AppleInsider Staff
Just hours after new details surfaced suggesting that Apple could introduce a slimmed-down version of its popular 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display next week, one of the company's largest resellers — Amazon.com — is sold out of the current entry-level model.
The high-profile stockout that was discovered in AppleInsider's Mac Price Guide Monday morning comes just a week before Apple CEO Tim Cook is set to kick off the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference with a keynote presentation — a stage frequently used to unveil new products and innovations. This year, the company is expected to showcase its new next-generation operating system software for the Mac and iOS devices — OS X 10.9 and iOS 7 — in addition to highlighting some new Mac notebooks powered by Intel's new Haswell processors
Well-connected industry watch Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities revealed on Sunday that Apple plans to launch a slimmed-down 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display at WWDC. He said the tweaked design will feature a thinner chassis, giving the professional-grade notebook a more portable form factor.
In addition, it's said that the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro will sport an improved FaceTime HD camera, which could move from a current resolution of 720p to 1080p, or "full HD." For his part in attempting to predict Apple's future product plans through insight into the company's operations out East, Ming-Chi Kuo sports one of the industry's most respectable track records in recent years.
Amazon's stockout applies to Apple's entry-level 13-inch model, sporting a 2.5-gigahertz Intel Core i5 processor and 128 gigabytes of flash storage. Low inventory levels at authorized resellers are often one of the first signs of new hardware on the horizon, as Apple draws down its available inventory ahead of a new product launch.
While the entry-level model is sold out, Amazon still has remaining inventory of the higher end models with 256 gigabytes of flash storage, at processor speeds of 2.5 gigahertz and 2.6-gigahertz.
In addition, as can be seen in the AppleInsider Mac Price Guide, Amazon and other resellers still have inventory of the two default configurations of Apple's larger 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, which are the 2.4-gigahertz model with 256 gigabytes of storage and 8 gigabytes of RAM, and the 2.7-gigahertz variety with 512 gigabytes of storage and 16 gigabytes of RAM. The latest rumors have not offered any indication that Apple plans to update the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro next week, suggesting that a refresh to add Intel's Haswell processors may come at a later date.
However, Apple is expected to bring Haswell to its MacBook Air lineup at WWDC next week, with new models sporting dual microphones for better voice recognition. AppleInsider was first to report on widespread stockouts of MacBook Air models at resellers in recent weeks leading up to WWDC.
Jim Dalrymple of The Loop, who has a reputation for accurate insider info on Apple's future product plans, corroborated rumors of new Macs at WWDC last week, when he signaled that updated hardware will likely be unveiled. The company is also planning to show off new versions of iOS and OS X, but is not expected to launch any new iPhone or iPad models.
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14 Comments
requirements for it to be jaw dropping (it will still be the best, even without haswell... Oh well):
the 15"
Air
Is this too much to ask for on 1000+ $ machines that are designed to be the best?
[quote name="pedromartins" url="/t/157818/amazon-sells-out-of-entry-level-13-retina-macbook-pro-amid-rumors-of-slimmer-model#post_2337369"]requirements for it to be jaw dropping (it will still be the best, even without haswell... Oh well): [LIST=1] [*] quad core cpu; [*] Nvidia 750m; [*] same thinness or thinner; [*] higher resolution and IGZO. [*] Better battery life [/LIST] the 15" [LIST=1] [*] Nvidia 765m or 750m SLI; [*] same thinness or thinner; [*] higher resolution IGZO. [*] better battery life. [/LIST] Air [LIST=1] [*] Iris graphics; [*] Current rMBP 13" resolution; [*] Same thinness or thinner. [*] better battery life. [/LIST] Is this too much to ask for on 1000+ $ machines that are designed to be the best? [/quote] I don't think they're going to increase the resolution of their Retina MBPs anytime soon. I think around 220 PPI is where it's going to stay for a long time. If anything seems slated for Retina it's the MBAs but as [B]wizard69[/B] pointed out yesterday that might not be possible even this year whilst still keeping the same usage duration.
[quote name="pedromartins" url="/t/157818/amazon-sells-out-of-entry-level-13-retina-macbook-pro-amid-rumors-of-slimmer-model#post_2337369"] [LIST=1] [*] higher resolution and IGZO. [/LIST] the 15" [LIST=1] [*] higher resolution IGZO. [/LIST] [/quote] Higher resolution on the 13 and 15? Huh???
The resolution is high enough, especially for the models with no discret GPU. But IGZO would be great for batterie life. Maybe the 13" rMBA and 13" rMBP will melt into one product. HD5000 should be able to drive the 13" resolution, unlike the current 13" rMBP which in my opinion is a broken product.
[quote name="Andysol" url="/t/157818/amazon-sells-out-of-entry-level-13-retina-macbook-pro-amid-rumors-of-slimmer-model#post_2337386"] Higher resolution on the 13 and 15? Huh???[/quote] Like me, [B]pedro[/B] suffers from igzomania, a disorder characterized by irrational, obsessive speculation about if, when, and how this mysterious display breakthrough will appear, and what it will mean visually to us, and what it will mean economically to Apple. This is the first time I've seen an igzomaniac speculate that Apple will sneak such a radical change into a laptop. Would be quite a surprise. Resolution changes resulting from IGZO are unknown. He's really got it bad.