14 DAY TRIAL // Apple this year will stop producing the current 13-inch MacBook Pro model and will replace it with a thinner model that sports a Retina display, and perhaps other enhancements, according to a report from Taiwan.
Citing Taiwan-based supply chain makers, DigiTimes has it on file that Apple will stop producing its current line of 13-inch Pro notebooks as it prepares to unveil a newer model featuring a higher-resolution display and a thinner body.
Per the report, “Apple is expected to stop production of the 13-inch MacBook Pro in the second half of 2014 and will replace the product line with thinner models equipped with a Retina display.”
The indication comes from Apple’s decision to reduce its MacBook Pro prices with suppliers, “narrowing the price gap between the MacBook Pro and the one equipped with Retina,” according to the sources.
“Apple stopped producing the 15-inch MacBook Pro in 2013 and will end production of its 13-inch model in 2014,” the report confidently adds.
The Cupertino computer company will see some stiff competition emerging this year, as Intel itself is also preparing to roll out thinner, second-generation ultrabooks in the fourth quarter of 2014, the same sources revealed.
Apple continually strives to make its laptops thinner, lighter, and more power-efficient. Once present only on the iPhone 4, the Retina specification has extended to tablets and then notebooks. Only the desktop range of Macs doesn’t boast Retina screens at the moment.
The first Retina MacBook Pro was a 15-inch model, but Apple quickly equipped the 13-inch version with the same crisp display a year later. A single non-Retina model remains for sale at Apple, the 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 model which retails for $1,199 in the US and €1.199 in Europe.
The computer can go up to 3.1GHz on Turbo Boost and sports 4GB 1600MHz memory, a 500GB 5400-rpm hard drive, Intel HD Graphics 4000, and a seven-hour built-in battery.
The more expensive 15-inch models that come with Retina displays as standard offer unprecedented battery life (9 hours).
In announcing the latest MacBook Pro lineup on October 22, 2013, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Philip Schiller, said, “We’ve made the world’s best pro notebook even better by adding more performance and even longer battery life. MacBook Pro with Retina display continues to redefine the pro notebook.”