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'Entry-Level' 13-inch MacBook, Redesigned iPad Pros With Faster 18W USB-C Charger Coming in September, But no New iPad Mini

What's the point, a lower price laptop to keep the Macbook at a premium, or will it have USB-A and old keyboard?
 
Can’t imagine much spec difference between MB12 and new 13. Maybe better ports. Also, if in September would have to think along side next iPhone launch event
 
The MacBook Air could be Apple's alternative to the current MacBook Pro. Have a base model with Retina, SD card, and a decent keyboard. Offer memory, SSD, CPU, and GPU upgrades. It may price out the same as a MacBook Pro, but will address a lot of the current complaints with the Pro.
 
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CyberBob859 said:
I think if they planned on keeping the non-touchbar model around, they would have refreshed it to the new keyboard and processors a month or so ago when they upgraded the TouchBar 13" and 15" models.

To me, they're going to clean-up the consumer line by getting rid of the Air and the MacBook Pro "Escape" and replace it with one 13" model.
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I agree with your assessment. Then it appears like I should start accepting the fact that I will have to deal with the touchbar. If I buy this upcoming new 13" model, I would have the function keys, but then would have to live with an inferior graphics card, inferior speakers, among other things I suspect.
 
And still no new i7 6-core iMac, nor an i7 6-core Mac Mini? ...but they're committed to the Mac Mini...
 
travelsheep said:
Because the richest company in the world cannot have more than 3 products, right? So messy! Not good. Apple should have only ONE product.... the dongle.
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Is Apple the richest company in the world? I know they hit the trillion dollar value because of stock price but Walmart, among like 8 or so other companies, still make way more per year. Forbes still list Amazon ahead of Apple. However, I do agree with your point.
 
Apple are missing a trick...they should be offering customise watch bands where the customer can design their own online. Watch bands are the future and Tim loves a watch band.

On a serious note I just can't see Apple lowering prices on their Macs and its getting to the point they are pricing themselves out of the market for the average person.
 
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travelsheep said:
Because the richest company in the world cannot have more than 3 products, right? So messy! Not good. Apple should have only ONE product.... the dongle.
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Well they only have 123,000 employees. Steve Jobs saved Apple by reducing the number of products. But Tim, Apple does not need saving now, it's okay to do more then a few things at a time.
 
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Entry level 15" where.
Apple killed their own popular product line (i.e., $1,999 15") and is not interested in replacing it?
 
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TechZeke said:
Honestly, I'm surprised that NONE of the prices of the current MacBook/Pro lineup hasn't come down in price like previous model years.
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The personal computer industry has had 40 years of negative inflation, because both technology and the size of the market have been growing exponentially. You spent $1000 on a computer - two years later, the replacement was twice as powerful and still cost $1000, if not less, regardless of inflation. Anything more than 2-3 years old was a museum piece.

Now technology has slowed (e.g. Intel are struggling with their 10nm chips, the last big step forward was SSDs ~2012 which are still more expensive than HD) and our 7-year-old computers are still perfectly capable of doing most things we need to do. Sales are levelling off, at best, but the markets still expect tech firms like Apple to show continuous growth.

We're going to see inflation - and more planned obsolescence - as companies try to make growing revenues off static sales. Get used to it.

Also note how Apple's competitors now have "premium" ranges selling at prices edging into the Mac range (or beyond, if you look at MS Surface Books/Studio). In the past, if you wanted an eye-wateringly expensive laptop it was a stark choice of Apple or Sony...

predation said:
They can. Just won’t. Plus the entry model priced high = $2trln company.
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The trouble is, that $1tn valuation basically says that Apple impressed the stock markets by showing a big increase in revenue despite very modest growth in actual unit sales. In 3 months time, the market will be asking "what have you done for us this quarter?" and suddenly we'll find that those share values are only based on the current whim of the market. So the question is, how much can Apple keep pushing up margins in a maturing industry when the "next iPod/iPhone" hasn't turned up yet - riding the tiger is all well and good - just don't think about how you are going to get off...
 
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Gee, Apple stagnation again. What a surprise.
No new desktops of any value. Nothing innovative. Yet another paper thin, over priced laptop with no ports, upgradability, and an grossly enlarged price tag.
 
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levitynyc said:
The fact that Apple still can’t make a sub $1000 retina MacBook Air or MacBook is pretty laughable.
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They can, but don't need to play in that pond of plastic. If you're so inclined, do so and start your own company. I think you'll find it not so laughable.
 
itsmilo said:
The thing that Apple calls „entry“ nowadays makes me question my salary lol
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I was in Walmart the other day, and passed the laptop displays section... and was shocked to see so many pc laptops that actually looked nice for between $200-400. THOSE are entry level prices. As someone who’s been using macs for so many years, it’s disappointing to see Apple still charge such a large premium for outdated tech.
 
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the question should not be who needs an iPad mini, Mac mini or an iPhone SE ?

But who needs Tim Cook and his hopeless bunch of gadget salesmen ?

Not sure Apple actually ask or understand what a large number of their customers want anymore
 
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Abazigal said:
Reminds me of the people claiming that wireless headphones could never match wired ones in terms of sound quality.

Turns out that while they were not wrong, they were focusing on the wrong metrics because the people who did favour wireless headphones like the AirPods did so for other benefits such as convenience, and were completely fine with sacrificing sound quality in the process.

When I use wireless charging, it's typically overnight while I sleep. So long as my phone is at 100% by the time I wake up in the morning, who really cares how quickly or slowly it charges?
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Not quite the same analogy. You can have a small and more powerful wired charger, that you can easily carry around with you if you need to top up on the go and that will cost you way less than the rumoured AirPower mat. Using your charging example, it is really easy to plug the charging cable in before you fall asleep too, right? Unlike with the headphones example, where the wires can get tangled, etc., the result is exactly the same, your device gets charged by the time you wake up. I agree, AirPower mat makes more practical sense if you need to charge several things at once (iPhone, AirPods and the watch), otherwise it is just not worth it, imho.
 
levitynyc said:
The fact that Apple still can’t make a sub $1000 retina MacBook Air or MacBook is pretty laughable.
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It's unfortunate for sure. It would certainly be away to start start dominating in market share. Something like $699-749 US and $999 CAD would be fantastic.

Fortunately at this point I can live with a smartphone and a TV. Never found I needed and ipad, I'll stick with my old broken screen macbook through a tv when I really need which is almost never.
 
Mettwurst said:
Who needs a iPad mini?
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I happen to be a huge fan of the mini form factor. It's much easier to hold and carry around compared to the 9.7 in of old. In fact, between all three sizes of iPads currently available (7, 10.5 and 12 inches), 10 inches is the one I would've discontinued. I can see the usefulness of the larger formatted 12 in model for artists, engineers and architects who need a big surface to work on. But otherwise, the 7 in form factor is just more useful in my opinion than the middle 9.7 or 10.5 inch models.
 
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