Apple seems so busy that they don't have a clear look on the market anymore. Like for example, the pro desktop users is going down. So pro software on the Mac goes down. Developers for pro software goes down. And less pros will use the Mac. It's a spiral. Apple should heed that they don't go down that road. I always thought it was smart of Apple to keep investing in pro software, despite the low returns. Because that's where a lot of goodwill comes from. I mean, the professionals stayed with Apple through all the bad times. Now Apple doesn't have the normal consumers anymore, and they have scared away the pros. What is left?
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Apple's Phil Schiller: 'We Don't Design for Price, We Design for the Experience'
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I hope so! Usually I stay away from rev. A models as Apple has quiet a reputation of not reaching the quality people expect from a Mac initially. My rev. A 2012 rMBP had two motherboard replacements, has that screen coating issue (didn't bother getting it replaced as I always need the machine), has several hot pixels (very annoying when editing photos) and the battery is near-dead. It is one of the reasons I haven't ordered the new one yet.
Sadly not.
2008 iMac and MacBook, even with the latter upgraded to SSD, are no longer enough for HD video-editing or even RAW photo work.
"We don't design for price, we design for the experience. Plus , all the fashion events we've been to during last years to promote our watchbands indicates that everyone drives a Lamborghini these days anyway. I really don't see what's the issue here. 5000$ is totally worth it to send emojis from our Touch Bar. Isn't that what our clients want ? "
They did. But they only had 10 ready to ship, so the shipping date has now slipped.
Congrats... then you've just designed your way out of the market. Simple economics.
Price mattered so much to me I bought the last generation refurb yesterday. i7 3.1Ghz 16G ram with a good keyboard and useful ports for $1600.
I agree with you, 100%, but if you hang out here often enough, you'd soon realize that everyone who defends and buys Macs ('Books or Pros) are either movie makers or professional billion dollar photographers. Apparently, normal people don't buy them so they're quite the deal still!
Was "lucky" enough that my 2011 MBP 17" broke a couple of months ago (graphics card problem) so I've just had to fork out a truckload of cash to buy a replacement Retina MBP with all the peripheral sockets.
This is not a professional laptop worthy of the Macbook Pro monica. This is an extortionately overpriced Air.
Seems like Apple have decided to exit the professional laptop market. Just as they've exited the SmartPhone market (why would I want an audio device without a 3.5mm jack). Second-hand prices for the older machines will be good.
We've seen peak Apple. All downhill from here....
Steve Jobs must be spinning in his grave.
This is not a professional laptop worthy of the Macbook Pro monica. This is an extortionately overpriced Air.
Seems like Apple have decided to exit the professional laptop market. Just as they've exited the SmartPhone market (why would I want an audio device without a 3.5mm jack). Second-hand prices for the older machines will be good.
We've seen peak Apple. All downhill from here....
Steve Jobs must be spinning in his grave.
Have to say I'm with you Porco. I like the touch bar and think it would be very useful. Add the new features (and required adapters) for the same price as before would have worked (keeping in mind their products are expensive to begin with) but raising the prices up significantly...the value proposition is getting too stretched to justify. Leaving the other products on the rack without an update is another sign of problems - they're not keeping up with things, even the iMac should have gotten GPU options refreshed. Apple is acting like they're not in a competitive market. Jumping the shark is a good analogy.
True, especially considering the manufacturing process from Ivy's video to get the shine just right on the Jet Black iPhone chassis. There would REALLY be some backorder and wait times on a jet black MacBook!
The original polycarbonate MacBook started at $1099 in 2006 - over $1300 in today's dollars. The replacement - the unibody MacBook (not Pro) was $1499 when released in 2008. That same year the new MacBook Air was introduced at $1799!! When the retina MacBook Pro was introduced in 2012 it started at $2199 - or $400 more than the old model.
The only thing that is out of calibration is people's expectations. Apple has actually lowered the prices of their computers drastically as they've aged - now people are PO'ed because the brand new models don't start at the same price point. Please.
