MacBook Pro, MacBook Air 2015 and 2016 Release Date and Rumors: Will New Models Be Available on Black Friday?

Nov 18, 2015 02:38 PM EST

It is entirely possible that Apple is going to give its users a real holiday surprise and announce a new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro around Black Friday.  Technically, this really shouldn't be a rumor.  After all, Apple already revealed their newest models of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air at their big "Spring Forward" announcement earlier this year.  In other words, there is no reason for Apple to bring out a new version of their laptop.  However, here is the evidence that Apple will announce the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, 2015 or 2016, with a release date on Black Friday. 

According to Realty Today, there is a very strong rumor saying that Apple intends to release their latest batch of laptops just in time for Black Friday sales.  The reason for this sudden release date of their newest laptop model is that Apple wants to compete with new laptops coming out like Microsoft's Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book. 

Adding fuel to these rumors have been recent price cuts with this year's models of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro on Apple's website.  It is possible that Apple is slashing their prices to compete with other laptops for the holiday season, but Apple isn't really known for that.  Instead, the company is more known for marking down its older models to make ready for newer ones. 

However, many are saying that evidence for the soon-to-be release of the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro comes from some code that a lot of sources are calling proof positive.  According to Pike's Universum, this website has "stumbled upon" a new Mac code, AAPL951, in El Capitan, which indicates that the launch of new MacBooks could occur sooner rather than later.  As the post reads:  "The data is identical to that of the late 2015 (iMac17,1 in the same file) so it may as well be a remnant of the new iMac, but the strange thing is that the XHCI data for the late 2015 iMac is also there, which is why I believe that this is not/was not added for the/a new iMac but another Mac." It also says: "And like I said earlier in the comments, there are too many USB 3 ports defined to fit on a MacBook (Pro) and Mac Mini. This and the fact that there is already support for newer graphics chips [baked] into El Capitan... is why I think that it was added for a new Mac Pro."

So yes, there are a lot of legitimate reasons why Apple would want to start the release of their new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air during Black Friday.  However, when the 2016 version of the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air come out, this year or the next, it is rumored to have an Intel Skylake-U chipset under the hood, and powered by OS X El Capitan.  There are also plans that the new models will be sleeker, which should come as no surprise, but it could come with a Type-C USB port.  There are also talks of these new models having more powerful RAM and Force Touch technology.