15-Inch MacBook Pro Delivery Estimates Slip Ahead of New Models Expected Next Week

[Black Tiger]

Yeah, running scared from their best quarter of Mac sales ever.

Yes, if I were the 2nd most valuable company in the world, I'd be really running scared. Apple is clearly doomed and will cease to exist within a few months. 1 trillion in the bank can't save them.../sarcasm

huh?
take the "pro requirements" from everyone around here and put them all in one computer.

you would want that?

A real pro machine is: one for all

Good luck trying to get everyone to agree. Name one product that has ever been all things to all people.
[doublepost=1496212539][/doublepost]

A real "pro machine" is a lineup of products in various sizes (like 13, 15, and 17") and different performances (like a dual core i5 to a quad core i7). The key thing is not to offer functionality and versatility (contemporary ports, removable mass storage).

And before you say that's too many SKUs. Companies 1/10th Apple's size with a smaller market share than Apple manage to offer a full range of "pro" options along side "budget" and "consumer" options. And every other PC vendor somehow manages to keep their products up to date as new stuff comes out (newer CPUs, newer GPUs, cheaper SSDs, etc). Only Apple seems to be perpetually years behind and playing catchup while bragging about Timmy's clogged pipeline.

Timmy just can't seem to wrap his tiny little mind around the fact that you can spec bump products without a massive media splash.

A one machine for all idea will satisfy very few people, and that's how Apple found themselves in their current mess across the mac lines.

They're trying to make every mac satisfy the exact same mythical customer, and they're making them all satisfy very few people.

This was the approach that Apple took in the 90s. How'd that work out for them?

 

[Bacillus]

This is an oversimplification on so many levels. "Media Pro" is whom exactly? If you're talking graphic artists vs. musicians vs. software developers, they need completely different hardware strengths. Trying to create a computer with a one-size-fits-all has never and will never satisfy everyone. And raw horsepower is never going to be superior on a notebook when compared to a desktop because of the form factor.

Media Pro's do heavy processing continuously (Final Cut, and formerly Macromedia apps before they left the platform) so they need a machine without compromises, lots of connectivity, not 4x the same ports (any of which could be daisy-chained to obtain the same effect) and never, never, compromise in favor of physical flatness and sticky/whacky playmobile keyboards.
What the other PRO's need, depends on their workflow. Some software devs compile 10 times an hour, some once a day. Same for graphic artists. So you can discern as many PRO levels as you want, but a simplified catalogue (Apple is not Toyota!) would offer everybody ample choice:
- a real MacBook Pro machine (currently non-existing)
- a regular MacBook (currently marketed as MacBook Pro)
- a slimfit MacBook Air (currently marketed as MacBook)
Processing power is hardly a discriminator here (with Apple 2,3 Intel generations behind)
Speaking for me myself, as a manager I have an 2013 MacBook Air (purely for connectivity) and I don't care about the Pro label, as inflated as it has become under the current Apple.
Actually I am waiting for someone to clear up this productline because it is completely messed-up (and shave out the Schiller/Ive tandem on the run, before they will devastate the whole division...)
No, I will not attend the keynote, because if they'd come on stage, I could hardly control myself.

 

[Tech198]

Unless you buy at the last minutes an get it later, Apple has a knack for ** users off centered about shipping time-frames and WWDC announcements always..

even a day or two after the order ships u will be cheesed of as a "OH !!"

 

[rkRusty]

For the first thing: Open "Activity Monitor", select the "Energy" tab which will tell you exactly what apps are eating your battery. For the second thing: Yeah, Apple are evil. The moment they release a new model, the old one just stops working. If you take it to an Apple Store, they just kick you out. Wait, no, it doesn't stop working, and you get the same service as everyone else, for many years. My home MacBook is now six years old. Works better than when it was brand new.

I don't need instruction on opening Activity Monitor, mate. Perhaps my comment came off as someone overly agitated and ignorant, but I'm not. Just expressing anger.
I'm aware I can take it to an Apple Store. Since you're mentioning it, I take it that you're aware the only Apple Store near me is 55 miles away? And that I too have a 2010 MacBook Pro in good condition? And a 2009 MacBook Pro on loan from work? And a 2009 family iMac? And a 2012 MacBook Air that my sister dropped in the bath? And that when I took my new 2016 MacBook Pro to the Apple Store 2 months after buying it to complain about the battery they told me it would cost £200?
Oh, you weren't aware? Sarcastic buffoon.

