Apple may have just announced its latest MacBook Pro refresh, but a new note from reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities is already offering a look at what Apple has in store for next year’s models. According to the note, Apple is planning both a price cut as well as an internal hardware refresh for its MacBook Pro lineup.
The report is overall optimistic about the 2017 MacBook lineup, noting that Apple tends to overprice at the start of a new MacBook generation before gradually lowering the price in the following year. Because of this, Kuo anticipates that Apple will announce price drops for its MacBook lineup during the second half of next year.
Additionally, Kuo predicts that as the USB-C market matures and the Touch Bar matures, customers will become more enticed to upgrade.
In terms of specs, however, Kuo anticipates that Apple will launch refreshed MacBook Pros in the second half of 2017 that offer support for 32GB of RAM. He notes that this is dependent upon whether or not Intel releases its Canonlake processors in time, though.
Kuo explains that the Canonlake CPU with LPDDR 4 RAM consumes 15 percent to 25 percent less power than existing CPUs, thus allowing that power saving to be allotted to additional RAM. If, however, Intel is late in launching Cannonlake CPUs, Kuo predicts that Apple will adopt Coffee Lake processors, which use LPDDR 3 RAM, maxing out at 16GB because of power consumption.
Apple executive Phil Schiller explained last week that the primary reason behind Apple’s decision to forgo offering a 32GB RAM option with the new MacBook Pros is because of power consumption.
Apple’s new MacBook Pro lineup has been met with mixed reactions thus far. As our own polls have shown, users are hesitant to upgrade for a handful of different reasons, though the biggest reason behind the decision of most readers seems to relate to the price.
Are you more likely to holdout for a 2017 price drop + spec upgrade now that KGI’s latest report is out? Let us know what you think in the comments and if you think Apple should have offered these benefits from the get-go…
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