Constrained Supplies Hint at MacBook Pro Refresh

Constrained supplies of MacBook Pros have analysts predicting a refresh to the line of notebook computers.

Analyst Shaw Wu with Kaufman Bros found that supplies of MacBook Pro machines are "fairly limited at two to three weeks vs. a more normal four to six weeks."

Wu believes that strong January demand could play a part; however, he believes that new MacBook Pros are on the horizon.


Apple is expected to upgrade to the new Intel Arrandale mobile processors which are now shipping in volume. Wu suggests Apple could use this update to further differentiate the low-end, $999 MacBook from the premium MacBook Pro.

"Benefits of the new mobile architecture, helped in part by its new 32 nanometer process (vs. previous 45 nanometer), include much better performance through hyper-threading and turbo mode, battery life, and weight characteristics, which we believe give AAPL engineers more room to further differentiate the MacBook Pro," Wu wrote in a note to investors Wednesday.

"We believe new Mac models could ship in the March quarter, or at the latest the June quarter. It is not clear to us whether AAPL will introduce these new Macs through special event or 'quietly' through a press release."

AppleInsider suggests that a new Nvidia technology called Optimus could make its way to the MacBook Pro. Optimus was designed to work alongside Nehalem notebook designs that have both an integrated Intel graphics processor and a discrete Nvidia graphics chip. It chooses the best of the two graphics processors for running a given application and automatically routes the workload to either the discrete Nvidia chip or Intel integrated graphics core. This provides the best performance while also providing optimal battery life.


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