 

[Substance90]

What exactly defines a "professional" user in your estimation?

Someone earning their income on their Macbook, and I don't mean writing emails or writing blog posts.

 

[darngooddesign]

What about MagSafe? Cant you keep that separate? Cant you combine USB3 and Magsafe? How about providing a sleek one dongle with 4 common connectors for the first 2-3 years? And the pricing - keep the same costly $$ as you have now, but include the above stuff...

Apple can't, but these guys can:
https://griffintechnology.com/us/breaksafe-magnetic-usb-c-power-cable

http://www.snapnator.com/
[doublepost=1496236684][/doublepost]

Someone earning their income on their Macbook, and I don't mean writing emails or writing blog posts.

While this is a bigger discussion, there are many different pro users. There are Pro users who administer and manage, and there are pro users who require computers to do some real heavy lifting. We used to call them Power Users.

 

[Kameha]

Apple can't, but these guys can:
https://griffintechnology.com/us/breaksafe-magnetic-usb-c-power-cable

http://www.snapnator.com/
[doublepost=1496236684][/doublepost]

While this is a bigger discussion, there are many different pro users. There are Pro users who administer and manage, and there are pro users who require computers to do some real heavy lifting. We used to call them Power Users.

$3000 computer is still need dongles and adapters.......... only LOSERS can do...
[doublepost=1496237239][/doublepost]

A real "pro machine" is a lineup of products in various sizes (like 13, 15, and 17") and different performances (like a dual core i5 to a quad core i7). The key thing is not to offer functionality and versatility (contemporary ports, removable mass storage).

And before you say that's too many SKUs. Companies 1/10th Apple's size with a smaller market share than Apple manage to offer a full range of "pro" options along side "budget" and "consumer" options. And every other PC vendor somehow manages to keep their products up to date as new stuff comes out (newer CPUs, newer GPUs, cheaper SSDs, etc). Only Apple seems to be perpetually years behind and playing catchup while bragging about Timmy's clogged pipeline.

Timmy just can't seem to wrap his tiny little mind around the fact that you can spec bump products without a massive media splash.

A one machine for all idea will satisfy very few people, and that's how Apple found themselves in their current mess across the mac lines.

They're trying to make every mac satisfy the exact same mythical customer, and they're making them all satisfy very few people.

But the new MBPro is still for an amateur

 

[bigjnyc]

Loup Ventures analyst Gene Munster has assigned varying degrees of probability to the WWDC rumors, believing there's a 60% chance that Apple will release a "Siri Home Assistant," a 10% chance it'll introduce a 10.5-inch iPad Pro and a 50% chance that Apple will debut updated MacBook Pros. Apple is unlikely to make any augmented reality-related announcements at WWDC, Munster said, instead saving those for the upcoming iPhone release, likely due out in September.

 

[Bacillus]

I would find it particularly courageous to base any new Home Assistant on Siri, without getting blown away from stage at the Keynote.

 

[DevNull0]

This was the approach that Apple took in the 90s. How'd that work out for them?

What I described in my post is the approach they took in the late 1990's and early to late 2000's; after Jobs return. In other words the golden age of the Mac.

In the early 90's under Sculley they had a mess of non-distinguished products nobody could tell who was the target of what. And their primary focus was to lock everything down in proprietary ways and charge maximum profit for locked upgrades and adapters. Sound familiar?

The first thing Steve did was streamline into iBook/iMac vs PowerBook/PowerMac lines with clear objectives and targets. The second thing he did was switch to industry standard connectors (RAM/HDD/USB/ETC) and kill off the proprietary nonsense. Since then Apple has continuously gained market share until the past couple of years of locked down propriety machines with no focus.
[doublepost=1496252181][/doublepost]

$3000 computer is still need dongles and adapters.......... only LOSERS can do...
[doublepost=1496237239][/doublepost]
But the new MBPro is still for an amateur

Exactly.

The new MBPro, the current MB and the MBAir are all virtually identical machines that are essentially flashy toys aimed at people who think of it more like an iPad with a keyboard.

That new MBPro keyboard is certainly useless for anyone who types more than a few tweets or facebook updates a day.

