Apple is set to launch a new version of its popular MacBook Pro this fall that would be the first of any Apple laptop to feature a 16-inch display if recent rumors are to be believed.
As MacRumors reports, a new rumor from Taiwanese research firm TrendForce is one of at least five sources that has claimed that Apple will launch a MacBook with a 16-inch screen sometime this year, though the rumors conflict on whether Apple plans to announce and release the product in September or in October.
The new laptop is rumored to feature an entirely new design and a new keyboard mechanism that should remedy issues users have been having with Apple’s existing keyboards, which contain what the company calls the “butterfly mechanism.”
The new rumor refers to the 16-inch computer as “MacBook,” though MacRumors notes that they most likely mean MacBook Pro, as all previous rumors and reports about this new computer model said that it would be an update to the company’s MacBook Pro lineup.
Apple’s 2019 MacBook Pro is $100 off for everyone, not just students https://t.co/61bhq1NC5j pic.twitter.com/DSmJ8epGTd
— The Verge (@verge) July 31, 2019
Some reports have even suggested that Apple may even discontinue their current 15-inch MacBook Pro in favor of the 16-inch model, according to 9to5Mac . Apple has sold a 15-inch model of the MacBook Pro since it was introduced by the Cupertino-based company in 2006 by late founder Steve Jobs.
According to MacRumors, Apple typically announces updates to its Mac lineup in the fall, often in October.
Apple currently offers its MacBook Pro in a 13-inch and a 15-inch model. It also offers a MacBook Air in an 11-inch and a 13-inch variant. Apple quietly updated its laptop offerings earlier this year. According to The Verge , Apple quietly discontinued its 12-inch computer known simply as “MacBook” in July, which was introduced as its thinnest laptop ever four years prior.
The company also discontinued its last-generation MacBook Air model, which was the last computer in its lineup not to feature a Retina display, the high-quality display that the company first introduced on its iPhone 4 in 2010. The technology, which drastically increased the pixel density of its screens over previous models to provide a higher quality image, slowly made its way to all of Apple’s computers starting with the 15-inch MacBook Pro in 2012.
Apple previously offered its MacBook Pro in a 17-inch variant, though the company discontinued that model in 2012 around the time it brought the high-quality Retina display to its MacBook Pro.
The company is expected to unveil new iPhone models at an event next month, as it typically does during September, though the event has not yet been announced.