Apple Sees Notebook Shipments Increase Year on Year in Q1 2017

[flat five]

There's no way for them to make the USB-C to USB adapter smaller? Or just more elegant. I think people would be less upset if it was smaller and stayed at $9.

(click to expand)


lot's of different adapters out there.. personally, i'd opt for no adapter and just get cables that are USB-C to USB-A..
something like:



..but, i don't use usb cables anyway so no need (for me) .. i'm pretty much completely wireless at this point other than using a usb stick to transfer G-code to a cnc machine.. in which case, i'll just use one of these when i update to a laptop with all usb-c ports:
(flash drive with usb-c to the laptop and usb-a to the cnc machine)

 

[ElZamo92]

Why do people keep buying these obscenely expensive machines?

 

[MegaSai]

The vast majority are probably the 2015 MBPs.

True, I returned 2016 model with touch bar and bought the 2015 MBP.

 

[somerandommacperson]

Me for one, and other tbMBP "apologists" on the forums.

What do you use it for? How often? Do you have to take your eyes off the screen to do so?

 

[flat five]

Why do people keep buying these obscenely expensive machines?

buy it for work.
if the thing will allow you to earn, say, 40x the amount you paid for it, they aren't expensive then.

 

[somerandommacperson]

I would really like if they can release a 15 inch pro without that touch bar and use that extra space for slightly bigger battery. Drop the price to affordable levels.

I think the battery life would improve if they just removed the touch bar. No need to fill the space with more battery (although that's one option).
[doublepost=1495506479][/doublepost]

Oh, Apple said that about the MacBook Pro? Or just the iMac and the Mac Pro? (hint, it's the second one )

Don't take MR comments for actual feedback. People moaned about the Touchbar and the new Macs in general based on the keynote alone. Those who actually bought the machines, loved them.

Hmm, I thought there's a 32gb desktop grade MBP rumor floating around? I could be wrong.

 

[flat five]

What do you use it for? How often? Do you have to take your eyes off the screen to do so?

what's wrong with taking your eyes off the screen?
i'm a heavy keystroke user (for instance, my main application is command line driven) and i take my eyes of the screen often.

like, do a shift-cmmd-T without glancing at the keyboard.. consider you also use shift-cmmd-R and G (and F)..
if you do all that without looking then.. impressive!

 

[CWallace]

That's the Reality Distortion Field, Dave. Apple only releases total Mac sales, and doesn't break it down by model or configuration, so all we have to go in is the word of a man who's paycheck relies on pushing a positive image.

He's also a senior corporate officer whose statements about the "success" of the new MBP in unit sales and revenue have a material effect on Apple's stock price. He can't afford to lie or spin because it would be grounds for an SEC investigation and shareholder lawsuit.

It was the first Pro update in what, 18 months? A sales jump over hugely declining sales was inevitable.

Except the narrative in these forums has been nobody would buy the old model because it was out of date. Now they say the old model sold exceptionally well which explains the sales jump.

There certainly is a Realty Distortion Field in effect. It's just this centered on this forum, not Apple HQ.

 

[lowkey]

Except the narrative in these forums has been nobody would buy the old model because it was out of date. Now they say the old model sold exceptionally well which explains the sales jump.

There certainly is a Realty Distortion Field in effect. It's just this centered on this forum, not Apple HQ.

exactly right. For months and months we were told the old model was terrible. Completely superseded hardware etc etc. then all of a sudden the haters are like " I'd rather buy the old model now anyways. It's way more Pro". Like USB-a is pro

I think there are two issues with the current line of MBPs. One, There should be a 15" without TB just as there is for the 13" model. And two, the price rise over the previous model along with changes in the exchange rate has made them significantly less value for money. The actual machines themself are sweet.

 

[fulles2000]

The cost is the main thing that's hard for me to swallow. It's for work so I can justify the expense, but it was still a lot of dough to be putting out. Touchbar is a meh for me. I neither hate it nor do I love it. I've gotten used to not having physical top row keys even though I'm a developer and the lack of an ESC key really rubbed me the wrong way.

The one thing I absolutely love that I wasn't expecting is the sound. WOW, I never thought audio quality could be this good coming out of a laptop.