 

[AdonisSMU]

Most of what I listed is tech directly related to an iPhone. And I'd be very happy to see an iPhone without any of it (though I'm well aware most people would not be and I would not suggest it except in a sarcastic way).

Actually, I agree with you about the older macbook, but at least drop the price on a 2 year old computer. The 2015 really isn't a bad machine and a heck of a lot better than anything else Apple offers, but who wants to pay the same price they would have 2 years ago?

Maybe they have to keep the price up because the antique Haswell chips are getting hard to source? Upgrade it to a modern CPU and it's a winning machine.

All of what you listed are products. They may or may not be pieces of a larger software products and packages but they are in fact products in and of themselves and not simply parts like the SD slot or old USB on the MacBooks are.

With that said the 2016 MacBooks and older MacBooks should be dropped in price. They are over priced as it stands right now.

 

[LordVic]

With that said the 2016 MacBooks and older MacBooks should be dropped in price.

The MacBook is a nice little "everyday" machine. But at the current price points, it's priced like a workhorse laptop. And there's little there that qualifies for the $1700 $CAD price point. it's $600 more than the MacBook Air's base price, and equally spec'd (Ram and SSD), the MacBook air is $400 cheaper, while having better CPU.

I highly doubt that the retina display alone justifies the $400 difference at that point.

The MacBook needs IMHO a $999 (USD) model with 4gb ram and 128gb ssd for those who just need a simple laptop for day to day activities.

 

[AdonisSMU]

What I described in my post is the approach they took in the late 1990's and early to late 2000's; after Jobs return. In other words the golden age of the Mac.

In the early 90's under Sculley they had a mess of non-distinguished products nobody could tell who was the target of what. And their primary focus was to lock everything down in proprietary ways and charge maximum profit for locked upgrades and adapters. Sound familiar?

The first thing Steve did was streamline into iBook/iMac vs PowerBook/PowerMac lines with clear objectives and targets. The second thing he did was switch to industry standard connectors (RAM/HDD/USB/ETC) and kill off the proprietary nonsense. Since then Apple has continuously gained market share until the past couple of years of locked down propriety machines with no focus.
[doublepost=1496252181][/doublepost]

Exactly.

The new MBPro, the current MB and the MBAir are all virtually identical machines that are essentially flashy toys aimed at people who think of it more like an iPad with a keyboard.

That new MBPro keyboard is certainly useless for anyone who types more than a few tweets or facebook updates a day.

Wait what proprietary hardware has Apple locked itself into?
[doublepost=1496254282][/doublepost]

The MacBook is a nice little "everyday" machine. But at the current price points, it's priced like a workhorse laptop. And there's little there that qualifies for the $1700 $CAD price point. it's $600 more than the MacBook Air's base price, and equally spec'd (Ram and SSD), the MacBook air is $400 cheaper, while having better CPU.

I highly doubt that the retina display alone justifies the $400 difference at that point.

The MacBook needs IMHO a $999 (USD) model with 4gb ram and 128gb ssd for those who just need a simple laptop for day to day activities.

It doesn't. Completely overpriced no two ways about it.

 

[Black Tiger]

What I described in my post is the approach they took in the late 1990's and early to late 2000's; after Jobs return. In other words the golden age of the Mac.

In the early 90's under Sculley they had a mess of non-distinguished products nobody could tell who was the target of what. And their primary focus was to lock everything down in proprietary ways and charge maximum profit for locked upgrades and adapters. Sound familiar?

The first thing Steve did was streamline into iBook/iMac vs PowerBook/PowerMac lines with clear objectives and targets. The second thing he did was switch to industry standard connectors (RAM/HDD/USB/ETC) and kill off the proprietary nonsense. Since then Apple has continuously gained market share until the past couple of years of locked down propriety machines with no focus.
[doublepost=1496252181][/doublepost]

Exactly.

The new MBPro, the current MB and the MBAir are all virtually identical machines that are essentially flashy toys aimed at people who think of it more like an iPad with a keyboard.

That new MBPro keyboard is certainly useless for anyone who types more than a few tweets or facebook updates a day.

But you're saying they should have several different products to meet many different needs. That is the opposite of what Jobs did. As you just stated, he reduced the products down to the most basic. And none of those products met everyone's needs. Just like today.
[doublepost=1496255096][/doublepost]

$3000 computer is still need dongles and adapters.......... only LOSERS can do...
[doublepost=1496237239][/doublepost]
But the new MBPro is still for an amateur

Really? I haven't seen a live musician using synthesizers who uses anything other than mainstage on a MacBook Pro. These are amateurs? Tell that to every broadway music director who uses it.

