around these days or sales have completely plummeted.
Thanks Maobama and Democrat scum for destroying the 17″ MacBook Pro market along with as much of the US as possible!
Yes, I imagine ALL of Wall Street is Democrat. Especially the big bankers and the financial crooks who started this mess… (At least in some crazy world where chickens vote for foxes, and Mac users are desperate to see Windows 8)
Funny stuff, FD!
LOL. Yeah, first they come for your 17″ MBPs, then your savings, and finally your freedom!!! Who will save us from this calamity? Won’t somebody think of the children!!??! 😉
Dems are responsible for all evil. Just the way it is. And the economy sucks, so that would drive down demand for the 17″ MacBook Pro. Nothing funny about it.
Good one. I think the dems are also responsible for the hang nail I had this morning and the fact that my coffee was cold.
They are!
Maybe it’s too expensive?
Maybe it’s too expensive to buy?
A 17″ laptop was only really useful for those people using 1 machine who did spend a lot of time at a desk. Broadly speaking, and forgetting any upgrades you can buy various combinations of a macbook air and an iMac for about the same as a 17″ Macbook Pro. Even for those that can afford it, it just seems that it would be an increasingly niche market.
I’ve been rocking 17″ MBP, since they were introduced to the PowerBook family. I currently have the latest gen, and was hoping for an upgrade this year.
I carry it all over. I am a mac IT guy and I use it for work, side web design, video editing and music production.
As long as they make them, I will keep upgrading. I don’t want an underpowered Air. I want power and connectivity. my iPad2 gives me ultra mobility when I want it.
Try again. I am a big guy, 6’4″ 240lbs. a 17″ MBP is perfect, fits nicely on my lap and has a nice weight. I use it at a desk (with 27″ display) and when portable. It sucks to go to a smaller screen once you are used to the 27″ and the 17″ makes it bearable. 15″ would suck.
1920 X 1200 on 17″
15″ maxes at: 1680 X 1050
Extra USB port & express card slot.
Not saying they aren’t good, but enough people are likely to prefer a smaller screen/form factor when mobile and then perhaps also have an iMac or monitor, that I can see why 17″ is becoming small enough of a market to justify scrapping it.
We have iMacs as well for our employees that don’t leave their desk often. The 17″ Macbook Pro is indispensable for the rest of our employees that aren’t desk bound all of the time.
This would be devastating!!!
If the 17″ rumored MacBook Air turns out to be as light as the current 15″ MBP, I would like to get one of those super-light 17″ MBA’s.
I don’t think you see lots of people with 17″ MacBook Pros hanging out in coffee shops, no. Typically they aren’t posers. They are people who actually have work to do. Just my theory.
When I go to a client location and open that puppy up, running multiple network utilities, as well as UBUNTU and Win 7, its a joy to use. Admittedly it’s heavy, but I keep it in a backpack.
MDN is right about one thing. My iPad has increasingly taken up a large part of what I used to do with my laptop when mobile. It is my “coffee shop” machine. Web surfing, social media, reading, writing, etc.
I suspect Apple will plant ivy in the 17″ and it will be the “PRO” machine and the 11/13/15 will be the MacBooks for the rest of ya.
You are correct as always, Thelonious Mac – Patriot!
I hope you are right on this prediction!
Big, heavy, expensive, beautiful, fast and powerful.
I will miss it if they will discontinue this model 🙁
Not that heavy.
What if I want my “desktop” computer to fit next to my couch? What if I can’t afford the space for an iMac? I still miss the numeric keypad. Arrgh!
If Apple can’t make much money from selling the 17″ MacBook Pro, then chances are it’s going to be dropped from the lineup. Apple can’t afford to spend time and effort for small financial returns. Mainstream consumer is where it’s at. I would have figured Apple had worked out some formula by now that shows where the consumer sales sweet spot is detailing financial outlay vs returns.
Apple’s business model is based on cost per unit sales, not volume sales, so every unit sold generates a profit.
It’s only when a business model is based on volume sales that you can hit a point of diminishing returns. Low numbers end up, not just being unprofitable, but cost a company money.
This is what occurs when a business tries to lower their profit margin and make up for it in sales. It can’t actually be done. It’s playing the low-price game and is simply a race to the bottom.
Unlike other PC makers, Apple doesn’t play that game and when Apple has low sales they don’t lose money… they simply don’t make as much profit.
