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Apple Tells Suppliers to Expect Strong MacBook Pro Shipments Going into 2017
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So, what is the answer?
Is it that different Apple departments simply don't talk to each other? Or maybe Apple simply don't have a long-term plan anymore.
I don't hate it. I love it and I will buy it. Don't care about the rest.
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Oh dear god, here we go with so called "professionals"
My 2006 Mac has 16 GB of RAM. My Late 2012 iMac has 32 GB.
The 16 GB max RAM on a 2016 Pro machine is pretty sad, I wonder who made that decision.
People with deep pockets.
People who need a new Mac laptop, can't face the hassle of switching platforms and are just going to groan and pay up.People who don't already have a struggle justifying the extra cost of a Mac over a generic PC when ordering equipment for work.
. . ..
* now, as real pro users will know, if they'd demoed the touchbar showing the tools for Minecraft, they'd have had people's attention
Now that is funny about Minecraft.
Seriously we don't know the demand for this laptop until we hear the sales numbers for the quarter. Because this is a big enough update it has to move the needle on Apple's total sales. I suspect it will. But even if it moves the needle this quarter, we have to see how well these sell over two quarters. Again, I suspect they will sell well. That tough bar looked fiddly on stage, but the current row of function keys are darn close to useless for most users. I suspect the touch bar will actually get used as it fills in with useful shortcuts that many users don't know.
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Intel.
The ones who need a shiny toy and dont realize what this product really is and won't realize so until they get it and can't plug in one of their 100 usb devices nor anything else they've bought the past 10 years...
My neighbour is one of them. He could easily do away with an iPad for the purposes of which he uses a computer. He works all day for the government sitting inftront of a Windows PC doing project management for the township. He then comes home around 18:00 to his family and two kids and then watches the lastest news on his big flat screen tv (4K Of course). Then when he gets tired of the news he opens the lap top and checks his emails and browses a bit....
We spoke yesterday and he proudly told me that he had just ordered it. I asked him why and he said he needed it as his old MacBook Pro (mid 2015) had gotten 'Slow'. He doesnt even have a video cutting app on his computer and I doubt that he has ever stressed his computer father than watching Netflix.
The 2016 MacBook Pro is expensive enough to give the users the sense of VALUE. It HURTs, financially, when you buy one and that makes you appreciate it even more. Aside from that it looks fantastic and it is Apple and that brand is now more popular than Michael Jackson ever was. So, Apple with the 2016 MBP provides folks a way to justify them working all day and having no spare time.... The MacBook Pro sitting on the desk, fetching emails, justifies not having a life outside of work !
I can see this happening. Since the event, there was bad news, followed by bad news, followed by more bad news.
They could use some good news, even if they make it up. Although, this only works for so long. Well, unless it is AW. Just throw AW in "other" and no one will ever know how well, or bad it is selling.
I have family that wanted a new laptop and after seeing these they are going to keep the 2014 MBair they have. I wanted to get a new MBP, but I was hoping for the ability to connect a VR headset and an oled panel.
I doubt the touch bar contributes much to the price bump: the non-touch-bar model has still gone up by a couple of hundred bucks w.r.t. the 2015 model (gained 128G SSD, but dropped to a 15W processor and lost connectivity).
Cook just oversold the touch bar in the keynote.
To be fair - there wasn't a quad core 13" before and I'm not sure Intel makes a suitable processor for that role. The 15"-ers now all have discrete GPUs and 4xThunderbolt which is worth something.
As I said, I'm not so worried by the touchbar models as such - its the loss of cheaper options (apart from the old Air and rMBP models they've kept on the books) and the poor real-world connectivity on the entry-level MBP that are likely to price Apple out of some markets.
One step at the time. It makes sense to first remove it from iPhone 7 to help make it more water resistant etc. But don't you worry, something tells me this is the last MacBook Pros you see with 3.5 jack. I personally will greatly misss it..............NOT.
As a home recording musician I can say in my workflow that I do not use the 3.5mm audio jack on my Macbook; I use a dock and Firewire interface. Including the jack is helpful for the fact that I can plug in my headphones when I'm on the go. Bluetooth headsets are not ideal for audio recording due to latency and connection unreliability. So I'm glad they kept it, but when I use my Macbook for recording, I don't use the 3.5mm jack, I use my Firewire interface.
Did you ever see a spec bump in the first six month? Rather those will be skipped entirely.
I would argue it makes more sense to keep the jack but include the lightning earphones with the phone. Persuade, don't force.
Ah, the good old "people have different opinions than me must be uninformed or stupid" argument. A classic for sure!
there's no need for a laptop to stay put on the desk either. Still loads of people buy a laptop to put it on a desk and never remove it.
Also a lot of people remove it to write, watch, and read in bed or the sofa. All good. No problem with that.
My workflow is alas seriously messed up with only 4 usb-c ports. I do some work on the road (I'm not a full time pro, I use my rMBP to make some extra income). And for that I need to plug my SD card in, I use the HDMI to show stuff on a clients TV (to have some decision making going), in 90% of the time the client gives me a usb stick to plug in on the spot and more than once there are more people in the room that walk around so magsafe saved my laptop numerous times.
I speak only for myself off course and I admit that the new MBP is very powerfull and that USB-C is a very capable connector that will stay for some 10 years until it's successor comes around. But while I'm on the road, I don't want to work with dongles and hubs. It just isn't that practical. It makes no sense to shave of a few mm and grams just to drag around a hub that weighs more and is bigger than the dimension gain. I can't speak for the TBar since I haven't used it, but I don't see the added value for my workflow. I only have two hands and I'm not ready to slide some stuff on the Tbar with my nose.