 

[DevNull0]

In the early 90's under Sculley they had a mess of non-distinguished products nobody could tell who was the target of what. And their primary focus was to lock everything down in proprietary ways and charge maximum profit for locked upgrades and adapters. Sound familiar?

Wait what proprietary hardware has Apple locked itself into?

In the early 90's? ADB, nonstandard ram, nonstandard disk drives. I couldn't go to best buy and buy a $15 serial mouse, I had to go to an Apple dealer and buy a $180 Apple mouse. Same for a keyboard. Firewire, while technically not Apple proprietary may as well have been for the price/market saturation.

Today, soldered ram, soldered ssd chips, soldered and glued batteries are worse than the 90's proprietary offerings.

You're all fired up to tell me TB3/USB3 are not Apple proprietary but when 99.99% of accessories don't use the ports without an adapter and every other hardware vendor offers the TB3/USB3 port among a wide variety of modern ports in the same form factor as apple it may as well be Apple proprietary. USB3 may be the connector of the future, but Apple's 7% market share not having another other ports is not going to push the industry along any faster, it's just going to cause years of agony for Apple users -- while making Apple a fortune on adapters.

 

[BenTrovato]

What I described in my post is the approach they took in the late 1990's and early to late 2000's; after Jobs return. In other words the golden age of the Mac.

In the early 90's under Sculley they had a mess of non-distinguished products nobody could tell who was the target of what. And their primary focus was to lock everything down in proprietary ways and charge maximum profit for locked upgrades and adapters. Sound familiar?

The first thing Steve did was streamline into iBook/iMac vs PowerBook/PowerMac lines with clear objectives and targets. The second thing he did was switch to industry standard connectors (RAM/HDD/USB/ETC) and kill off the proprietary nonsense. Since then Apple has continuously gained market share until the past couple of years of locked down propriety machines with no focus.
[doublepost=1496252181][/doublepost]

Exactly.

The new MBPro, the current MB and the MBAir are all virtually identical machines that are essentially flashy toys aimed at people who think of it more like an iPad with a keyboard.

That new MBPro keyboard is certainly useless for anyone who types more than a few tweets or facebook updates a day.

New MBP keyboard is better. There will always be people that don't like change but overall, owners seem to like it better.

Steve Jobs this and that. It was Steve Jobs who wanted zero ports and machines that could not be user upgraded. If anything Apple has been more Steve Jobs since 2011 than they were before.

 

[DevNull0]

But you're saying they should have several different products to meet many different needs. That is the opposite of what Jobs did. As you just stated, he reduced the products down to the most basic. And none of those products met everyone's needs. Just like today.

Jobs had the iBook line and PowerBook line with a clean distinction to meet different users needs. He had the PowerBook in 12, 15, and 17". And several BTO CPU options as well as socketed industry standard ram and user replaceable industry standard HDDs (and M.2 PciE today is just so good it's shameful that Apple doesn't use it). Sure you'd pay a hefty Apple tax when you buy, but you got a quality machine that was extremely upgradable. Under Jobs, even the mac mini had a socketed CPU. He was focused on giving the customer the best possible product in every way.

The point though is Jobs had a huge number of choices for different products for different kinds of customers, but the product lines were so clearly defined and well thought out that it felt very streamlined.

Sculley had a massive mess of different overlapping products, nobody (customers and salespeople) could figure out what mac was right for them and who a given machine was meant for. That's where Apple is today once again.
[doublepost=1496256025][/doublepost]

New MBP keyboard is better. There will always be people that don't like change but overall, owners seem to like it better.

I type several hours a day. People who type that much hate the new keyboard. And won't be owners because we would never buy such a torture device for ourselves. Or would return it very quickly.

Sorry if I don't value the keyboard opinions of people who type a few text messages a day on them.

Steve Jobs this and that. It was Steve Jobs who wanted zero ports and machines that could not be user upgraded. If anything Apple has been more Steve Jobs since 2011 than they were before.

That is hilarious. Did you even think about what you just typed. So when Steve Jobs was running Apple it wasn't really run the way he wanted it. Since he's been dead it's been run more the way he would have run it than when he was actually running it? That is some seriously strong Kool-Aid.

