First MacBook Pro re-design in four years could arrive at WWDC with USB 3.0
It looks like the venerable MacBook Pro may be going on a diet.
It's no secret that the MacBook Air has been a smashing success for Apple, the razor thin notebooks are projected to contribute $7 billion to Apple's bottom line this year and have spawned a parade of me-too Ultrabook clones from Intel.
But while the MacBook Air basks in the spotlight the workhorse MacBook Pro (like its big brother the Mac Pro) hasn't garnered much attention. Last updated by Apple in October 2011, the MacBook Pro has sported the same unibody aluminum industrial design since its debut in the Fall of 2008.
It what reeks of a controlled leak, Bloomberg reports that Apple will release a thinner MacBook Pro at WWDC in June 11, 2012. Citing "people with knowledge of the plans" Bloomberg reports that the new MBPs will feature high-definition, Retina Displays "like those on the iPhone and iPad." It's also likely that the new MBPs will be powered by Intel’s new Ivy Bridge processors and come with OS X 10.8 "Mountain Lion" pre-installed.
ZDNET's Sean Portnoy notes that DigiTimes' supply chain sources state the the new MacBook Pros will go into production starting in June and will peak in July to allow for plenty of inventory for the critical back-to-school buying season.
Lending further credence the rumors, benchmarks for a MacBook Pro9,1 (and a new iMac desktop) running an Ivy Bridge Core i7-3820QM processor have surfaced with a Geekbench score of 12252 -- about 17 percent faster than the current i7-powered MacBook Pro models.
Perhaps the most shocking rumor is that the new MBP will come with a USB 3.0 port, the first in a Mac. 9to5Mac reports that the latest Mountain Lion beta indicates that the upcoming Ivy Bridge machines will support USB 3.0 and a new NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M GPU.
Are you waiting for the new MacBook Pro or does the MacBook Air suit your needs?
Photo: 9to5Mac