Apple’s MacBook Pro has always been a proven performer, ever since it was first introduced to the market all those years ago. It does not look as though this particular trend is going to stop anytime soon though, as Apple analyst King-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities claims that he has peered into the clairvoyant crystal ball that he stashes away in his cupboard, only to see a MacBook Pro 2017 model that will come with 32GB of RAM -- which would be the highest amount of RAM in any MacBook Pro model to date to begin with.
To be fair, King-Chi Kuo’s predictions have not been 100% correct all the time, but he has been pretty spot on most of the time when it comes to Apple products, so we will just take what he mentioned about the MacBook Pro 2017 with perhaps a grain of salt -- not even a pinch. Apart from that, next year’s MacBook Pro models are also tipped to come with a price cut; which should be good news for those who have been planning to get one all this while but never did for the simple fact that it remained out of reach financially.
So far, (extremely) early reports concerning the MacBook range that will be arriving next year has been rather optimistic to say the least. Historically speaking, Apple would have some pretty high sticker prices at the beginning of each new MacBook generation, only to lower the price in the year that comes after that. Having said that, this is part of the “pattern” that Kuo believes Apple will follow -- that is, to announce a price cut for its range of MacBooks in the second half of 2017 -- and that would include the MacBook Pro, of course.
Apart from that, Kuo’s crystal ball also points to the maturing of the USB-C market, as well as an uptick in Touch adoption, which would be vital factors in ensuring that customers are itching to obtain an upgrade. Hardware-wise, Kuo predicts that the Cupertino firm will have 32GB of RAM in their refreshed MacBook Pro family some time in the second half of 2017. Of course, this would also be highly depending on what Intel does -- whether they will roll out their Cannonlake processors or not by then. Cannonlake processors, also known by the codename Skymont, is Intel's 10-nanometer die shrink of the Kaby Lake microarchitecture, where it is tipped to arrive in the second half of 2017. This would tie in perfectly with the normal autumn release of a new MacBook Pro line.
Apple executive Phil Schiller did explain in the previous week that Apple decided to ditch throwing in 32GB of RAM in the recently released MacBook Pro is due to a higher power consumption, but with Intel’s Cannonlake processors hitting the market next year, 32GB of RAM would not be a pipe dream any more. If you are in no particular hurry and would probably be able to survive for another year without getting a new MacBook Pro, then it might be best to play the waiting game. After all, a cheaper price point with more RAM does sound to be a fine trade off.