The thing I absolutely hate that I wasn't expecting to hate is the new trackpad. 3D touch is awful and the trackpad is way too big for someone with fleshy hands.
[doublepost=1495491568][/doublepost]

You can add another one. I'm a developer and I'm mostly happy with my tbMBP. It is indeed the best laptop I've ever owned, but it's also a very irritating laptop at the same time. It's mostly a fabulous machine, but as a power user, the quirks do rub me the wrong way. I have ways around most of them so they're not deal breakers, but given the cost, I feel aggrieved at the imperfections. It's still a mighty fine machine. It's just expensive.

I too am a developer and I agree with almost everything you've said. I waited a while before I took the plunge because I thought the price was too high. I ended up buying one from the refurbished store and saving £300 but it's still more than I'd ideally have liked to pay.

Touch ID is great but as you say the touch bar is meh. I'm writing an Android app at the moment and so I'm spending most of my time in Android Studio which obviously doesn't use the touch bar. Maybe when I start spending more time in Apple apps then maybe it will start to be useful. Not having a physical escape key was odd at first but it only took about a week to get used to it.

I also really like the new keyboard. In fact going back to my iMac keyboard the keys seem really wobbly and have a massive travel distance. I always liked that keyboard but now I'm hoping they bring out a new one like the new MacBook Pros.

Where we disagree is the trackpad. I don't like trackpads and I always use a mouse. However, this is the first trackpad I've ever had that I don't mind using. I still use a mouse when I'm at my desk but I'm more than happy to use the trackpad when I'm away from my desk. And the force touch is really good. I'm hoping it gets used for more things.

I thought the lack of USB-A ports may be a problem for me so I bought a pack of 3 USB-C to USB-A adapters from Amazon for £3.99 (yes folks that's how expensive they are!). However, apart from testing to see if they work when I first bought them I've never needed to use them so the ports are not a problem to me at all.

I know this is not the consensus on these forums but I honestly can't think of anything about this laptop that I don't like.

 

[somerandommacperson]

what's wrong with taking your eyes off the screen?
i'm a heavy keystroke user (for instance, my main application is command line driven) and i take my eyes of the screen often.

like, do a shift-cmmd-T without glancing at the keyboard.. consider you also use shift-cmmd-R and G (and F)..
if you do all that without looking then.. impressive!

I use Vim a lot and do have to look at the keyboard for some key combinations however the touch bar (from my use in stores) required knowing where to press on it. this required looking up and down multiple times to confirm the "slide" was correct. with keys it's only 1 press, and we never have to go back down to the keys to confirm the key press was correct. my touch bar usage required going down again multiple times. perhaps I just need to get better at it... but, the UX of it bothers me and the fact that there's no pragmatic app i actually need a touch bar for... and lastly, knowing it eats some battery life oh yeah, and then there's the price point applied to this feature i don't actually want/need.
[doublepost=1495524576][/doublepost]

Oh, Apple said that about the MacBook Pro? Or just the iMac and the Mac Pro? (hint, it's the second one )

Don't take MR comments for actual feedback. People moaned about the Touchbar and the new Macs in general based on the keynote alone. Those who actually bought the machines, loved them.

I have learned that the people here can get pretty negative. I'm not that type. However, the feedback here was extremely negative and I actually agreed with much of the criticism. I then waited to test it in stores and confirmed that the touch bar's use case (in my eyes) is pretty weak. I have been in the market to buy a new rMBP for years but couldn't pull the trigger. My 2014 rMBP is still doin' just fine. Guess the two of us will wait it out a bit longer (hoping WWDC brings interesting news in rMBP-land)

 

[The Mercurian]

And here we go again... The people who actually own one, are pretty happy with it - at least the ones i know IRL, including myself..

No. They probably aren't.
[doublepost=1495460152][/doublepost]
Do you know anyone who bought one and has commented on it? I have a few friends who got various models of the 2016 MBP and they all love it. Hell I would have one right now if I could justify the cost.

Nobody I know owns one, and I have yet to see one in airports, coffee shops, meetings etc etc etc.

 

[maflynn]

Wow, QoQ numbers look depressing, everyone is selling less laptops

 

[MrChurchyard]

YOU are just trying to justify a product that was the worst product received in Apple history.
Facts:
1- Apple never showed a detailed numbers per product of how many Macbooks were sold.
2- The shipments actually declined 15.8%. How is that a success??
3- How do you know that most of the Macbooks sold were not from older models? I know many users including me that were waiting for the new Macbook Pro to come out to buy one. As soon as they announced it, I bought the older model. And like me, I know several other users.
4- A product speaks for itself. Specially a bad one like the latest Macbooks Pro.
- You can not connect your own iPhone, iPad.
- Battery issues
- Lack of connectivity
- Limited to 16 Ram.
- Remove the Mag Safe (they have to be really dum-b to remove the best feature the Apple Macbooks Had).

