We know many of our readers are thinking, "Enough with the iPad, where are the new Core i5 and Core i7 MacBook Pros?" It appears as though we may get our answer yet this month, as Taiwanese component suppliers suggest production has ramped up for new Apple notebooks in the past several days.
A report from the Taiwan-based Apple Daily (via MacRumors) suggests that Apple will release an updated line of notebooks featuring updated Intel processors sometime this month. The updated MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air models were scheduled to launch well before the iPad, but several Taiwanese component suppliers suggested that constrained supply of 32nm Arrandale parts caused a delay. Suppliers are saying that the processors are now plentiful enough to complete planned production.
The Apple Daily report also specifically mentions that the updated laptop models are expected to offer hard drives up to 640GB or SSDs up to 248GB. The battery life of the updated models may also be pushed to eight hours across the board, up from the seven hours quoted for current models. The increased efficiency may likely come from NVIDIA's Optimus platform, which can switch on-the-fly between a dedicated GPU and the integrated graphics included in the Core i3, i5, and i7 packages.
We have also heard through the grapveine that an update might come as early as next week, though this is unconfirmed. However, in light of both rumors pointing to updates to Apple's notebooks happening this month, we remain hopeful that the information has a kernel of truth.
This April mobile blitz is also expected to be followed in a few months with updates to Apple's Mac Pro and Cinema Display lines, in keeping with Steve Jobs' promise that Apple will release a "very strong" line-up of new products this year.
reader comments
47