By Katie Davis
I ndustry insiders are saying that Apple Inc. is preparing for the first significant overhaul of its MacBook laptop in over four years using one of its older products to help recover fromwhat has been abiteout of sales for the last twoquarters. The new generation notebook has said to have been in testing within the company since earlier this year but that Apple is unlikely to debut the new MacBook any time soon as they get ready to launch the next versions of the iPhone, which history has been the new sales driver for the company given Apple customers looking to buy a new iPhone every 18 to 24 months, so Apple will not want to take any attention off the new iPhone launch as it could damage sales of Apple’s flagship product, especially given the new technology that is rumored to be coming in the new MacBook. One of the technology changes for the MacBook is a secondary display above the keyboard that replaces the standard function key row. Now instead of physical keys, the user can tap a strip-like screen which will present functions on an as-needed basis that fit the current task or application. The Macbook’s smaller display will use Organic Light-Emitting Diodes, a thinner, lighter and sharper screen technology Apple has a simple goal with the use of a dedicated function display and that is to simplify keyboard shortcuts traditionally used by more experienced users. The fact that user commands will be specific to the application will allow Apple to add new buttons via software updates rather than through more expensive and much slower hardware refreshes.
It is said that the new MacBook design will include USB-C technology, a multifunctional type of port that can handle charging, data transfers, and display connectivity and that Apple is planning to bring over its Touch ID fingerprint technology from the iPhone to the new MacBook allowing allow users to log in more quickly and will encrypt finger- print data so it can’t be removed from the devices. Now saying all that, there are a couple of additional reasons that Apple is holding off on the launch of its next generation notebook other than the launch of its new iPhone: one being that sales of Macs increased 6 percent last year with over $25 billion in sales, so sales are still very strong compared to the iPad line which still generated over $23 billion in sales but that was down 23 percent from the previous year. Given the purchase patterns of Apple customers that actually makes sense given that iPad cus- tomers upgrade their product roughly every 3 years and it was in back in 2013 that iPad sales peaked with more than 71 million units sold globally generating $33 billion in sales revenues for Apple. The other reason that Apple could be holding the new notebook launch is to capitalize on the holiday shopping season where Apple sees its greatest sales and a new Apple notebook would most likely be on a few of Santa’s wish lists as people look to update their current notebook with the new MacBook which will take user friendly tech- nology to a new level.
So you better stay off Santa’s naughty list.
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SEPTEMBER 2016 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS
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