MacBook Pro "Slim" Stirs Up Competition in Notebook Space - Report

The hit-and-miss DigiTimes is at it again with a new report citing market watchers as saying that the notebook space will witness some fierce competition between Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc. and PC vendors Acer, HP, Asus, and Lenovo - all of which are planning to roll out new, ultra-thin laptopts.

Rumored for quite some time to be updating the MacBook Pro line with a design akin to that of the MacBook Air, “Apple will launch its updated MacBook Pro, while notebook brand vendors are aggressively pushing 15-inch ultrabooks,” reads the latest report from Taiwan’s rumor-centric trade publication.

As such, market watchers believe thay “the competition will help reduce the overall thickness of 15-inch notebook models. Apple is set to upgrade its 15-inch MacBook Pro with an ultra-thin design,” the report bluntly states.

By eliminating the optical disc drive from the chassis of its upcoming MacBook Pros, Apple will not only be able to reduce the thickness of the laptops, the company will also be able to leverage new space for additional battery cells.

What’s more is that the entire internal structure of the computer will be changed, leading to new optimizations which should further enable Apple technicians to use up every last square inch for enhanced performance and, of course, looks.

The existing MacBook Pro line features Intel’s Core i5 and Core i7 Sandy Bridge processors, AMD graphics, and platter based SATA drives. The MacBook Air uses pretty much the same CPUs but offers slightly lower specs on the graphics front.

However, the Air has solid state storage drives (SSD), which is what the MacBook Pro will get, should this rumored redesign take place.

The MacBook Pro refresh may not be announced at a special event, though it’s not out of the question to see WWDC 12 host a range of new Macs on stage, including new iMacs featuring Ivy Bridge CPUs and anti-glare displays, as rumored last week.

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