Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Apple Predicted to Discontinue 17-Inch MacBook Pro
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.
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. 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.
Kuo estimates Apple's first quarter MacBook Air sales at roughly 1.1 million, split nearly equally between 11-inch and 13-inch models. He believes that the MacBook Air is only meeting Apple's expectations and not exceeding them, in large part because solid-state drives are not yet available in large enough capacities to satisfy consumers. But the trend of abandoning optical and traditional hard disk drives from notebooks will continue, and solid-state drives will continue to become more cost competitive over time.
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. 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.
Apple’s Mac business in 2Q12 will be boosted by several factors. Three of which are: (1) Mountain Lion, which integrates iOS features with Mac OS, Apple TV’s interaction function, will be launched in June; (2) upgrading to Ivy Bridge; and (3) back-to-school demand. We forecast Apple will sell 5.32mn units of the Mac series (up 28.5% QoQ and 35.2% YoY) in 2Q12, making it the main growth driver.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.
We also predict Apple will roll out a fully new MacBook model in early 3Q12, boasting strong performance and easy carryability by combining the advantages of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.
While adding new products, Apple is likely to stop making the 17” MacBook Pro this year due to falling shipments, in order to maintain a lean product line strategy.
Kuo estimates Apple's first quarter MacBook Air sales at roughly 1.1 million, split nearly equally between 11-inch and 13-inch models. He believes that the MacBook Air is only meeting Apple's expectations and not exceeding them, in large part because solid-state drives are not yet available in large enough capacities to satisfy consumers. But the trend of abandoning optical and traditional hard disk drives from notebooks will continue, and solid-state drives will continue to become more cost competitive over time.
Tag: Ming-Chi Kuo
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Top Rated Comments
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95 months ago
Nooooo, Apple! Both of my last two Mac purchases have been 17" MBP's! They're brilliant! All the extra computing power plus the lots of extra screen real estate. Plus they fit perfectly in my backpack!
95 months ago
yeah, drop mac book pro 17", mac pro, whats next?
enough
edit--
It really doesn't make sense killing the content creation lines (mac pro, mbp 17").
enough
edit--
It really doesn't make sense killing the content creation lines (mac pro, mbp 17").
95 months ago
Yeah... right
Is this by any chance the same guy the predicted that the Mac mini would get dumped... over... and over... and over again?
What a boob.
Is this by any chance the same guy the predicted that the Mac mini would get dumped... over... and over... and over again?
What a boob.
95 months ago
I personally always thought the 17-inch MBP looked big and had few benefits over the 15-inch version, so I'm not surprised if this rumor ends up being true.
I suppose some could miss the ExpressCard slot though...
I suppose some could miss the ExpressCard slot though...
95 months ago
I'm quite disappointed with the sales number of the MacBook Air in the article, especially when it is compared with the strong sales of the MBP 13". MBA 13" is in every aspect much faster than the MBP 13", the screen is a lot better too. When you take the price of an equivalent SSD in the consideration, MBA 13" is much cheaper too.
So are people buying the 13" MBP just for the word "Pro"?
Because we like having to ability to burn CD's without having to buy an external drive. We have an all-in-one. ;)
95 months ago
Nnnnoooooooo!
Wow. I never thought there was something that could make me consider switching *back*.
I really, really use the real estate on my 17" MBP. It's my third one and I feel cramped working on someone's 15" for all the application and screen switching I do when coding or working in Photoshop. And writing music on a 15"? Nope. I live on this thing and don't want to have to connect some external monitor to do much of my work (it defeats the point of having a laptop and being mobile).
Some people think the 17" MBPs are too big, some people sit down and are jealous. Apple, you're making enough money to continue serving your customers with a few slightly less profitable parts of the business needed by some of your customers.
Many of us have been watching the discussions of possible 15" MBPs with retina screens and have been patiently waiting for news about a 17" version. Rumors of discontinuing them was not what we were waiting for!!
Apple, please, please don't kill the 17".
[edit: Oh, and I use the 2nd USB port daily at work. It comes in handy to not need a hub to connect my phone (or external keyboard sometimes) and have a USB magnetic card reader for running customer's CCs.]
Wow. I never thought there was something that could make me consider switching *back*.
I really, really use the real estate on my 17" MBP. It's my third one and I feel cramped working on someone's 15" for all the application and screen switching I do when coding or working in Photoshop. And writing music on a 15"? Nope. I live on this thing and don't want to have to connect some external monitor to do much of my work (it defeats the point of having a laptop and being mobile).
Some people think the 17" MBPs are too big, some people sit down and are jealous. Apple, you're making enough money to continue serving your customers with a few slightly less profitable parts of the business needed by some of your customers.
Many of us have been watching the discussions of possible 15" MBPs with retina screens and have been patiently waiting for news about a 17" version. Rumors of discontinuing them was not what we were waiting for!!
Apple, please, please don't kill the 17".
[edit: Oh, and I use the 2nd USB port daily at work. It comes in handy to not need a hub to connect my phone (or external keyboard sometimes) and have a USB magnetic card reader for running customer's CCs.]
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