Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
MacBook Pro Reportedly Won't See Any Major Upgrades in 2018
Apple currently has no plans to make any major upgrades to its MacBook Pro lineup in 2018, according to DigiTimes. Of course, if accurate, the report doesn't rule out a MacBook Pro refresh or update of any kind this year.
An excerpt from the report, citing sources within Apple's supply chain:
Taiwan-based Foxconn has reportedly been working to boost its chances of notebook orders from Apple by offering attractive quotes. Apple will therefore switch MacBook orders to Foxconn for models that are already in mass production as a way to save costs and reduce risks, according to the sources cited.
Quanta is said to be looking to other brand vendors to offset the impact of the loss of orders, as it aims for similar growth to the market average in 2018. The Taiwan-based firm shipped 38.7 million notebooks last year, up five percent on year, and is currently the largest notebook supplier for HP, Apple, Acer, and Asus.
Quanta also maintains orders for the Apple Watch, and is said to be teaming up with Israeli-based augmented reality company Lumus to manufacture lenses for smart glasses. It's not clear if Quanta and Lumus are working with Apple on a future AR headset or smart glasses, but it is a possibility as rumors suggest Apple has a wearable augmented reality product in the works.
An excerpt from the report, citing sources within Apple's supply chain:
The sources revealed that Foxconn had been aggressively working to land more MacBook orders from Apple during the past few years by offering attractive quotes. Since Apple has not had a major upgrade to its MacBook product line since the releases of its new MacBook Pro devices at the end of 2016 and has no plan for one in 2018, the US-based vendor is planning to shift orders for models that are already in mass production to Foxconn to save costs and reduce risks.Apple's manufacturing partner Foxconn could land a large number of additional MacBook orders this year, the report adds. The increase could come at the expense of Quanta Computer, which has been Apple's major MacBook supplier in recent years.
Taiwan-based Foxconn has reportedly been working to boost its chances of notebook orders from Apple by offering attractive quotes. Apple will therefore switch MacBook orders to Foxconn for models that are already in mass production as a way to save costs and reduce risks, according to the sources cited.
Foxconn is expected to begin mass shipments to fulfill the new orders in the second quarter of 2018, said the sources. Foxconn and Quanta both declined to comment on their clients or orders. The sources pointed out that Apple started outsourcing the assembly for some of MacBooks' components to Foxconn's plants in Shenzhen, China in the second half of 2017.Despite the news, Quanta is expected to remain Apple's biggest supplier going into 2018. According to DigiTimes' research, out of 15 million MacBooks shipped to Apple a year, the shipment ratio between Quanta and Foxconn has been at around 8:2 for the past five years. Last year alone, Quanta had a 79.5 percent share and Foxconn took 20.5 percent.
Quanta is said to be looking to other brand vendors to offset the impact of the loss of orders, as it aims for similar growth to the market average in 2018. The Taiwan-based firm shipped 38.7 million notebooks last year, up five percent on year, and is currently the largest notebook supplier for HP, Apple, Acer, and Asus.
Quanta also maintains orders for the Apple Watch, and is said to be teaming up with Israeli-based augmented reality company Lumus to manufacture lenses for smart glasses. It's not clear if Quanta and Lumus are working with Apple on a future AR headset or smart glasses, but it is a possibility as rumors suggest Apple has a wearable augmented reality product in the works.
Related Roundups: MacBook Pro, Apple Glasses
Buyer's Guide: MacBook Pro (Don't Buy)
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17 months ago
No updates. Here's a few that spring to mind, in case you've forgotten, Apple.
•Make the Gimmick-bar optional.
•32+GB Ram options across the Pro range.
•nVidia GPUs for those who want/need to use CUDA.
•Option to choose between old and new keyboard design.
•Re-introduction of the Anti-glare option.
•Re-introduction of the 17" model.
•Non soldered, user accessible Ram & SSD.
•Re-introduction of the illuminated Apple logo on the back of the display.
(yeah I know... there's about 0.0000000000001% chance of any of this materialising).
•Make the Gimmick-bar optional.
•32+GB Ram options across the Pro range.
•nVidia GPUs for those who want/need to use CUDA.
•Option to choose between old and new keyboard design.
•Re-introduction of the Anti-glare option.
•Re-introduction of the 17" model.
•Non soldered, user accessible Ram & SSD.
•Re-introduction of the illuminated Apple logo on the back of the display.
(yeah I know... there's about 0.0000000000001% chance of any of this materialising).
17 months ago
('https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/15/foxconn-more-macbook-orders-from-apple-2018/')
Apple supplier Foxconn could be about to land a large number of additional MacBook orders this year, according to upstream supply chain sources (via DigiTimes ('http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20180115PD209.html')). The increase could come at the expense of Quanta Computer, which has been Apple's major MacBook manufacturer in recent years.
