AppleInsider provides new inside about a recurrent rumors related to future MacBook Pro models. The rumor seems to indicate that at least for the 15" model, to come for Spring (with Ivy-Bridge), Apple might remove the SuperDrive and the HD, and only rely on a SSD modules for storage. Such hardware would then be lighter, thinner and have a longer battery lifetime.
If having a more powerful notebook is a key point, it might be a bit extreme to only rely on SSD module for storage. Today, beside RAM modules and HD, we can not really modify anything in our notebook, and tomorrow with such model we might not be able to open the case anymore or upgrade the RAM, or change the storage unit for a larger one. As Apple is using a rather specific SSD module technology, only available from OWC beside Cupertino, we might have issue in being able to upgrade such future hardware. We might even have to pay the RAM at the "Apple rate", meaning 3 to 7 time higher than the equivalent top quality manufacturer.
Of course, we do not want to criticize a model not even released yet, and especially being a rumor, but it would be a strong concern to move toward a closed system where we can not customize or upgrade our machine besides going to Apple. There is still the option that Apple will be releasing a MacBook Air with a 15" display, while maintaining its notebook models with HD/SSD and the current format we know today.
There is a market for 15" ultra-light notebook with only limited storage, high performance and long battery lifetime, but it does not have to be the new design of the entire forthcoming notebook models. If it is though, then let's hope that Apple would have saved a 2.5" HD space so we could add a plate-based HD or a SSD to boost storage space. We current offer ranging from 750 GB to 1 TB for a notebook, having only 256 GB on SSD, would be a massive drawback/stepback.
