Apple analyst/soothsayer Ming-Chi Kuo has a new prediction. The company will be releasing new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models in the second quarter of 2020, according to a research note seen by MacRumors.
To be honest, there’s not a great deal of detail in terms of specs, but apparently this will be the death knell for the unpopular and unreliable butterfly keyboard switches which will, as they were on last year’s 16-inch MacBook Pro, be replaced with the new Magic Keyboard.
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Kuo believes that the 13-inch MacBook Pro will also be a thing of the past, with new 14-inch versions replacing the previous form factor. He also indicates that the new laptops will have certain ‘cost optimisations’, but is confident that they’ll be the kind of cutbacks that consumers won’t notice. We shall see.
Bringing out new hardware in the same mould as the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro would certainly be welcome. Max was full of praise for the laptop when he reviewed it last year, calling it “the very best laptop we’ve tested for creative duties.” While emphasising its extremely high cost of entry, he went on to add that “if you need a laptop to breeze through media tasks, there is no better option than this MacBook Pro.”
Crucially, he was also a big fan of the so-called ‘Magic Keyboard’: “It really is a pleasure to type on and a massive improvement if you dislike the previous keyboard,” he wrote.
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The big question, with Coronavirus already causing severe problems to Apple’s iPhone production supply chain, is when will these new laptops arrive? Kuo believes that the sections of the chain that supply MacBook parts will be improving by late March, meaning that new MacBooks should make that second quarter release date without issue.
Quarter 2, for those that don’t know, covers April, May and June, so you could be working away on a new MacBook Pro or Air very soon indeed.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