Taiwan-based Foxconn has reportedly been working to boost its chances of notebook orders from Apple by offering attractive quotes, while Apple has not majorly upgraded its MacBook range since 2016's Touch Bar MacBook Pros, and is said to have no plan for one in 2018. Apple will therefore switch MacBook orders to Foxconn for models that are already in mass production as a way to save costs and reduce risks, according to the sources.
Despite the news, Quanta is expected to remain Apple's biggest supplier going into 2018. According to DigiTimes' research, out of 15 million MacBooks shipped to Apple a year, the shipment ratio between Quanta and Foxconn has been at around 8:2 for the past five years. Last year alone, Quanta had a 79.5 percent share and Foxconn took 20.5 percent.
Quanta is said to be looking to other brand vendors to offset the impact of the loss of orders, as it aims for similar growth to the market average in 2018. The Taiwan-based firm shipped 38.7 million notebooks last year, up 5 percent on year, and is currently the largest notebook supplier for Hewlett-Packard (HP), Apple, Acer and Asustek Computer.
Quanta also maintains orders from Apple for Apple Watch, and is said to be teaming up with Israeli-based augmented reality company Lumus to manufacture lenses for smart glasses ('https://www.macrumors.com/2017/12/04/quanta-lumus-augmented-reality-lenses/'). It's not clear if Quanta and Lumus are working with Apple on a future AR headset or smart glasses, but it is a possibility as rumors suggest Apple has a wearable augmented reality product in the works.
Article Link: Foxconn to See More MacBook Orders From Apple in 2018 Despite No Major Upgrades to Line-Up Planned This Year ('https://www.macrumors.com/2018/01/15/foxconn-more-macbook-orders-from-apple-2018/')
17 months ago
What more does it need than an upgraded CPU? Not much more should be done at this time.
A keyboard that doesn't feel like crap and have a **** layout, no useless Touchbar on the higher end models and a trackpad that isn't so huge it constantly mistakes my palms for fingers.
Understandable that they don't want to improve it this year since it's not that old a design.
17 months ago
Get the config possibilities up to 32GB of RAM, and I am interested. Not a second before...
17 months ago
I gave up waiting.
I found a coupon for a Dell that got me (refurbished) an XPS 15 with an i7 HQ processor, user upgradable ram, 256 GB ssd (user upgradable again), 15" HD display, and a 4GB nvidia gtx 1050 all for $760.
Christ I hate Windows. But the performance of this machine is better than the macbook pro (and handily beating it in the GPU arena). I can upgrade the ram to 32GB (which I will do almost immediately) and get a new SSD shortly. All for far less than the cheapest, 3 year old macbook Air.
Apple: I love your design. I love MacOS. But I'm also in need of a serious pro machine that has a reasonable price. I'm willing to pay a premium for your stuff, but only in the neighborhood of 20%. Not double or even triple in this case, and not for gimmicks like the touch bar, and not if you keep making the damn thing almost un upgradable.
If you get your s*** together in a few years I might be back. But for now you lost another Mac sale. I know you don't care being the richest company on earth, but this is how the seeds of decline get planted.
I found a coupon for a Dell that got me (refurbished) an XPS 15 with an i7 HQ processor, user upgradable ram, 256 GB ssd (user upgradable again), 15" HD display, and a 4GB nvidia gtx 1050 all for $760.
Christ I hate Windows. But the performance of this machine is better than the macbook pro (and handily beating it in the GPU arena). I can upgrade the ram to 32GB (which I will do almost immediately) and get a new SSD shortly. All for far less than the cheapest, 3 year old macbook Air.
Apple: I love your design. I love MacOS. But I'm also in need of a serious pro machine that has a reasonable price. I'm willing to pay a premium for your stuff, but only in the neighborhood of 20%. Not double or even triple in this case, and not for gimmicks like the touch bar, and not if you keep making the damn thing almost un upgradable.
If you get your s*** together in a few years I might be back. But for now you lost another Mac sale. I know you don't care being the richest company on earth, but this is how the seeds of decline get planted.
17 months ago
I would be gobsmacked if they did not at least update the CPU to coffee lake, update the GPU to AMD Vega M with 6GB VRAM, support 32GB RAM, improve the keyboard and improve the battery. These are the things I would be interested in if they plan on keeping the current prices which I think is reasonable.
17 months ago
Given that there was a major update in 2016, this is not really shocking news. The question is will Apple continue to improve (or better yet) replace their keyboard and secondly what chip family will it have, i.e., coffee lake or cannon lake?
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