Refreshed MacBook Pros with Haswell Chips Coming in September?

Japanese website EMSOne [Google translation] (via Mac Otakara) summarizes a report from Taiwan's Want Daily claiming that Apple will launch the next-generation MacBook Pro with Intel’s latest Haswell processors in September of this year. The original report, which cites Taiwanese-based supply chain sources, does not appear to be available online, but the brief summary from EMSOne indicates that shipments from suppliers are planned to begin later this month.

It is unclear whether both Retina and non-Retina MacBook Pro models will be updated in this round, as Apple has been rumored to be phasing out the non-Retina models.

Prior to this news, additional recent reports have suggested that the Haswell MacBook Pro would arrive in the fall after they did not make an appearance at Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) back in June. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo originally predicted new MacBook Pros with Haswell processors at WWDC back in June, but later updated his prediction to suggest a mid-September release for the refreshed MacBook Pros.

Apple could presumably launch updated MacBook Pro models at any time, as Intel's power-efficient Haswell chips have been available for several months now, and low-power versions of the chips were included in Apple's June refresh of its MacBook Air lineup. Many have assumed, however, that a launch would not come until October in order to allow Apple, its customers, and the media to focus on the iPhone in September.

There is also evidence that suggests Apple vendors may be trying to run down existing MacBook Pro stock, with Best Buy and Amazon currently offering significant-back-to-school discounts on the MacBook Pro. Data from U.S. research firm NPD released last month also indicated that U.S. Mac sales were down in June compared to the previous June, despite the introduction of the new MacBook Airs, with the lack of a refreshed MacBook Pro lineup cited as a primary contributing cause.