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After Jobs' passed Cook said Apple was in great shape and had new innovations (products) in the pipeline for the next five years. It's now been five years and they've not innovated a single new product. The watch doesn't count because that was Jobs' last creation. All they've done is updated their existing products - evolution and no revolution. They need somebody who can think outside the box like Jobs could. Cook does remind me of Scully, the sugar water salesman. He spends too much time obsessing over politics and social issues and not enough on creating the next new best thing. Ripping off Android and apps from the Cydia store and claiming you invented it is not innovation. I've been using Macs for decades and stuck with them through the dark times. I don't want to see them slip away like they have before.
 
Except it was Jobs' Apple.

Except that your premise is unreasonable. You can't logically criticize "Cook's Apple" for "overthinking" when "Job's Apple" did that very thing. This is even before we get to the question of whether the company culture under Cook is in some significant way different than it was during Steve's lifetime. Even by your own criticism, it hasn't changed one iota. The source article only hammers that point home (not that many will bother reading it).

The main difference of course is atmospherics. Steve was a rock star who because of his outsized persona is now remembered as faultless, and the company during his tenure as always climbing higher. Well, that isn't true, either.
 
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Well, their profit did. The products hardly.

These days Apple seems focused solely on their iPhone/iPad business, positioned themselves firmly in the "fashion tech" segment (emotional purchases make most money), and really, only the iPhone business seems to do very well. And apart from making it faster/bigger, there's hardly any generational jump in terms of technology. It's just basic product iteration, hardly anything to get excited about.

If you think about it, it's crazy that Apple doesn't offer anything worthwhile to upgrade my 2011 Air for. The PC product line is pretty bad: old display technology (Air), form factor and spec well behind the competitors' (Macbook Pro), or just shiny computing rubbish (the new Macbook). I don't understand how the other companies sell rMB-like computers with i7s while Apple ships theirs with a Core M.


I can't blame Intel when Dell makes a 1.29kg, Air-like form factor, 13" XPS with i7 Skylake and 16Gb RAM sold here for CHF1799 (developer model) while Apple sells their chunky 1.58kg 13" Macbook Pro with 5th gen i5 with 8Gb RAM for CHF1949. No wonder the sales have plummeted.

Either way, I will upgrade this year. If Apple is not in the laptop business anymore, I'll switch.

Mac sales have "plummeted"? Really? Last time I've checked, the Mac has outperformed the PC sector for years, last time some months ago http://fortune.com/2016/04/12/dude-youre-getting-a-mac/

If anything, Mac sales have been surprisingly resilient considered how little the lineup has been updated.
 
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I understand that computers are no longer the profitable sect. of Apple's business but that does not mean to ignore it. They have to understand the world today more or less runs on 2 platforms - Windows and OS X. If they decide to neglect their computer business we will be left with 1 company to run all computers (which is currently at like 85% install base anyway).

As Cue says, grinning at the ambition: "We want to be there from when you wake up till when you decide to go to sleep."

Apple's mission was to make technology invisible in helping people get things done better and more efficient. Gone the days of the 1 button mouse, this statement feels more like intrusive technology.
 
Mac sales have "plummeted"? Really? Last time I've checked, the Mac has outperformed the PC sector for years, last time some months ago http://fortune.com/2016/04/12/dude-youre-getting-a-mac/

If anything, Mac sales have been surprisingly resilient considered how little the lineup has been updated.

Next quarter Mac sales will plummet even more then their last ( and yes they plummeted). Those numbers will be overshadowed by the 'amazing, most thrilling, only Apple can do' iPhone 7.

Like the creative sector Apple used to be big in education. Today its chrome books and Windows.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/apple/apple-q3-2016-financial-results-iphone-mac-sales-down-3581769/
 
IMHO...

Apple did so well because Jobs was a CEO with very little technical or manufacturing knowledge, but who hired people who did (like Forestall and Cook).

Jobs could demand something ridiculous because he had no idea how hard or expensive it was to do. He was the ultimate power user: someone who could demand pie in the sky changes, and yet also say NO to confusing extra models or features.

