Apple to Reportedly Stop Production of 13-Inch Non-Retina MacBook Pro Later This Year

[Taz Mangus]

Actually, DVD's still sell in the tens of millions every year in the US alone. Hundreds of millions worldwide.

No, DVD's are not "old" tech, not yet anyways. Apple is simply doing away with a competitor to the iTunes store, plain and simple.

The market is shifting towards online digital media. Apple killed off the floppy drive when it was still being used by every other manufacturer. The only time I ever use the DVD drive in any of my Mac computers is to rip movies to a hard drive and stream them locally. Heck, I bought an external Bluray drive to rip movies to a hard drive and stream them. All other times, the DVD and Bluray drives is sitting not being used. When I travel I have movies stored on my iPad for the kids to watch. Point being, since most of the time I don't need the DVD drive, I would simply buy an external DVD drive and hook it up when needed. I know that everyones usage vary.

 

[Zendokan]

Well, I bought a 17" MBP (2011 model, 2.4GHz i7, 8GB) in June 2012 with a 1TB HDD and a Superdrive.
Over time I upgraded the RAM to 16GB (by Crucial), replaced the HDD and Superdrive with SSD (960Gb and 512Gb, also by Crucial) and
put the Superdrive in an external case.
The fact that Ethernet and Firewire is build in makes it easier in my type of work of software testing for State Departments, Banks and
Bank card/transaction companies where the connection to the business network is still provided by usage of ethernet cables and not wifi.

If I could add USB 3.0 and a 17" retina screen, it would be the perfect "pro" machine for me.

I always stated that the new rMBPs with their "dongles" and upgrade unfriendliness should have been positioned as MacBooks and not Macbook Pro's,
but in two months my consultancy company will probably give me a full maxed out 15" rMBP...

 

[majkom]

The market is shifting towards online digital media. Apple killed off the floppy drive when it was still being used by every other manufacturer. The only time I ever use the DVD drive in any of my Mac computers is to rip movies to a hard drive and stream them locally. Heck, I bought an external Bluray drive to rip movies to a hard drive and stream them. All other times, the DVD and Bluray drives is sitting not being used. When I travel I have movies stored on my iPad for the kids to watch. Point being, since most of the time I don't need the DVD drive, I would simply buy an external DVD drive and hook it up when needed. I know that everyones usage vary.

Exactly... only DVD drive Ive got home are those in game consoles - which are legacy products (x360, PS3)... oh and legacy never used cdrom in my car

 

[Gudi]

But if I had to choose between 128GB flash or 500GB mechanical, I'd choose for the more storage.

Which would be stupid. Thank Jobs, Apple is making the hard decisions for it's under-educated customers. Otherwise we would still have bulky 17-inch notebooks, with all kinds of magnetic, optical and floppy drives, but no Retina. Because who needs speed and pixels, when you can have size and weight?

 

[SBlue1]

Which would be stupid. Thank Jobs, Apple is making the hard decisions for it's under-educated customers. Otherwise we would still have bulky 17-inch notebooks, with all kinds of magnetic, optical and floppy drives, but no Retina. Because who needs speed and pixels, when you can have size and weight?

Who are you to tell other people how much storage they need??? If they need 500 gigs they need 500 gigs. I have a lot of music, fotos and video flies so I need evey gigabyte I have. And I am happy to own a non-Retina MBP so I can upgrade my HDD with a big and fast SSD as soon as they become cheaper.

 

[newyorksole]

I recall reading somewhere (about the iMac) that 83% of users do nothing more than take it out of the box and use it. Of the rest, the majority is taken up by people doing nothing more than sticking extra RAM in, so it would seem that for most users, upgradability is very low down the list of selection criteria.

ha so I was close with the 80%.

it does suck that there are people who love upgrading their Macs and won't be able to, but I mean... what are you gonna do? complaining won't do much. you can go the Windows route, but is that REALLY what you want?

just gotta roll with the punches.

 

[Rafterman]

Who are you to tell other people how much storage they need??? If they need 500 gigs they need 500 gigs. I have a lot of music, fotos and video flies so I need evey gigabyte I have. And I am happy to own a non-Retina MBP so I can upgrade my HDD with a big and fast SSD as soon as they become cheaper.

Agreed. I have a Macbook Pro 15 with a 1TB SSD and a 1.5TB mech drive in the DVD bay and I could still use more

But not having USB 3.0 does suck.

 

[iCreate]

I don't care if they remove the optical drive, I've already done that along time ago on my 2011 MBP. And I can deal with having to buy the max RAM up front, if they can keep the costs down, but they should never lock in the storage options.
There should be at least one extra PCIe socket or more for additional storage for those that need it or for RAID. It's a pro machine after all.
I've steadily upgraded the storage over the years from traditional hard drive to SSDs as it became more affordable to do so.

 

[Gudi]

Who are you to tell other people how much storage they need??? If they need 500 gigs they need 500 gigs.

