“Apple has yet to upgrade any of its MacBook models to Intel’s latest Skylake Core CPUs,” Charles Moore writes for MacPrices. “Several Windows PC laptops are now powered by Skylake silicon, including Microsoft’s new detachable screen Surface Book, but Apple has soldiered on with last year’s Intel Broadwell CPUs, including in the most recently introduced 12-inch MacBook with Retina display. The 15-inch MacBook Pro still is powered by two year old Haswell technology.
“My provisional expectation has been that the MacBooks will get Skylake upgrades sometime in the first half of 2016, but The Motley Fool’s Ashraf Eassa suggests that Apple might at this point skip Skylake-based processors altogether and wait for Intel’s next generation Kaby Lake silicon, the first mobile versions of which his sources suggest will become available late in the second quarter or early third quarter of 2016,” Moore writes. “I think there’s a strong likelihood of a major refresh for the MacBook Pro and possibly even a redesign of the MacBook Air in the first half of 2016 — at least by WWDC in June, and possibly much earlier than that. Eassa is of similar mind, and projects a March announcement of new Skylake-based Pro’s and Airs, which would distract scrutiny and criticism of waiting for the next generation chips for the little MacBook…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ugh, more waiting to pull the trigger on our new 12-inch MacBooks?! (Pending any possible “redesign of the MacBook Air, of course.)
Good thing our trusty 11-inch MacBook Airs (our favorite Macs ever, no less) are still performing like the absolute champs they are!
Apple is always way too slow about putting the latest Intel chips in its Macbooks. They always show up in Macbooks 6 months to a year after they start showing up in Windows laptops.
The guy is dreaming if he thinks Apple is going to release a new Macbook with a “Kaby Lake” chip immediately after Intel releases it. When have they ever done such a thing?
“When have they ever done such a thing?”
That would make it a pretty brilliant move, wouldn’t it?!
(I doubt they’ll do it, too, but what if….?)
There have been a couple of times that they had products with the latest chips out first. I don’t recall exactly when those were.
I’ll give you a hint: there was another CEO at the helm then. The current guy is a laggard. He doesn’t want to give users the best, he wants only to extract the most money from you. It would seem that Apple is short of cash to fill in the round pit in Cupertino.
Crud. I’m salivating over a MacBook Pro with a 34 inch curved hires monitor. I was hoping for March. Sounds like it could be June-ish?
A curved screen is totally pointless.
A 34″ laptop is again ridiculous.
Sorry your dreams were crushed.
Best use your dreaming energy for something more likely to happen.
Thelonious isn’t alone in his dreams, however I agree that curved monitors are pointless.
Apple seriously needs to get its act together with a new generation of displays, preferably in 3-4 sizes (24 through 32 inch or so, with a 16:10 ratio so the user has room for full-screen 16:9 video plus room for an always-on-top toolbar or two).
But damn it Apple, bring back the 17 inch Macbook Pro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apple are waiting for USB Type C displays with Thunderbolt 3 over this connection, before releasing a new Display
They have been waiting for only what, 5 years now?
Apple just doesn’t care enough about Mac users to put forth any effort. Apple thinks — wrongly — that Bluetooth and WiFi are mature and stable enough so that they can drop the number of wired connections and ports. Add to that an outrageous purchase price, and it’s no wonder that Apple can’t sell them.
At a minimum, I would like a 2016 Apple Display should have:
– choice of 3 display sizes
– Thunderbolt hub with at least 3 connectors
– HDMI input
– USB hub with both USB-C and legacy USB 3.0 ports
– separate power cable
– free adapters for converting from DVI, DisplayPort or other Apple legacy interfaces.
– a new adapter for sale that would allow video output from an iOS device to the Apple Display (Lightning to Thunderbolt)
– a serious drop in price for the current Lightning-to-HDMI adapter
I am NOT sold on the port convergence between USB and Thunderbolt. There are definite advantages to having separate plugs for power, audio, video, low speed peripherals, and high speed data transfer. Even if Thunderbolt could be the magic do-it-all connector for some people, anyone with legacy hardware needs more. If Apple wants to keep its Thunderbolt Display a desireable docking station, it would be better to address price and real-world user needs rather than force all things to converge into one unicorn connector. Nobody should ever be enthralled about abandoning all his current peripherals or buying adapters just so Apple can reduce the number of ports on its products. The tool needs to serve the user, not the other way around.