Repeat after me , I DONT want 2 smallish monitors, I want quailty products I can afford. Look at my tag, does it look like I would want to pay 2500 for a decked out laptop? Nope, uh-uh, not happening. If they had kept the 11 inch, upped the process RAM and storage and asked 1300, consider it sold. If I want to sit down at a table and compute, I will do it on a 58 inch tv fucntioning as a monitor. If I want mobility, I can hold the dam 11 in air a foot away from my face without my glasses on and comfortably see.
My major issues are:
1)Apple releases 1...count it...1 new Mac laptop rather than updating the ENTIRE MAC line (desktops included).
2)The vast majority of the non-new Mac are YEARS (plural, yes) old. Not just years old, but from a technology perspective, years old. That's ridiculous.
3)The one they updated is now magially $500 more expensive. I could understand maybe $100 for some crazy new innovation(s) but $500 is clearly gouging.
4)Apple already has, as they have had for 30+ years, a personal computer marketshare of less than 10%. I think it's around 6% now. Therefore, the Mac users out there are pretty much stuck and forced to buy Apple. From a hardware point of view, there are over 100 other Wintel machines out there (granted some may not have Thunderbolt which again is used by 6% of the world)...but it's the OS that the Mac users are chained to...and its apps. I'm not saying the OS or apps stink...but these people have locked themselves into a very niche product overall.
5)Folks can state all day long that this single update is geared towards Pros (not even Prosumers anymore). Fine. So what are the 80% of the Mac laptop consumers supposed to purchase?...oh yea, a 2+ year old Mac laptop (if they don't already own it). But you also have to wonder what Pros are using a laptop for diehard work?
Apple Mac sales will be abysmal due to the main reason of ancient laptops and the extremely expensive new one. I was really hoping for a general Mac update but its pretty obvious that won't be until March or later. I am not a fan of Windows 10 (but love XP and 7) but the Surface machines are quite nice and powerful...and there are plenty of Wintel manufacturers selling sweet laptops far cheaper than $1800. I'm actually interested in the Surface (not tablet) now because MS really stands behind their products and there are several deals out there that can save me quite a bundle off the Surface...Apple never has deals...unless you consider 4% off a deal. The only folks buying the new Mac this Fall/Winter will be 1)people desperate for the upgrade and can't wait 6+ months for possible other Macs and 2)Clueless shoppers who have no idea the non-new Macs are older than dirt.
1)Apple releases 1...count it...1 new Mac laptop rather than updating the ENTIRE MAC line (desktops included).
2)The vast majority of the non-new Mac are YEARS (plural, yes) old. Not just years old, but from a technology perspective, years old. That's ridiculous.
3)The one they updated is now magially $500 more expensive. I could understand maybe $100 for some crazy new innovation(s) but $500 is clearly gouging.
4)Apple already has, as they have had for 30+ years, a personal computer marketshare of less than 10%. I think it's around 6% now. Therefore, the Mac users out there are pretty much stuck and forced to buy Apple. From a hardware point of view, there are over 100 other Wintel machines out there (granted some may not have Thunderbolt which again is used by 6% of the world)...but it's the OS that the Mac users are chained to...and its apps. I'm not saying the OS or apps stink...but these people have locked themselves into a very niche product overall.
5)Folks can state all day long that this single update is geared towards Pros (not even Prosumers anymore). Fine. So what are the 80% of the Mac laptop consumers supposed to purchase?...oh yea, a 2+ year old Mac laptop (if they don't already own it). But you also have to wonder what Pros are using a laptop for diehard work?
Apple Mac sales will be abysmal due to the main reason of ancient laptops and the extremely expensive new one. I was really hoping for a general Mac update but its pretty obvious that won't be until March or later. I am not a fan of Windows 10 (but love XP and 7) but the Surface machines are quite nice and powerful...and there are plenty of Wintel manufacturers selling sweet laptops far cheaper than $1800. I'm actually interested in the Surface (not tablet) now because MS really stands behind their products and there are several deals out there that can save me quite a bundle off the Surface...Apple never has deals...unless you consider 4% off a deal. The only folks buying the new Mac this Fall/Winter will be 1)people desperate for the upgrade and can't wait 6+ months for possible other Macs and 2)Clueless shoppers who have no idea the non-new Macs are older than dirt.
