Appleinsider’s Neil Hughes reportsf that Apple is expected to discontinue its 17-inch MacBook Pro this year, and might even ax the Pro lineup entirely in favor of a “new MacBook” in 2013, citing a a research note shared with AppleInsider by KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who expects only the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros to receive updates from Apple this month.
Mr. Kuo thinks Apple is planning to launch an entirely new just “MacBook” lineup this week, with new 13-inch and 15-inch models slotted between the current MacBook Air and MacBook Pro families.
Hughes notes that sales of the 17-inch MacBook Pro have dwindled to just 1.7 percent of the company’s notebook sales in Q1 201July ccording to Kuo while the 13-inch MacBook Pro remained far and away Apple’s strongest notebook seller, accounting for a whopping 46.9 percent of sales, vastly exceeding the much-hyped 13-inch MacBook Air’s 18.1 percent share, and 16 percent for the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
Looking farther ahead, Hughes says Kuo believes Apple plansto potentially discontinue the entire MacBook Pro lineup, replacing it with 13- and 15-inch n “new MacBooks,” eventally simplifying its notebook offerings to just four products: the 11- and 13-inch MacBook Airs, and the new 13- and 15-inch MacBooks, or perhaps even just 11-inch, 13-inch, and 15-inch MacBooks resulting from a merger of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro category with a thin & ligh design bereft of internal optical drives, but more power (and hopefully connectivity/expandability) than the MacBook Air.
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