This morning Marco Arment (the developer Instapaper) publicized his thoughts on the possibility of the next-generation iMacs and Thunderbolt Display receiving a similar technology upgrade as the newly-refreshed Retina MacBook Pro.
In his thesis, Arment suggested that neither the next iMac models nor Apple’s Thunderbolt Display will receive screens with a resolution worthy of being dubbed “Retina”.
The primary reason behind his logic is simple, even if the 27-inch monitors for both the iMac and Thunderbolt Display only doubled in resolution to 5,120-by-2,880 at 60 Hz, it would require a significant leap in bandwidth – potentially over 21 Gbps for 24-bit color (Apple’s fastest Thunderbolt I/O only supports dual 10 Gbps channels).
Another great point brought to light in Arment’s report are shortages. With Apple struggling to meet the demand for the 15.4-inch Retina displays found on the new MacBook Pro models, they’d no doubt have their work cut out for them if they attempted to produce 27-inch Retina Displays.
While it’s certainly not impossible, and is almost an inevitable step in the evolution of both the iMac and Thunderbolt Display, the report merely suggests Apple won’t introduce Retina technology for the products’ next refresh. Stay tuned for additional coverage on Apple and their products.