Now Apple is run by someone who's good at manufacturing, and is more about team playing. Welcome to typical corporate design by committee and playing it safe. Apple will still make tons of money, but in a much more boring way.

Somewhat. Quite a bit of what Jobs demanded was nuts, and he had to be talked in from some dangerous ledges or tricked into not walking them. One of the more infamous examples was his insistence that the Mac not have any networking capabilities. If his engineering people hadn't snuck it in without his approval, the Mac would have flopped entirely and we probably would not even be having this discussion.

Also, the article does not really suggest that Cook is all about team playing. It sounds to me more like he is still the ultimate arbiter of what gets shipped, in much the same way Jobs was, and is every bit as demanding. Apple is forever being criticized for playing it safe, until they don't. I wonder why anyone is fooled by their long development cycles, as if that was ever different.
 
Next quarter Mac sales will plummet even more then their last ( and yes they plummeted). Those numbers will be overshadowed by the 'amazing, most thrilling, only Apple can do' iPhone 7.

Like the creative sector Apple used to be big in education. Today its chrome books and Windows.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/apple/apple-q3-2016-financial-results-iphone-mac-sales-down-3581769/

One may wonder where the surprisingly strong Q4 guidance is coming from then.

I'll mark your post for future reference.
 
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That's because the Mac (i.e. personal computer) is dead. The iPad Pro is the future of computing.

Tim Cook: "Why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one? The iPad Pro is a replacement for a notebook or a desktop for many, many people. They will start using it and conclude they no longer need to use anything else, other than their phones."




I've been using my desktop and phone wrong all these years.
 
El c(r)ap runs ok as long as you use it on NEW hardware it seems , on my mac mini from 2011 total disaster ( bricked it 100% ) on my dad's tricked out 5k iMac -amazing.. ho hum :(

Phil's sad about people using 4-5 year old macs..

Maybe he and his rich pals should try visiting the real world occasionally ??
 
Well, I have seen nothing but quality products from Apple since 1997's gumdrop iMac and the clambshell Laptops. Complaining about lack of updates is stupid. Apple only releases new products that are truly ready for the market. In 2000 they paid a Canadian company to remove all bugs from the OS before its release. Time is valued above all else- you can't get it back. I have seen Windows users throw PC Towers out the window into dumpsters in Venice Beach in the past. They were so angry it was laughable. So... stop whining. Apple are getting it right and while it is not perfect it beats other OS hands down...
 
We'll check this on Q4 earnings call.
We'll check this on Q4 earnings call.
Even if Apple introduces breathtaking new macs (somehow my mind tells me they'll find a way to cripple it when they do) those sells won't come from macs because they already lost two months with their aging hardware to date.

I admire your positivity about Apple and till last year I shared that with you. But reality hit me and I want to see, touch and feel before I'm getting blinded again.
 
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Mac sales have "plummeted"? Really? Last time I've checked, the Mac has outperformed the PC sector for years, last time some months ago http://fortune.com/2016/04/12/dude-youre-getting-a-mac/

If anything, Mac sales have been surprisingly resilient considered how little the lineup has been updated.
What?

"Apple's estimated shipments slipped from 3.4 million to 2.53 million, said research firm TrendForce. That put Apple in sixth place with a 7.1 percent share, down from 8.8 percent in Q1 2015. In the most recent quarter — Q4 2015 — Apple controlled fifth place with 9.7 percent."

Losing a quarter of your sales and dropping two positions in sales ranking is "plummeting" from where I'm sitting. How's that for "outperforming the PC sector" (by which I take you mean "Windows")?

Apple has a niche market in the overall computer (laptops and desktops) segment - given their pricing structure and more limited software support compared to Windows - it is very unlikely to ever be a major player. To date, as far as I am aware, there's no "gaming" Mac, for example. So, niche.

If they aren't careful to keep this niche technologically up-to-date (although I'd expect better than the competition, given their prices), they'll lose it faster than you can say "Power Mac G5".
 