What your analysis doesn't take into consideration is the price of components overall. Apple's machines are going up in price relative to the competition. Back in 2008 an equally equipped PC was comparable in price to the Mac.
The new prices are exactly in line with what new MBP's have cost for nearly the past decade, except with inflation that means the real cost has gone way down. $1500 is not a high starting point for a premium computer; anything that is even remotely in the same ballpark on the Windows side costs that if not a whole lot more. When the first Retina MacBook Pro was released in 2012 it started at $2199 yet it was a huge hit.
Apple has never made budget laptops except when they continue to sell old models at reduced pricing (which they continue to do even today).
Are you one of the "1 Percenters' much? Hold yourself as so much better than everyone else based on your annual income?
Go pound sand and enjoy the expensive enema your wallet is getting from Apple.
"Sometimes that means we end up at the higher end of the range, but not on purpose, just because that's what it costs."
You could, I don't know, not have 200-500% margins on your products!
I had 2800€ (the price of the 2015 high-end model in most European countries) put aside for a new MBP, but then I saw that in order to buy one with a half-decent GPU, I'd have to shell out an extra 600€. They must be out of their minds.
I'll hold on to my 2011 MBP (which already has a replacement logic board, thanks to those amazing AMD GPUs) until it dies and then I'm moving to ASUS. Apple is obsessed with profit margins and I truly believe this move will have a very negative impact in their results.
Make a decently specced and decently priced laptop, and then we'll talk!
You could, I don't know, not have 200-500% margins on your products!
I had 2800€ (the price of the 2015 high-end model in most European countries) put aside for a new MBP, but then I saw that in order to buy one with a half-decent GPU, I'd have to shell out an extra 600€. They must be out of their minds.
I'll hold on to my 2011 MBP (which already has a replacement logic board, thanks to those amazing AMD GPUs) until it dies and then I'm moving to ASUS. Apple is obsessed with profit margins and I truly believe this move will have a very negative impact in their results.
Make a decently specced and decently priced laptop, and then we'll talk!
And it continues to be today. Go look at the real price of a Surface Book, a top-tier Thinkpad, or a Dell Precision 5510. Then outfit it to a similar spec. The prices are very, very similar.
These same inaccurate comparisons have been going on for decades. Apple is not competing with the entry or mid-level laptops, and you cannot look at one of those and say "i7, 256GB SSD, 8GB RAM" and call it the same thing. Apple, especially with the MBP, competes at the very top of the market.
I've never seen such backlash against a new computer before. I'm genuinely interested to see how well they sell. I hope people vote with their wallets and don't fall for this blatant price gouging. Maybe Apple will get the message and give us a more reasonable price in a couple of months from now.
$3600 (AUD) for a computer with 256GB of storage in 2016 is utter garbage. The 15" model with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is $4250 here in Australia, and that's not even a BTO model. Apple have lost the plot. Return the focus to quality software with decently priced, well specced hardware. Charge the Apple premium, that's fine. But don't price out the majority of your customers, not all of us are well paid Apple executives.
$3600 (AUD) for a computer with 256GB of storage in 2016 is utter garbage. The 15" model with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is $4250 here in Australia, and that's not even a BTO model. Apple have lost the plot. Return the focus to quality software with decently priced, well specced hardware. Charge the Apple premium, that's fine. But don't price out the majority of your customers, not all of us are well paid Apple executives.
"We did spend a great deal of time looking at this a number of years ago and came to the conclusion that to make the best personal computer, you can't try to turn MacOS into an iPhone," Schiller says. "Conversely, you can't turn iOS into a Mac.... So each one is best at what they're meant to be -- and we take what makes sense to add from each, but without fundamentally changing them so they're compromised."
And also because we are dropping iMac and Mac Pro desktops. We have run out of new and exciting ways to design them. But mostly because all our effort was put into the Apple Car, which may or may not exist.
