Pretty Disappointed at The News
While I wasn't totally taken by surprise, I was really bummed out that they didn't update the 17-inch MacBook Pro today. While I can understand the merging of the notebook lines into a single, more easily managed product line, I have to say that the fear of losing the 17-inch MacBook Pro is very real to me, now. Very real.
This question made it clear that the 17-inch as it was is not long for this world:
[11:01 AM] Q: Concern about the glossy screens. Are you going to offer another option?
A: Steve: We're going all glass -- we won't offer another version. Phil: You offset the reflection by the brightness, and consumers love it. One of the great things about a notebook is you can turn it however you want!
From this, it's clear - glass all the way. I can understand why they do it, but I have to say that the line about being able to move the screen to remove glare is bunk. If that were the case, then they'd never sell a matte finished screen, which I know is not the case. So they are consolidating the line. Plain and simple.
Normally, I might not mind, but the problem is in the trade-offs. I wanted more in a laptop - quad-core CPU and 8GB RAM -- found in PC laptops should be available for the mobile desktop 17-inch MacBook Pro. The problem is, the 15-inch machine has different engineering trade-offs than a 17-inch where weight, and size, is not as big an issue. I mean face it... if you're carrying a 17-inch laptop, then you have expressed a desire for more features at the expense of size and weight. For the 15-inch, it just wouldn't be the same.
I'll admit, I like the trackpad concept. I can even probably live with the glass screen. But I am (probably) hoping against hope that they are going to update the 17-inch to have the same basic feature set and not discontinue it. Face it... the "Classic" iPod is on it's last legs as well... it's certainly understandable if they drop the 17-inch like they dropped the 12-inch Powerbook. Crud.
I'm still hoping they don't. I'd love to have a new 17-inch MacBook Pro with desktop power and a great trackpad.
UPDATE: I finally got into the Apple Store and checked on a few things. Seems the 17-inch -- even with the refresh, is not going to be around long the speeds available in the 15-inch are 2.53GHz and 2.8GHz while on the 17-inch they are 2.5GHz and 2.6GHZ - clearly a previous generation chipset. It's not going to be long before I know if it's refreshed or dead. Hope it's the former.