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Apple's Mac Sales Down in Q3 2018 Amid a Lack of Updates
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It’s ridiculous how long it is taking to update the Mac Pro. All people want is an updated cheese grater .. should not have taken more than 6 months but won’t come out until like 2020 at this rate. Also it is gonna be another abomination like the trash can that no one asked for.
Sigh. I like it. And I’m not the only one. I do wish it had a little more travel but not as much as the older ones. The older ones now just feel spongy to me and I don’t like going back to them. But hey. It’s subjective.
Point is: Sure it’s not right for everyone but it is right for some. I’m tired of people on this forum saying so adamantly what everyone does and doesn’t like. Speak for yourself, by all means. But who are you to speak for everyone?
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I’d like a 17” 4K screen (but for me, glossy not matte. Matte just makes everything fuzzy. Can’t stand that). But it’s not going to happen. They made 17” laptops and they hardly sold. The market spoke. You’ll have to let that one go.
USB 2/3 and C are not outdated and are widely used for peripherals; phone jacks are still widely used; SD-cards are still widely used for cameras and non-Apple phones. When the peripherals using those ports become widely discontinued and/or made redundant by wireless peripherals, then retire the ports. By the time floppy and cd drives were removed they had largely been supplanted by superior technologies. Apple has been premature in putting its cart before the horse, hoping the horse would go extinct. By the time horses and buggies/wagons were discontinued, "horseless" carriages had become clearly superior for speed, maintenance, and cost economy.
Yes, it started out as a way to bring people over.
But, it morphed into a home server for many! Some used it for a Media server with deep storage onboard as well externally with bigger media libraries. Some use it as a TimeMachine server.
I just bought my third (yes didn't wait for the new one) as my HomeKit development platform experimenting on setting up a real home control server solution.
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Sadly I'm still waiting now moving onto seven years! For a laptop as good as my old UniBody 2011 which is now running a 2012 logic board.
I agree with you, but I wouldn't say floppies were dead in 98. The iMac G3 shipped with no removable writable media. Flash drives were very expensive, same with CD-R. Home networking was in the future still, by and large. By comparison, floppies were cheap. Same with ADB/SCSI vs. USB - sure USB was superior, but everyone's existing devices (and pretty much all the devices on store shelves) were ADB/SCSI in 98.
I think Apple waited for the right time to remove optical drives on the Mac. By ~2012, optical drives were clearly in decline and replacement technology (internet and removable mass storage) was very mature.
And not years old processor chips with crap keyboard mechanisms and dodgy additional T2 chip nonsense
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Trashcan cooling solution was utter crap too.
Can't innovate my ass?
No. No you can't.
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Any overall PC sales are also...err.....up
I've heard about the whine issue with some people - I've not had that at all on mine (purchased about 20 months ago) - and find the trackpad / keyboard to be pretty good. I haven't experienced the new MBP keyboards, but it sounds like there are some serious durability issues, and I'm not sure I'd care for the oversized trackpad. Three things I most appreciate about the XPS-13: USB 3/C ports, microSD port, and a phone jack; easy non-glued battery/SSD/RAM access for upgradability; and great hardware compatibility with Linux out of the box (got the "developer" edition). The primary complaint among some customers was with the whine, and the Dell engineers were very prompt in trying to fix those issues when they arose. I haven't run Windows on my PC's (laptops) for over ten years and don't miss it. I would be even more frustrated with Apple laptop offerings if my only alternative choice was to use Windows. The current top-of-the-line PC hardware offerings stand up very well to Apple's contemporary offerings, particularly with laptops. Mileage my vary with Windows.
It makes sense. For most people, a work computer is provided by their company (if needed). There isn't much of a need for home computers any longer when phones and tablets fit the bill for the majority of people. I don't expect this trend to change dramatically over the coming years. I have moved on to iOS only for work and personal use and it's been a great experience, much better than any Mac I have ever owned. As more and more Mac-like features come to iOS (tabbed windows in iOS 13 will be huge), traditional Mac usage will become even less. There will still be a niche market for those types of users, it will just remain small.
It's a mess since long.
Tim Cook gave Jony Ive too much power to dominate Mac development
Results:
We do not get up-to-date Macs and laptops – they get new statistics
Let us remind just the laptops:
scrap keyboard (failures will surely come to users), TouchBar (useless, expensive advertising gag which consumes too much of battery capacity), reduced ports (adapter gate), too thin (not enough battery time), too big TouchPad - the sizes of MBA11" was enough (nobody needs), no MagSafe anymore
who had this stupid idea?
Jony Ive has just the intention to get his babies into museums around the world – useless like sculptures
Should we talk also about Mac Pro? About iMac Pro?
Tim Cook gave Jony Ive too much power to dominate Mac development
Results:
We do not get up-to-date Macs and laptops – they get new statistics
Let us remind just the laptops:
scrap keyboard (failures will surely come to users), TouchBar (useless, expensive advertising gag which consumes too much of battery capacity), reduced ports (adapter gate), too thin (not enough battery time), too big TouchPad - the sizes of MBA11" was enough
(nobody needs), no MagSafe anymorewho had this stupid idea?
