New MacBooks And MacBook Pros WIth Kaby Lake Silicon And Supporting More RAM Predicted In 2017

Digitimes’ Joseph Tsai cites a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report that unnamed market watchers are predicting Apple MacBook shipments to grow 10 percent in 2017, and projecting 15 million units shipped.

The report notes that demand for the late 2016 MacBook Pro with OLED Touch Bar “is still rather strong,” but that MacBook Pros using Intel’s seventh generation Kaby Lake Core silicon are expected to be released late in 2017, offering lower power consumption, and that is “expected to trigger a replacement trend among existing MacBook users,” who one observes may not be enchanted by being presented with what some may find a compelling upgrade path so soon.

The anonymous sources also speculate that Apple is likely to reduce the price of the entry level non Touch Bar 13-inch MacBook Pro, which will replace the 13-inch MacBook Air, and also anticipate a new 12-inch MacBook release early in the second quarter with a 16GB memory option.

The Digitimes report presents a similar unfolding of events to those predicted in a new research note from KGI Securities analyst and highly-regarded Apple hardware prognosticator Ming-Chi Kuo , cited by MacRumors, including the 12-MacBook RAM option upgrade as well as a 15-inch MacBook Pro that will support 32GB of desktop-class RAM to begin mass production early in the fourth quarter

Kuo predicts both the MacBook and MacBook Pro models will get the seventh generation silicon as well, but few if any other changes. He also expects the 13-inch MacBook Air to be gradually end-of-lifed with a price drop for the non 13-inch MacBook Pro.

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