Apple To Refresh Mac mini, MacBook Pro, iMac Lineups Later This Year, Report Says (macrumors.com)

According to a note shared by reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is planning to refresh a number of its computing product lineups later this year. Via MacRumors: iPhone: There are three iPhones in the works, two OLED models in 5.8 and 6.5-inch sizes and one LED model that will be available in a 6.1-inch size.
iPad: Apple is working on two new 11 and 12.9-inch models that are equipped with a full-screen design and no Home button, with Apple to replace Touch ID with Face ID.
Mac mini: Processor upgrades expected.
MacBook Pro: Processor upgrades expected.
MacBook: Processor upgrades expected.
New Low-Priced Notebook: Kuo believes Apple is designing a new low-priced notebook. He originally said that this would be in the MacBook Air family, but now has changed his mind. Previous rumors have suggested this machine could be a 12-inch MacBook.
iMac: Significant display performance upgrade alongside a processor upgrade.
Apple Watch: Two new models in sizes that include 1.57 inches (39.9mm) and 1.78 inches (45.2mm) with an enhanced heart rate detection feature.

Comments

And Tim Cook thinks to himself....

[Sebby]

... " That oughta shut them up! "

Re:And Tim Cook thinks to himself....

[frank_adrian314159]

Why? It seems like a whole lot of nothin' interesting at all. So some screen is an inch bigger or a processor that sits idle 99% of the time can boast a few more Hz. Jeez, you'd think it was the second coming. Apple, please let me know when you're going to get off your asses and do something interesting again.

If only Apple also got rid of key bugs in iTunes..

[gyepi]

If only Apple also upgraded iTunes to a decent music player that does not skip randomly in the middle of a track to the next song..

Some upgrade technicalities

[hcs_$reboot]

That's amazing how a man could design systems in a way that even after he died 7 years ago they're now still sold almost as they were 7 years ago.

Underwhelming

[sjbe]

So basically they are putting in newer processors into most of their Mac line but doing little else. Nice but not exactly mind blowing to understate things greatly. The Mac Pro is conspicuously absent from the list. As seems usual lately the Mac seems to be getting ignored and most of the design effort is going into the iPhone.

Re:Underwhelming

[apoc.famine]

Honestly - what is is there to do?

More ram, bigger hard drives, better video cards, better battery life, cheaper.

Software will always need bug fixes...

And a shit-ton of that. They haven't been keeping pace on bug fixes for years now. Even though I've ditched Mac at this point, I still check in MPG to see what I'm missing. And because my wife still has the last MBP.

I stumbled on the Core Rot series googling a very irritating bug which Apple didn't seem to be addressing. Come to find out, it was well known and a year old at that point. Still hasn't gotten fixed 3 years later.

Apple needs real hardware not rumors

[xack]

We all know what hardware we want, but until Apple listens to its user base the best Mac is a Hackintosh.

Apple to Remove all Peripheral Ports

[DatbeDank]

In other news, Apple also plans on removing peripheral and charging ports. Once the battery is finished, you toss the device and buy a new one!

I can't wait to see the new connector

[denis-The-menace]

and all the dongles for that new connector. /s

Re:I can't wait to see the new connector

[93 Escort Wagon]

They’re removing the few remaining ports... BUT introducing the new Apple AirDongle! Wirelessly connect all your wired peripherals to your laptop - at (up to) 802.11ac speeds!

Starting at $899 for the 802.11g model.

Apple discovers the "Notebook" market?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> a 12-inch MacBook

Congratulations, you invented the Notebook.

>> MacBook and MacBook Pro: Nothing but minor processor upgrades expected, and that only because we can't buy the old ones anymore. At least we didn't take away more USB slots - yet.

As expected.

Please, please spin off your MacBooks to a company that knows what's doing! (Signed: 79% of your users.)

Re:Apple discovers the "Notebook" market?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

>> Are you running Oracle on your laptop or something?

(blinks) No, but I'm a developer, so I value fast compiles, representative local virtual machines and real databases (just not Oracle's) on my machine. In addition, video conferencing apps continue to get even hungrier as time goes on, so I would value a computer that doesn't turn into a jet engine whenever I need to talk to Saneesh and Alixandor in the middle of the night.

Re:If only Apple also got rid of key bugs in iTune

[cre1mer]

Stop playing iTunes on your laptop while driving a Yugo.