So much whining from people here. Here's a quick checklist to see if you should leave the Mac ecosystem:
  1. Your big issue is that you want Skylake over Haswell in a 15" laptop even though it makes practically zero difference? Bye.
  2. You want/need 44 cores? Bye.
  3. Your big concern is saving $200-$500 on an "equivalent" machine from Dell or Lenovo? Bye.
  4. You don't have a lot of workflows based around OS X that make it worth waiting? Bye.
I run a 3.5 year old rMBP and this thing is still fantastic. I see no reason to upgrade, though I am starting to want 32 GB of RAM sometime soon. And for the whiners, it HAS been improved since my late 2013 version, with faster RAM and twice the SSD speed. Yes it is somewhat overpriced for the older tech you get but I really don't care for my usage (software development). It's the nicest laptop I've ever owned and every time I touch someone's Lenovo or plasticky Dell, I'm happy with my choice.

On top of all that, I probably know 50+ software developers, and of those, only one uses Windows. 3-4 use Linux. All the rest use Macs.
 
So much whining from people here. Here's a quick checklist to see if you should leave the Mac ecosystem:
  1. Your big issue is that you want Skylake over Haswell in a 15" laptop even though it makes practically zero difference? Bye.
  2. You want/need 44 cores? Bye.
  3. Your big concern is saving $200-$500 on an "equivalent" machine from Dell or Lenovo? Bye.
  4. You don't have a lot of workflows based around OS X that make it worth waiting? Bye.
I run a 3.5 year old rMBP and this thing is still fantastic. I see no reason to upgrade, though I am starting to want 32 GB of RAM sometime soon. And for the whiners, it HAS been improved since my late 2013 version, with faster RAM and twice the SSD speed. Yes it is somewhat overpriced for the older tech you get but I really don't care for my usage (software development). It's the nicest laptop I've ever owned and every time I touch someone's Lenovo or plasticky Dell, I'm happy with my choice.

On top of all that, I probably know 50+ software developers, and of those, only one uses Windows. 3-4 use Linux. All the rest use Macs.

I'm very happy for you. Really I am. But somehow I also pity you for buying that outdated tech at premium price only for a brand.
 
I'm very happy for you. Really I am. But somehow I also pity you for buying that outdated tech at premium price only for a brand.
Why? I'm getting exactly what I want and nothing I don't. Having a processor that's slightly faster or being forced to use an OS I don't like is a crappy value proposition for ME. YMMV. Having "outdated tech" is of practically zero consequence to me.
 
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I'm not moving any goalposts at all.

His complaint was that he didn't have 44 core models (while his competitors did) and that gave them an advantage in completing projects. The machines he wants are not an area Apple currently competes in.

If he complained that he needed to spend $10K on a Mac Pro while his competitors could buy a similar PC for only $6K then you'd have a point.

I am not sure what your point is.

First off, yes, if I have to pay 2X to 3X the price to gain 5X the performance I would do it in hart beat. To put this in perspective in the rendering world. What would take 10hrs to render on Apple's top end machine, would take 2hrs on That machine. Leaving 8 additional hours in a day for more production. Multiply that by approx 300 work days and multiple machines and I think you can figure out yourself that paying 20k more is peanuts to the productivity you gain.

Also remember that Apple's Processors are 2 generations behind. They are using E5v2. They are so old that Dell doesn't even offer them anymore. So you can get a 12 core E5v3 which is faster for half the price of Apple's system. Your comment "the machine he wants are not an are Apple currently competes in." is exactly my point. Apple has competed in this market for 30 years but then for no reason they decided to introduce the current Mac Pro. It sure looks pretty, but they took out an entire processor and made it virtually impossible to upgrade. You know the things that Pro's want and need. So in other words, it was already crippled at introduction and then they decide not to update or adjust pricing to compete for 3 years but again, it sure looks pretty.

