Apple Tells Suppliers to Expect Strong MacBook Pro Shipments Going into 2017

[Duane Martin]

- the Pros will leave the Apple platform for good, as we're simply out of options.

Speak for yourself. With 4 x TB3, PCIe 3 SSD (3.1GB/s!!!) this pro* is very happy with the new MBP and has ordered his.

*Pro = professional, one who is engaged in a specified activity as one's main paid occupation rather than as a pastime. I am a film and television picture editor in the industry for more than 20 years.

 

[FreshBoy]

All the benchmarks available show that the CPU in this year's model is essentially flat to last years. It uses less power, but that's irrelevant to users who need high performance portable machines.

Is that not just for the entry level 13" with no touch bar?

 

[MallardDuck]

It wouldn't help a lot at this very moment, but if you're going to make all digital headphones, it would be nice if I could plug them into my Mac and into my iPhone as well. And, it would be nice if there was a single cable for, more or less, everything. If Apple means to "embrace the future" with this, do it. Dump the proprietary connector.

Agreed - USB-C is amazing, and the future. It'd be nice, once I'm done with dongles, to have a single set of cables and devices for everything.

 

[Marx55]

Competition is good for all Apple and consumers.

 

[Beer Wig]

*Pro = professional, one who is engaged in a specified activity as one's main paid occupation rather than as a pastime. I am a film and television picture editor in the industry for more than 20 years.

You must love having the weaker graphics card option this year, same base ssd as last gen, and no 32gb of ram. But I bet that touch bar will really help with edits.

 

[Harleg]

Too many reasons to stick with/get a 2015 model. Don't know what the Chinese market for MBP's is, but there is certainly enough throw-away wealth to keep Apple accountants happy... you know, those folks who do the real spec/design at Apple!

 

[NT1440]

You must love having the weaker graphics card option this year, same base ssd as last gen, and no 32gb of ram. But I bet that touch bar will really help with edits.

What do you mean same SSD? It's their fastest ever combined with their own custom controller.

 

[aristobrat]

If they'd either had better performance, no dongles, or no price increase, the griping would probably be 10% of what it is.

Doubt it. There's a certain segment that's always critical of Apple, and the two weeks after any keynote is like Christmas for them.

 

[Beer Wig]

What do you mean same SSD?

I hope you're playing dumb. Obviously I'm referring to the size. 256 is just an embarrassing amount of space at this point to put into a high end model.

 

[NT1440]

I hope you're playing dumb. Obviously I'm referring to the size. 256 is just an embarrassing amount of space at this point to put into a high end model.

That wasn't obvious. You seem to care less about the fact that it's a faster SSD than the base option storage capacity.

 

[Beer Wig]

Doubt it. There's a certain segment that's always critical of Apple, and the two weeks after any keynote is like Christmas for them.

"Doubt it. There's a certain segment that's always" apologizing for "Apple, and the two weeks after any keynote is like Christmas to them. "
[doublepost=1478630862][/doublepost]

That wasn't obvious. You seem to care less about the fact that it's a faster SSD than the base option storage capacity.

I care about both. At about 3k anyone should.

 

[Duane Martin]

Aside from the emoji bar and thinness, in what way is it simply stunning?

If you get the chance you should look at the spec page: 4x TB3 (40Gb/s); USB 3.1 Gen 2 at 10Gb/s; SSDs using PCIe 3 at 3.1GB/s; faster RAM than you find in most high end laptops; greater colour gamut using P3 on a very good monitor. In particular the 4x TB3 ports and support for 2x 5K monitors puts the MBP in a class by itself. Don't worry, the industry will catch up and if the original iMac is any indication it will happen faster than anyone expects.

 

[=Alb=]

Good. Many people will be frustrated from that Mac. And finally the Apple fad will die.

 

[Duane Martin]

You must love having the weaker graphics card option this year, same base ssd as last gen, and no 32gb of ram. But I bet that touch bar will really help with edits.

As someone who actually works in the industry the graphics card is fine in a laptop; I am not a VFX compositor, I am a video editor. No worries if you don't know the difference. Nor if you don't know that the SSD in my machine will be twice as fast as the version in the last years model. Or, again, that I don't actually need 32GB of RAM for the work I do and know very few who do. The VFX pros I know don't actually do their work on laptops.

What do you do?

 

[Jim Lahey]

Yes, because carrying around a dock and having a bunch of cable hanging off a dongle is a so much better solution than making the laptop 2mm thicker and keeping a mix of current and future ports.

The problem is that future ports remain in the future until someone makes them current by removing the current. This is how life works. Everything changes. Nothing stays the same. This tragic "courage" meme doing the rounds is hilariously ironic considering that's exactly what it does take to move forward.

But to each his own. I'm following Apple into the future, now. You can follow on behind a few years later if you wish

 

[Cavepainter]

LOL! Apple's aging iMac is a better value than the Surface Studio, spec for spec! The Surface Studio - Last Years Specs for Next Years Prices. Spec-for-spec, people need to re-examine the "Apple Tax" misnomer.

Did you add another $2800.00 to the Imac for the cost of a 27" Cintiq touchscreen to make your "spec for spec" comparison actually somewhat close?

Wait.... you do know you can actually draw on the 28" screen of the Surface Studio, right? And its a touch screen too?

Where is Apple's Imac that can do that?


I hate (I repeat) HATE most everything Microsoft, and I have been a big Apple fan for many years, but as a creative professional who makes a living by drawing on a computer, I gotta admit, the Surface Studio looks absolutely incredible and Apple doesn't offer anything even remotely close.

 

[Mildredop]

And you couldn't master using the free adapter either huh? You are right, life is hard.

