What can we expect from Apple at WWDC?
Summer 2016 is here, and a big Mac announcement is expected to hit us anytime between the third and fourth quarter, which will include desktop Macs and MacBooks. According to recent notes sourced by investment firm KGI Securities, a completely redesigned MacBook Pro is definitely in the works, and if we were to go by common sense, so is the Mac Mini, and possibly even a new 5K Retina Thunderbolt display.
While it’s fun to speculate on future Apple products, however likely they might be, let’s take a look at a few realistic reasons why there is a reasonable chance we might see the above products during this year’s WWDC, or at the very least, within a short term thereafter.
Rumors of a completely redesigned Apple MacBook Pro are growing daily. According to KGI top analyst, Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is working on a brand new MacBook Pro that is largely unlike what we have seen so far. The new laptop will be ultra-thin, with a machined aluminum unibody inspired by the 12 inch MacBook Retina. A number of sources are also whispering about the new MacBook Pro being powered by a 7th generation Kaby Lake Intel Core processor, which is expected to deliver better performance than Broadwell, Haswell, and Skylake CPUs.
OLED or NOLED? Popular opinion is divided on whether the new MacBook Pro should include an OLED touchpad, which, up until now, has been object of discussion on whether it brings any useful feature, other than an odd new way to interact with a MacBook.
The last redesign of the Mac Mini dates back to 2014, which may not seem like much, but there has been a few advancements since then, namely an exponential increase of devices and content that support 4K and 5K screen resolutions. Currently, connecting a Mac Mini to a maximum of two 4K external displays will allow a refresh rate up to 30Hz each. 30HZ may not make much of a difference at a glance, when interacting with the Mac OS X interface, but there is a noticeable difference when streaming 4K video, and when playing games.
A 2016 Mac Mini with support for full 60Hz 4K resolution would make a lot of sense, certainly more than it did two years ago when 4K and 5K were still a novelty. Short of a year later, the ratings for 4K and 5K keep going up, with an increasing number of devices, including laptops and tablets, embracing the new standards.
If Apple greenlights a total rehaul of the Thunderbolt display, there is a reasonable chance that the name Thunderbolt won’t make it to production, as it’s very possible that an updated version of the display, will be driven, and even powered, by a USB Type-C connector.
Recently, supply of the Thunderbolt display to retailers has seen a sharp decline. This type of scenario usually happens when a product is about to be discontinued, which may very well be the case with the Thunderbolt display.