According to a new article from AppleInsider today, there may be 14 new Mac products next week, most likely to be announced at the WWDC.
Based on approximate pricing, it looks like the 17” MacBook Pro will be discontinued. The most powerful new MacBook will be the “Best” configuration of the 15” MacBook Pro. This model is priced at almost $1,000 more than the current high-end 15” model.
What could be in that computer to justify such a price increase? Two words: Retina Display.
My current hardware is a 2009 Mac Pro with 32 GB of RAM and a 2011 11” MacBook Air. I am on the Mac Pro most of the time but have recently been using the Air a lot more often as I like to work on the deck or away from my desk when possible in the summer months.
Rather than invest in another Mac Pro - the most expensive Mac made - I think I may just buy one of these new 15” MacBook Pro computers, sell the 11” MacBook Air, and move my current Mac Pro into a server capacity. I would also continue to use the Mac Pro for the occasional video editing tasks that I have. The 32 GB of RAM comes in handy for that.
Follow up, August 30th: The 15” MacBook Pro did come out in a version with a Retina Display. I bought the mid-range model with 8 GB of memory, 512 GB SSD, and the 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU. And it’s gorgeous, oh yeah.