My guess is that this isn't a macbook pro. Not for long. A fuckup or a compromise, but either way a departure from Apple's normally impeccably simple naming & branding of product lines. This is just a macbook. If all goes well and Apple can get prices down there might not be pros or airs anymore, just macbooks. In three sizes.

I think Apple have somewhat of an aversion to having price be the only or main differentiator between products. That's why the old macbooks were scrapped. Pros were more powerful & Airs were more portable. Macbooks were only cheaper. Cheaper models can exist, but they have to have some unique advantage that'd make some users buy them regardless of price.

The existence of a Macbook pro & a Macbook pro retina bends this rule. If a 13" air and a just-as-thin 13" pro retina both existed, it would break it.

> My guess is that this isn't a macbook pro. Not for long.

It most definitely is, they're going to deprecate the older design over time. Just look at the specs, CPU and GPU are the same between old-style and Retina, but only the Retina gets a 16GB RAM option (with 8 base, versus 4 base for old-style), a retina display, Retina gets HDMI (and a second TB, which is the future as far as Apple's concerned), an updated Magsafe design.

The old-style remains to clear inventory and to wait for the cost of making/buying retina panes to get lower.

My guess wasn't that it'd be spun off into a separate line. Rather that Making the macbook pro thinner would make the only major advantage in the Air's favor price. That'd lead to an eventual merging of the two.

I don't think it's quite as stark as you say.

This is a transition product just like the original Macbook Air was, which incidentally also looked like an odd duck compared to the clarity of having Macbook and Macbook Pro lines.

It's likely just a typo in your comment, but the Pro Retina is a 15.4" model, not 13".

I agree. Its a bendable "rule" and Apple are willing to bend it in order to make gradual transition. But the Air is also an example that they return to clarity eventually. I don't think they'll continue to sell pros & airs for long if the only real difference is price. I definitely don't think they'll sell Air, Pro & Pro+ for long either, other wise they would have named it something else.

*Not a typo, but I clarified the sentence.

I can well imagine some pros who view upgrading RAM as a very important, even vital feature.

I can also view many pros who view the thinner size as far more important.

As it turns out Apple also makes a not thinner "pro" laptop you can upgrade the RAM on so what's the big deal?

when the maximum is 16g I really do not see the issue here. They charge the same price to upgrade the memory in the Retina Mac Pros as the regular ones.

Considering the for $400 more over the price of a standard Mac Pro notebook you get the new screen, 4g more memory, light weight, and SSD, it really comes off as a good deal in the scheme of Apple pricing. Yeah you lose the DVD, which I cannot recall when I last used one.

My suggestion is just order it maxed out in memory, if the $200 is something to quibble about in a $2200 laptop the you should not be buying one in the first place.

> I can well imagine some pros who view upgrading RAM as a very important, even vital feature.

For this laptop? 16GB likely is the maximum the chipset can handle (in hardware) and Apple offers the BTU option. BTU RAM is considered a sucker's games for individuals, pros have much lower a reason to care.

As a professional computer user, I'd much rather buy the computer with the RAM and not worry about upgrading it later. Professional truck operators buy the truck already customized for the job they need it to do, and don't just walk on to the dealership, buy one, and then weld shit to it.