I have a diploma in computer science. And I'm not telling you how much storage you need, but what kind of storage. Any data storage technology with moving parts should not exist in portable computers. All kinds of drives will cease to exist sooner or later. The rumor at hand only says that this is the year, when the last Apple notebook with an HDD or ODD is sold. But the exact point in time isn't that important. It must happen anyway.

 

[MikeyMike01]

I find upgrading a laptop to be generally pointless. But that's me.

 

[Sackvillenb]

This always seems to get down to a debate over retina or upgradeability. Its NOT. Apple can EASILY produce a retina MBP with upgradeability. But why don't they? Then you do not necessarily have an obsolete Macbook Pro in 3-4 years. You can revive it with more memory or faster drive/ssd. You don't have to pay the extraordinary prices for their upgrades at the time of purchase.

The truth of the matter is that this FORCES obsolescence and much lower resale down the road. This financially helps Apple on the long term. On the short term, they force you to pay the ridiculous prices to get larger storage and RAM options straight from Apple.

Its a total money grab and Apple should be ashamed.

For the record, I realize other manufacturers solder their RAM but please remember that a 15.4" macbook pro runs about 1.5x-2.0x as much in cost and they. We should expect MORE for our money.

YES! These are not mutually exclusive concepts. I find it both hilarious and saddening that people are jumping at the chance to give apple more money while getting back less computer and less options!

 

[Gudi]

It's $100 to go from 4GB of RAM to 8GB. Not unreasonable.

Very unreasonable.

2x4GB = 30-40 €
2x2GB = 10-15 €

It's a 15-30 € upgrade.

And it can be a free upgrade with some auction fortune. I was able to buy 3x4GB for only 32 € on ebay and sell 1x4GB for 20 € and 2x2GB for 10 €. So the upgrade payed for itself. That's impossible if everything is soldered.

I wouldn't upgrade my RAM if it would cost real money.

 

[Sackvillenb]

Now if you have photos or something that are higher resolution and it actually lets you see the resolution rather than just doubling a LOW resolution, then it might look a little better with your nose on the screen, but nothing changes the fact that you're looking at these TINY TINY screens. You have to put that screen pretty close to see any real differences at really high resolutions.

While the benefit of retina is often over-exaggerated, it absolutely does make a difference, and if you cannot see that, you probably do need to get your eyes checked (I mean that rather literally, but I'm (honestly) not trying to be rude).

Look at any high res image, it's a big difference between retina and non-retina. You are correct in saying that viewing distance does matter, but the usual viewing distances for a laptop are well within the range needed to benefit from having a retina display. Does this make a big difference if I'm just browsing files in the finder? Not really. But look at any kind of high res photo, or do some graphics work for a while, and it is indeed a huge difference. The preview images in iphoto / aperture and imovie / final cut are great examples of this, although you can easily see this with any high quality image.

That being said, I still think the non-retina screens are fine for day to day use. And I will miss the disappearing upgradeability and flexibility of the classic macbook pros...

 

[ValSalva]

Very unreasonable.

2x4GB = 30-40 €
2x2GB = 10-15 €

It's a 15-30 € upgrade.

And it can be a free upgrade with some auction fortune. I was able to buy 3x4GB for only 32 € on ebay and sell 1x4GB for 20 € and 2x2GB for 10 €. So the upgrade payed for itself. That's impossible if everything is soldered.

I wouldn't upgrade my RAM if it would cost real money.

Never said Apple was the cheap option But Apple RAM used to be 3x to 4x more expensive than third party options. 2x is an improvement. Apple is always going to be the pricier option.

 

[sorinc03]

How is this news? I was surprised (and disappointed) when I noticed they hadn't gotten rid of the non-retina MBP in October. The retina 13" is only $100 more expensive. Sure, it only comes with 128GB of disk space but for most people that should be enough. And if not, there are external drives that are very cheap. The screen and SSD are definitely worth the $100 upgrade. And if you can pay more, 8GB or 16GB of RAM is definitely worth it.

 

[Gudi]

Apple is always going to be the pricier option.

Except you don't have the other option anymore. No more after sales upgrades with soldered parts.

I find upgrading a laptop to be generally pointless. But that's me.

It is. Unless you have the rare chance to make the jump from HDD to SSD on the same SATA connection. But that was a once in a lifetime opportunity, where a completely new technology could be added to an old computer.

Generally upgrading only means more of the same, not better or faster. Upgrading only was a way to avoid Apples horrendous spec premiums. It doesn't help much to prolong the machines lifetime as technology progresses.

 

[olowott]

Damn! and there goes my MBP design - good times.....good times

 

[venom600]

My thoughts are that you can't really blame Apple for the death of the 17" Macbook. Everyone in the industry dropped 17" notebooks for the most part at the same time, so it very likely was a supply constraint rather than anything else.

Which would be stupid. Thank Jobs, Apple is making the hard decisions for it's under-educated customers. Otherwise we would still have bulky 17-inch notebooks, with all kinds of magnetic, optical and floppy drives, but no Retina. Because who needs speed and pixels, when you can have size and weight?

You can't be that dense. What does a retina display have to do with an optical drive? They could very easily do both. PC makers already offer retina class displays on machines that include HDDs, optical drives, and flash storage and are still thin and light.

