With the launch of the MacBook Air last week we are finally seeing the transition of laptops that have moving parts to laptops that have nothing.
With the next generation MacBook Pros approaching in Q1 of 2011 we’ll finally see Apple deliver on what Intel CEO Paul Otenelli claims:
Sandy Bridge represents the largest increase in computing performance in our history. This is a truly stunning product that we can’t wait to bring to market. Early demand from customers is much greater than we originally expected and we anticipate a very fast ramp.
With Intel making such bold claims is that performance improvement enough for Apple to simply plug in a Sandy Bridge onto the 15 and 17 inch MacBook Pros and release a new model. I’m not so sure.
By moving out your standard 2.5 inch hard drive out of the MacBook Air Apple was able to free up a huge chunk of real estate inside the enclosure for other parts of the computer while dramatically improving performance. Could Apple do the same inside the MacBook Pro? I think a few questions need to be addressed:
1. How Much Storage Do Professionals Need?
One of the big factors in every machine not offering SSD standard yet is a balance between cost/number of gigabytes. You can get a 128GB SSD drive for around $249.99, where as a 512 GB 7200rpm standard hard drive is 129.99. This type of differential means consumer can quickly swap in bigger hard drives into laptops quickly and cheaply. With SSD built on the motherboard this wouldn’t be possible.
2. Does a MacBook Pro user even care about SSD?
If you are a power user do you even care they have moved your machine to SSD memory at the cost of you paying more and having less storage. My hunch here is a user is more excited about having the option of adopting SSD in their laptop rather than having it included unless they get the same storage capacity. Currently the MacBook Pro has SSD as option, but ships with a standard 7200rpm drive.
3. What kind of price can Apple secure on the Solid State Memory?
Apple I believe is the largest purchaser of SSD memory in the world. Between the iPhone, iPad and now the MacBook Air they are well positioned to take advantage of their 2005 agreement for memory supply. They buy enough memory could they secure a price that didn’t raise the minimum price in a MacBook Pro.
4. Is Non User Upgradable ok to the consumer?
If Apple moves to SSD in the lineup the user will be unable to swap in a different hard drive or upgrade the amount of flash memory inside the unit….ever. As we’ve seen in the past users like to upgrade. I can’t imagine a pro machine where the user has 0 options when it comes to expandability unless they want external solutions.
5. Is the space even important
When you are talking about 15 and 17 inch laptops is space even important to save. By moving to SSD Apple would free up a lot of room in the chasis to support an increased battery or possibly more cooling to shove a bigger GPU in there. My personal opinion is Apple does not want to increase the weight of the unit anymore so they would probably put a few more cells of battery in there, but use the space to potentially increase cooling.
My Prediction
Early next year Apple will rollout new machine’s featuring Intel’s SandyBridge processor. They’ll still default to a 7200rpm drive but SSD upgrades will be cheaper and potentially offered on the higher end model in a 2.5 inch format. By early fall 2011 Apple will move the entire 15 and 17 inch MacBook Pro lines to SSD standard inside the unit in a 2.5 inch chasis, but not hardwired on. I do not believe they will remove the DVD drive at all in 2011.
