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Apple Sold Fewest Macs in Any Quarter Since 2010 as Nearly Entire Lineup Was Outdated
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Either innovate and justify the expense or provide value. They are largely following now as an organization.
I was eagerly waiting for the new design in 2016. Set aside $2500-2700 because that would get you close to top of the line Mac or at least I thought so. I feel the touchbar nonsense added 400 dollars and now in 2018 processor and DDR4 RAM added a lot more. In all the price went up by $ 1100-1400 depending on the configuration. Price is a very big reason I don’t own a Mac and that stupid touchbar. It’s not that I cannot afford but just don’t feel it’s value for money.
If the Mac was it’s own company, today’s news would signal a significant drop in share price and Wall Street would be nervous.
I agree with this. I am puzzled as to why people continue to buy a new smartphone. It was somewhat understandable when the carrier was subsidizing it but now that that is no longer the case.
I don’t think they “don’t care” about the Mac, but I certainly feel like their entire business model has shifted to ‘mobile services’ (e.g., all-wireless mobile games and streaming media). Under this model, static devices (e.g., desktop computers like the Mac) are now periphery, while previously-peripheral devices (e.g., a ‘cell phone’) are now primary.
I know a lot of people point to this as evidence Apple is abandoning the Mac, but I think the real issue is that Intel hasn’t been able to provide Apple with the chips it needs to build the computers it wants to build.
This may be wishful thinking, but maybe this finally pushes Apple over the edge into making its own chips for the Mac. Then you’d see yearly refreshes much like iPad and iPhone.
This may be wishful thinking, but maybe this finally pushes Apple over the edge into making its own chips for the Mac. Then you’d see yearly refreshes much like iPad and iPhone.
I bought a shiny new 15" MBP with the 2.6/16GB/1TB configuration and Applecare. $3500 with edu discount. Nice I thought, then had a really hard time adjusting to the touchbar. I'm an old guy, I can remember the physical buttons but not the ever changing bar. Okay, I can get a utility or compromise and get used to it. I also had problems with the trackpad. No palm rejection but just normal click and drag type of operations. Fiddled with the settings but still not like the 2013 15" I was trying to replace. Okay, I'll compromise and try to adjust.
Then I thought wait? $3500 and I would have make compromises to fit my needs? For $3500? I couldn't take it and returned it. I am an enthusiast, not using it for making income. I felt if I had to make adjustments in how I did things I could do that in Windows and save a bunch. I have not bought anything yet. I hope I could see a larger screen (14 or 15") maybe in an Macbook or Air config with F keys and a reasonable sized trackpad for my usage.
But I really am wanting a 15" "Non Pro" machine for $1500 or less. $2K at the most maybe.
Then I thought wait? $3500 and I would have make compromises to fit my needs? For $3500? I couldn't take it and returned it. I am an enthusiast, not using it for making income. I felt if I had to make adjustments in how I did things I could do that in Windows and save a bunch. I have not bought anything yet. I hope I could see a larger screen (14 or 15") maybe in an Macbook or Air config with F keys and a reasonable sized trackpad for my usage.
But I really am wanting a 15" "Non Pro" machine for $1500 or less. $2K at the most maybe.
Just depends on the individual. Some people see the value and have the means to afford it. I upgrade ever year because the cost is very minimal compared to how I use my iPhone. I upgrade by iPad every year as well because it's my main computer and I want to take advantage of the updates and features. The cost for me is about $200 per year.
This has nothing to do with Intel. Most of Apple's computer (except currently the MBpro) aren't even using the latest generation chips from intel. Bringing that up in this thread discussing why Apple's computers are seeing declining numbers is a deflection to the problem that Apple's computer lineup is seeing less people who find value in it, While the competition seems to not be having as much problems.
Don't be that guy.
Apple has seen it's slowest quarter in Mac Sales since 2010... that's NOTHING to do with intel
The price of Pro Macs has risen considerably over the last couple of years vs similar or higher specification windows notepads. One of our all Mac clients recently bought 3 HP Zbooks for the same price as one of the MacBook Pros they get for the design team. They are trialling performance of Adobe etc in an effort to lessen the hardware costs as they have dozens of now aging MacBook Pro and iMacs in the studio which require replacing soon.
Yeah selling 2015 technology at 2018 prices may have something to do with it.
Intel cannot be to blame for the lack of updates to the Mac Pro. Nor can they be blamed for the lack of updates to the Mac Mini. It's not that new technology is elusive. It's that Apple has chosen not to use it.
I have a 2013 Mac Pro and 2011 rMBP and have been slowly weening myself over to Windows, trying to do more and more work on my (outdated, yet more graphics powerful) gaming pc and surface pro. I much prefer macOS as my primary system, but if the new Mac Pro's don't turn out to be all that, I'm going to jump ship. So far with Apple taking years to come out with a new one and using the term "modular" instead of simply "upgrade-able", I'm beginning to assume a shiny new custom Windows PC will be in my future.
Sucks because I just can't find a terminal application as good as iTerm 2 on Windows (mobaXterm is pretty good, but not as good), and I'm still pretty dependent upon Messages. Oh well.
It's working to drive short term profit exactly.
iPhone is losing market share (while making more profit than ever) but as RIM, Nokia, Motorola, etc all discovered, it is a very fickle business, everyone wants the "cool" phones that everyone else has. If Apple slips too far, all the me too people will want a different phone.
I believe they're deliberately driving customers away from mac, expecting them to buy iPad pros and be locked tightly into the Apple service ecosystem. Timmy has said as much several times. The problem with that is they're driving all the power users away from Apple entirely. And that's cheapening the impression of Apple from the halo effect. And all the power users are the ones friends and family come to for buying advice.
And of course the iPad Pro is still just a very limited content consumption device built from the ground up to fuel demand for Apple services. And Apple seems to have no plans to change it.
So I think these short term profits are at the expense of destroying Apple's long-term viability. Just like the sculley years.
Of course Timmy will bail out at the peak while claiming to have been the greatest CEO in history. The board and major shareholders will have made fortunes off Apple. And the only people left to mourn the desiccated corpse of what once was Apple will be the former fans.
Same as the new USB-C technology that requires a dongle so that everyone can use the old USB technology instead of just leaving the ports there.
Very little in the Mac lineup is current, most Macs now lack feature parity with competing brands, very few people seem to like the recent MB/MBP keyboards, and Macs have become quite expensive relative to their competition. It’s not hard to see the problem.
I still very much enjoy my 2017 iMac, but I probably won’t choose a Mac for my next laptop. For my needs at least, the competition now offers more of what I need/want. And I’m a guy that has been using Macs since the 80’s, wears an Apple Watch, etc.
I still very much enjoy my 2017 iMac, but I probably won’t choose a Mac for my next laptop. For my needs at least, the competition now offers more of what I need/want. And I’m a guy that has been using Macs since the 80’s, wears an Apple Watch, etc.
Fair points, definitely not all situations, but I still feel Apple will be better suited having more control over their chips, the design, the requirements around it, and their release schedule. You see consistency and steady progression in their A series chips. This is something that could benefit their Mac line.
No sense? Well, imagine if a 2019 Camry looked just like a 2009 Camry except had a better motor. Would you be in that much of a hurry to buy one? Not saying you wouldn't buy one at all, but if you're gonna spend that kind of money, it would be nice to not be looking at the same thing.
Not surprising since they are outdated and expensive for as old of hardware as was on them through the quarter. Hopefully Apple is able to completely refresh the lineup soon.