Not only the base spec is 8GB but the largest possible upgrade is 16GB. My previous-generation Macbook Pro had the possibility of 32GB, which is what I bought because I think that's a decent minimum for a computer I want to last.
We will probably see the next round of new Macs in either March or June. I suspect that is when we will see the next version of the chipset that would support higher RAM limits and more I/O ports. We might start seeing the new hardware design language,too.
