Apple To Retain 13-Inch MacBook Pro In Its Lineup, Despite The Imminent Arrival Of A Larger MacBook Air

wccftech.com:

The 13-inch MacBook Pro will remain a part of Apple’s portable Mac lineup, as the company is not phasing out this model after the arrival of the bigger 15-inch MacBook Air, according to one report. There are several reasons to continue launching something that arrives only with updated specifications, so let us discuss in more detail.

Apple currently has two 13-inch MacBook models in its current lineup. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the ‘Pro’ version is not going anywhere, despite the introduction of a 15-inch MacBook Air. However, despite what reports have stated, the larger portable Mac will ship with the M2 chipset, not M3, which is an update that will disappoint a massive audience.

However, from a business perspective, using the M3 SoC on the 15-inch MacBook Air will end up cannibalizing Apple’s 2023 MacBook Pro sales, so it is for the best. According to a previous performance estimation, the M3 would only be 6 percent slower than the 12-core CPU variant of the M2 Max in multi-core workloads while being 24 percent faster in single-core tasks, giving customers a huge incentive not to pick up one of the pricier MacBook Pro models.

Fortunately, the same SoC is reportedly making its way to the 13-inch MacBook Pro, likely in the fourth quarter, and Apple’s customer base does comprise of people who only want a specifications upgrade, not an aesthetics one. Also, the smaller MacBook Pro is the only version in the entire lineup that ships with a Touch Bar, and this feature can still provide some utility to users.

Furthermore, Apple’s manufacturing costs are saved immensely by reusing the same chassis. Compared to the 13-inch MacBook Air, the 13-inch MacBook Pro also ships with an active cooling solution, meaning that the