15-inch MacBook Pro about to be updated?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Saturday, 16 February 2008 09:29

Opinion and Analysis

MacNN and Electronista have noted that at least one major North American retail chain has run out of stocks of the 15-inch MacBook Pro, something that either means they’ve been very popular lately, there’s some delay in production that is causing lower stock levels  – or stocks are running down in preparation for a potential MacBook refresh.

It’s all speculation, as it always is when a story is based upon a retail chain running out of Apple MacBooks with a two week delay on getting new ones in stock, but such events have happened in the past, and when they do, it’s always time to wonder if new models are on the way.

MacNN and Electronista have the news that Best Buy’s Canadian 'affiliate', Future Shop, both major technology retails, have “run out of stock of the 2.2GHz version [of the 15-inch MacBook Pro]”.

As noted in the introduction, the low stock levels could be for a number of reasons, but given the fact Apple’s MacBook Pros aren’t running the very latest 45nm chipset platforms from Intel, which reduce power consumption and heat emission, while increasing clock speeds, there is hope among some MacBook Pro-owners to be that new processors are indeed on the way - for both the 15-inch and 17-inch models, let alone the regular 13.3-inch MacBook model.

After all, when buying a new computer, it’s always a monumental pain in the you-know-where to discover that what was the shiniest latest model a week ago is now superseded by the something even newer, better, faster and more power efficient, and you simply didn’t wait that extra week or two before making a purchase.

There’s also speculation that any new MacBook models will also feature the same ‘multi-touch’ glidepad as seen on the new MacBook Air, while in related news, a MacRumors article has confirmed that existing MacBook and MacBook Pro owners will  sadly not be receiving any software updates to enable the same functionality.

But as for new MacBook models, well, there is official confirmation from Apple on this. Of course, I haven’t bothered to contact them about it, for they never do confirm anything before they themselves launch it.

Apple’s February SDK event is on soon – could Steve Jobs be planning for a ‘one more thing’? Please read onto page 2.