Last Thursday we attended Apple's last media event in 2016 which focused its attention on the company's laptop segment, specifically on the new MacBook Pro models with a new design, touch Bar and Touch ID however, this event was little for many users who expected more news.
Apart from the MacBook Pro, the year 2016 ends with no relevant news regarding the MacBook retina, the MacBook Air (except for the demise of the 11,6-inch model), iMac or Mac Pro. Fortunately, It seems that in 2017 the news will begin to arrive, including a necessary price drop.
Next year, Apple could lower prices for MacBooks
A few days after the introduction of the new MacBook Pro models, popular KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is back with his predictions and has released a new research report in which he is very optimistic about the growth that the MacBook, according to him, is going to experiment throughout the next year of 2017.
According to Kuo, The new MacBooks that Apple will launch in 2017 will experience a price cut, in addition to a minimal update that will allow the possibility of configurations with up to 32 GB of RAM. But what is Kuo leaning on to venture a price drop for Apple's MacBook?
According to this analyst, Apple has shown a tendency to present new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models at a considerably higher price than existing models, as a preliminary to a price reduction over the following year. Based on it Kuo estimates that the current prices are the precedent to a price cut that will occur in the MacBook Pros that will be updated in the second half of 2017. In addition, Kuo believes that both the ecosystem of devices with a USB-C connector and the software that allows you to take advantage of the new Touch Bar, will have matured considerably, arousing greater interest from users.
Upgrade to 32GB of RAM?
Finally, Ming-Chi Kuo ventures that Apple will release an update to the MacBook Pros throughout the second half of 2017 that will include support for 32GB of RAM.. However, Kuo also cautions that this could depend on Intel releasing the Cannonlake processors in time.
(3) the new MacBook that will be released in the second half of 2017 can offer support for 32GB DRAM, eventually attracting more grassroots users; this depends on whether Intel ships the Cannonlake CPU on time in 2017, which has 15-25% less power consumption than LPDDR 4, compared to LPDDR 3. If Cannonlake does not go into mass production as expected , new models released in the second half of 2017 will adopt Coffee Lake, which continues to adopt LPDDR 3, and the maximum DRAM support will also remain unchanged at 16GB.
Why current MacBooks don't support 32GB of RAM
As noted from MacRumors, many customers would have been annoyed by the fact that the new MacBooks, which work with processors Skylake more energy efficient, continue to run with up to 16GB of RAM, despite being priced higher than previous-generation models. For example, the entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar starts at $ 1,799 in the United States, $ 500 higher than previous-generation models.
Apple's chief marketing officer Phil Schiller explained why this is so to a reader, David, from MacRumors. According to the executive, for Apple to make a laptop with support for more than 16GB of RAM, it would have to use a memory system that consumes too much power. As for price, Schiller said in an interview that affordability is "absolutely something that matters to us," but that the company designs with an eye toward experience, not price.
Kuo expects prices to drop for both new 2017 and existing MacBooks such as the 12-inch MacBook and the new MacBook Pro.Although it's unclear whether support for up to 32GB of RAM would extend to the 12-inch MacBook as well.
