“Over two years ago, I wrote a review of the then-new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro. The headline: We’re Getting Very Close To The Perfect MacBook. ‘Very close’ is the key phrase there,” M.G. Siegler writes for Medium. “As great as that machine was/is, I knew it wasn’t perfection in laptop form. Yet.”
“In the intervening years, I’ve gone back-and-forth between using this 13-inch MacBook Pro and an 11-inch MacBook Air (my work machine). There are obvious and real benefits to each. In my mind, it’s been clear for a while: the absolute perfect machine would be a 12-inch MacBook with a Retina display,” Siegler writes. And, if a scoop by Mark Gurman is to be believed (and there’s no reason to believe it shouldn’t be, given his track record), such a machine nears.””
“With this new machine, Apple will have essentially whittled down the MacBook to just the absolute fundamentals of a laptop. Any further reduction and you no longer have a laptop, you have a tablet,” Siegler writes. “You have the iPad.”
“I suspect this new MacBook will be the last laptop I end up buying. Again, that doesn’t mean the MacBook is dying anytime soon, but I believe this will be the pinnacle of the product,” Siegler writes. “Kids will grow up never having used a laptop. Apple is about to whittle the MacBook down to perfection. Peak laptop. From there, there’s nowhere to go but to slowly disappear… into an iPad.”
Read more in the full article here.
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Here’s how Apple could eliminate almost every port on its next MacBook Air – January 8, 2015
Apple’s patented universal connector ready for prime time? – January 7, 2015
The new 12-Inch MacBook Air rumors don’t make sense – January 7, 2015
Why Apple’s new 12-inch MacBook Air can abandon almost all ports – January 6, 2015
Apple’s next major Mac revealed: Meet the radically new 12-inch MacBook Air – January 6, 2015
I just got a new MacBook Pro, and I’m about to believe the same thing. To me, Apple has about taken its minimalist work too far. I still like to be able to add more RAM and change a drive meself.
Tablets are not the be-all and end-all desired goal of final computer form. They serve they’re own niche and need. I love my iPad, but I love my Mac Pro and Mac Book Pro just as much for THEIR intended purpose. Personally I don’t need or want a “Mac Surface Pro” type device.
There’s probably a market for one (especially if Apple does something different with a stylus) but it won’t be for everyone.
There’s always going to be a need- a big need- for trucks. I love my 6Plus phone. Love my iPad. But sometimes they can be frustrating for a musician and music connoisseur. Nothing beats my 27-inch iMac with 8inch M-Audio speakers- it’s my sound system, and my main computer. If all my devices died at one- the first thing I’d buy would be a new (retina) iMac.
Amen brother. Love my “trucks” too.
As soon as the 12 inch comes out I am giving my early 2014 MacAir to grandkids …..
Apple products make great hand me downs …. Grandkids recently got two first generation iPad Air units ….. With five grandkids and 4 parents it makes an easy case for granddad to buy latest and pass down!
Been running MBPs with plug-in displays for a number of years, but think the next turn of the wheel will be iMac 27 Retina plus iPads.
I wouldn’t wish for an Apple Surface. Touchscreens are only good for non-precise work without significant data entry. A laptop with a touchpad and a USB port allows you ANY input method for YOUR type of work. A touchscreen, no matter how attractive its form factor, always comes married to a dumbed-down OS that has to make accomodations for peoples’ fat fingers.
Seriously, try Windows 8 before you ask Apple to make an “iPad Pro” for you. Worst of both worlds.
Please fix the link!!
Just like the first MBA, this design, if real, is slightly ahead of its time and wasn’t quite realized until 2-3 years later.
I’m waiting for the MacBook Air with 1TB storage. I’ll be happy then.
I remember when I started working for NASA, I got a Mac II/FX with a 300MB hard drive and thought that I’d never fill that up! I’m thinking in 10-15 years, we’ll be wondering how we were able to ever get anything stored on a 1TB hard drive.
I was thrilled to bet a 20MB hard drive for my MacPlus. Who would ever fill that up???? 🙂
Why just 1TB? With Dropbox, and high speed wifi everywhere, get all the storage you want in the cloud. SSD today is just a buffer to the cloud. Who really needs 1TB onboard?
Well, I do.
Unfortunately, WiFI is NOT everywhere. and while Dropbox is awesome, it does not replace local storage for certain activities (like audio, video producing, heavy development, etc.)
WiFi is non existent in many of the places I find myself.
As usual, it depends upon what you want to do with your device and what device best fills your needs.
Me = I went back from a 13″ MacBook to a 15″ MacBook Pro, top end model, and am glad I did. I write all day long and enjoy having a keyboard as well as the great touch pad.
As for iOS touch devices: I like all the iPhones and also still like my old iPod Touch 4 for a lot of functions. Lately I am using it a lot for reading and watching/listening to podcasts and my personal media while out on the road or caffeinating.
For me the 15 inch rMBP is the perfect machine. Fast, light and very easy on the eye.
What would I like more of – large SSD and more RAM (16GB).
If I was traveling then maybe the 15 inch would be too much and the smaller 13 inch would be better.
People saying “MacBooks will dissapear, and will be replaced by iPads” forget one thing. One very important things:
Developers.
People, we developers build all that nice software you run on your iPads and smartphones.
And to build that software, we need computers. COMPLETE, FULLY-FLEDGED computers, where we can install and run development tools.
I love my iPad. i think it;s one of the greatest devices ever made. But I need my MacBook Pro do build software.
Until that status-quo doesn’t change, the MacBook (or any other PC, for the matter) will disspear.
I’m not ready to be touching a display and charging batteries all the time, no matter how much I love my iPhone when I’m out and about and, say, in my bed. When at home on the couch, my MacBook is basically on all the time, I use it like a desktop on my living room table since I use it with the power cord plugged in at all times, and it is my multimedia hub ( I have no TV ) so literally everything is done on this 13″ marvel. Sorry but no iPad will ever compete with it, unless screens become completely smudge resistant and the battery lasts for weeks on end even with heavy use…! (And if that were the case – how much time would it take to charge them up again??) The battery dilemma needs to solved and that will take some time still I predict.
Of course, for the majority of people these kind of things may not be an issue since they probably don’t spend hours upon hours on their computers/iPads whatnot when at home. I’m different; my work doesn’t require me to spend any time at a computer but at home it’s often all I do, lol. Reading on the web, writing, listening to music, watching things on YouTube and other outlets, all done on my trusty laptop that is never out of charge…
I can do all kinds of things with a Mac laptop that iOS does not allow and that is an important thing to me. Maybe the Facebook crowd can get by on crappy cloud apps on a tablet, but I want a real computer most of the time.
For too long now I have been putting off buying a new laptop. The reason for this is I am shopping on a real tight budget and not knowing much about processors and all this ram mumbo jumbo has made things alot harder than I feel they should be.