It’s exciting but at the same time it makes me uneasy. What was once a mature industry is going through a significant transformation. Distribution models will change, the lines between different form factors will continue to blur.
MACBOOK PRO RETINA PC
Even Microsoft has finally entered the PC hardware business, something it threatened to do for years but hadn't until now. The traditional PC OEMs are following suit. The movement is no longer confined to just Apple either. The personal computer is getting thinner, lighter, more integrated and more appliance-like. The personal computer as we knew it for so long, is changing. The discrete GPU is still present but I suspect even its days are numbered, at least inside the chassis. Gigabit Ethernet and Firewire 800 are both gone. After all, the next-generation MacBook Pro with Retina Display features four such IO ports (2 x Thunderbolt and 2 x USB 3.0). Perhaps I was being too aggressive in the prediction of a couple of high bandwidth ports. Apple is really ahead of the curve here, but it's easy to imagine a future where laptops become a lot more like the new Air and shift to a couple high bandwidth ports instead of numerous lower bandwidth connections. Moving IO controllers and expansion into the display, and potentially even moving discrete GPUs out of the notebook are all in store for us. The Thunderbolt Display is the first sign of what's to come. The performance in this 10 - 20W segment is going to get much better over the next two years, particularly once Haswell arrives. Since the Air is the new mainstream Mac notebook, Apple has already made that move. Intel has already committed to moving the TDP of its mainstream parts from 35W - 45W down to 10 - 20W. What happens from here on out is what's really interesting. Last year when I wrote about the new MacBook Airs I offered two forward looking paragraphs: