[doublepost=1539226421][/doublepost]This is an excuse: the company is worth $1.2T and is the most valuable company in the US. I.e., whatever they are doing is working.
That must be why their sales are collapsing!
Look, there's a lot of stuff Apple does right. There is no question in that regard. Mac hardware is not one of those things, however.
I’m going to take issue with this rant. All of that is your opinion. And it is a niche opinion.
Sure. Many people her on MR agree with you but the vast majority of the market, including myself, don’t.
For one, all this whining about ports is insane. I use all four thunderbolt 3 ports on my MacBook Pro - as Thundetbolt 3 ports. I need the performance they bring and I have no need for any other ports. People saying “it’s a pro machine so it should have more types of ports” don’t get it. No, it’s a pro machine so it should have PRO ports. That’s what TB3 is. HDMI can’t drive 5K. USB-A is slow - for a pro. If what you’re doing doesn’t benefit from the bandwidth coming out of 4x TB3 and/or if you’re the type of user who is concerned about the cost of TB3 then the MBP is not the right machine for you. But that doesn’t mean Apple has lost its way. It’s the PERFECT machine for the people it is designed for and that’s why they’re selling off the shelves, To THOSE people.
Same with upgradability. Everyone whining about that? See my other reply above. Apple saves billions on support nightmares because it builds complete solutions that work better than anything else in the market and doesn’t allow compatibility nightmares. Sell your old Mac, buy a new Mac. Done. That’s your “upgrade”. No stuffing around installing potentially incompatible crap. That’s how I’ve been “upgrading” for 15 years and it works.
Most of your points only show that it’s not the machine for you. So go buy the machine that is for you and let Apple keep making the machines I and plenty of other people need as they are.
That said, you do make a couple of valid or almost valid points:
1. The keyboard and dust issue. Ok they screwed that up. And hey all but admitted it. You can get the keyboard replaced at their cost for four years even without AppleCare. Quit complaining. The lack of travel issue is a non issue for most people. Most people (not MR readers except for myself) love it.
2. Touch Bar. I know some people love it so it wasn’t a mistake But for me it’s the one feature I think is pretty stupid. It should be optional.
Your other points:
3. TB3 see above.
4. The trackpad size is awesome and at least for me the palm rejection works fine. Perhaps they need to refine that if it’s not working for you but for goodness sake don’t make it small again.
5. Throttled? As you say they fixed it with a SOFTWARE update. So it was a software problem. Therefore the hardware is fine. So Windows or Linux? Still a software problem. (Then again if you want to run Windows or Linux why why are we even talking about this “crappy” Apple hardware?)
6. BTO upgrade prices? That’s just not true. Example. Upgrade from 512GB to 2TB SSD is $1200. The next 2TB is $2K. That’s $800 you’re getting for your original 512GB. Sure, those prices are pretty steep if it’s just about the parts but it’s about a lot more than that.
7. Upgradeability. Addressed above.
8. “Apple charges absurd prices for this.” No. Apple charges $380 for free repairs for 3 years (AppleCare). It’s insane to buy one of these things and keep it for more than one year without AppleCare. But I’m glad they don’t force AppleCare on us because sometimes I’ve enjoyed the option to sell and buy a new one within the first year. And if you’re keeping these things for more than three years then you don’t need the power of the new one in the first place. Don’t buy now what you need in 5 years intending to keep it that long. Spend less now and swap it for a new one in 2-3 years. That’s the “Apple” way and it works.
People just complain because they can’t get their heads out of the idea that they have to be able to tinker with it. No. You don’t. The world has changed. Move with it. Buy what you need now, use it, and then swap it for the newer one when you need that. And if that’s more than three years then you’re not the target market for this machine.
God I could go on and on. Some of you people here just don’t get it. But that’s your problem, not Apple’s, nor the problem of those of us who do get it.
You're right, it's not the machine for me. It's absolutely not. A high performance per dollar, professional grade, low maintenance laptop with macOS is the right machine for me, and the MacBook Pro is not that device - because if anything breaks it's off to Apple to get it repaired for impossible amounts of money and a 1 month wait. It's unacceptable.
1. I find precious little evidence anybody likes it. Most people have just kind of accepted the compromise at this point. Look at reviews for the 2012-2015 MacBook Pros and how everyone was in love with the keyboard. You don't see those reviews anymore. Nobody loves this keyboard. Some accept it.
4. I think it had a perfect size before. What was wrong with it? And no, it's not working for me. It keeps thinking I'm trying to right click, so I returned it.
5. No, CPU power delivery can and should be correctly controlled by the firmware. They did not fix the firmware. If you have to override the CPU power delivery mechanism with operating system code, you've done a goof. In addition, the CPU only barely runs at the advertised base clock. A lot more performance can be had for the same chip in another machine. If you're smart, you'll get the 2.2GHz core-i7, because it's the one that throttles least and it almost lives up to the i9 performance because of that.
6. That's a stupid argument. The amount of GB you get per dollar is not flat unless you can install an infinite amount of modules. Look at RAM upgrades, look at CPU upgrades, and then look at the MSRP prices for equivalent hardware on the PC side. It's the exact same. You pay full price for the BtO upgrades and the original part is thrown away. A vega 64 is $600, for instance.
8. Why in the heck would I choose to have a mediocre machine for 6 years instead of having an awesome machine for 3 years and a mediocre machine for 3 years for the same price? Anyway, I need a dedicated GPU and the only portable machine with a dedicated GPU they sell is the MacBook Pro 15" so I have no choice other than to open my Windows to the whole world (aka Spycrosoft)
The upshot of the current situation is I don't actually have a laptop. I'm back on a desktop with a Windows install I've hacked so hard I _think_ I've stopped the phoning home, and it's actually really annoying - I miss the portability terribly.
