MacBook Refresh Coming Soon?

Yes I know.  Mac… whatever.  That was me for the past 15 years so I get it.  But I caved and for the first time in all of my computing years I’ve made the decision to cheat on Windows and head to Mac.  My reason:  MacBook Pro is the smart option for a specific work function, DJing.  Quite honestly, I can’t rely on Windows crapping out on me in the middle of a party leaving me with my hands up in the air and a wedding without music.  I’ve made this decision based on the feedback from other DJs and those that use the software I’ll be running with a decision based solely off of the reliability factor.  I must say though, I’m pretty excited for this switch.  Maybe Windows has bored me to the point where I need a change or maybe Dave Alison (aka Seeker) has spewed his Mac ramblings so much that I actually bought into his pitch.  Whatever it is, I was ready to drop some cash on a new MBP until I started investigating the current hardware options.  I need something small, portable, and stable so the 13″ MBP sounded perfect.  The latest version was released in April of 2008 and with a C2D CPU???  Really?  No thanks.  I could buy a PC notebook with much more to offer for a much smaller price tag.  Then I told myself to hang on and keep focused on the MacBook Pro and research the release cycles and maybe, just maybe one is around the corner.

The first site I ran into was MacRumors which had a helpful page on basically every Apple product’s release cycle and averages for their updates.  Turns out I’m in luck as a refresh is long overdue and is expected shortly.  MacRumors also reported the following:

“MacRumors has heard from several sources that supplies of Apple’s existing MacBook Pro models, particularly the 15″ and 17″ sizes, are beginning to run low in Apple stores and at third-party retailers, suggesting that the company may be drawing down stock in advance of an update to the product line. At least one major retail chain has reportedly notified its branches that it has been unable to fulfill replenishment orders, a situation that has been tied to forthcoming product updates in the past.

The 17″ MacBook Pro generally appears to be in the shortest supply at the moment, with Amazon quoting a shipment window of 1-2 months for the base Core i5 model and several popular resellers connected through Amazon’s systems also showing low stocks of the 17″ models. For its part, Apple continues to show “within 24-hour” availability of all MacBook Pro models in its online stores, suggesting that the company may be prioritizing remaining stock to serve its customers directly.

Apple’s MacBook Pro has been expected to receive an update in the relatively near future, as the line is due for an revision any time now and sources have indicated that the MacBook Pros would indeed be updated some time in the first half of this year. A new version of the MacBook Pro will almost certainly incorporate Intel’s Sandy Bridge microarchitecture and could see the company adopt some aspects of the its successfully revamped MacBook Air in order to improve performance and reduce size and weight.”

While said “rumors” are just that, it seems I’m not the only one starting to troll the Mac pages and feeds waiting for a new glimpse of what hardware the MBPs will be using and when they’ll show themselves in stores.  What I do know is that Dave Alison may very well be my personal support tech for the coming months.  He didn’t know that, but now he does.  Thanks in advance bud!