Apple CEO Tim Cook: ‘We Have Great Desktops in Our Roadmap'

[vapourtrails]

I love all the newbs here ranting like this sheet is new.

Look at my signup date. I havent logged in here in probably a decade but it's hilarious to see the same things I was complaining about 12-14 years ago haven't changed.

</old man, now get off my lawn>

I bought my first mac in 1994 a Quadra LC630 to study multimedia. I've hard more macs than I can remember. In the old days they used to hide them at the back of the electronics store now they put them front and centre. Apple bashing goes back a long way.

 

[mr.bee]

Back in the days when Apple was waiting for the G5, Steve jobs gave updates of other components. Better ram, better hard drive... but in this case.. nothing...

 

[jamilecrire]

I bought my first mac in 1994 a Quadra LC630 to study multimedia. I've hard more macs than I can remember. In the old days they used to hide them at the back of the electronics store now they put them front and centre. Apple bashing goes back a long way.

Very nice. My first Apple was a //e in 1983.

Apple has had this walled garden approach since the first Macs. The Apple II Series was way too open.

Once they changed their name from Apple Computer to Apple, that was the final nail in the coffin. We're just lowering them in slowly.

Continuing as a mediocre company is the same as death IMO.

My favorite Mac of all time was my G4 Quicksilver Tower in the early 2000s. Too bad they went away from that amazing desktop to the garbage you can buy today. iMac? Mac Mini? Laughable. Or the even more ridiculous Mac "Pro".

I love reading up on people making mac mini hackintosh clones for ~800 that work on par with the Pro.

Should have stayed with PPC if they didn't want to keep up with hardware advances, some of us don't mind paying for that 5%-10% gain when we're on a machine that's 3 5%-10% gains ago.

 

[JamesPDX]

I love how TC keeps on talking about his "roadmap", as if his long-term plans are absolutely inviolate and immutable, and that listening to the demands of his customer base is some sort of deviation from the same. Because, you know, it's not like consumers have anything better to do, or have other options. Brand loyalty is a thing, and it's very powerful, but people can only take being jerked around for so long before they start getting pissed. And boy howdy, the one thing stronger than the love that a good company inspires is the absolute hatred created by that same company's perceived betrayal.

And you know the best way to make a consumer feel like they've been betrayed? Ignore their wants, keep doing only what you want to do, and treat them like they don't matter. Oh, hey - I think I just leaked Tim Cook's roadmap...

Perhaps an examination of that roadmap will show that it leads only from iPhone profits to a 3rd vacation home in Switzerland or Italy. I hope that I'm proven wrong by the introduction of some thick, non-throttled workhorses. I haven't seen such a thing since 2012.
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Very nice. My first Apple was a //e in 1983.
My favorite Mac of all time was my G4 Quicksilver Tower in the early 2000s. Too bad they went away from that amazing desktop to the garbage you can buy today. iMac? Mac Mini? Laughable. Or the even more ridiculous Mac "Pro"..

That Mac Mini needs an asterisk. The 2012 i7 Quad-Core Mini even kicks the crap out of my 2003 DP G5 -even for "non-social media" computing, as in the work and i/o beef.

 

[johngordon]

My point was Jobs was an essential part of the continuing success of Apple. When he returned he took over the helm and brought Apple from the brink of disaster to being one of the richest companies in history. His innovative products lead the way. It was never about refreshes for Jobs. It was "one more thing" and it was always great.

I keep hearing that Tim Cook is a money guy, but how much more money can you squeeze out of aging ideas? The new MBP is a beauty, great fit and finish, but spec wise it's mediocre. To the best of my knowledge Jobs never did anything mediocre.

With Cook I see thinner existing products, and a touch bar as the most noticeable things he has done to date. Nothing completely new and innovative. Nothing great. Just mediocre.

Ah, OK - so under Jobs, Apple never refreshed their laptops?

Between 1997 and 2011 Apple only ever released innovative new products?

The new MBP is "mediocre", but the 2004 Powerbook and 2010 MBP were "innovative products"? If you could talk a little about what made them so innovative, I'm all ears....

Does the term "rose tinted spectacles" mean anything to you?

 

[ventricle]

Jobs had the ability to focus laser-like on certain aspects of computers, but he failed to capture the business market and so allowed IBM PCs to dominate the personal computer space. The Apple III business machine was a failure. The Apple ][ (what a beast it was!) was abandoned too soon (with prejudice too). The sexy Lisa failed but at least Apple acquired expertise in the GUI area. The Mac Plus was too inflexible for business — “How do I connect this to a Telex machine!?”

Jobs modernized the OS via NEXT, and didn’t miss the desktop publishing and internet revolutions. The iPod and iPhone (and watch) are inevitable extension products for Apple’s expertise — virtually low-hanging fruit — and big hits at that. Services (retail, media, cloud) were profit opportunities, but I consider them distractions benefitting Apple more than some of its customers. Macs shipped with free, fresh and modern applications, at the expense of independent software makers. Without constant upgrades to proprietary software, and with a fairly closed system, the advantage will end up with the more competition-intensive non-Apple side even if their systems are less reliable and less tasteful.

A gap has opened up again. OS X is treading water with trivial and whimsical changes. Performance is falling back as the pendulum of form over function swings too far. Now we have Donglegate and performance throttling. In certain applications, the Mac Pro under-performs the much cheaper iMac! With Jobs’ vision, Apple was capable of big leaps forward, but the advantages gained were ephemeral because form, reliability, and anal-retentive proprietary practices come not without cost.