No, life is easy. I got rid of my iPhone 7 and went back to my old phone. Which has a headphone jack, so no need for different headphones, adaptors or dongles. Easy.

 

[MallardDuck]

Did you add another $2800.00 to the Imac for the cost of a 27" Cintiq touchscreen to make your "spec for spec" comparison actually somewhat close?

Wait.... you do know you can actually draw on the 28" screen of the Surface Studio, right? And its a touch screen too?

Where is Apple's Imac that can do that?


I hate (I repeat) HATE most everything Microsoft, and I have been a big Apple fan for many years, but as a creative professional who makes a living by drawing on a computer, I gotta admit, the Surface Studio looks absolutely incredible and Apple doesn't offer anything even remotely close.

Well put. That machine is going to displace a ton of iMac/MacPro's.

 

[NT1440]

Well put. That machine is going to displace a ton of iMac/MacPro's.

But it's not user upgradable!!!!!!!

 

[MallardDuck]

But it's not user upgradable!!!!!!!

Yeah, that's a feature that's dead and gone, pretty much across the industry. The only user upgrade option now involves selling the old machine on eBay and buying a new one!

 

[gnasher729]

Is there an adapter that turns lightning headphones into regular ones?

What lightning headphones? They will probably all ship with one unless they are really cheap. All decent headphones used to come with a 6.3mm adapter, lightning headphones will also come with an adapter.

 

[agentx]

Yes of course people will buy them. However the added expense will not help demand for them. I have pretty much always had a high spec Macbook Pro or BTO one. I am still rocking a 2012 MBP i7 Quad with 2 x 1TB SSD and 16Gb RAM which cost around £2.5k. Now a full spec MBP is £4k + £100 on dongles. I do lots of IT procurement and i can assure you that not many employees will not be getting them as upgrades....select few yes. We will keep the current range going and buy older rMBPs until the time comes to look at other options. Dare i say we are not constrained by only buying Macs, there are plenty of excellent high end Notebooks on market.

 

[Kameha]

"MAKE GREAT AGAIN"
This MBP is mostly for Apple fanatic fans that denying to see the reality, they are like a person who is in love because he/she does not see the negative way. This MBP laptop is becoming a "MacBook Plus" for some die hard fans, and for the real professionals actual is a MacBook Problem.

https://www.slrlounge.com/an-open-letter-to-apple-from-the-actual-working-pros/

 

[redkamel]

All this noise about Apple not being for Pros is pure noise.
The complaints are all without any merit in this pros eyes (medical career, research, and photography as semi serious job/hobby as well as some graphic design).

-Too little RAM? for a few people, 16gb is limit. Not for most pros. Honestly, if you truly need 32gb of RAM for work you either are very specialized, need a desktop, or a server farm. It would be a nice option, but Intel did not deliver.
-Processers aren't fast enough/battery too small etc etc: The Pros speed meets the needs of a majority of processes a majority of the time for me, and I do a lot of stuff. I'll take the battery life and smaller size with a good speed bump, since thats more useful in my mobile workstation.
-Ports: Sure, it would be nice to have a USB A port. But, USB C is the future. With a few hundred dollars (<1% of the cost of the MBP), I can connect everything with a single reversible cable, dock, and daisy chain. USB C and slow adopters need a kick in the pants to get with it. For people complaining about connectivity in the field...a dock isn't going to kill you. Its 2016, I haven't been handed a DVD in years, I see a USB stick only with some older systems (and there is always security issues) and I still see HDMI and VGA ports in the same day, so I need an adapter no matter what. SD card? Most of my photographer friends use multiple card types, so a SD port is only helpful sometimes. Can't use it for GoPro or Drone, or some of the 1Ds, or the older 5D bodies still in service.
-Price bump: Yeah, I won't defend that one
-"Incongruity of ports": The 3.5mm jack is not needed...on a mobile device where wires are a PITA. The 3.5mm jack is needed...on a laptop where it can be used as a desk and cables aren't an issue, and where 3.5mm jack is used for audio gear and can't be adapted to USB (AFAIK).
-Touch bar: adaptable smart keys for on the go use sound a lot better to me than the F buttons. I'll at least give it a try...can't remember the last time Apple really screwed a keyboard.

This "pro" (however you want to define that) is pretty excited to have something nearly as big as a mac book air with fast ports, that can run 2 HDs and 2 5K displays at full speed all off one cable and with 3 open ports for USB, other hard drives, SD cards etc, is faster than last years model (which is already fast) and has great battery life, and dissapears in my bag. A portable workstation without the "station" size and weight. And don't say its already a good size. I owned a MBA for a year...thats the size I want.

 

[Beer Wig]

As someone who actually works in the industry the graphics card is fine in a laptop; I am not a VFX compositor, I am a video editor. No worries if you don't know the difference. Nor if you don't know that the SSD in my machine will be twice as fast as the version in the last years model. Or, again, that I don't actually need 32GB of RAM for the work I do and know very few who do. The VFX pros I know don't actually do their work on laptops.

What do you do?

Am I suppose to be impressed by your appeal to status as an editor? As if the educational requirements for that are anything more than a youtube video and a sizzle reel or better yet - who you know. This assuming you cut anything that makes it to theater which I doubt but feel free to link your imdb page with full credits since you feel like showing off. As for SSD's being faster - that's only half the issue isn't it - size also counts especially at the price MBP's go for. If you don't need more RAM I can only assume your file sizes are not that large to begin with perhaps because you're rendering to Youtube(?) or that you don't care about the longevity of your machine. Really your argument boils down to not caring about paying more for substantially less. What a professional attitude to take!

As for the red-herring of what I do (as if you care) let's say I'm a creative with two degrees on my wall that doesn't need to appeal to status to make a solid argument.