The notion of slimming a notebook down and having it sell well seems to be working for the MacBook Air and this may be where the MacBook Pro is headed.
Per The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Apple seems likely to completely redesign its MacBook Pro line in favor of a thinner and lighter form factor. A 15-inch Air-like MacBook Pro and a 17-inch model are in the works, sources say, and may be here in time for holiday gift giving.
To get to that leaner form factor, Apple will likely ditch the optical drive (perhaps ultimately signaling the death knell for discs) while integrated SSD storage is also expected. The MacBook Pros have been Apple’s laptop workhorses, so we can also expect the premium laptops to offer more ports, better graphics, and more storage than the MacBook Air–at a more premium price but with the slimmer design.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
2 replies on “Rumor: Apple looking to slim down MacBook Pro, move towards lighter/thinner form factor”
If Apple removes the DVD Player it won’t be a MacBook Pro. It’s one reason I buy them.
You can already remove the optical-drive from the MBP & put it in an enclosure, making it an external. It’s going to happen regardless, so make good use of what you have now before you go out & buy another machine. Get a reasonably priced SSD & replace the optical-drive & maybe the HDD too. Add some RAM & it’ll be almost as snappy as the air.