Apple is expected to launch thinner and lighter MacBook Pros as early as April, reports DigiTimes.
When paired with the company's upcoming Mountain Lion operating system as well as Apple's MacBook Air models, the product lines are expected to create a significant threat against notebook players' ultrabooks, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
Initial shipments of the updated 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pros are estimated to reach 900,000 units.
Recently, Intel announced a delay in mass supply of its Ivy Bridge CPUs from April to June and DigiTimes indicates that this is of concern to other vendors.
Notebook vendors are concerned about that the postponed launch schedules of their ultrabooks, as it may give Apple advantages in terms of time-to-market, the sources noted.
This appears to suggest that Apple has already secured its supply of Ivy Bridge chips for the next generation MacBook Pros.
ivy bridge cpu
Performance according to sources (compared to Sandy Bridge):
Up to 20% increase in CPU performance
30% to 100% increase in integrated GPU performance
The built-in GPU is believed to have up to 16 execution units (EUs), compared to Sandy Bridge's maximum of 12
Tri-gate transistor technology (less than 50% power consumption at the same performance level as 2-D planar transistors).[12]