When WWDC 2018 wrapped up last month without a single mention of new Mac hardware, people were more than a little peeved. Apple’s MacBook lineup has been sorely underloved in recent years, with the only real innovation being in the dongle department. Add that to the lack of MacBook Air updates, and you can see why Apple’s decision not to release anything new at WWDC (or even hint at it) left MacBook fans disappointed.
But we’ve also been hearing murmerings about some coming changes to the MacBook Pro lineup post-WWDC. These updates are more likely to be minor spec bumps than wholesale changes to the design, but hey, we’ll take what we can get. The rumors got a little more real this morning with a set of leaked parts numbers from the Eurasian Economic Commission, a regulator overseeing Russia and Eastern Europe.
The regulatory documents were obtained by French site Consomac, and only give us details about the model numbers and software versions. Given that Apple uses consistent model numbering, that can tell us a lot about what sort of devices these are.
The MacBook section lists five model numbers: “Apple” brand Personal Computers A1931, A1932, A1988, A1989, A1990 (MacOS Software Version 10.13) and their Spare Parts. The software version is the most puzzling part, as you’d expect a newly-released MacBook to run the latest version of macOS. The last three model numbers, A1988, A1989, and A1990, correlate with new versions of the TouchBar MacBook Pro, whereas the first two model numbers are likely new MacBook or MacBook Air models.
There’s no indication of when we could expect to see these new MacBooks, but regulatory filings typically come a few months before release. That means a fall release — either at the same time as Apple’s September iPhone event, or in a standalone event afterwards — is most likely.
