Apple Broke a 13-Year Hardware Streak in 2024
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throAU
macrumors G4
Yeah the new Mac mini is a massive product (figuratively, literally it is tiny for what it is).
For the first time in living memory, the Mac mini is a machine that apple makes that is cheaper than anything comparable you can buy even custom building your own PC - with performance that is on par or better than comparable machines at 1-1.5x its cost.
Sure, you can get SOME of the things the mini offers for less or comparable money in a PC, but if you want it all (including the form factor and a non-crippled home-edition OS), its not even close.
Seriously, try to spec an 8 core intel or AMD machine with thunderbolt 4, Wifi 6E, bluetooth 5.3, comparable GPU performance, comparable silence even in a machine 2-3x the size for the same price as the baseline mini. Even one that gets only 70-80 percent of the single thread performance. Building your own, for free. Don't even take the cost of Windows into account.
This is pretty unheard of for the past 2-3 decades.
For the first time in living memory, the Mac mini is a machine that apple makes that is cheaper than anything comparable you can buy even custom building your own PC - with performance that is on par or better than comparable machines at 1-1.5x its cost.
Sure, you can get SOME of the things the mini offers for less or comparable money in a PC, but if you want it all (including the form factor and a non-crippled home-edition OS), its not even close.
Seriously, try to spec an 8 core intel or AMD machine with thunderbolt 4, Wifi 6E, bluetooth 5.3, comparable GPU performance, comparable silence even in a machine 2-3x the size for the same price as the baseline mini. Even one that gets only 70-80 percent of the single thread performance. Building your own, for free. Don't even take the cost of Windows into account.
This is pretty unheard of for the past 2-3 decades.
Alameda
macrumors 68000
When I was a product manager three decades ago, the VP of Sales said, “Don’t give us base hits, give us home runs”.
Yes, Apple is a different company and they need pencils and power cords and the like. But when they launch a new product category, they should be aiming for runs, not hits. The iPod, the iPad, the MacBook were all grand slams.
The Watch has been solid, the Vision… we’ll see. But I think a company this large and innovative needs to have something way, way bigger in the works. I’m surprised they gave up on the Car but I think that’s the sort of new thing they should be working on.
Channan
macrumors 68030
This is the epitome of confirmation bias. What is it that makes the iPhone 5C, iPad Air, Apple TV HD, and AirPods Pro new product lines, but doesn’t also apply to the Apple Pencil Pro?
Lioness~
macrumors 68040
While I have my disappointments that the 2024 MacBook Air is sooo big as a 13'6, I'm still glad it came a new MBA at all during 2024. It could've been worse 😐
But I will not be sad when Apple becomes a more innovating company for customers again under a new CEO, not at all.
But I will not be sad when Apple becomes a more innovating company for customers again under a new CEO, not at all.
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klasma
macrumors G3
new product ≠ new product line
PhotonPandur
macrumors newbie
super pleased with the m4 Mac mini and iPad Pro this year, and both of them features new hardware design..who cares if it's building on existing product line, there are progress 
darthnebula
macrumors newbie
This article is ridiculous. New Apple hardware categories by released year:
1977 - Apple II
1984 - Macintosh
1991 - PowerBook
1993 - Newton
2001 - iPod
2007 - iPhone
2008 - AppleTV
2010 - iPad
2014 - Apple Watch
2016 - AirPods
2024 - Vision Pro
You could argue that the iMac in 1998 was a new hardware category too, I guess...
1977 - Apple II
1984 - Macintosh
1991 - PowerBook
1993 - Newton
2001 - iPod
2007 - iPhone
2008 - AppleTV
2010 - iPad
2014 - Apple Watch
2016 - AirPods
2024 - Vision Pro
You could argue that the iMac in 1998 was a new hardware category too, I guess...
cheesygrin
macrumors regular
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Steve Jobs stepping aside roughly coincided with a flurry of new product categories.
Maintaining too many product categories was almost Apple’s undoing in the 90s - the first thing Steve did when he came back was simplify down to four main products that they could develop and make work well. Apple are big enough to do more than four lines now of course, but they still shouldn’t do too many.
That should be the Apple way - limited lines of products that are highly developed and work well. Not endless new product categories.
Maintaining too many product categories was almost Apple’s undoing in the 90s - the first thing Steve did when he came back was simplify down to four main products that they could develop and make work well. Apple are big enough to do more than four lines now of course, but they still shouldn’t do too many.
That should be the Apple way - limited lines of products that are highly developed and work well. Not endless new product categories.
Contact_Feanor
macrumors 6502
Funny how the article even mentions the Apple Pencil pro, but forgets that it is a new product from this year, thus negating the premise, given that things like AirPods Pro are considered new products.
Edit: also, the 13” iPad Air seems like a new category, if the XS Max counts as new category.
Edit: also, the 13” iPad Air seems like a new category, if the XS Max counts as new category.