Mac Pro

[sjbe]

The modular Mac Pro is coming out next year.

Yeah I'll believe it when I see it. They haven't given a shit about this product for a long time and it's hard to believe they are going to start now. Their last attempt (the trash can) was DOA and stupid to boot. Plus if they treat it like the rest of the Mac lineup it will basically be sold with minimal changes for years to come with little prospect of meaningful improvement. They also keep talking about "Pro" users but seem to have no idea what those actually are or what they do. Apple's idea of a "Pro" user seems to be something relating to a heavy user of Photoshop but they don't seem very clear about it and their design reflects that confusion.

If I'm going to buy a Mac I want to see Apple start taking the Mac seriously again. Right now their attention is clearly focused on the iPhone. I like Macs but they literally don't sell anything at the moment that I'm interested in buying. It's not about the money (for me) it's about the design and the lack of clarity on who they are designing their Macintosh product line for.

Re:larger hard drives!

[Stormwatch]

What for? High-end users no longer matter, Apple now is devoted to the more profitable and less demanding "takes fancy notebook to starbucks" market.

Apple has bigger problems

[sjbe]

If only Apple also upgraded iTunes to a decent music player that does not skip randomly in the middle of a track to the next song

You actually use iTunes? I haven't fired that up in probably 3 years. Frankly Apple has bigger fish to fry than that obsolete piece of garbage. For example:
1) The Mac Mini and Mac Pro haven't seen a meaningful update in years and basically get ignored
2) The Mac Pro design is stupid and needs to be fixed ASAP
3) Apple still can't get seamless integration between their operating systems and devices for files and data
4) Apple still doesn't have a decent application for proper note taking with the Apple Pencil
5) It's time for the lightning connector to die in a fire and be replaced with USB-C
6) Apple needs more than a single USB-C port on certain of their laptops
7) Dongle hell
8) Apple Pay still not accepted enough places
9) Apple Pencil is a total afterthought with basically no useful software support unless you are a digital artist focused on the iPad (useless on a Mac)
10) Apple treats cases for their phones as an afterthought rather than an important part of the device despite nearly every customer buying one
11) iPhones can have a power cord or a wired headset attached but not both at the same time.
12) Apple Maps still lags behind Google's offerings
13) Apple is ignoring equipment for serious artists (why don't they buy Wacom?)
14) It's still unclear what Apple's next Big Thing will be. To grow the company they can't coast on the iPhone forever.

The list goes on and on. Apple does a lot of things right but they could be doing so much more/better.

Re:Apple has bigger problems

[Dixie_Flatline]

For #8, it's important for Americans to remember that they're not the only country in the world, and a great deal of why Apple Pay isn't accepted everywhere is because American payment infrastructure is woefully outdated and still apparently relies on signatures on pieces of paper in a great many instances.

Apple Pay is accepted anywhere that tap-to-pay works, so that means here in Canada that a huge and growing number of merchants accept it. Apple Pay isn't really specifically some sort of tech magic that needs Apple specific merchant hardware to work, it just needs run-of-the-mill tap-to-pay terminals.

Plenty of unsolved problems

[sjbe]

Honestly - what is is there to do?

Isn't it kind of Apple's job to figure that out? I can think of quite a few things they could do with the Mac or iPad that they aren't doing right off the top of my head (posted elsewhere in this thread). If they can't think of something new and interesting then they are doomed.

Computers really became "good enough" a good while back. Heck even my 2011 vintage Mac Mini with 8GB of RAM is still chugging along just fine.

They become good enough for stuff like word processing a while back. There are plenty of use cases for which current generations of hardware are still are no where near good enough. It's all about the use case and I don't buy the argument that there are no interesting problems left for desktop and laptop devices to address.

Software will always need bug fixes, but hardware just doesn't need to be constantly updated.

Hardware doesn't need to be updated if you aren't doing anything new. But Apple cannot survive long term if they aren't doing anything new. The iPhone has been a decade long hit precisely because it does something new that people actually can use and that required new hardware. Not like you were going to lug around a Mac Mini to use as a phone.

I don't think they have a choice

[rsilvergun]

at some point you can't get parts that old anymore. Their suppliers would move on. Apples big, but not that big. They make money on high margin, not high volume.