Apple Plans MacBook And MacBook Pro Kaby Lake Refresh For WWDC
This is shaping up to be an interesting summer. In addition to the ongoing CPU war between AMD and Intel, and a GPU showdown between AMD and NVIDIA, we're going to witness a mobile computing scuffle between Apple and Microsoft. This will take place starting in June when Apple will reportedly introduce upgraded 12-inch MacBook and MacPro laptops with faster processors.
Both the 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro family are getting bumped up to Kaby Lake, which is Intel's latest processor architecture. As it stands, Apple's 12-inch MacBook and MacBook models feature CPUs based on Intel's previous generation Skylake architecture underneath the hood. By bumping up to Kaby Lake, Apple's laptops will see better performance and might also see longer battery life.
Apple also considered updating its 13-inch MacBook Air, but despite being a bit long in the tooth at this point, it continues to sell really well. That being the case, Apple is seemingly content to leave well enough alone.
Part of the motivation with these upgrades is to remain competitive with Microsoft and its newly introduced Surface Laptop, a sleek system with a 13.5-inch PixelSense display and Kaby Lake underneat the hood. The Surface Laptop also sports up to 1TB of PCIe SSD storage. When unveiling the Surface Laptop, Microsoft noted that it's thinner than the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, faster than either system, and offers superior battery life.
While the Surface Laptop presents a viable alternative to the MacBook Air, there seems to be optimism from Apple that refreshing its 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro models could limit the Surface Laptop's appeal. Whether or not that is truly the case remains to be seen.
Apple's bread and butter continues to be its iPhone line, though it still rakes in billions of dollars from its Mac products. Specifically, it collected $5.8 billion in revenue from Mac sales during the second quarter of 2017. That works out to around 11 percent of Apple's total revenue.
Look for the upgraded 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro models to debut at Apple's WWDC event in June.
Both the 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro family are getting bumped up to Kaby Lake, which is Intel's latest processor architecture. As it stands, Apple's 12-inch MacBook and MacBook models feature CPUs based on Intel's previous generation Skylake architecture underneath the hood. By bumping up to Kaby Lake, Apple's laptops will see better performance and might also see longer battery life.
Part of the motivation with these upgrades is to remain competitive with Microsoft and its newly introduced Surface Laptop, a sleek system with a 13.5-inch PixelSense display and Kaby Lake underneat the hood. The Surface Laptop also sports up to 1TB of PCIe SSD storage. When unveiling the Surface Laptop, Microsoft noted that it's thinner than the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, faster than either system, and offers superior battery life.
While the Surface Laptop presents a viable alternative to the MacBook Air, there seems to be optimism from Apple that refreshing its 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro models could limit the Surface Laptop's appeal. Whether or not that is truly the case remains to be seen.
Apple's bread and butter continues to be its iPhone line, though it still rakes in billions of dollars from its Mac products. Specifically, it collected $5.8 billion in revenue from Mac sales during the second quarter of 2017. That works out to around 11 percent of Apple's total revenue.
Look for the upgraded 12-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro models to debut at Apple's WWDC event in June.