I was actually thinking of ditching my desktop iMac next go round and purchasing a 17″ MBP. It is mobile enough to move around the house and the occasional short trip. Then an iPad or MacBook Air would be good for when you need real mobility. I hope this rumor is just that.
Did that years ago and it is the only way to compute!!!!!
I had the 17″ MacBook Pro as my only machine (I’m a graphic designer). It was brilliant and when upgrade time came, friends strongly suggested a 15″ as it was more luggable for client meetings, but that I should combine it with an Apple display.
I took their advice, shelled out the extra and at first thought the screen was too ‘in your face’. I soon got used to, and now rely on the extra space. When I go back to the 17″, I realise how heavy it is and how I have to squint (had the high res display) to see things.
The 15″ gives you portability, the same power and with the Apple display, greater productivity – especially as you can use the laptop as a secondary monitor. Factor in the costs if you count on the display lasting two laptop generations and if bought at the same time as the laptop, AppleCare covers both for no extra cost.
It’s been a great solution for me.
This would be a terrible shame. While not many ordinary users may need such a machine, for creative professionals and developers productivity is always proportional to screen size. As with the mac pro, I would hate to see this area that Apple has served so well in the past be discounted.
Apple, please keep the 17″ macbook pro and mac pro.
My 17′ PB is used everyday. I share client observations right on the screen. Everyone enjoys it. I need the potability and the visual space; period
Apple is a gifted co. Apple can make mistakes. If the bottom line is always the only decision that makes policy and product, the beancounters have won. Yes, the 17′ may be less profitable. This is not the same as no profit. If the beancounters run the joint, Apple has lost.
They sell every one they make. It isn’t going anywhere. However, the awful abomination of 10.7 does renew the express slot useless.
Went to a 13″ MBP this turn of the wheel. Reasonably happy with it plugged in to a 20″ display, though keep the legacy 15″ running Leopard, a more workflow-focused system IMO.
My 17″ MacBook Pro gives me portability with maximum screen space. So, I consider it my office and use it wherever I go, including traveling. I use it for graphics, writing, data analysis, etc. After using a screen of this size, 15″ screen feels crowded and inadequate.
I have even thought about not replacing my old iMac now that I am so happy with my 17″ portable.
It would be a real disaster if I can’t get a future 17″ MacBook Pro.
If the MDN take is true for MDN and anyone else, then I would postulate that you never really need a 17″ MacBook Pro to begin with.
As far as laptops are concerned, I don’t even look at anything smaller than 17″.
+1
I’d go further and say that with the seeming ambivalence the last couple of years over the deletion and/or dilution of the pro offerings by Apple-by posters on this, a big time enthusiast site-I’d say that the words “power users” and “Apple” mostly (not completely, but mostly) never applied anyway.
Just because the iMac/iPad solution best meets MDNs need today, doesn’t mean the 17″ MBPs weren’t the best solution at the time. The iPad didn’t exist back then.
Many people are returning to desktops and foregoing notebooks in favor of ultra portables. I work in Apple retail and see this trend growing stronger every day.
BTW, I work M-F 9-5. Typically I’m dealing with business clients.
Everything ‘Pro’ about Apple and its products is gradually disappearing. Please don’t forsake the backbone which supported Apple’s rise to the top. We NEED our 17″ Apple laptop to be truly powerful, ie not an iToy.
We watch movies on the 17″ MBP at the foot of the bed. ‘Takes up a lot less space than a TV, but is plenty big enough to watch. Then we can fold it up and get it out of sight or on the road for professional work.
My 17″ MBP is my main mac and it is my favorite. I just don’t like little tiny screens. I intend to replace my 2009 with the next revision, so please Apple don’t go itty bitty on me!
The two computers I’m most interesting in purchasing are now rumored to be on the chopping block. Lovely!
So Apple set out to change the world, so they built a better OS and put it in better hardware. But now they see the new world, and it exists not in computers but in mobile devices. So they are abandoning computers and are still seeking to change the world… and they are missing the damned point, in my opinion.
And then there’s the really bad part. They aren’t going to provide better products to anybody if they can’t make gigantic margins on them. They made money on the Mac Pro, and Xsan, and the MPB 17, and Final Cut Pro… but not enough, so you’re out of luck. It’s downright depressing.
Indeed!
I don’t believe this at all. I suspect both the 17″ and the MacPro have new things in store for them that will make them better.