Full Transcript of Mac Pro Interview With Craig Federighi and Phil Schiller Now Available

[MrGuder]

Now that I have read the entire article and not pieces taken out of context. I want to reverse my previous post....I don't think there is any indication in this interview that Apple is going to release an updated Macbook Pro 15" in June. I'm sure something will come out by Nov 2017 but I wouldn't hold my breath on a non TB 15" model in the fall. Apple is basically just talking in this interview and using terms like "were listening to the feeback" and we have put out a very well received 2016 Macbook Pro, are there things we can improve upon, yes, we acknowledged the battery issue and fixed it in Dec 2016 so basically they are fine with the way it's been designed and how it's been selling...so there is nothing new here, there are no secret updates, just Apple talking about their products. Macrumors members have known about all this since the start. There are a few hints that Phil & Craig people may be getting briefed about customer negative feedback on forums such as this one when the new MBP was released last Oct/Nov.

I think we will eventually see a MBP 15" with non touch bar but that doesn't mean it's going to come out in the fall 2017, it may very well take 2 yrs. If the past mirrors the future, Apple never does things quickly there is a lot of thought and process that just takes them a lot of time before something is manufactured in a plant and makes it's way to the customer. Apple is being more transparent giving this interview but there not going to give away too much information, it's on a need to know basis.

 

[Max Portakabin]

Old rich men without any desire. Toodle off and let some people in who want to make their mark and stop hogging the gold.

 

[craig1410]

You can thank Microsoft and the Surface Studio for this. They got more attention from creatives in one day than the last 15 years.

Er, no! Did you even read this transcript?
[doublepost=1491527296][/doublepost]We can debate until the cows come home why Apple should have reacted sooner but it takes guts to conduct a meeting like this where they are so transparent about shortcomings and they deserve due credit for it. I find it extremely reassuring that the Mac has a long future and look forward to the next chapter.

Apple is a company of people and people make mistakes. But as a very wise person once said, "No matter how far down the wrong road you've gone, turn back!"

I for one thought that the 2013 Mac Pro was an amazing piece of engineering and I continue to hope that Apple can find a design which is a step (or leap) forward from the typical tower system that we might expect. I think, given the demise of spinning hard discs and optical discs, we should expect a different design to the cheese grater and rightly so. Let's wait and see what they come up with!

 

[Denmac1]

Er, no! Did you even read this transcript?
[doublepost=1491527296][/doublepost]We can debate until the cows come home why Apple should have reacted sooner but it takes guts to conduct a meeting like this where they are so transparent about shortcomings and they deserve due credit for it. I find it extremely reassuring that the Mac has a long future and look forward to the next chapter.

Apple is a company of people and people make mistakes. But as a very wise person once said, "No matter how far down the wrong road you've gone, turn back!"

I for one thought that the 2013 Mac Pro was an amazing piece of engineering and I continue to hope that Apple can find a design which is a step (or leap) forward from the typical tower system that we might expect. I think, given the demise of spinning hard discs and optical discs, we should expect a different design to the cheese grater and rightly so. Let's wait and see what they come up with!

Good thoughts. I thought it was a good discussion with, finally, more transparency then what we have seen in the past.

At least they didn't mention ' Courageous'. However, I think this discussion was...

 

[MellowFuzz]

Now that I've read the transcript, I can confidently say Phil Schiller is a demented, delusional, garbage spewer.

 

[Denmac1]

Now that I've read the transcript, I can confidently say Phil Schiller is a demented, delusional, garbage spewer.

Sure, he's in charge of marketing. Garbage spewer might go a little too far though...

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Theyre still not prepared to move the Mac into this century with multitouch & pencil.

On one last 2009 17" MBP and an office full of Microsoft Surface products.

Figure it out guys.

 

[Quu]

This was a great read I'm glad the transcript was made.

 

[BeamWalker]

... and foolish.

I don't think the current execs are in short supply of that. Maybe a different kind though.

 

[icehockey77]

Federighi has some of the best hair in the tech industry.

The tech industry is due for a follicle shake up. Has been for a while.

 

[Born Again]

Federighi Is just awesome in general. He seems like a really respectable individual with a lot of knowledge in the tech world, has a great attitude and is surprisingly hilarious on stage.

like laugh out loud funny? or just a heh?

