Don't blame the celebrity figurehead. Blame the bean counters who took over the company.
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2022 'MacBook' and 'iMac Pro' Could Help Apple Simplify Its Naming Strategy
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Don't blame the celebrity figurehead. Blame the bean counters who took over the company.
You know what else would help? Going back to one product for each line. MacBook. Mac Mini. Mac. iPhone. iPad. No "Plus", "Pro" "SE"... nothing. Just one product with one freakin' name. Simple and easy to understand.
i-devices were originally named i to show they were internet capable devices starting with the iMac. There was also iChat, iWeb, iTV, iWork, etc. Consumer products did typically have the i-name, but it was not a hard rule even in the Jobs era. For example, the iBook got upgraded to MacBook despite the fact that PowerBooks were Pro devices.
iMac Pro was the perfect name for that product imo. It was a Pro all-in-one that is not quite as powerful or configurable as the Mac Pro. What else should it have been named? Mac Pro Air?
Agreed. They should have kept using the Plus moniker.
MagSafe on the iPhone keeps the phone safe the other way around — when the phone is yanked, not the wire. I’ve bent or broken quite a a few charging cables over the years because I had forgotten it was plugged in and just picked up the phone as I was rushing out. Thankfully the charging ports were robust enough that I’ve never damaged the devices.
Apple obviously wanted to phase out the MacBook Air completely given they didn’t really update the MacBook Air for 4 years after 2015. Part of the problem was that the 2010-2018 MacBook Air had become the de facto budget MacBook for students and Apple couldn‘t give the new MacBook the same lower price or enough ports (yet). The Intel Core M also didn’t pan out and Apple had to re-release the old Air name to differentiate it from the underpowered MacBook that was also updated in 2018. I would imagine this whole fiasco along with Intel’s pro chip deficiencies are some of the biggest reasons behind the switch to M1.
The iMac Pro name as well as the product was a gap filler in the first place after the disappointing Mac Pro feedback of the trash can version.
Yep, and same for MacBooks, and iPhones. Many want a low power, but large screen MacBook. And I'm sure there's people that want a Max phone that isn't Pro, and those that want a Pro Mini phone.
Same here, I want a 16" MBA, so I've ended up buying nothing, and kept using my 2015 15" MBP. One day I might buy a 16" MBP, but can't justify the price tag. I feel like Apple is losing a lot of business this way.
I miss the four quadrant names but also, PowerPhone sounds awful.
Then perhaps you should have said "I think pricing for this thing will be ridiculous".Thank you for stating that I was complaining when I was simply making an observation on how I think they will be priced
And then realized then no-one actually cares about anyone else's opinions regarding prices.
But that's not what you said. What you said was a definite statement: "Pricing for this thing is going to be ridiculous".
Aristotle: the purpose of life is to understand the world
Marx: the purpose of life is to change the world
The Internet: the purpose of life is to complain about the world
An argument like this only works when you are not attacking a strawman.
if the machine is still adequate to your needs then you keep using it.
If it needs more storage buy a USB disk.
If it need more RAM (enough so that this requires buying a new machine), then sell it. Or give it to a family member. Or donate it to a school.
It's when people start use these idiot claims like "chuck a $12K machine in the trash" that you know this is not a serious argument, this is whining for the sake of hearing one's one voice.
Is there confusion? Or are you simply upset that your aesthetic sense has been affronted?
I find it very hard to believe that anyone who was choosing between an iMac Pro and a 27" iMac was in the slightest confused by the Pro label.
If you don't like the use of the word "Pro" for more expensive model, say so. But don't pretend that it causes confusion in people
(Not yourself, of course, you're smart, but "people generally" who can't tell, just from comparing the fact that Pro models cost 2x what non-Pro models cost, that they are the "better but more expensive" version. I mean, this is a rare and delicate concept, that products may come in a cheaper version and more expensive, but better in some ways, version...)
Conceptually I think you are correct.
Practically I think there are two issues:
- The naming is bad. Not this stupid "who knows what Pro means" complaint; but the fact that you have to decode that means "good" vs "what means best" in each context (SE vs Air for example)
- It's not actually correct. Alongside iPhone SE, iPhone# and iPhone Pro, You also have iPhone Last Year and iPhone 2 years ago. That's an absurd mess. I have no idea how Apple expects people to prioritize.
Secondly do people want that much degree of gradation? I don't know. Pro vs non-Pro is an easy choice, basically "I can afford the top one" vs "I don't value the top one's features as much as I value the extra dollars".
Three choices makes that *much* more difficult.
You can justify this on consumer manipulation grounds ("make it so complicated people just buy the top one so they feel they are not losing out") but I do not consider that decent behavior and it's short term maximization -- dollars now, but customers who no longer love you.
If I were Cook, I would look to cleaning this up in the phone space. There was logic to three years of iPhones. There was logic to adding a Pro line. But the two logics fit together imperfectly; even more so when you throw in the SE.
Apple made the MacBook Pro more "pro". Now they need to make the MacBook Air more "air." I hope they can figure out how to take the existing 2.78 lb Air and reduce weight to about 2.2 lbs (1 kg), yet still keep the price down and the product very functional.
