Apple is looking to refresh its notebook lineup within the first half of 2016, an analyst said, indicating that the first of fresh bunch of MacBook Pro models could be made public March. The latest release date could be June 2016, coinciding with the tech giant's Worldwide Developers Conference or WWDC.
Ming-chi Kuo of KGI Securities said in his latest research note that the new MacBook Pro flavors will touchdown within the first six months of the year. The 2016 upgrades will deliver "solid growth" to Apple's computing business, Kuo was reported by Apple Insider as saying.
Picking up the KGI update, Gotta Be Mobile speculates that the earliest commercial debut for the new MacBooks is March. It's highly likely that Apple will make use of its announced event in the month to unveil at least one or two of the new MacBook Pros, the report said. It is believed, however, that the occasion next month is reserved for the introduction of the 4-inch iPhone 5SE and possibly the second-generation Apple Watch.
If so, then June 2016 is the next schedule to watch for, which remains in line with Kuo's forecast of MacBook Pro release date before the end of Q2 2016. The MacBook coming out on the month will mean that this year's WWDC edition will be made special by the product unboxing.
And the timing, Apple Insider said, seems to align with the report that the MacBook Pro is jumping from Intel Broadwell to the Skylake computing platform. Waiting out until June 2016 and making sure that Skylake is fully optimized for the new MacBooks will mean two benefits - up to 20 percent more of processing power and as much as 30 percent of increased energy efficiency, the Apple Insider report said.
For end-users, Skylake running the new MacBook would bump the processing muscle of the entry-level model to a high of 2.9GHz but not necessarily jacking up the price, which was last pegged at $1,299. And this will be for the 13-inch MacBook Air as rumors persist that an upgraded 11-inch version will not make a landfall this year.
Instead, there will be a bigger screen size on release date, which according to Apple Insider is a productivity-optimized 15-inch MacBook.