Jony Ive has just the intention to get his babies into museums around the world – useless like sculptures
Should we talk also about Mac Pro? About iMac Pro?
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Perhaps they remember the 1990s when Apple's financials were so poor the continued operations of the company were in doubt.
And hey, even if the Mac is the smallest part of Apple in terms of revenue, it's still worth enough to be a Fortune 500 company on it's own and even if Apple does not show it the level of attention many on this forum want, if it wasn't that big, they might show it even less then they do.
There's still time.
The current models look similar to your 2010, but the internals are very different. The 5K display alone is a huge noticeable improvement.
That's one of the reasons I went PC 2 years ago. That and touchscreen/Windows Ink. It's not that bad and the touchscreen rocks.
No - Apple produced far nicer laptops (for the time) under Sculley. The original Powerbook 100 series pretty much defined the modern laptop - with the set-back keyboard and central pointing device.
I think Sculley, Spindler, Amelio etc. deserve a bit more credit simply for keeping Apple in business throughout a period when just about every other non-Wintel personal computer brand was crushed by the PC clones (Even IBM took a pummelling). It was very hard to build "bespoke" computers that competed with PC clones thrown together from commodity components, or to develop your own OS when Microsoft got a rake-off from every PC sold (including non-Windows ones if they could get away with it).
Jobs may have been brilliant, but he also returned at a moment of opportunity when the internet was opening up new uses for personal computers that Microsoft and the cloners hadn't managed to dominate. Also this new idea called an "mp3 player" had been invented, but rather poorly implemented...
I haven’t read any of the comments here because most of them are going to be bashing Apple about not upgrading their Professional line of computers for companies that have traditionally been Mac centric., and putting middle of the road to obsolete technology into their consumer lines of computers.
And those complaining are perfectly justified. Apple has made a few promises over the last 3 years but the hardware that they have released hasn’t been up to traditional Apple standards, using products made 5 to 8 years ago as the base for comparison, in any field except price. They are still expensive. And other than saying a while back that the Mini was still important and part of Apples plans going forward there hasn’t been any news at all about this product.
About a year and 1/2 ago Tim said publicly that computers were still an important product line. Nothing that they have released backs that statement up.
And those complaining are perfectly justified. Apple has made a few promises over the last 3 years but the hardware that they have released hasn’t been up to traditional Apple standards, using products made 5 to 8 years ago as the base for comparison, in any field except price. They are still expensive. And other than saying a while back that the Mini was still important and part of Apples plans going forward there hasn’t been any news at all about this product.
About a year and 1/2 ago Tim said publicly that computers were still an important product line. Nothing that they have released backs that statement up.
Sure, some people are "mac-blind" but most (not all) of your reasons are just ignorant. I have issues with Apple, but I'm responding so much here to these kinds of complaints not because I'm defending Apple, but combating stupid thinking. All these complaints are complaints about features not benefits. But features are irrelevant. Benefits count. This is just as stupid as people complaining in the 90's how Apple only had 2GHz processors and Intel had 4GHz processors. But Apple's 2GHz smoked Intel's 4GHz in day to day use. Stop whining about meaningless specs and understand the experience.
Speaking of specs. Seriously?? Your iMac Pro vs Surface Studio comparison is possibly the stupidest thing I've read on these forums. You compare the maxed out $13K iMP's pricing to the maxed out ($4200 actually) Studio's pricing, when the maxed out Studio's specs don't even come close to the base model ($5K) iMP's specs. Sorry buddy you lost all credibility there. But still, I'll humor you for the rest of your post...
- Very few other professional laptops are 64GB capable - only the hard core gaming machines, and some other large bulky laptops - as far as I'm aware. Still, I agree 64GB would be good, and I would buy and use it. I wrote to Tim asking for that. He's given me all the other things I've written him about - including a laptop with all thunderbolt ports and none of the legacy crap. So hopefully he'll come to the party on this one too.
- Base model specs are an OPTION. You can choose better specs. The combination of spec options fits a fairly broad range of needs. What's the problem?
- What problems with speakers?
- Yep, keyboard issues. So you get as many free fixes as you need for four years even without AppleCare.
- "Prone to failure" is BS. In fact the opposite is true. Apple builds a complete machine and a complete experience. And that machine and experience are good. Everyone complaining about all the problems with Windows? Half of those problems exist because PCs are a bunch of parts thrown together instead of a well engineered complete machine. This "prone to failure" line is just an excuse to whine about not being able to upgrade it. And so...
- Non upgradeable. Again BS. Move out of last decade and understand how computing works moving into the future. You're not supposed to tinker with it. When you need better than what you have sell what you have and buy what you need. They hold their value. That's the "upgrade" process now. It's how it works and it's a perfectly good way for it to work. Just because you can't pull it apart and f*** with it yourself doesn't mean it doesn't meet the needs of the market it's intended for (which is obviously not you).