1: Mac sales are up yoy, notebook sales are up yoy. What has changed? Sudden passion for macOS because Windows lately has been getting worse (it hasn’t)? Updated MacBook Airs, MacBooks? Nah. It’s most likely the new MBP. Apple has disclosed some things: Record first weekend sales, disclosure of notebook sales performance during the recent “pro desktop” intervention interview, etc.
2: Q1 numbers are always down compared to a Q4. There’s this thing called the holiday season, you might have heard of it. You got to look at year over year to have a meaningful metric.
3: See, again: Anecdotes vs. data. I know a lot of people who bought the latest MBP. Most kept it, majority is happy, some do bitch about some aspects but are still keeping it and mostly happy, one guy is super negative about it but keeping it, one refused to buy it and bought the 2015 one. Both of our pools of data points are insignificant compared to the actual overall numbers.
4: No, it doesn’t. You think consumers buy products based on some detailed feature checklist or that they care about what you do. Most don’t.
- You can. I am right now to my 12" MacBook, too.
- Maybe there are, but apparently not impacting sales that badly. Nobody I know (anecdote!) complains about battery life; so it might be too rare or fixed for most people after the early software updates.
- You’d be surprised how seldom many people connect things to these machines.
- 16 GB RAM is enough for most users, even pros. The ones for whom that is not enough are obviously shafted, but they are a minor segment of the target group of MBPs. So that does not impact how much of a success the MBP is or isn’t.

My entire point is that even conceding that the new MBP might be a terrible design for some users, that clearly does not impact it being a success.

It’s like arguing about music: I think most popular music is terrible, but I cannot deny that it’s successful although neither any of my friends or I listen to any of it.

 

[Val-kyrie]

I'm not sure why people defend headphone jacks. I've had enough of popping and dropped connections with the dodgy things.

I like the headphone jack because (1) it does not depend on headphones to have a charged battery--as long as your phone has charge you can always listen to audio privately, (2) headphones using the 3.5mm port are more affordable, (3) wired headphones produce better sound for the cost, and (4) headphones work more reliably over the 3.5mm port than over BT. I have never had a problem receiving audio. Headphone jacks just work.

.... Apple needs to be honest in their sales reports or else risking share holder backlash and possible criminal investigation. Beyond that I don't see where they are trying to lift anything in their quarterly reports....

Perhaps I chose my wording poorly. By lift, I was referring to the sole mention of the tbMBPs in the MR quote of Apple's report:

"The latest generation of MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, which was released in last year's fourth quarter, was well-received by consumers and contributed significantly to the overall MacBook shipments. As a result, first-quarter MacBook shipments ... showed a year-on-year increase of 15.4%."

Why specifically mention the new MBPs? Why no breakdown by sales units, or even percentages? I have been told personally the MBA is Apple's best selling laptop. If that is true, why the mention and thus focus on the tbMBP?

Apple goes out of its way to say that the tbMBPs have been well-received and contributed to the year-on-year increase in sales.

Two problems arise: (1) the tbMBPs have been panned harshly by every major tech enthusiast and review site of reputable quality, even those which have traditionally touted the virtues of Apple products, and (2) every Mac sold contributed to the YOY increase in sales, so without a breakdown of sales by unit and model, this last statement says nothing specifically about the sale of tbMBPs; yet it comes across to many as evidence it is selling well. Again, why mention the tbMBP at all?

If you want to see the effect of the wording of Apple's release, substitute the words "MacBook Air" for the words MacBook Pro with TouchBar" and ask yourself what difference this makes in your perception of Apple's lineup.

I am not saying Apple is misleading its shareholders in any illegal manner, but it does come across as a psychological rebuff to all of the negative reviews of the tbMBP, something to which the Board and shareholders are not immune.

 

[Carnegie]

YOU are just trying to justify a product that was the worst product received in Apple history.
Facts:
1- Apple never showed a detailed numbers per product of how many Macbooks were sold.
2- The shipments actually declined 15.8%. How is that a success??
3- How do you know that most of the Macbooks sold were not from older models? I know many users including me that were waiting for the new Macbook Pro to come out to buy one. As soon as they announced it, I bought the older model. And like me, I know several other users.
4- A product speaks for itself. Specially a bad one like the latest Macbooks Pro.
- You can not connect your own iPhone, iPad.
- Battery issues
- Lack of connectivity
- Limited to 16 Ram.
- Remove the Mag Safe (they have to be really dum-b to remove the best feature the Apple Macbooks Had).

