Apple's Mac lineup is showing its age in a few spots; even the Mac Pro, which we tend to think of as new, will see its one-year anniversary in December, only a few months away.

It's probably easier to list the Mac models that are current, and that I would have no qualms about buying today.

MacBook Pro With Retina Display

That's it. There's only one family of Mac products that are genuinely current, that I would have no hesitation whatsoever about walking into an Apple Store and walking out with a MacBook Pro tucked under my arm.

For all the rest of the Macs - iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, MacBook Air – I would stop, at least for a moment, to consider whether their status is current, soon to be updated, or perhaps soon to be eliminated.

Eliminated Macs

I should probably start off with the soon-to be-eliminated category. It may sound scary to say eliminated, but all things do come to an end eventually, and I believe no one will be surprised to see the 13-inch non-Retina display MacBook Pro fall by the wayside.

Apple kept this model around only because of the price premium seen in Retina displays. But Retina displays are becoming commonplace, either from Apple or in competitive products that use alternate names for higher resolution display technology. With display prices falling, there isn't much reason for Apple to keep updating the non-Retina version of the MacBook Pro. So, I expect to see the basic MacBook Pro go away when the next MacBook Pro upgrade occurs.

Stale Macs

This category of Macs includes all the models that are suffering from a mid-life crisis, that point at which they're no longer new and improved, but still too young for Apple to be ready to give them a facelift.

A good example, and actually the only current model in this category, is the MacBook Air. Both models of this ultra-light portable received an update in late April, 2014, which puts them just about midlife in the average one-year product update cycle that Apple seems to use for portables.

Macs in this category would receive my buy-if-needed advice. Essentially, as long as you're buying one because you have a specific need for it, then by all means, go ahead; there's no sense in waiting. But if your reason to purchase one is because you want something new and improved over what you're using now, then I suggest waiting a little bit, or perhaps considering one of the other new Mac models.

Recently Updated Macs

Macs that have recently seen updates obviously fall into this category, but deciding what constitutes recent is really up to you. I tend to think any updates that are younger than the product's average midlife period would meet this criterion. If it’s a new product that doesn't have a track record for updates, then I would say it should be newer than five months.

The MacBook Pros with Retina Display are the only current Macs that fall into this category, so they obviously rate as a go ahead and buy.

Macs Needing Updates

Our second-to-last category is for current Mac models that are in need of updates. This includes any Macs that are at or near the end of their average update cycle, or in some cases, so far beyond the time when they should have been updated that you wonder if Apple has forgotten about them.

Currently, the majority of Macs reside in this category of despair. They include:

• Mac mini: Last updated in October of 2012.
• iMac: While a new, low-cost 21.5-inch iMac was added to the lineup at the beginning of the summer, the rest of the iMac family members haven't seen any changes since September of 2013.
• Mac Pro: Although the Mac Pro could be listed in the stale category, I think a minor refresh to upgrade processors and fix any minor issues that come about would be sufficient when an all-new Mac Pro model is released. So, I'm using my professional pundit powers to push the Mac Pro into the Needing Update category.

Mac Products for Fall 2014

This is our last category, and the one with which we'll have the most fun. From this point on, we're working strictly on speculation and outright rumors to forecast what Apple will do before the end of the year. We'll begin with the fall, which is the time of year when Apple usually announces new or updated Macs.

12-inch MacBook Air

One of the most popular rumors concerns a Retina version of the MacBook Air. This rumor usually describes an ultra-light 12-inch model of the Air that will use a Retina display, and have a thinner case than current MacBook Air models.

Apple would likely use one of Intel's new Broadwell processors in a 12-inch MacBook Air, to help with thermal management and power consumption while still providing performance levels better than that of current MacBook Air models.

Although Broadwell chips have been delayed, Intel has had success with mobile versions of the Broadwell chips, so Apple could indeed announce a 12-inch MacBook Air this fall, possibly in October alongside the introduction of OS X Yosemite.

Mac mini

Currently the oldest of the Macs. Released in 2012, the Mac mini is in desperate need of an update, or perhaps a whole new look. That's the direction I think Apple will take with the Mac mini, and I believe it's being held back from announcing a new Mac mini due to Intel's Broadwell problems. Desktop versions of Broadwell are not expected until the end of the year at the earliest, and well into 2015 is more likely.

I'm expecting a new Mac mini look, one that's smaller than the current design, and maybe even looks like a half-pint version of the current Mac Pro. Regardless of how the mini will be dressed up, the innards will be based around Dual or Quad-core Broadwell processors and PCIe-based SSDs. And while I certainly hope for user replaceable RAM, I'm not holding my breath.

The new Mac mini will have no internal expansion, so all upgrades, except RAM, will be performed externally using Thunderbolt 2 and USB 3 peripherals.

I'm hoping for an October announcement, but I'm not expecting the Mac mini until December.

iMac

I think Apple was ready for a late summer release date for both the small and large versions of the iMac, but once again, Broadwell delays got in the way. Apple has had to keep iMacs on the back burner while waiting on production-level supplies of Intel processors.

Apple may be able to go with an October release of the 21.5-inch iMac and a late December release for the 27-inch iMac. My reasoning is based on the idea that the 21.5-inch iMac could make use of one of the mobile versions of the Broadwell processors, since the smaller, thinner case design needs thermal and power management to operate effectively. The 27-inch iMac, with its significantly larger case, doesn't have the same thermal issues, and therefore would have been designed to use desktop versions of the Broadwell chips, the same ones that are seeing the most delays in production.

The only other significant rumor for iMacs is the possibility of a Retina display being offered. As I mentioned earlier, the cost of high-resolution displays has been falling, but I don't think the technology has come down far enough for them to be offered in the iMac lineup. The 27-inch iMac would need a 5K display to meet a Retina display resolution (5120x2880), and would require the new DisplayPort 1.3 technology that was only recently approved by VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) to drive the display. So, I think this time around the iMac, at least the 27-inch model, won't be outfitted with a Retina display.

Mac Pro

I don’t think we'll be seeing a Mac Pro update this year, but sometime in the early spring of 2015, the Mac Pro may be getting its first product refresh. This will likely be along the lines of a processor refresh that will bring an 18-core processor option to the Mac Pro. There may also be an update to the graphics cards, but except for any tweaks to address hardware issues, the Mac Pro update will be minor.

Personally, I would like to see an option to have a single graphics card, instead of the current required dual configuration, but I think Apple will stay with dual graphics cards for quite some time. Oh, and I'd like one in red.