So which Steve Jobs machine had no ports? Oh, that's right, they all had a good set of ports for the times they were released.

When Steve took over, he got rid of Sculley's locked down non-upgradable machines and made his Macs every bit as upgradable as a PC.

Steve was a showman, look at what he did, not what he said.

 

[Black Tiger]

Jobs had the iBook line and PowerBook line with a clean distinction to meet different users needs. He had the PowerBook in 12, 15, and 17". And several BTO CPU options as well as socketed industry standard ram and user replaceable industry standard HDDs (and M.2 PciE today is just so good it's shameful that Apple doesn't use it). Sure you'd pay a hefty Apple tax when you buy, but you got a quality machine that was extremely upgradable. Under Jobs, even the mac mini had a socketed CPU. He was focused on giving the customer the best possible product in every way.

The point though is Jobs had a huge number of choices for different products for different kinds of customers, but the product lines were so clearly defined and well thought out that it felt very streamlined.

Sculley had a massive mess of different overlapping products, nobody (customers and salespeople) could figure out what mac was right for them and who a given machine was meant for. That's where Apple is today once again.
[doublepost=1496256025][/doublepost]

I type several hours a day. People who type that much hate the new keyboard. And won't be owners because we would never buy such a torture device for ourselves. Or would return it very quickly.

Sorry if I don't value the keyboard opinions of people who type a few text messages a day on them.



That is hilarious. Did you even think about what you just typed. So when Steve Jobs was running Apple it wasn't really run the way he wanted it. Since he's been dead it's been run more the way he would have run it than when he was actually running it? That is some seriously strong Kool-Aid.

So which Steve Jobs machine had no ports? Oh, that's right, they all had a good set of ports for the times they were released.

When Steve took over, he got rid of Sculley's locked down non-upgradable machines and made his Macs every bit as upgradable as a PC.

Steve was a showman, look at what he did, not what he said.

I don't agree. Jobs was always about eliminating ports and old tech. Which machine had no ports? It wasn't possible while he was alive but that doesn't mean that wasn't the goal. Also, none of the current products have "no ports". The MacBook Air famously dropped almost all ports and the optical drive. Every video I've seen of Jobs discussing ports, cables, and wireless points towards his general loathing of that stuff. Now, we also need to get past "WWSJ do". It's been half a decade. Apple is more successful now than it has ever been, all without him there. The other members of the Apple leadership are more or less the same as they have been for decades now. I haven't seen a single product out of Apple that didn't seem to be a logical progression from what came before. It's entirely possible also that Jobs would have advocated for even less ports than what shipped. The TB3 ports are easily daisy chained so I personally don't understand the need for 4 ports at all, at least on a notebook. I think the MacBook got it right with one port, but it should be upgraded to TB3 too. In terms of dongles, a small hub is much more convenient for hooking up peripherals in my opinion as you can leave the dongle connected to the peripherals and then just plug in the one cable to the computer. It's great for a docking solution.

 

[BenTrovato]

Jobs had the iBook line and PowerBook line with a clean distinction to meet different users needs. He had the PowerBook in 12, 15, and 17". And several BTO CPU options as well as socketed industry standard ram and user replaceable industry standard HDDs (and M.2 PciE today is just so good it's shameful that Apple doesn't use it). Sure you'd pay a hefty Apple tax when you buy, but you got a quality machine that was extremely upgradable. Under Jobs, even the mac mini had a socketed CPU. He was focused on giving the customer the best possible product in every way.

The point though is Jobs had a huge number of choices for different products for different kinds of customers, but the product lines were so clearly defined and well thought out that it felt very streamlined.

Sculley had a massive mess of different overlapping products, nobody (customers and salespeople) could figure out what mac was right for them and who a given machine was meant for. That's where Apple is today once again.
[doublepost=1496256025][/doublepost]

I type several hours a day. People who type that much hate the new keyboard. And won't be owners because we would never buy such a torture device for ourselves. Or would return it very quickly.

Sorry if I don't value the keyboard opinions of people who type a few text messages a day on them.



That is hilarious. Did you even think about what you just typed. So when Steve Jobs was running Apple it wasn't really run the way he wanted it. Since he's been dead it's been run more the way he would have run it than when he was actually running it? That is some seriously strong Kool-Aid.

