Apple’s Thursday “Hello Again” Event A Largely Laptop Affair – Analyst

KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who has a strong record of Apple hardware prediction accuracy, forecasts in a new note to investors released late last week that a long-overdue redo of the MacBook Pro will be unveiled Thursday along with either an upsized 13-inch version of the 12-inch MacBook, or a 13-inch MacBook Air with a Skylake processor upgrade and USB-C ports, or perhaps both.

Speaking of USB-C ports, Kuo suggests that either Apple or a third-party supplier may also introduce a hybrid USB-C connector with the hardware-preserving magnetic quick-release characteristics of Apple’s MagSafe connectors. That would be cool.

In the not-cool column, Kuo says the new MacBook Pros will have the misbegotten “butterfly mechanism” keyboard Apple introduced last year in the 12-inch MacBook with Retina display. If that’s the case, and Apple hasn’t improved the keyboard’s rapidly pain-inducing kyswitch action, they can deal me out as a potential buyer regardless of other considerations. Keyboard comfort is about as fundamental as it gets in a laptop.

Still with keyboards, also rumored is an OLED touch bar strip replacing the traditional function keys and Touch ID sensor. The touch bar could be a testing of the waters for a full capacitive input keyboard. Last spring Apple was granted a patent for a “configurable, force-sensitive input structure for an electronic device,” a capacitive keyboard that could be used in laptop computers instead of the traditional physical keyswitch type keyboard. Essentially, it would bring tablet-style virtual keyboard input to laptops, with the addition of haptic “motion” feedback even though the user would be striking zero-travel “keys” on a flat plane. Advantages of such a setup would include enabling iOS style custom keyboard layouts that could change for optimization with the application in use, a drastic reduction in moving parts, elimination of the mechanical wear factor, and increased resistance to dirt and/or moisture ingress. For more information, see United States Patent Application 20160098107 . Given that I find using the virtual keyboard in my iPad comfortable, this is a concept that I think I could happily embrace, and I hope Apple will proceed with it.

Processors for the new MacBook Pros are expected to be Intel Core i5 and i7 from the Skylake family rather than the current latest Kaby Lake Core silicon. Other new stuff Kuo suggests may be coming in the new MBPs are Thunderbolt 3, better Retina display quality and energy efficiency, and optional availability of a 2TB SSD.

For more detai see reports by:

MacRumors’ Eric Slivka

Appleinsider’s Mikey Campbell

Engadget’s Jon Fingas

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