That rumored colorful laptop looks like a slimmer 14" MacBook Pro, which to me, would probably come in around 3 lbs (down from 3.5 lbs on the Pro) and if it has a mini-LED screen, is probably going to start around $1299 at least. I can't see how that is an Air, and if they do call it an Air, Apple should fire their Marketing department since they continued their brand confusion.
I agree with John Gruber's view about this. Apple has confused the meaning of the word "Pro". Sometimes it does mean "pro". Sometimes it just means "nicer."
Yes..that is the problem when you just rely or give departments the decision power when a manager or a CEO is not into or knows something or is concerned with other things. Understandable with Tim Cook, he has great talents in some areas...but in other things (it seems) not a clue and relies on others (understandable). No more Jobs types who has a vision and understanding of all of the areas that pertain to "his" product (and was good at discernment and sight).
It looks like 6 different orgs made laptops without communicating with each other.
With the upcoming M1 lineups, it's going to always mean pro. So far with the 2021 MBPs this is the case; the baseline M1s are already well beyond fast enough for most people, and the pro/max ones are only needed for specific reasons like compiling a huge codebase or processing 8K video streams.
It's a throwback to the Macintosh SE and SE/30. I don't particularly like it, but names like iPhone XS and iPhone 11 Pro Max are way worse. Sound like Droid names.
Btw, there was also the Macintosh Plus.
Apple should do the following, IMO:
Mobile
-Remove the iPod line completely. AirPods has been a sufficient replacement.
Rename the iPhone to Apple Phone, with modifiers.
-Apple Phone 2022 Mini (this would be the rumored SE, no need to have two 'mini' phones)
-Apple Phone 2022
-Apple Phone 2022 Pro
-Apple Phone 2022 Pro Max
-Apple Watch SE, Pro (42), and Pro Max (44)
-iPad Mini, iPad, iPad Pro, iPad Pro Max
Macintosh
-Mac Mini
-MacBook
-MacBook Pro and MacBook Pro Max
-Mac and Mac Pro (iMac naming replacement; simply the Mac; the Mac Pro in this scheme would be the iMac 27")
-Mac Pro Max (Mac Pro naming replacement)
I know the idea of renaming the iPhone to the Apple Phone might be unpopular here...I mean, the iPhone naming is so iconic and quickly recognizable. However, the "i" prefix is long due to be discontinued, and has been phased out in all the products except for the iPad, iPhone, and iMac. The prefix is outdated now, it was introduced way back in 1998 when the Internet was still in its infancy, and the Mac at the time was represented as a gateway to the Internet. It's time. The Apple Phone naming will put it in sync with the Apple Watch, and using yearly numbers make so much more sense, too.
Unfortunately, I can't think of a good naming scheme for the iPad. Perhaps Apple Tablet? Seems so generic, though. Any ideas? Thoughts?
Mobile
-Remove the iPod line completely. AirPods has been a sufficient replacement.
Rename the iPhone to Apple Phone, with modifiers.
-Apple Phone 2022 Mini (this would be the rumored SE, no need to have two 'mini' phones)
-Apple Phone 2022
-Apple Phone 2022 Pro
-Apple Phone 2022 Pro Max
-Apple Watch SE, Pro (42), and Pro Max (44)
-iPad Mini, iPad, iPad Pro, iPad Pro Max
Macintosh
-Mac Mini
-MacBook
-MacBook Pro and MacBook Pro Max
-Mac and Mac Pro (iMac naming replacement; simply the Mac; the Mac Pro in this scheme would be the iMac 27")
-Mac Pro Max (Mac Pro naming replacement)
I know the idea of renaming the iPhone to the Apple Phone might be unpopular here...I mean, the iPhone naming is so iconic and quickly recognizable. However, the "i" prefix is long due to be discontinued, and has been phased out in all the products except for the iPad, iPhone, and iMac. The prefix is outdated now, it was introduced way back in 1998 when the Internet was still in its infancy, and the Mac at the time was represented as a gateway to the Internet. It's time. The Apple Phone naming will put it in sync with the Apple Watch, and using yearly numbers make so much more sense, too.
Unfortunately, I can't think of a good naming scheme for the iPad. Perhaps Apple Tablet? Seems so generic, though. Any ideas? Thoughts?
Ah, so Apple calling their Macbooks “Mid 2015” or “Early 2018” is a Marketing 101 mistake.
I think it was too confusing to have "Plus" mean either "this is a for-pay subscription service" or "this is a larger iPhone".
I'm not exactly a fan of "Max", but at least it avoids re-using that term to mean something entirely different.
Maybe Apple's model naming isn't exactly how everyone thinks it should be. But their pretty darned simple website makes it unlikely many people are not going to find the entire range and, within that, the models they might find interesting.
Sometimes aspects of the specifications seem to obscure differences. Mostly, though, they are a model of clarity. It is easy to look back years - not just current models.
Apple's names + website = clear and simple
Almost every other company's names + websites = a mess to be avoided (often seeming to have been designed to confuse, promote stock they want to get rid of, etc.)
The one thing I keep finding confusing, though understandable, is the generation numbers. I think we all tend to have in our minds that if they launched iPads mini, Pro 11" and Pro 12.9" in one year/season, they'd all be the same generation number. Obvious why it isn't the case.
Lol Ok. All I have to do is look at your post history and half of them are you attempting to "correct" people for things that they have said so whatever. You do you and keep up the great work!