I prefer a wired extended keyboard over the mini one, a wired ergonomic mouse over the magic mouse, multiple drives over iCloud, version-saving over TimeMachine, my folders over iPhoto/iTunes-managed media, the 5,1 over the 6,1, the iPhone 6 over the 7, desktops over laptops and tablets (the mbAir over the latter two if portability is necessary but I’d rather sprinkle remote iMacs at destinations). Is there something wrong with me!?

 

[Naimfan]

Anyone who wants/needs an updated Apple desktop should be afraid. Very afraid.

 

[RedOrchestra]

 

[davidespinosa]

It's so strange that he's reassuring his own engineers. I always forget that Apple keeps its own people in the dark about corporate plans.

 

[Dsching]

Huge thread full of nothing but complaints.

And for good reasons if you look at the 2014 mini.

 

[JamesPDX]

Chromebook or Macbook?

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

And for good reasons if you look at the 2014 mini.

I have a 2014 mini. It sold very well and didn't have few issues. What are you referring to? The video issue which less than 1% of buyers experienced?

 

[Dsching]

I have a 2014 mini. It sold very well and didn't have few issues. What are you referring to? The video issue which less than 1% of buyers experienced?

The 2014 mini has a weaker processor than the 2012 i7. They also soldered the RAM and made upgrading the storage harder.

 

[LordVic]

I have a 2014 mini. It sold very well and didn't have few issues. What are you referring to? The video issue which less than 1% of buyers experienced?

2014 Mac mini's internals were modified and redone since the 2012 model. Instead of 28w quad core CPU's, Apple put in the 15w dual core CPU's (Same CPU's from the MacBook Air). They also soldered RAM on, and then changed the internal layout to make upgrading the hard drive difficult.

this was absolutely a money grab to make the Mac Mini's lifespan shorter, while making it less powerful overall and more difficult to even upgrade should you want.

the 2012's were beautiful for this aspect. The hard drives were fairly simple to replace. Memory was upgradible.

the argument of soldered RAM and components makes sense when you're talking about something thats super small and getting smaller requires it. But the Mac Mini chassis didn't change dimensions in any way. If it was possible to provide ugpradable ram before, it should still be possible to provide ugpradable ram with the refresh. If it was possible before to keep the hard drive easily upgradable, there's no reason why they needed to make it more difficult. again, the Chassis everything housed in did not change at all.

the 2014 mac mini was an embarrassment for Apple. But we should have seen the writing on the wall when they did that change.

listen, there's NOTHING wrong with the Mac Mini from a usability standpoint. I'm sure you're fine using it as a low power computer. But the 2014 was such a downgrade from the 2012 model that it felt slimy to those of us looking to upgrade

 

[Stingray454]

Chromebook or Macbook?

Chromebook, honestly. If you need a laptop to browse the web, email, check social media, watch movies and such, Chromebooks are perfect. There are some out there with great design/build quality, high res touchscreen, backlit keyboard, good performance and so on, and for a quarter of the price of a Macbook Air or similar. I think they are really interesting as an option. That is, if you're not planning to use them for work (although now with Android apps working on chromebooks, both gaming and work got a big boost on these as well).

 

[JamesPDX]

A friend of mine just gave me a 15" ~2006 Intel Macbook Pro 2,2. It works great, runs 10.6.8, no battery but I just use it as a desktop with a UPS.

And I can run Pro Tools 7.4.2 on it like a top. I forgot to mention that I opened it up and stuck in an SSD and 4GB of RAM. 2 partitions: one for Leopard, the other for Snow Leopard.

 

[honeycombz]

I recently gave away my Mac Performa 6320CD to some kid. He was really excited. They don't build them like that anymore...oh wait, they did. The Mac Pro tower.

 

[mattofsmeg]

Toxic, juvenile MacRumors comments in 3...2...1...

Poisoning the well (or attempting to poison the well) is a fallacy where irrelevant adverse information about a target is preemptively presented to an audience, with the intention of discrediting or ridiculing everything that the target person is about to say.

 

[Count Blah]

Poisoning the well (or attempting to poison the well) is a fallacy where irrelevant adverse information about a target is preemptively presented to an audience, with the intention of discrediting or ridiculing everything that the target person is about to say.

And based on the subsequent Apple Professional admission, the snark was 100% accurate.

 

[Digital Dude]

My Apple IIc was exceptional, and I loved my first Mac of 1984. I still have my Mac Pro 4,1, and it was a fantastic design. I'm very pleased to learn that a new modular Mac Pro will be re-introduced in the next year or so. Finally, Apple understands the post-PC era isn't quite here yet, and that Apple customers still want a computer and not a glorified iPad.
I've been seriously considering a Digital River PC. Not because I want to jump ship, but rather; because Apple watered down their products to the point where they are no longer viable. Unfortunately, I may end up with a Windows based Desktop PC, simply because Apple may not likely have anything to offer in time to suit my needs.

 

[sfwalter]

Once again Tim Cook made a comment (at the investors call) about how great the Mac platform is. I would prefer to see new devices rolled out instead of one line comments.

 

[Count Blah]

Once again Tim Cook made a comment (at the investors call) about how great the Mac platform is. I would prefer to see new devices rolled out instead of one line comments.

When that's all they have, that's all they can do.

The proof is in the pudding, and there is a really thick, nasty crust over the whole aging Mac lineup.

 

[ventricle]

Apple watered down their products to the point where they are no longer viable. Unfortunately, I may end up with a Windows based Desktop PC, simply because Apple may not likely have anything to offer in time to suit my needs.

You and quite a few thousand others. Weak, watered down products and a silly upgrade schedule is why Mac Pro sales have been low.