I've just learned to accept that Apple will always be behind when it comes to hardware. It's such a shame their great OS is trapped on their garbage machines - Apple needs to set OS X free.
Imagine OS X on a Core i7 920 machine, Radeon HD 4890 (or GeForce GTX 275), 8 gigs of RAM, TB hard drive.... for under $1200.
I imagine that every time I remind myself that I need a new tower. Apple has excelled at getting many pros to adopt their software, and then leave them begging on their hands and knees for faster machines and more up-to-date hardware.
What's garbage to you ain't garbage to someone else.
True, but what's gold to someone is garbage for someone else.
50,000 million iPhones = 50 billion iPhones, more than 9x the number of people in the world at the moment.
Makes perfect sense. Many iPhone users are on their third or fourth handset. After Apple tells you that the tiny crack in your screen will cost you $300 to fix, or loose their phones, or get them wet, or drop them one too many times, or etc, etc, etc.
The current X million iPhone users will equal X million (x) 5 by the time the 4G iPhone is around, simply because Apple just wants users to buy an entirely new phone for very small issues.
Don't even start on the lack of a quad-core option for the iMac. Some of the hardware on Macs are due to Apple's preference of thin designs (which is a whole another issue...), but even within the heat restrictions, there's still a lot of latitude. For example, there could be an option for a slow and cool CPU paired with a fast and hot GPU. The iMac CPUs are all 55 W so there's room for that.
I prefer a higher resolution over a bigger display, but Apple doesn't give that option either.
I don't really consider the MacBook Pro a "pro" computer.
All too true. What you mention about the iMac is what Apple will never do, give customers a choice/ more options. The iMac is already near 25 lbs. making it a half an inch thicker to get quad core laptop chips, and better GPU inside isn't going to change much except Apple's margin.
I know many would prefer a larger 16" HD 16x9 screen just for watching movies and multitasking for $1000... but with Apple you have to pay 3 times as much.
And NO, I would never truly consider the MBP a PRO computer at all. Not after seeing the offerings by Dell and others.... never. Mid range at best.