- Perfectly good USB-C Magnetic power coupling options exist. Use them and quit whining.
- HDMI etc. Again... spouting features but not benefits. What percentage of Pro Mac users actually need to use HDMI now? HDMI is inferior to Thunderbolt 3/USB-C in every way. Bring your peripherals into this decade as well and you have "compatible" ports. If you're not bringing your peripherals up to date when you buy a brand new $5K+ computer then you're not the target market for said $5K computer. Go buy the computer you are the target market for.
- Touch Bar indeed a bit lame and it's not for me. But for the love of Steve, quit with the "no one cares" lines. Speak for yourself. Some people love it.
- Yes... more expensive than I'd like, but we can't complain about that. Price is set by the market. People are buying these things, so as far as the market is concerned they're the right price, or at least an appropriate price.
- I for one love the huge touchpad and I've never had any problems with the palm recognition. Apparently others have had issues. Apple needs to fix that. They've got it right on the iPad with the Pencil, so they can get it right with this. It's a software issue they need to fix. Don't bring back those stupid tiny touch pads from the past.
- Touch Bar again. Some people love it, but it's not for everyone. So yes, it should be an option.
Who will buy 4 yr old computers? Well... apparently a lot of people. Maybe Apple has no motivation to upgrade the MBA or Mini because people are still buying them. Still, rumor has it both those will be upgraded in the next month or two, so I guess we'll see.
Not sure why you’re only mentioning Microsoft. In the article, the largest vendor is Lenovo.
Go to Lenovo’s website. Click on the laptop section, and tell me, how many laptops don’t have a touchscreen?
Because of a fragmented lineup and lack of innovation. Today we have Apple selling some current Mac models that are years out of date, which I would call fragmentation and lack of innovation for sure.
Based on the more recent rumors and release of the iMac Pro, it seems Apple has finally started to wake up to this. Hopefully we will see a new Mac mini, $1K Retina MacBook, and Mac Pro soon.
Do it. You'll spend about 1/4 the price (literally) and get double the performance of any Mac out there... Then, you'll also get to have a proper GPU and best of all, no throttling from proper airflow and you'll have an actual upgrade path.
Ive had my hackintosh for a few years now and it still runs circles around nearly apples entire lineup.
Its almost completely silent even at full load while overclocked to 4.3ghz.
I wish I had gone the hackintosh route sooner, every Mac I've owned before this had gone dated after 3 years (and I've owned the original Mac pro as well as the 3,1 Mac pro).
Now I'm looking to upgrade my monitor, all internal drives to SSDs, go from a gtx 980 to a 1070 and add a hot swap bay with on/off switches in the front to turn off the drive for my windows partition when it's not in use. Would never be able to do that on any Mac.
I am wanting to replace my 2013 15" MBP because it's screen has horrible ghosting ($600 to fix..no thanks). But I really want to stay with a 15". I am wishing for a light duty, Macbook Air type of system in 15", but I'm pretty certain I will never see it. It's go "Pro" or go home for a 15" system with Apple. I will hope for something good to be released soon but I, like many others, may have to step away from Macs.
There are ten times the headlines for emojis, animojis, and iOS/OS features that many are excited about then use ONCE, then there are real hardware headlines. They are making it difficult for users to show loyalty. Their new initiative to stop any third party repairs or spare parts from eBay and such further alienates the customer base. I admit I'm not as smart as the big wigs in Cupertino, but it would be nice for a regular user or two to sit in on some meetings to provide some balance. Someone to stand up and say WTF rather than being a bobblehead to Joni, Tim, etc.. At the end of the day, profits, margins and shareholders rule. That's fine and dandy, but I don't know how much longer they will rule with my dollars.
There are ten times the headlines for emojis, animojis, and iOS/OS features that many are excited about then use ONCE, then there are real hardware headlines. They are making it difficult for users to show loyalty. Their new initiative to stop any third party repairs or spare parts from eBay and such further alienates the customer base. I admit I'm not as smart as the big wigs in Cupertino, but it would be nice for a regular user or two to sit in on some meetings to provide some balance. Someone to stand up and say WTF rather than being a bobblehead to Joni, Tim, etc.. At the end of the day, profits, margins and shareholders rule. That's fine and dandy, but I don't know how much longer they will rule with my dollars.
To me, it's not so much that I care about Apple making more money, but more that looking at matters from Apple's perspective often helps in understanding why Apple does things the way they do, even if you may not necessarily agree with them.
In reality, Tim Cook ultimately still has to answer to the board, and if he doesn't maximise profits at Apple, he will just be replaced by someone who will.
So yes, if you were in charge of Apple, and had the power to ignore profitability and could tell the board to go screw themselves, yeah, users may well have gotten the Mac wishlist they do desired. But at what cost? What is the price to be paid with regards to the development of other products at Apple? Maybe you don't really care for the Apple Watch, or AR glasses, or a self-driving car, or even a video streaming service, but who is to say that others share the same sentiment?
I guess my point is that such a move isn't as opportunity-cost free as people here are making it out to be.