The MacBook Pro 2016, together with the refreshed MacBook Air, will see action real soon, the release date likely happening October or November this year. A new report claimed that mass production of both devices has commenced.
Forbes reported that wholesale manufacturing of the new MacBooks was actually started in the second of 2016, citing the new details provided by IHS Markit Technology. "Production started in the second calendar quarter on refreshes of the 13.3-inch and 15.4-inch MacBook Pro [and] the 13.3-inch MacBook Air," the IHS report was quoted by Forbes as saying.
The fresh information somehow confirmed the upcoming 2016 upgrade of the MacBook Air, which analysts said will likely be discontinued with the redesigned MacBook Pro becoming Apple's new ultraportable. Ming-chi Kuo of KGI Securities, for instance, has forecasted that the new Pros will be slimmer and lighter from the past models, thus triggering speculations that the Airs will soon be no more.
However, the new IHS report shot down Kuo's call that Apple will kill the MacBook Air this 2016 while agreeing with the latter's prediction that the new Macs will arrive sometime in the last quarter of the year. Forbes said the latest unpacking of the new MacBooks will be October or the start of the 2016 holiday season.
Another proof that the MacBook Pro and Air will unbox at the same time was the recent report from Bloomberg, which stated that the MBP 2016 will indeed be trimmed down and its profile will be rendered thinner than before.
But the same report made clear that the upcoming MacBook Pros "are not tapered like the MacBook Air and latest 12-inch MacBook."
The other rumored feature upgrades for the new MacBook Pros were not mentioned in the same IHS report such as the OLED touch bar with dynamic function keys and Touch ID fingerprint sensor to be embedded with the power button. These feature bumps though have been largely hinted by string codes seen in the macOS Sierra - the operating system that will power the next-generation Macs.
And while it's highly likely that release date of the MacBook Pro 2016 and MacBook Air will happen no later than October, Forbes said the prospect of Kaby Lake to be packed with the laptops remains iffy as both IHS and Intel are silent on the matter. It could be that the devices will have Intel Skylake as main engine, at least for the initial shipments.