This article tries to help Apple. But not even Phill Schiller with his desperate-lame adaptor discount could help the bad design of the latest Macbook Pro.

It's true that we don't know unit numbers for individual Mac models (or even families). But the substantial (YoY) spike in Mac ASPs combined with (YoY) unit volume growth strongly suggests that the new MacBook Pros - and not just the old models - sold pretty well.

 

[JMacHack]

What do you use it for? How often? Do you have to take your eyes off the screen to do so?

Mostly scripts, and yes I know they could previously be bound to the function keys, but with this I can have limitless buttons for scripts (which comes in handy more than you might think).

And yes I do take my eyes off the screen, but for a split second. A split second that saves minutes with scripts.
[doublepost=1495560370][/doublepost]

I have learned that the people here can get pretty negative. I'm not that type. However, the feedback here was extremely negative and I actually agreed with much of the criticism. I then waited to test it in stores and confirmed that the touch bar's use case (in my eyes) is pretty weak. I have been in the market to buy a new rMBP for years but couldn't pull the trigger. My 2014 rMBP is still doin' just fine. Guess the two of us will wait it out a bit longer (hoping WWDC brings interesting news in rMBP-land)

I think, judging by who the most vocal critics are, is that Apple made the tbMBP for one kind of pro, the visual media types specifically. The most criticism that I've seen comes mostly from software developers, who in general don't need/want things like a larger touchpad, or need/want things like dedicated function keys and legacy ports.

The tbMBP, in my experience, excels at Adobe Suite, and probably works wonders in FCP and Logic Pro. My guess is that this is what caused the split between users saying that it's fantastic vs. it's garbage.

 

[CWallace]

Why specifically mention the new MBPs? Why no breakdown by sales units, or even percentages? I have been told personally the MBA is Apple's best selling laptop. If that is true, why the mention and thus focus on the tbMBP?

You answer your question in your own post: "the tbMBPs have been panned harshly by every major tech enthusiast and review site of reputable quality, even those which have traditionally touted the virtues of Apple products".

Apple has never broken out individual model numbers for competitive reasons so they are not going to do so now. But with the "public narrative" being that the tbMBP is "junk", that can have a negative effect on the public's perception of the product as well as investor confidence. As such, while not giving out specific numbers (again, for competitive reasons), they are stating - truthfully, lest they risk legal sanction - that the model is not selling as poorly as the "public narrative" is suggesting.

If you want to see the effect of the wording of Apple's release, substitute the words "MacBook Air" for the words MacBook Pro with TouchBar" and ask yourself what difference this makes in your perception of Apple's lineup.

I'm guessing the MacBook Air's "sales numbers" are coming from the supply chain and are then extrapolated across the number of Mac's Apple announces they sold during whatever period is being discussed. Considering the age of the MBA, the only reasonable conclusion as to why it sells "the most" is it's $999 price - it is the cheapest way to enter the Mac ecosystem for most people (yes, the Mac Mini is cheaper but it needs peripherals to work and laptops are the more popular form factor).

 

[kahkityoong]

I'd love your input on why the new MBP was junk. I'm considering purchasing one this fall for research computing but if you're happier with your two year old MBP, I'd like to know why. I'd love to save some money and just buy an older MBP.

It's no faster than the equivalent 2014 MacBook Pros. In fact benchmarks show it's slower. And as a photographer and traveller I use a variety of ports : USBA, thunderbolt 2, SD card. I did like having the option of USBC/thunderbolt 3 but I don't need 4 of them. The keyboard was fine. Touchbar felt like a gimmick although the finger ID was nice to have. The worst aspect was battery life. Most I got was 4 hours watching movies. As soon as I tried to process photos battery life plummeted. I may consider the non touch bar 13 inch when it gets updated as it has a larger battery just for travel.

 

[ignatius345]

That seems to line up with the idea that MacBook Pros are the go-to for people who are more concerned with image, or aren't computer-savvy enough to venture out of what they perceive to be the norm, or a safe bet. It's an easy decision to just buy one and not think about it.

I think it's an easy decision to buy one and not think about it because... for a lot of people a computer is a means to an end. You have papers to write, or music to mix, graphics to design, and you want your computer to get out of the way. A lot of people, "computer-savvy" or not, just want to get things done and worry as little as possible about the tools they use to do those things.

