Apple may have a pre-October surprise in mind as Digitimes reports that it’s trying to ramp up production of the 13-inch Retina-equipped MacBook Pro for a release sometime in September. Unnamed supply chain sources tell Digitimes that previous rumors about Apple delaying its production of the 13-inch Pro are incorrect and that the computer may “have a chance to launch before October to catch up with the back-to-school season.” As MacRumors points out, this report is largely in line with the predictions of KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who correctly predicted that the 15-inch Retina-equipped MacBook Pro would launch at WWDC last month and who now says the 13-inch version will launch in October.

UPDATE: MacRumors has also found a benchmark for what appears to be the 13-inch Retina-equipped MacBook Pro. The machine listed on the benchmark features a 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7-3520M processor and runs Build 12A2056 of OS X Mountain Lion.

Read [DigiTimes] Read [MacRumors]