Apple To Offer 32GB of Desktop RAM, Kaby Lake In Top-End 2017 MacBook Pro, Says Analyst (appleinsider.com)

AppleInsider has obtained a note to investors from KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo that says Apple's 2017 laptop line will focus on internal component updates, including the platform-wide adoption of Intel's Kaby Lake architecture. What's more is that Apple is expected to manufacture a 15-inch MacBook Pro with up to 32GB of RAM in the fourth quarter of 2017. AppleInsider reports: Apple took flak in releasing its latest MacBook Pro with Touch Bar models with a hard memory cap of 16GB, an minimal allotment viewed as a negative for imaging and video professionals. Responding to customer criticism, Apple said the move was made in a bid to maximize battery life. Essentially, the Intel Skylake CPUs used in Apple's MacBook Pro only support up to 16GB of LPDDR3 RAM at 2133MHz. Though Intel does make processors capable of addressing more than 16GB of memory, those particular chipsets rely on less efficient DDR4 RAM and are usually deployed in desktops with access to dedicated mains power. In order to achieve high memory allotments and keep unplugged battery life performance on par with existing MacBook Pro models, Apple will need to move to an emerging memory technology like LPDDR4 or DDR4L. Such hardware is on track for release later this year. As for the 12-inch MacBook, Kuo believes next-generation versions of the thin-and-light will enter mass production in the second quarter with the same basic design aesthetic introduced in 2015. New for 2017 is a 16GB memory option that will make an appearance thanks to Intel's new processor class.

Comments

battery life a braindead argument

[gravewax]

it boggles the mind that they use battery life as the reason for not making the option available initially, for people that have a legitimate need for more than 16GB of ram battery life is a secondary factor, especially when the lack of that memory will significantly impact your productivity and considering their target market of video and photographic professionals who legitimately have needs for that memory it really was a strange move.

Re:battery life a braindead argument

[Proudrooster]

It is all Johnny Ive's and his bullshit obsession for thin. Make the PhatBookPro! Yes, the MacBookPro can be made 2mm thicker to provide a 24 hour battery life or a realworld professional battery life of 10 hours. Johnny Ive's needs to just stop with thin until battery technology gets better. It seems to me that making the bottom panel modular would solve all the problems. If HP and Lenovo want to keep getting thinner, let them. Their touchpads and keyboards suck compared to the MacBookPro. Oh and bring back the glowing Apple logo on the back of the lid. What a dumb marketing move to ditch that.

Re:battery life a braindead argument

[sremick]

SD Cards were a minor standard five years ago.

Falsehood #1. They are still the predominant standard among digital cameras and camcorders.

Any quality digital camera for years now uses wi-fi to transfer files

Falsehood #2. Wifi is still a pretty uncommon feature, and even when present is fairly problematic, finicky, and requires an unreasonable number of steps to initiate.

and who uses low-end digital cameras anymore, when their phone is just as good?

Falsehood #3. Unless you're unfairly comparing across differing generations of technology, a dedicated digital camera is superior to a phone camera by simple virtue of physics: larger sensors. Even a low-end point-and-shoot digital camera has a sensor many times larger than that in a cell phone, allowing in more light, more signal, and a resulting better picture.

When you do this, is having to carry a cheap small dongle really that serious of an issue?

Falsehood #4. Dongles are a PITA and constantly get lost. What's the point of losing a millimeter on the laptop thickness in some artificial inverted penis-size competition where the manufacturer has brainwashed everyone into thinking they need/want "THINNER!" when really they don't, but the trade-off is a pile of dongles that are an even bigger hassle to lug around than +1mm in laptop thickness, meanwhile they get lost all the time so the TCO of the laptop skyrockets.

Anyway, micro-SD is far more popular than SD.

And finally, Falsehood #5. What universe are you from? Have you even shopped for cameras ever? I cannot even fathom where you're pulling all this nonsense from. Nothing you say is true to the point where you're either delusional or trolling.

I dunno if this is a good thing

[93 Escort Wagon]

To squeeze in the extra RAM, they might decide they need to remove the few ports which were left. #courage

Apple must put the user first again, not marketing

[globaljustin]

This is a good step, but there's a greater fallacy at work at Apple here: The triumph of marketing demands over technical needs of the user.

Apple is great...they are better than Microsoft at making both hardware and software (especially software). Apple's OS is basically Unix with a candy coated shell and it is the best for basically anything except gaming (I know broad statement...I'm sure there are other applications that are better on Windoze but I'm speaking broadly...chill).