 

[smirking]

I also really like the new keyboard. In fact going back to my iMac keyboard the keys seem really wobbly and have a massive travel distance. I always liked that keyboard but now I'm hoping they bring out a new one like the new MacBook Pros.

I find it interesting that people who dislike the new MBP keyboard end up preferring it. I like the new newboard too, but I don't necessarily like it over other keyboards I have. I do like it better than the old MBP keyboard though. The old keyboard hurt my hands. The new one doesn't even though most people would expect it to be a terrible keyboard for those of us with RSI issues.

I don't like trackpads and I always use a mouse. However, this is the first trackpad I've ever had that I don't mind using.

I'm primarily a mouse person myself and one of the key reasons I'm a mouse person is because I rarely use any mouse with fewer than 5 buttons. My productivity hack is to map certain keys to my mouse so I don't have to take my hand off the mouse to find a single key. I save a fair amount of time this way.

I try to carry my productivity hacks to the trackpad too. I have about a half dozen extra gestures mapped to my trackpad. This used to work well, but now with the massive trackpad it's too easy to accidentally fire off a gesture and 3D touch has a stupid habit of disengaging with ne while I make multiple movements so gestures get ruined or what was supposed to be a drag gets triggered as delete, right click right click.

I seriously hate 3D touch. Even with it turned off, the solid trackpad still gives me problems. It still misfires and disengages in the middle of a click drag and does a terrible job at palm rejection with my hands.

Surely someone out there will make a thin cover designed to fit perfectly over the trackpad to reduce the size. Maybe someone's already done this. If one of these covers doesn't materialize soon, I'll follow the lead of some other people who are having similar problems and use electrical tape and tin foil to block off the borders of the trackpad.

I thought the lack of USB-A ports may be a problem for me so I bought a pack of 3 USB-C to USB-A adapters from Amazon for £3.99 (yes folks that's how expensive they are!). However, apart from testing to see if they work when I first bought them I've never needed to use them so the ports are not a problem to me at all.

I probably bought the same type of adapters. I have four of them. The lack of USB-A has been a non-issue, but the lack of an SD card is another story. I do a lot of photography. I don't care what The Shill expects me to think about that ugly chip of plastic sticking out the side of a laptop. Losing the SD Card drive has been a significant pain point. I understand why there aren't any USB-A or other ports, but ditching the SD Card feels petty (unless they simply had the thing packed so tightly that there was simply no way to add an SD Card port).

I know this is not the consensus on these forums but I honestly can't think of anything about this laptop that I don't like.

Even here, plenty of people love it. Even though I have my gripes, it's still the best laptop I've ever owned.

 

[flat five]

Losing the SD Card drive has been a significant pain point. I understand why there aren't any USB-A or other ports, but ditching the SD Card feels petty (unless they simply had the thing packed so tightly that there was simply no way to add an SD Card port).

a contrasting experience:
i've had/have 3 macs with SD port.
nothing has ever gone in them (except maybe some dust )

 

[fulles2000]

a contrasting experience:
i've had/have 3 macs with SD port.
nothing has ever gone in them (except maybe some dust )

Same here. I've never used an SD card in any of my Macs. Then again I'm not a photographer. I can see that it would be a pain to lose something that you use a lot though. For example I use the headphone jack daily (whilst charging) on my iPhone.

For some people it's a non-issue for others its an inconvenience they didn't have previously and feels like a step backwards.

 

[swingerofbirch]

Oh give over. Like that's really the first thought of a Pro user who can get their entire workstation coming to life through one port, boasting 40Gb/s throughput.

Yet we get "waah wahh I can't charge my iPhone". Honestly.

The 2016 MBP is the best MBP in its class for what it was designed to do; control your workstation by plugging in one or adapters. It actually involves a lot less wires on a static workstation. It's ironic that on the one occasion Apple ask people to 'Think Different', people cry and say there's no innovation because they're so stuck in their ways.

You're projecting a value statement onto what I wrote.

I simply said I don't think the MBA's success is surprising. Maybe you think it is surprising? I don't know.

 

[keysofanxiety]

You're projecting a value statement onto what I wrote.

I simply said I don't think the MBA's success is surprising. Maybe you think it is surprising? I don't know.

My apologies. There's just so much toxicity around here, it's sometimes difficult to discern if somebody's hating. On this occasion I completely misinterpreted your post; and it was a good point - legacy ports are very important at a low price point for consumers due to the ubiquitousness of USB-A.

Sorry again.