I saved up for a new MBP, but I will buy apple stock instead and bet on the "starbuck"people as someone called them to make the new TBMBP a succes. My rMBP will last for another three cycles. I'm not screaming that I will go to windows, please no. But I will not buy the TBMBP for the next three years. And by then maybe I have a new workflow. If not there's always a second hand 2015 rMBP.
The thing I don't understand though, if the new TBMBP is doing so well, how come that the refurbished older gen's are depleted? Must be a lot of buyers who opt for an older version and must be that a lot of potential sellers hang on to the model. Or has apple destroyed them to have less options and push sales of the TBMBP?
Not really - Dell do a 32GB thin-ish 15" laptop with the same (AFAIK) CPU. Maybe it doesn't have the battery life...
It is ultimately Apple deciding that users want ever thinner, ever lighter + 12-hour battery life rather than more RAM. I suspect that Pro graphics/video users would settle for a thicker/heavier machine with more RAM, HD storage and connectivity. Apple's big problem is lack of hardware choice.
I would tend to agree with this.
Lots of pent up buyers who are mac users got screwed over with the choice of ports and massively increased price tag for worse specs. There were many better ways to have refreshed the macbook pro that didn't require a jump. The future is USBc but apple have adopted it in a pro model without any concern for pros were using the previous i/o. adapters are fine and wireless can replace most things but certain gear takes years to update that is far more expensive than the macbook itself. Pros treat the laptop as part of the whole and apple want the pro to drop their whole process and base their work around the machine. In the end we'll all be on board with their idea it's where the laptop is going but i don't get the need to leap from the previous gen with no USBc to only USBc that seems like a big FU to anyone tied to certain ports or workflows where you job is made much harder.
I suspect apple didn't order enough from their suppliers, tim cook is good with supply chain. He knows not to stockpile and restrict supply. Ordering more is still bad from a company perspective but it evens out the bump in sales they have now that won't last long.
Well intel obviously. No question if LPDDR4 was available they would have used it.
I wouldn't, it's the first refresh for several years so it's bound to sell well, not sure about here in the UK, they have substantially hiked the price, not only with the price increase they gave it anyway but also with the increase in the name of brexit. However they did the same with the iPhone 7 and I believe it's selling alright?
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
What does "strong" mean? Hint: it does not mean record.
For example, Apple makes 1000 units for launch, then orders 1000 more units for each subsequent month of the holiday season. Is that able to be called "strong"? Yes. Sub in 100 or 10,000, 10 or 100,000 units and "strong" can still be spun... and applicable.
Note this bit here...
I don't know how to read that other than Apple didn't order very many. So ordering more rounds of "not very many" could be spun as "strong." Or, perhaps the pent up demand has shown itself (aren't these the ONLY Macs that are not tagged "Do not buy" in the buyers guide?) and that plus this being the holiday quarter when Apple always sells the most of their offerings might press Apple to order a bit more than "not very many." If so, they can then followup soon to this "strong" leak with "ramping up orders every month to try to keep up with demand." That will also sound very impressive, but again, how many are actually being sold?
Reading through this thread, some people seem to be thinking strong = all-time records or something like that. It's just a spin word though. It's like new iPhone launch time with "we're selling all we can make." That spins well. But how many are you making? Making as little as 1 unit and then selling it would allow that sentence to be spun by marketers.
"Ramping up above all-time sales records" would be much stronger. Otherwise, we're probably making mountains out of molehills. In other words, the "I told you so" (Apple is always right) crowd and the "I can't believe this thing is selling" crowd are probably BOTH right. The magic is in actual definition of an ambiguous term. Great marketing spin is all I see here.
For example, Apple makes 1000 units for launch, then orders 1000 more units for each subsequent month of the holiday season. Is that able to be called "strong"? Yes. Sub in 100 or 10,000, 10 or 100,000 units and "strong" can still be spun... and applicable.
Note this bit here...
I don't know how to read that other than Apple didn't order very many. So ordering more rounds of "not very many" could be spun as "strong." Or, perhaps the pent up demand has shown itself (aren't these the ONLY Macs that are not tagged "Do not buy" in the buyers guide?) and that plus this being the holiday quarter when Apple always sells the most of their offerings might press Apple to order a bit more than "not very many." If so, they can then followup soon to this "strong" leak with "ramping up orders every month to try to keep up with demand." That will also sound very impressive, but again, how many are actually being sold?
Reading through this thread, some people seem to be thinking strong = all-time records or something like that. It's just a spin word though. It's like new iPhone launch time with "we're selling all we can make." That spins well. But how many are you making? Making as little as 1 unit and then selling it would allow that sentence to be spun by marketers.
"Ramping up above all-time sales records" would be much stronger.
Otherwise, we're probably making mountains out of molehills. In other words, the "I told you so" (Apple is always right) crowd and the "I can't believe this thing is selling" crowd are probably BOTH right. The magic is in actual definition of an ambiguous term. Great marketing spin is all I see here.
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swingerofbirch
macrumors 68040
Well, the good news, even though this MBP is not for me, is that high sales will encourage them to keep or put more people on macOS. I hope that they can right some of the wrongs the Mac App Store has caused with third party development and maybe put some real innovation into macOS's UI, which I would happily take in exchange for returning to a 2-3 year release cycle of the OS.
The latest "flashy toy" is what I am considering because my early 2008, non-unibody, MBP has finally hit a wall and needs replaced. However I want to see what is comparable in the market though.
Does anybody know if these are in the Apple Stores yet?