Apple's mistake, and it's a big one, is letting advertising phrases like "Our thinnest Macbook Pro yet!" override user centered design.

Same goes for their port nonsense...removing the headphone jack was a huge mistake, it's a *data port* that is backwards compatible with 100 year old tech. They wanted to advertise their phones as "waterproof" so instead of making the port waterproof like other companies, they just remove it and let marketing handle it. Disgusting.

Apple can easily regain their footing by putting the users first in their design decisions and stop their design hubris.

Re:a little late, no?

[globaljustin]

they could have chosen the 32 gb option and used a bigger battery, but it "has to be thin" so they went with the lpddr3.

this is indeed what happened...it's designing with marketing first instead of the user...

I'm fine with Apple having cheesey, trendy marketing, but they need to put the user first in their design decisions.

Marketing can figure out something...they pay them enough ffs...but they really need to change how they make design decisions.

One day, maybe far, far in the future, but some day Microsoft might figure out that if they avoid their garbage spyware/adware software they can ruin Apple due to their market penetration from government contracts....if Apple is still letting ad slogans guide design at that point, on that day Microsoft will kill Apple.

Or, you know...

[Anonymous Coward]

You could just put a bigger battery in it.

Instead, all I hear about is how they were working in such tight space constraints (a completely arbitrary constraint made up by their lead designer), and how kneecapping the system was to "maximize battery life"...

I remember my old Powerbook G4. I used to get 6-7 hours of battery life out of that thing. My old Macbook Pro (Core 2 Duo) was around the same. Every single laptop I've owned up until they discontinued the 17" used to last around 6-7 hours on battery. These were, of course, pretty thick and substantial machines, but I didn't care, they generally worked well and got the job done.

I recently bought a 15" MBP Touchbar (totally decked out, because it's not like I had a choice when the RAM and HD are soldered to the motherboard). It was one of the most expensive Apple machines I have ever purchased. I was lucky to get a consistent 3 hours out of it, running the same workloads my 17" unibody can perform for ~6.5. After spending a good week trying to troubleshoot this issue with AppleCare tech support, I eventually came to the conclusion that the machine was in perfect working order and that the battery was simply incapable of powering the machine for how long I needed it to. I later sent the machine back for a refund.

These problems will continue to plague Apple so long as they're obsessed with form over function, and refuse to admit that they were actually wrong for once. I can guarantee you the next machines will be even thinner, contain less ports (likely dropping the headphones port and one or two of the USB-C ports), and have the exact same operational issues due to over aggressive power saving features and an undersized battery.

People bitched when Apple dropped floppy drives

[Brannon]

And SCSI, VGA, DVI, CD, DVD, RS232, Parallel ports, Modem, Ethernet jack, etc., etc.

Maybe the headphone jack will be the final straw. Or maybe you're being hysterical. Let's meet back here in a few years and if Apple is out of business then I owe you a Coke.

Or they could just make the memory removable

[sremick]

...like all computers did for decades. Instead, they've managed to brainwash their zealot disciples into believing that thinner is better, disposable is ok, and they need a new computer every 2... no, 1 years!

These laptops aren't thinner than a SODIMM memory module or an M.2 drive. Until they are (and they shouldn't be, because they don't need to be and to do so would mean a battery even more insufficient than they already are), any manufacturer telling you that you can't have removable/expandable memory or SSD storage is feeding you marketing BS to justify their anti-consumer design choices. Just so that you needlessly buy more laptops more often instead of repairing/upgrading the one you already have.

There's nothing "Pro" about the MacBook Pro anymore. A Dell tablet has more ports, expandability and options. Hell, there's nothing "pro" about any Mac anymore. Apple has totally given the finger to the professional and high-end user. Where I work (thousands of employees) I see the pendulum swinging back from Mac to non-Mac again since, after a few years of people flocking to Macbooks because of some misguided fashion fad, they're realizing that Macs simply fall short on too many fronts and flat out cannot offer them a computer with the hardware they need to do their jobs. I can spec out a non-Mac that runs circles around the highest-end MacBook "Pro" and costs less. Don't even get me started on the "Mac Pro"... that thing was an useless abomination the day it was released and has only gotten worse as the hardware innards become more and more outdated over the years. It's a nightmare to service and an unexpandable, optionless junk creation not even worth the now-tainted branding of "Apple" it's so bad, let alone "Pro". It's not even white.