So which Steve Jobs machine had no ports? Oh, that's right, they all had a good set of ports for the times they were released.

When Steve took over, he got rid of Sculley's locked down non-upgradable machines and made his Macs every bit as upgradable as a PC.

Steve was a showman, look at what he did, not what he said.

It's not really something to argue about. Well known how badly Jobs wanted a completely closed system. Try Google, or read a few books, maybe learn something new every now and then. Cheers.

 

[Black Tiger]

New MBP keyboard is better. There will always be people that don't like change but overall, owners seem to like it better.

Steve Jobs this and that. It was Steve Jobs who wanted zero ports and machines that could not be user upgraded. If anything Apple has been more Steve Jobs since 2011 than they were before.

Totally agree. I think the Macbook's one port would have been his pride and joy, honestly. Pushing a mobile device to be as cable-free as possible makes plenty of sense and pro peripherals will catch up. USB C is likely the last port that we will see before everything goes completely wireless. Jobs loved the MacBook Air, which stripped traditional ports down to the bare minimum.

 

[N0ughtsAndCr0sses]

I'm past that stage where I see a lot of you still are. I mean no disrespect, just to be clear, I look at a device, I like it, I order it, enjoy the experience and that's it. Of course I make a choice after I had gathered enough information that should satisfy my needs in terms of computing power, fluency, aesthetics. Happy Apple fan boy here.

 

[hybrid_x]

Yep, and when you need a workstation-class laptop, this can be BTO purchased: http://www.boxx.com/products/mobile-workstations Made in the USA with the highest quality components. But they're not for social-media/shopping stations, they're for work, work, work. Probably not available in rose gold.

Those look awesome. A couple of minor design choices kill it for me, though: The off-center keyboard and trackpad, and the blue backlighting.

The first is an ergonomic thing. Having to shift the whole machine to the right to type or use the trackpad shifts its center of gravity. Fine on a desk, not so fine on the couch or on the train. And then you're not looking directly at the middle of the screen. Arrrgh. I'd rather have a centered keyboard and hook up an external USB numeric keypad if necessary.

The second is a usability thing for me. My eyes don't do well at the blue end of the spectrum. I have trouble focusing on blue light, especially certain wavelengths found in blue LEDs. Blue backlit keys might as well be not backlit at all. I can't look at them without my eyes going squirrelly, and I can't focus on them.

Why do people still think lighting everything up blue is cool? Blue LEDs were cool in like, 1997. Now they're just tacky.

 

[RumorConsumer]

When was the last time Apple brought back a feature they removed?
I'm serious. I don't recall.

The oblong mouse back from the hockey puck.
Square power adapters back from circular.

I will think of more stuff lol

 

[bigjnyc]

The MacBook is a nice little "everyday" machine. But at the current price points, it's priced like a workhorse laptop. And there's little there that qualifies for the $1700 $CAD price point. it's $600 more than the MacBook Air's base price, and equally spec'd (Ram and SSD), the MacBook air is $400 cheaper, while having better CPU.

I highly doubt that the retina display alone justifies the $400 difference at that point.

The MacBook needs IMHO a $999 (USD) model with 4gb ram and 128gb ssd for those who just need a simple laptop for day to day activities.

The same argument could be made for 90% of Apples products, most are overpriced.

 

[LordVic]

The same argument could be made for 90% of Apples products, most are overpriced.

Apple products have always been at a premium pricepoint. they don't get their fat margins/profits from nowhere.

But in the last couple years, every product has received a USD price increase, and internationally, there's nearly a 30% increase in price due to "$USD pressures".

For example, IN Canada right now, the Entry price for the Mac Book is $1,649
The entry price for 2016 13" non-touchbar MBP: 1,899
Entry price for 13" Touchbar: 2,229
15" MBP: $2,999

even the iPhone, base model 7 unlocked from Apple is $899

also, tack on 13% tax...

it's really hard to justify the products Apple has at these prices. They're not bad devices. They're great devices for the most part. But this sudden bump in prices, AND then tacking on USD conversion to pricing internationally is setting up a dangerous market position where many of the competitors are offering similar, and in some cases, more desirable computers, for less.

it's just, over the last 3-4 years, Apple's prices went from "Premium" to "super-premium", but haven't exactly expanded functionality / featureset in a way that IMHO qualified for such a sudden increase in pricing