Rumours continue to swirl about an addition to the MacBook Pro range. The 16-incher is set to debut in the coming months, most likely in October - but could it replace the current 15-inch? 

The move to a larger screen is a little odd since Apple discontinued the 17-inch MacBook Pro in 2012 and the lack of large-screen PC laptops at the moment surely indicates a lack of demand. It's most likely that any new model would follow laptops like the Dell XPS 13 and 15 in having super-thin bezels and so Apple will probably fit a larger screen in a smaller body. 

However, a new report suggests that the 16-inch MacBook Pro is actually going to be a straight-up replacement for the 15-inch. The analyst in question - Jeff Lin from IHS Markit - believes the new notebook will use the same Coffee Lake-H Intel processors currently used by the 15-inch and cites supply chain sources as suggesting the current 15.4-inch display will go end-of-life in November. 

The suggestion is interesting and would signify an extremely short shelf-life for the current 15-inch model which was only refreshed with new internals in May.

We reckon the 15-inch will be around for a little while yet. It could be that Apple adopts a similar strategy as it did when it introduced the first retina MacBook Pro - it ran older models alongside it for a while. Maybe the new model is the first of a new generation of MacBook Pro, though that is pure speculation for now.