I know I'm the minority here but I may very well never buy a Mac ever again.
That is your choice as it is everyone else's here on this forum. I don't mean that in a derogatory way, I mean that everyone comes to a crossroads at which they say "enough is enough". Or you say, I love this platform, but I cannot stay in it because of
"X". Or you say, "I can stay in it, but not for much longer." What doesn't seem to do anyone any good around here is the amount of entitlement many users think they have because they chose to support Apple in the past, which means that Apple created something they liked at one point, but do not now, and therefore, because they plopped down their money, they deserve better.
I stay because I love macOS, certainly not because of Apple's hardware engineering or their incremental prices increases to keep Wall Street shareholders happy from quarter to quarter. However, I would not expect anything less from a Duke graduate (or Harvard, or Wharton, et al.). I sincerely believe Steve's views kept both Jony Ive and Tim Cook balanced and I believe they balanced him out to an extent, however, I have no concrete research to back that up. Without Steve, and certainly no one can replace him or approach that level of influence with Ive and Cook, they have no one holding their reins. Profits are up, sales are up, cool, edgy products are being released. But I cannot help but think respect is slowly being replaced by a bit of contempt and apathy towards the customer that purchases their products.
A Mac mini upgrade should not take 4 years or more to get out the door. It doesn't take a huge team to update and upgrade and it is an important bridge (gateway drug) into the Apple ecosystem. But it's not sexy and cannot have a starting price of $1299, so it sits there unloved, an embarrassment for a company the size and stature of Apple. No amount of mea culpas will make people forget that sleight.
The MacBook Air should not have been left to languish while the 12" MacBook left many, but not all, wanting...other than the display, the 13" MBA could not be beat...for most of us (disclosure: I never owned one). People will deride my sentimentality or accuse me of hypocrisy as my stance on replacing all the various ports on the MacBook Pro with USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 remains solidly intact, but the MacBook Air was perhaps Steve's second best Mac, after the original iMac.
The Mac Pro should not have been left to age into obscurity because someone got their ego bruised when the people who depend on a Pro tool were told, here it is, love it or leave it. Oh, and it costs serious bank, but we don't care about your input, we made it this small to keep raw material costs down while leaving the price as is. And people left it, people Apple could ill afford to lose, but who were considered acceptable losses.
Perhaps, Apple (and its management) will make a compelling case for users before the end of the year. Or not. Time will tell. More people will leave. I will be hear a while longer...I hate Windows with the burning fire of 10,000 suns, but not 10,001. I am not the only one.
