Intentional or not, Apple's new software releases often hint at what may be coming down the line. When they revealed their newly redesigned Mac Pro and their new desktop release, OS X 10.9, which they are calling Mavericks (since they seem to be running out of feline-related names), they also posted a promotional wallpaper to their website which just so happens to be double the horizontal and vertical resolution of current Mac displays -- leading to speculation that they are preparing Retina models.

First if you missed it, here's a brief overview of the new OS:


Thanks to Apple Insider for the heads-up, here's a snippet and the wallpaper in question:

The 5,120-by-2,880-pixel image hosted on Apple's website is sized at exactly twice the width and height of the 2,560 by 1,440 pixels found in today's 27-inch iMac and 27-inch Apple Thunderbolt display. The Retina-caliber wallpaper was first noted on Twitter by Web designer Marvin Scharle.

Apple-os-x-10-9-mavericks-wallpaper

So is this a fact? No, not necessarily, but it would be very surprising if Apple wasn't preparing 4K and above displays for use in their Thunderbolt monitors and iMacs. It's unclear when we might see a display like this, especially as price could be an issue for any display of this size at the moment. If anyone can push their weight around to bring costs down, however, it's likely Apple, so I don't think it's unrealistic to see these for real by the end of the year, especially as the 4K display market is going to heat up over the next 6-18 months.

A lot has been said about needing a giant TV to take advantage of what 4K has to offer, but it's sort of the opposite when it comes to computer monitors and smaller displays, since our eyes are so close to them, and an iMac of this resolution would still be lower PPI than the Retina iPad. We've talked about the web as being the first place that this 4K transition might actually begin, and it's almost certain that Apple will push in that direction based on the specs for the new Mac Pro, which touted 4K as a big selling point. It would be unusual for a company like Apple to brag about such specs without having products -- high-resolution displays in this case -- lined up to take advantage of them.

What do you guys think? Would you be interested in one of these displays or iMacs?

Link: Apple OS X 10.9 Wallpaper

[via Apple Insider]