Not surprised, although I felt it could've happened a lot sooner. Worst re-selling price I've ever seen for a Mac, too.
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Apple Discontinues 12-Inch MacBook
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i LOVED not only that it was apple's lightest laptop but it was FANLESS! no annoying jet engines taking off whenever system resources are maxed out. it was 100% quiet. this is an amazing machine. i have mine from early 2016 and i run final cut pro, photoshop cc, and web browsing without any slowdown. this thing is a real workhorse.
Good night sweet prince. If anyone still wants one, get it while it's still available for $800 getting cleared out!
RIP to the best notebook Apple ever made.
The Air is too heavy for travel. :/
The Air is too heavy for travel. :/
Perhaps it will be a total redesign, near zero bezels, scissor keyboard. It would have to be a new case anyhow to fit the non-butterfly keyboard.
Bringing it back as a new machine lets them hype it harder as the first ARM Mac vs merely updating it.
Hi there, Both are exactly the same, at a normal open viewing angle they both have a height of 16cm from the table to the top of the display.
Still waiting for Apple to develop an iPad-inspired keyboard, i.e. no physical keys anymore. Instead a slab of glass with a display benath (ideally ePaper to save on energy consumption), combined with Apple's trackpad-like force touch to simulate tactile feedback on keypress.
No problems with dirt in the key mechanic, no key marks on screen when MacBook is in the backpack and perhaps even less weight. And cost savings, as Apple does not have to produce dozens of varying language-specific keyboards. Should be a feast for a bean-counter.
I know that quite some people are skeptical about that, but then there are quite some people being skeptical about scissor-type keyboards, as they see micro-switch technology as the only way to build a keyboard.
Hopefully Ive's stepdown does not mean that thinness and miniaturization is of no value at all anymore at the "new Apple".
Part of me wonders if Apple feels the iPad Pros, with the major changes coming in iOS 13, are suitable replacements for the ultra-portable laptop market that the MacBook used to exist in.
I guess it makes sense on some level. Even the 12.9” iPad Pro weighs less than the MacBook, and the A12x chip is arguably better than the Y-series chip found in the MacBook.
I guess it makes sense on some level. Even the 12.9” iPad Pro weighs less than the MacBook, and the A12x chip is arguably better than the Y-series chip found in the MacBook.
Guess it was a competitor to the new iPad Pro based on size and therefore better to leave it to the iPad which they keep trying to flog.
Shame as I wanted to replace my iPad Pro 9.7 with an updated 12” as price/practicality was better.
Oh no ! I love my MB 12... Nearly as portable and light as my iPad but with a real mac inside. The only negative was that lonely port.
This is disappointing. I have the 12" because the main thing I want from a laptop is portability. My roommate has an Air, so I can directly compare them and it's just not close. The air is huge and heavy in comparison, and I've never had an issue with noise from my MacBook, whereas my roommate's air regularly fires up the fan and it's so horrendously loud.
Without a portable option, I suppose I would instead go for power and get a Pro but these days, when I do most of my work on an iMac and most of my casual stuff on an iPad, I'm not sure I could justify that. Portability was about the only thing keeping me in the MacBook market.
Oh well, I suppose the laptop was gonna die for me eventually. If it's your only computer, sure, but there's no good reason anymore to have a laptop instead of an iPad if you have a desktop you can work on.
Without a portable option, I suppose I would instead go for power and get a Pro but these days, when I do most of my work on an iMac and most of my casual stuff on an iPad, I'm not sure I could justify that. Portability was about the only thing keeping me in the MacBook market.
Oh well, I suppose the laptop was gonna die for me eventually. If it's your only computer, sure, but there's no good reason anymore to have a laptop instead of an iPad if you have a desktop you can work on.
I think between that, the lack of a suitable processor upgrade from Intel and the popularity of 2-in-1s, you may have hit the nail on the head.
