AppleInsider Staff
Although no official announcement was made during Apple's WWDC keynote on Monday, the disappearance of the 17-inch MacBook Pro from the company's online store can be taken as confirmation that the large-screened notebook has reached end-of-life.
Rumors that the venerable 17-inch notebook would see its demise first cropped up in April as analysts predicted flagging shipments would prompt Apple to cut the device from its lineup. Apple's online storefront now lists its entire lineup of notebook from the smallest 11-inch MacBook Air to the now top-of-the-line next generation 15.4-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display.
Whispers in December pointed to a refreshed 17-inch model upon news that Apple was looking into using a new 2,800 by 1.800 pixel display for its MacBook lineup, but it seems that the display was destined for the 15.4-inch device announced today.
The 17-inch MacBook Pro is now unlisted on the Apple online store. | Source: Apple
Apple was the first computer manufacturer to release a 17-inch laptop in 2003 and the model was continually updated with subsequent refreshes. The large screen size allowed the company more chassis space to include larger speakers and a higher number of internal components, but the recent trend toward portability saw sales of the monster laptop begin to slow. Originally, the 17-inch MacBook Pro targeted the professional demographic, evidenced by an anti-glare screen and high performance graphic cards.
It is unclear whether Apple will bring the model back when high-resolution display pricing drops, but it seems that most users, including professionals, are content with 15-inch products.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
156 Comments
Oh well. Years of 17-inchers since the first model is over for me.
Retina 15-inch? I'll take it.
Bugger.
Hopefully the rumors that pointed to a Fall changeover for the 17" to the next gen will come true. A 17" is about the only portable that interests me, personally, as I need screen real estate more than anything and a "retina" type display on a 17" screen would fit the bill. I don't travel that much and when I do, need a true desktop replacement to do work on the road. My current macbook and older Macbook Pro don't quite fit the bill...
We'll see. I'll have to check out the 15" next gen MBP but would really like a 17" version. I know it is probably a low volume thing but I would guess that content creators on the Pro side would also want the screen real estate.
Good riddance.
I can see why they wouldn't include a 17" MBP with a Retina Display. You can look at the 15" model and see that the financial costs, technical difficulty, and power requirements have increased dramatically with the Retina Displays. [edit: Corrected by [B]dempson[/B]]...not to mention the other issues of creating a larger display that is Retina or the GPU needed to push the several million more pixels it would have. But what is a bit of a head scratcher is dropping the old-style 17" MBP. The only thing I can think of is that it's not popular enough to warrant even updating the CPU which frankly surprises me.