I think putting form over function for the pro market was an enormous mistake on their part but what ever, I can live with their dumb design as long as they keep somewhat competitive. Their single processor machines in that $10k range should have had 18 core E5v3 with modern graphics cards a year and a half ago. A 22 core E5v4 with modern graphics should already have been released several months ago.
 
What?

"Apple's estimated shipments slipped from 3.4 million to 2.53 million, said research firm TrendForce. That put Apple in sixth place with a 7.1 percent share, down from 8.8 percent in Q1 2015. In the most recent quarter — Q4 2015 — Apple controlled fifth place with 9.7 percent."

Losing a quarter of your sales and dropping two positions in sales ranking is "plummeting" from where I'm sitting. How's that for "outperforming the PC sector" (by which I take you mean "Windows")?

Apple has a niche market in the overall computer (laptops and desktops) segment - given their pricing structure and more limited software support compared to Windows - it is very unlikely to ever be a major player. To date, as far as I am aware, there's no "gaming" Mac, for example. So, niche.

If they aren't careful to keep this niche technologically up-to-date (although I'd expect better than the competition, given their prices), they'll lose it faster than you can say "Power Mac G5".

Thankfully, we are in 2016 and Apple just sold 4.25 millions Macs in Q3.

Compare this trendline to this.

We'll see soon a record-breaking quarter for Mac sales; that quarter will be Q1 2017 (december quarter).

Mark this post.
 
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I am not talking about having only a single USB-C port. I am only talking about having the possibility to provide power and data via one single cable to the computer (and use it to justify the removal of the MagSafe port). I have expressed no opinion how many USB-C/TB3 or other ports the computer should have. My point was solely that the single-cable-to-dock capability can be used to justify the removal of the MagSafe port, not that there should only be one port and that people should be forced to use a dock (only giving them the ability to use a single-cable dock).

If they would have put the MagSafe on there, someone would be able to charge their MacBook and use the USB port without a dongle.

USB-C as implemented by Apple thus far is just marketing BS that, like the jedi mind trick, only the weak minded could fall for.
 
Ask again in 8 month's time... Seriously - its already bad: although I've been pointing out the role of the Intel delays and the need to ensure comparisons with competitors are truly like-with-like, no updates to the flagship Mac for over a year doesn't look good in any language.
Remember when the iPhone launch moved from June to October (iPhone 4 launch vs 4S launch)? The world didn't end then either. New MBPs will come out in the fall (September or October).
 
Why? I'm getting exactly what I want and nothing I don't. Having a processor that's slightly faster or being forced to use an OS I don't like is a crappy value proposition for ME. YMMV. Having "outdated tech" is of practically zero consequence to me.

You could've gotten a Chromebook instead which I what I have now. Cheaper, very fast and gets the job done. For higher specs, that would be for power users and professionals who require that much for their heavy data and image processing. This is the area that Apple is screwing up on.
 
Even if Apple introduces breathtaking new macs (somehow my mind tells me they'll find a way to cripple it when they do) those sells won't come from macs because they already lost two months with their aging hardware to date.

I admire your positivity about Apple and till last year I shared that with you. But reality hit me and I want to see, touch and feel before I'm getting blinded again.

This is why I haven't upgraded from my 2010 iMac lately and it's running fine but getting there in age. My new Chromebook FLIES every time I use it and does the job nicely. I was glad I didn't get a new iPad replacement and am seriously looking into getting Surface Pro 4 for my digital art and design work instead of iPad Pro.

iPhone 7 is a possibility but I could side grade to iPhone 6s or go Android, if necessary.

Apple under Cook is slipping and the only way to save it is to GET. RID. OF. COOK. And Williams can go along with him, Jony and Cue. Those four must go.
 
Mac sales have "plummeted"? Really? Last time I've checked, the Mac has outperformed the PC sector for years, last time some months ago http://fortune.com/2016/04/12/dude-youre-getting-a-mac/

If anything, Mac sales have been surprisingly resilient considered how little the lineup has been updated.

Right now Apple is running on "brand credit", that's why there is any "resiliency" at all. It's pretty obvious.
 
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