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
But what matters most to Seller is "another record quarter"... so if they don't roll out new product lines, they either sell more of a finite number of existing products (any of which could be spun as in some kind of "saturation" zone) OR jack up the prices and/or profit margin so that the niche numbers of buyers "re-buying" are having even more of their money flowing into the vaults instead of paying for the product parts. So no, I don't think they can go 5 years without new product releases from THEIR perspective.
Nevertheless, I too would love to see several YEARS of focus on bug fixes & refinements (a modern "Snow Leopard" year or two). I miss "just works" Apple.
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Shanghaichica
macrumors G5
A lot of those are a stretch. Couldn’t you argue that the air being13 inches is a new category or even the oled screens on the new iPads. What is being considered as a new product is rather weak so I would say Apple didn’t break their streak.
Contact_Feanor
macrumors 6502
There was no pencil pro before. If the XS Max and AirPods Pro count as new product lines, then there is absolutely no reason not to count the pencil pro.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
That was when Apple was relatively TINY, so that worked- and even made sense- in that context. That same genius had to borrow relatively small money from Microsoft just to keep Apple's doors open. When you are small, you don't have the money to expand product lines in pursuit of greater riches. You HAVE to focus on few products and try to make the most of them.
There are NO Trillion dollar companies with hardly any product offerings, comparable to the 2000s Apple product mix. Even the biggest of "big oil" has a surprisingly large number of product & service offerings.
When we wish for "trim the fat" part 2, we are wishing for significantly smaller Apple Inc... where that actually works. While each person may have a favorite among 4-5 iPhones and 10 or 20 iPads, Apple doesn't make ANY of the others to lose money on them. All those others are somebody else's favorites.
For (extreme) example, I own no iPhone at all, using a cellular iPad Mini with VOIP app and buds to also cover my mobile phone needs. From my prospective, iPhone is a useless line that should be purged, as are all iPads NOT Mini. But I bet few would make that same argument. Whatever you have in your pocket is only the best one for SOME other owners of the same. Others own and love the one you like least. Purge the lines down as Jobs once HAD to do, and chunks of profitable buyers would have to unify around as little as 1 of 4-5 iPhones, 1 of 10 or 20 iPads, etc or they might take their money elsewhere... driving Apple's revenue back down to how it was when they had (to have) few products to sell.
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switz
macrumors 6502a
Apple innovated their profits by making all the components in all the Macs and laptops soldered in. Phones had to soldered except for the SIM cards but iPads could have had memory choices since they also had SIM card slots. The customer is pushed into over buying to try and future proof their new device as a bigger drive or more memory can not be added later. And now, even the darn SIM cards are eSims which are useless in the poorer parts of the world like Africa.
We older folks remember being able to switch: memory, floppy and hard drives, processor upgrades, video cards, keyboards etc so it was a possible to upgrade when spinning hard drives morphed into solid state drives and memory chips got higher densities and even different I/o choices. The box and power supply were the constants in the devices.
A totally new person to the Apple world is clueless about the base model configurations being really constrained for lots of software applications. While Apple may provide software support for the operating system for five or more years, the applications tend to get bigger with new features and suddenly the base storage is inadequate and more horsepower is now required.
One could say Apple is servicing their customers like we say a stallion serviced the mare.
We older folks remember being able to switch: memory, floppy and hard drives, processor upgrades, video cards, keyboards etc so it was a possible to upgrade when spinning hard drives morphed into solid state drives and memory chips got higher densities and even different I/o choices. The box and power supply were the constants in the devices.
A totally new person to the Apple world is clueless about the base model configurations being really constrained for lots of software applications. While Apple may provide software support for the operating system for five or more years, the applications tend to get bigger with new features and suddenly the base storage is inadequate and more horsepower is now required.
One could say Apple is servicing their customers like we say a stallion serviced the mare.
aParkerMusic
macrumors 6502
This article is really something else; All the other commenters have explained why. I don’t think people should be unkind to the author, but I’m shocked it was published. The content is so arbitrary and in some cases silly. There is just no logical consistency.
swm
macrumors 6502a
i know it doesn't count as much for the rest of the world, but i don't care - on the other hand, i am glad this happened.
releasing a polished, well tested product >>> keeping a stupid virtual schedule to show of some vapourware/half baked thing.
the urge to do something new every year on a specific date very much reminds me of the USSR, where a new piece of infrastructure was unveiled - regardless of its state or actual readiness - on every major communist anniversaries, like Lenin's birthday or the great october socialist revolution.
releasing a polished, well tested product >>> keeping a stupid virtual schedule to show of some vapourware/half baked thing.
the urge to do something new every year on a specific date very much reminds me of the USSR, where a new piece of infrastructure was unveiled - regardless of its state or actual readiness - on every major communist anniversaries, like Lenin's birthday or the great october socialist revolution.
azentropy
macrumors 601
Agree, but there are several examples he used that fit that same description. New product, but not product line. Or even is it really a product line if there have only been one version?