And also because we are dropping iMac and Mac Pro desktops. We have run out of new and exciting ways to design them. But mostly because all our effort was put into the Apple Car, which may or may not exist.
Apple just gave the world a new notebook that does not work for apple users (read iPhone users)
1 - if you have an iPhone you need to buy a different cable just to connect it to the notebook as it doesn´t offer conventional usb (charging, transfering files,... Apple could have made the iphone 7 with usb-c charger but it didn´t)
2 - magsafe is gone? why? that´s one of the best things in the old MBP (now you need to buy an adapter for that, apple could have thought about including one in the charger itself)
3 - headphone jack on the right side? better not need a mouse or you´ll have a cable between it and the keyboard (no, using only the trackpad is not an option for many things)
4 - you need two headphones when traveling... one for the iphone and one for the MBP... (or a BT one that sounds like garbage)...
5 - flat logo, without light? for 0,5mm? now it looks like an Asus notebook
6 - so you need to buy the 27" LG monitor to power the 15 inch MBP? and if you don´t need a 5k monitor or don´t have the space for those 27 inches?
7 - esc button is not on the right place... at least they could have some standards for placing usual things on the Touch Bar when they are there
8 - that keyboard does not seem good to use, next step will be a touchscreen for the keayboard and you won´t know what you´re pressing...
Bonus: No touchscreen (imagine what Apple Pen and proper software could do)? No DDR4? Connecting a full/wired keyboard, (there´s no way for that, not even with the LG monitor as it has only USB-C ports)? Using a mouse that offers some comfort (Magic Mouse sucks for professional use)? No SD card reader (let´s change our dSLR for iPhones, they do the same, take pictures... or carry one more cable and USB-C adapter).
Well done Apple, think i´ll keep my old MBP and buy a PC for work...
Let´s just wait for the new iMac, but after MS Surface Studio... Windows sucks but that thing is impressive.
1 - if you have an iPhone you need to buy a different cable just to connect it to the notebook as it doesn´t offer conventional usb (charging, transfering files,... Apple could have made the iphone 7 with usb-c charger but it didn´t)
2 - magsafe is gone? why? that´s one of the best things in the old MBP (now you need to buy an adapter for that, apple could have thought about including one in the charger itself)
3 - headphone jack on the right side? better not need a mouse or you´ll have a cable between it and the keyboard (no, using only the trackpad is not an option for many things)
4 - you need two headphones when traveling... one for the iphone and one for the MBP... (or a BT one that sounds like garbage)...
5 - flat logo, without light? for 0,5mm? now it looks like an Asus notebook
6 - so you need to buy the 27" LG monitor to power the 15 inch MBP? and if you don´t need a 5k monitor or don´t have the space for those 27 inches?
7 - esc button is not on the right place... at least they could have some standards for placing usual things on the Touch Bar when they are there
8 - that keyboard does not seem good to use, next step will be a touchscreen for the keayboard and you won´t know what you´re pressing...
Bonus: No touchscreen (imagine what Apple Pen and proper software could do)? No DDR4? Connecting a full/wired keyboard, (there´s no way for that, not even with the LG monitor as it has only USB-C ports)? Using a mouse that offers some comfort (Magic Mouse sucks for professional use)? No SD card reader (let´s change our dSLR for iPhones, they do the same, take pictures... or carry one more cable and USB-C adapter).
Well done Apple, think i´ll keep my old MBP and buy a PC for work...
Let´s just wait for the new iMac, but after MS Surface Studio... Windows sucks but that thing is impressive.
Hmmm
A few assumptions in your post, but thanks for replying.
I'm a home user, no business.
Once I had a compelling reason to use Macs, the software & hardware was so much better and the combined value exceeded that in terms of convenience & functionality. This is no longer the case and I'm no longer prepared to pay Apple just because they're Apple.
Finally, people who use Macs do stop and start using PCs. Vice-versa too. Some people start using Chromebooks or Linux I imagine instead of MacOS or Windows, but I've not met them. People who blindly defend Apple on the internet love to say they don't though.
What are you talking about? They have retina 2012 quad cores for $999. And a ton of other machines available on the refurb site.