Apple Retina Display Heading To MacBook Pros

The Apple rumour mill continues to churn with a new report saying it will extend its high-resolution Retina Display to MacBook Pros.

“Apple is likely to launch its new MacBook Pro lineup with a display resolution of 2880 by 1800 in the second quarter of 2012,” read the 14 December piece in the Taiwanese publication DigiTimes, which quoted unnamed sources in the supply chain for its information.

“While the prevailing MacBook models have displays with resolutions ranging from 1680 by 1050 to 1280 by 800, the ultra-high resolution for the MacBook Pro will further differentiate Apple’s products.”

Retina Display

Apple’s Retina Display first appeared as part of the iPhone 4, then spread to the iPod Touch. Current rumours suggest that the next version of the iPad could feature a Retina Display-caliber screen, although Apple will almost certainly decline to confirm this before an official unveiling.

Apple’s innovations in its mobile products have a habit of finding their way into the company’s Macs. Apple recently launched the Mac App Store, an apps storefront modelled after the highly successful one for iOS. Its laptops have become progressively thinner and lighter, their software more reliant on the cloud, to the point where they feel more like offshoots of Apple’s mobile efforts.

In that spirit, a higher resolution screen leaping from iPhones to MacBooks would seem totally reasonable. As with the iPad 3, though, Apple will surely keep a feature like that under wraps until it wants it revealed.

MacBook Pro

Apple’s last MacBook Pro refresh offered Intel’s 2nd Generation “Sandy Bridge” processors, including the option of the quad-core Core i7 for certain models.

In benchmark testing, eWEEK found the current version of the Pro notably faster than its predecessors. It also included Thunderbolt technology, for data-transfer rates between peripherals of up to 10 Gbps.

Mac OS X continues to hold a relatively small portion of the overall operating system market, which is overwhelmingly dominated by Microsoft’s Windows. In mobility, though, Apple continues to maintain a sizable presence: its iOS is currently battling Google Android for the lion’s share of the smartphone market, and the iPad thoroughly dominates tablets.