Its pretty obvious from WWDC that Apple are not only pushing the iPad as a laptop alternative, but actually addressing some of iOS's shortfalls in that respect, and distinguishing iPadOS from "iPhoneOS". Personally, I still wouldn't set a iPad to do a MacBook Pro/Air's work, but in the case of the already compromised-for-the-sake-of-size Macbook its a closer-run thing - the gap between Air (hardly a brick) and iPad Pro is quite narrow.
I rather think that the product is not a failure, but has done what it was supposed to do and is therefore not needed any more in Apples point of view. No egg on the face, since it was in fact their vision for the next gen of macbooks, and that vision has been realized. Besides maximal slimness and lightness, it introduced small bezel, new keyboard and USB-C as only connector. All those things have since been ported over to the other laptops as well (if you like it or not). Job accomplished, Apple would say. Now it remains to see if there will be a smaller Air to take its place.
A core i7 branded core M, which is outstripped in performance by an A12X, trackpad/ mouse support which is now supported by iPad Pro, a single USB C which is now matched by the iPad Pro, the OS is still arguable, but now most of the main complaints for general use have been settled by iPad OS - I think @Abazigal might be correct in his deduction here.
I suppose if you're coding the iPad is no good, but I'd imagine most people doing that would have a MBP? The MB very much seemed to be aimed at coffee-shop office productivity.
Looks like I will have to go the used route for a 12” MB to replace my 11” 2013 Air, when I need to replace it. I used to wonder why people want such a little computer as a previous 15” MBP owner (current 27” iMac owner and 15” HP Elitebook for work), but when I had to start carrying a 2nd laptop during house construction and travel this past year, I ended up loving my used, beat up 11” Air that I bought for cheap. Sure, it is a little underpowered and can get bogged down, but it feels right and just works compared to the W10, Linux, and Chromebook options that I tried.
LOL. They could have fit 4 USB-C on that thing without breaking a sweat. I'm not saying it needs 4, but two would have been just fine so you can charge the damn thing and use something else hooked up to it.
Relax - this is just more of Apple removing more of the Jony Ive ego products boat anchors from its lineup. The 12” MacBook was always a non-starter, what with the insistence of only having one USB-C port, being underperforming, and more expensive than the far better (in performance MacBook Air). It simply didn’t sell well, and can be retired, now that Jony Ive is gone. This isn’t a coincidence.
To all of the people hating on the MacBook, I'm pretty sure 99% of you have any never used one.
The 12" MacBook was magical. It was so darn light you would question whether or not there was anything inside. The difference between the weight of the 12" MacBook and MacBook Air may not seem like a lot, but it is. It's astronomical. The 12" MacBook is the device you wouldn't think twice about taking with you outside, but anything else you'd reconsider.
The 12" MacBook was magical. It was so darn light you would question whether or not there was anything inside. The difference between the weight of the 12" MacBook and MacBook Air may not seem like a lot, but it is. It's astronomical. The 12" MacBook is the device you wouldn't think twice about taking with you outside, but anything else you'd reconsider.
These two features to me are more important than any speed difference or the bigger screen when compared to any other Mac laptop. For travels I want light. And to not disturb other people around me, I want silent.
It is always so frustrating when Apple removes important features and replaces it with - nothing.
Just gone.
What I missed in the 12" MacBook was more HD storage, 1TB and 2TB options would have been great; plus a second USB-C port.
It is a real pain to copy large files from one external HD to another external HD. And with the limited internal HD space you cannot just copy it to the internal HD first as an interim storage you really must go from one to the other directly.
(And I wonder how anyone with an iPad is copying a single 2TB file from one external HD to another external HD. If the iPad is the intended replacement, such a simple task should be no problem, no?)
The MacBook Air uses basically the same Core M processor. These comments about how the MacBook was a slow performer are way off base. The 2017 MacBook was significantly faster than the 2015 MacBook Air that Apple also sold until yesterday.