Apple just released the 2016 edition of the MacBook Pro in October 2016. While it featured the much admired Touch Bar, other offerings rather fell short. A few months after, a lot have begun to speculate about a newer edition coming this year. But are those musings real or are they just rumors?
The biggest hint that something is coming comes from popular Apple analyst Ming-Chu Kuo, who reported that new models are headed for production in the third quarter of 2017. Using this to establish a release date time frame, the 2017 edition of the MacBook Pro can be expected around October. This release date isn’t unreasonable given the 2016 version was released around the same time the previous year.
However, release date estimates are just that: estimates. There is no way to be certain unless word comes from Apple themselves. Then again, the Silicon Valley giant has also announced products during March, April as well as June (during their Worldwide Developers Conference). Unless there is an official announcement from Apple, we can treat all the information we read as pure speculation.
Every product that succeeds another needs to be better in a lot of ways. It would even make better sense to include fixes that users didn’t quite like with the previous edition. That, and the inclusion of features that users would actually want to use.
One of the issues faced by the MacBook Pro 2016 was its price. The increase wasn’t seen as entirely fair for the features it provided. This doesn’t look to change if and when the 2017 MacBook Pro eventually comes. Consumers can expect the price to hover around the same range as the version released in 2016 or be slightly more expensive.
What Apple does brilliantly, though, is include interesting features to cushion the blow of a price increase. Last year’s version included a Touch Bar which is best described as adapting to what you are doing. For instance, if you’re using Mail, buttons for composing, archiving, replying, message flagging and junk marking will be available.
The MacBook Pro 2016 may not have been universally acclaimed but it did give us a peek into the future. While we can’t tell when the 2017 edition is going to drop, there is a list of features it could do with.
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