WWDC 2018 started on Monday night and the focus was very clearly on software. In fact, no new hardware was released, unless you count a few iPhone cases or Watch straps.
This was no great surprise as for the past months the rumour mill had been suggesting that this was going to be the case. So what does this mean for the Mac line up moving forwards?
Mac Pro
Apple have already announced that they are going back to the drawing board on this one. Originally schedule for later on this year, 2019 is no the confirmed release date. This is still and interesting one. With the iMac Pro being incredibly powerful and proving to be a real niche product it will be interesting to see where Apple pitch the new Mac Pro.
An Apple display
With the development of the new Mac Pro we are also guaranteed a new Apple Display. Whilst there isn’t a huge demand at the moment the rumours do suggest that it could be a 8K display with a screen size of 32”. As you would need an incredibly powerful graphics capability to drive an 8K display it would be logical to assume that Apple would release this to work with the new Mac Pro. So expect a release date in 2019.
iMac
Still our favourite Mac and this one is hard to call. The general design of the current aluminium Mac has been with us for the best part of a decade and whilst it has got thinner and sleeker it is hard to see how the chassis design can be improved.
Add to this that August this year marks the 20th anniversary of the iMac launch. Tim Cook has tweeted previously that the iMac change Apple and the way we view computers forever. Chances of Apple letting this milestone go past without doing something to the iMac has to be slim.
Processors would be an easy win but not very dramatic for the 20th anniversary. Could the Space Grey colour that is currently only available on the iMac Pro come to the normal iMac range. Or could we even get to choose between gold and rose gold?
Mac mini
Is this the most unloved or cherished Apple Mac? Untouched in years the Mac mini represents the cheapest way to lease an Apple product. A bit like the old 17” MacBook Pro it has a diehard client base and it is a great product to enter into the Apple environment.
Rumours are gathering apace that the mini will be refreshed but every year enthusiasm grows for the mini only for nothing to happen. Perhaps we have got our hopes up too many times about this little machine that we just don’t want to experience that disappointment when it is left on the shelf again.
MacBook Pros
As with the iMacs an obvious upgrade would be the incorporation of Intel’s latest processors Coffee Lake or even the 8th generation Kaby Lake R. There is also the possibility that Apple could introduce its own processor range. The plan is that Apple will have switched to its own processors by 2020. Maybe 2018 is still a bit too early.
We would also like to see Apple address the Butterfly keyboard issue. It is a joy to type on, and it makes a raised keyboard seem as old fashioned as a mullet hairstyle, but don’t let lint, crumbs or any small debris get underneath the keys. The next few days of your life will be spent misspelling words as one key fails to register properly. Once the offending article has been crushed or blown away the keyboard will return to normal. It would be great if Apple could find a solution to this niggily issue.
MacBook Air/MacBook
Whisper it quietly but we do not lease a lot of MacBooks. For businesses we prefer the cheaper MacBook Air or the more powerful MacBook Pro. For the MacBook and the MacBook Air a lot seems to rest on whether Apple will produce a 13” MacBook Air with Retina Display. The Air is the only portable Mac that doesn’t come with the world class Retina Display. However, if it did then then would we see these two lines merge into one?
Timescales
With no hardware announcements at WWDC it does look as if August and a 20th anniversary iMac announcement would be the earliest announcement for any new Macs. September/October also ties in with the release of the new macOS Mojave and a possible iPad release.