 

[melendezest]

This subject keeps getting blown up and everyone is getting all excited for VAPORWARE.

This is par for the course for any Mac fan, I know, but I just refuse to get excited.

We have nothing. Apple hasn't promised anything, really.

So far, we have words. Vague ones.

Somehow, when Apple does deliver something, I feel that my only response will be: "Yep, that figures", followed by a long, exasperated sigh.

Conversely, Microsoft came out of nowhere with the Studio and sucker-puched Apple (and the rest of us) LAST YEAR. The Surface is on top of JD Powers survey. Microsoft delivered on the "toaster and refrigerator."

Just sayin'.

 

[69650]

Presumably this is all to deflect attention away from the fact that they didn't hold a Spring event/keynote this year. That amazing pipeline Cook keeps mentioning must have a blockage somewhere because we're not seeing any new products emerge.

 

[theluggage]

This subject keeps getting blown up and everyone is getting all excited for VAPORWARE.

I think its a bit better than that, but I do share some of your caution.

On the one hand, even knowing that there isn't going to be a new Mac Pro until at least 2018 is going to help users plan (including, I suspect, some who will now jump ship). Ditto new iMacs "this year". Plus, the spec bumps on the existing Mac Pro are pretty significant for customers already committed to that platform. One problem that Apple needed to address was one of transparency - but they need to keep this up, commercial/serious users need some sort of roadmap.

They've also acknowledged one of the major design failings of the Mac Pro - that the design was too inflexible and too hard/expensive to update.

What they haven't really addressed is the other, underlying failure: their tendency to try and force users onto their bold new vision before they are ready. If the new Mac Pro had run alongside a suitably upgraded Classic Mac Pro tower for a year or two, it might have succeeded on its own: it always looked to me like an excellent Final Cut/Logic Pro "appliance" that might have succeeded in its own right - the real problem was that they had already let the classic Mac Pro wither on the vine for a couple of years (discontinued it in the EU) and then completely discontinued it when the cylinder came out. User groups for whom the cylinder wasn't a solution were given no viable choice.

They've just pulled the same trick with the MacBook Pro - if the new MBPs fit your needs then I'm sure that they're terrific machines, but if not (e.g. you're not ready to jump to the USB-C/TB3 ecosystem - especially if the TB3 docks, displays etc. you need are still vapourware) Apple have left you with nowhere to go: just a limited choice of the entry-level 2-year old model at the "as new" price. They've also thrown the best laptop keyboard in the business under a bus.

(NB: No, guys, we don't want RS232 ports - ha ha - although some people out there do actually need them to plug into industrial kit and would quite like to not need a USB-C dongle for their RS232 dongle... and there are 101 similar scenarios)

Any resemblance to previous "triumphs" - floppies, USB, optical drives, is purely superficial: either the status quo desperately needed fixing (RS232/Parallel/ADB/SCSI/1.4MB floppies) and/or the transition was less abrupt than you remember (a couple of years of PowerBooks with optional floppy drives, classic MBPs updated to the latest CPUs alongside the 2012 rMBP release etc.)

The interview sounds terribly complacent over the MBPs: of course the first quarter sales were good c.f. a quarter where the MBPs were long overdue an update. Of course the (patched) MBPs meet/exceed the battery life benchmarks - on the web browsing/office productivity/video-watching cycle that the Skylake CPUs were optimised for. Step outside those scenarios (e.g. fire up some pro apps that light up all the CPU cores and crank up the fans) and a 20% smaller battery is still 20% smaller... Any gains that Skylake might have offered have instead been used to make do with a smaller battery.

Another excitement-dampening thing I noticed about the transcript: when they talk about a "modular" Mac, the context makes it clear that all they mean is that it isn't an all-in-one like the iMac. So, don't get excited about being able to plug in your GPU of choice.

The boring truth is that what the "Pro" customer mostly needs is an ATX tower system that runs Mac OS, with a reasonable choice of officially supported GPUs, alongside a "portable workstation" option with a reasonable balance of size, battery and connectivity.

In the modern market, that probably isn't going to destroy Apple's main breadwinner of ultraportable laptops.