 

[pmz]

Can't wait until the only Macbook I can buy is non-upgradable.


I can't express how much I hate that this soldered stuff has happened. I'll take a little thicker body and non soldered RAM instead of this soldering because it's so thin stuff.

Upgradability is NOT a problem for users. The problem is the COST that Apple makes users pay to pre-configure the device the way you want it.

If they would bring the cost of built-to-order SSD & RAM upgrades down to Earth...this would be a non-issue and we could still have the thin machines with soldiered components, that don't need to be upgraded in the first place, and that cost the same as buying aftermarket parts and installing them yourself.

 

[johnnnw]

Upgradability is NOT a problem for users. The problem is the COST that Apple makes users pay to pre-configure the device the way you want it.

If they would bring the cost of built-to-order SSD & RAM upgrades down to Earth...this would be a non-issue and we could still have the thin machines with soldiered components, that don't need to be upgraded in the first place, and that cost the same as buying aftermarket parts and installing them yourself.

Yes, exactly. There's no way I'm paying $300 for a RAM upgrade that I could do for $80.

Except now I can't do that. Really unfortunate situation with the Retinas.

 

[mrweirdo]

Apple wants you to pay about $400 premium for the retina display, which really brings no benefit. $1,800 for a 13" laptop is crazy. What about those who all they need is a Mac laptop?

I supposed those peole will be forced to give up on OSX and go over/back to windows. It will get interesting if windows 9 actually turns out to be decent. Might cause some marketshare loss for Apple if that happened. Makes me think of the 90s all over again. If it happens again it will make Steve Jobs look even beter then before as it will happen under Tim

One things for sure most of my non techy OSX friends(talking long time longtime Mac users) are allready on the fence about switching due to the
considering switching anyways increased cost for retina's and non replacable parts. There just isnt much of reason to keep those types around even with the win 8 debacle atm.

 

[Carouser]

I'm quite irritated that I had to go buy an external optical drive for my new iMac. Why? So it can be thinner?

I used to feel quite strongly about the removal of the drive too, especially when removing it was solely because of Apple's agenda of smaller, thinner, lighter and download it all from us.

The machine could have been 2 feet thick and they still wouldn't have put an optical drive in it. They didn't 'sacrifice' anything for thinness - they put the components they wanted into it, and sized the body to fit. Turns out that when they do that it's thinner than the previous model (big surprise), so they might as well point it out.

What does a retina display have to do with an optical drive? They could very easily do both. PC makers already offer retina class displays on machines that include HDDs, optical drives, and flash storage and are still thin and light.

That's good, because the people who don't like what Apple is doing can buy those computers instead. No problem, end of story.

 

[BigRed1]

I'm not a wealthy man. That being said, I've always bought macs. I keep my macs for a long time. It's the only way I can continue to buy macs.

In order to keep my macs a long time, I have to upgrade the RAM and hard drives on occasion. Right now I'm running an early 2009 mac mini, which I've upgraded to a 1 tb SSHD and 8 GB of RAM. It's running fine at 5 years old.

I was hoping to replace my machine with a MacBook Pro of some kind, but even at the low end refurb prices, it's a big stretch for my budget.

Looks like I'll be going Mac Mini again. If the new Minis are not user serviceable, I'll just have to either buy on older version or go Hackintosh.

To all those saying that 120gb hard drives are adequate: perhaps they are for you, but that's a pathetically small hard drive. Even when I was storing my music, movies and photos on external drives, I was squeezed on a 160 drive. It doesn't take too many sample libraries to soak that up in a hurry. If I was going to buy a laptop, I would be buying it with the intention of having to keep it connected to an external drive in order to do anything on it. That's just absurd.

Just because your use doesn't require any space or the possibility of needing to upgrade RAM in the future, don't condemn all of the rest of us that do want and need those things.

 

[mainstreetmark]

The retina MacBooks are gorgeous BUT Apple's laptops are once more stupidly expensive.

And the soldered nonsense is a bummer. I've taken my 2010 MBP from 4 to 8 to 16GB, upgraded the hard drive a couple of times, which has really extended its useful life for me.

Planned obsolescence. Apple's the poster child for this.

Really? So, that's about $200 or so in RAM, and $150 a "couple of times"? So, fair to say you put in at least $600 additional on that laptop? That's more than Apple would have charged for the decked out model. Additionally, 16GB is likely the max you can put in there, so you're at the same "planned obsolescence" threshold you would have been at anyways. That's not Apple, that's the progress of technology.

 

[didztran]

Not very green making laptops that can't be upgraded-- or buying one. I hope to get a decade out of my MBP and keep my money.

Are you sure about that ? Some people upgrade for the sake of upgrading, and they throw out pieces away just for that. This is a total waste... Tell me you could sell it, but who would buy these 2gb pieces of ram? Not a lot of people, since every computer has them now.

And hey, who said it won't last longer? Upgradable has its limits, i bet you can change your pieces thrice before i sell my retina macbook pro to someone else, who is greener in this?