Any chance of 4k laptops coming from the mothership? Would love a 17-inch 4k macbook. Not that the retina displays are bad or anything, but it would justify upgrading early.
If you want 4K, you want Skylake. It has built-in support for H.265.
@elvispanda, Kaby Lake will be worth the wait specially that Skylake soon be 1.75 years old; you don’t want an old processor in your brand-new Mac. Apple is making the right move here. Be patient.
What are you saying? How is skipping major chipset releases “making the right move” ?
Apple isn’t moving at all. It just skipped SkyLake.
Instead of offering the best value to its users, Apple is delivering 1.75 year old hardware at a premium price. Waiting for Kaby Lake (which is not a major “tock”, but a minor refresh to the 14mm SkyLake chips) is dumb. If Apple had gotten off its fat butt and implemented Skylake across the board by now, then it would be perfectly positioned to implement the forthcoming 10mm Cannonlake at the next round of Mac product updates. But no, Timid Tim always waits for every other company to make the first move. If Apple wants to be considered the premium computer maker, it needs to offer current chipsets at all times.
Interesting how Apple is eager to take away ports, features, and so forth aggressively but these days it’s the slowest, most expensive company at doling out CPU, RAM, and GPU performance to its users. That is just cheap, Apple.
How many new laptops has apple announced for 2016? Yeah, none.
That’s right.
what is the currnet Intel architecture? Skytlake, that’s right.
Can the Macbook run Skylkae. I dunno. Is there one that meets power and performance requirements?
I bet Apple uses the chip-set that its engineers think is best. That’s why they pay them
Certainly true that the skylark chips havn’t exactly had a great press but Apple really needs to pull its finger out and stop looking slow to press on the Mac to save a few pence amongst its billions. Mind you are their forums giving Intel the hard time that Apple gets here because it seems more often than not Intel’s new silicon is pretty lame or lame and late these days.
Tim Cook strikes again! Apple sells last year’s technology for top dollar prices.
The Mac Pro (desktop) has remained completely unchanged since it debuted in 2013, and is selling in 2016 for the exact same price it sold for in 2013. At this point, the profit margin Apple is making on that machine, assuming anyone is stupid enough to buy one right now, must be astronomical.
I’m waiting to upgrade to the 15″ MBP because of USB-C, Skylake, and the new keyboard.
http://www.macrumors.com/roundup/macbook-pro/
Sadly, Apple again is forcing people to wait in order to get hardware updates. The Mac lineup is a complete travesty, tons of stale hardware and obsolete specs. Same for Airport, same for iPods, same for displays … Who the hell is running the show in Cupertino? It makes no sense for Apple’s flagship 15″ MacBook Pro to be running a Haswell processor in 2016. And for some unknown reason, Apple still sells non-retina displays. Pathetic!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah, remember when Apple switched over to Intel and went from having 64 bit chips first with G5 to the 32 bit Intel CoreDuo chips, taking a step backward? Whomever was in charge should’ve been fired immediately.
Oh, yeah, it was Steve….
I’ll keep on keeping on with my 17″ MBP from the last decade.
Damn shame that Apple engineers have forgotten how to design computers.
Well, if more people bought that size, they’d still make it.
Scott, it’s completely unrealistic for the most expensive MacBook to sell as well as the cheaper models. If we used your criteria for deciding what Apple products to axe, then Apple would make only iOS junk; zero peripherals, and no desktop Macs of any kind. But the real world users DO need these things that aren’t top sellers in Apple’s portfolio.
Now especially that Apple has more money than it knows what to do with, what excuse does Apple have to deny users the configurations of machines that they loved? To make greed-based decisions is to go against the philosophy that once made Apple great.
Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Apple is STILL selling computers ONLY capable of doing HD video editing. I want a computer 1.2 times as fast as that!!!
It’s like watching people come down the blue runs on Olympic level skis. What do most of you actually do?
On my computer, I do run Olympic level stuff. Why don’t you?
Look, Apple is sacrificing user experience and performance on Ives’ altar of Stupid Thinness.
Even if you don’t need a powerful machine, Apple just offers shitty value. The 2015 MacBook is obsolete out of the box, with inferior performance, inferior connectivity, and a high price.
And as a bonus you get inferior battery life too:
Remind me again why I’m paying a premium for getting less?
Apple needs to rediscover what originally made them a better choice. Cook is tarnishing Apple’s name by cashing on on the people who blindly assume that Apple’s premium price is accompanied with premium value. Those days seem to be over.