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Guys I promise I will buy a 17" even if your rumors are false.

east85

east85

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jun 24, 2010
1,343
495
I don't care, long live the 17".

Rumors run free, but Apple knows there are people like me that depend on the 17". As well as others.

Many people depend on the 17 inch for design. Apple set the standard, and they have that standard for any out there.
 
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If the numbers are true, I can see why they want to discontinue the 17" though.
It will be a shame, but if it's not as profitable as the other two, it will disappear.
The 17" just has a small niche market.
 
I'll admit that I do not understand the rumor as it appears the 17" MBP is a popular model. Regardless, the land whale known as the 17" MBP :p is not for me, because of the size. Perhaps my opinion is the rule and not the exception.

I think choice is a good thing and it will be a bad step by apple to drop it, imo.
 
every item that been discontinued in the history of mankind regardless of the industry, had some fanbase, but companies have the reasons to discontinue products, its never a good reason to those that liked that product but it still happens from time to time
 
I dont see why they would discontinue it, if anything they could just make less of them or make them BTO.
 
Rumors always run rampent a few weeks before the release. In a month or two, the dust will settle and we probably won't see much change to the status quo at all. Redesign, retina, line consolidating, axing the 17". None of these are more than rumors. Some could end up coming true, most probably won't.

Don't get too worked up over rumors.
 
Isn't their 17" "The thinnest 17" Laptop in the world"?
Does that still stand?

Why would they get rid of it?
 
Swain said:
If the numbers are true, I can see why they want to discontinue the 17" though.
It will be a shame, but if it's not as profitable as the other two, it will disappear.
The 17" just has a small niche market.
Click to expand...

The entire mac line is a small niche market compared to PCs and ipads. Should they discontinue all macs too?
 
SPNarwhal said:
Why would they get rid of it?
Click to expand...

Because they sold 5.2 million Mac's in Q1. 50k were 17" MBP's. That's a drop in the bucket. At $1k profit per MBP that's only $50k toward the bottom line. That's a gnat fart in the grand scheme of Apple
 
Ccrew said:
Because they sold 5.2 million Mac's in Q1. 50k were 17" MBP's. That's a drop in the bucket. At $1k profit per MBP that's only $50k toward the bottom line.
Click to expand...
I understand the point you're trying to make, but you may want to check your math. Using your numbers, it's $50 million, not $50k. I don't think Apple is interested in dumping $50 million in profits, regardless of how well they're doing in other areas.
 
Forgive me if I'm best mistaken in my attitude towards the 17" MBP for a while, but isn't the high end 15" just as good if not better performing (at least for graphics)? That's the only reason I've never bought a 17" Pro. The top of the line 15 and 17 both use (I believe) the exact same GPU. And, since the 17" has more pixels to power, the 15" should run games (yes I game on a Mac blah blah) better since it has less pixels to power.

Price has never concerned me or the size and weight. It's the performance. In fact, I'd rather have the 17" display but I'm definitely not sacrificing frames in 3D games for it.

Can someone confirm this please? Oh and they shouldn't cancel the model, they have plenty of resources to continue it even if it is only a niche product.
 
JNL Productions said:
Forgive me if I'm best mistaken in my attitude towards the 17" MBP for a while, but isn't the high end 15" just as good if not better performing (at least for graphics)? That's the only reason I've never bought a 17" Pro. The top of the line 15 and 17 both use (I believe) the exact same GPU. And, since the 17" has more pixels to power, the 15" should run games (yes I game on a Mac blah blah) better since it has less pixels to power.

Price has never concerned me or the size and weight. It's the performance. In fact, I'd rather have the 17" display but I'm definitely not sacrificing frames in 3D games for it.

Can someone confirm this please? Oh and they shouldn't cancel the model, they have plenty of resources to continue it even if it is only a niche product.
Click to expand...

It will run games at native res slightly slower than the 15", as there are more pixels to fill, obviously. However, I believe the graphics card is clocked slightly higher, and if not, can certainly be overclocked more due to the better cooling system. Which also allows the CPU to stay in turboboost slightly longer than the 15".

These factors are small, and the main benefit of the 17" is still the larger screen (which is far better for everything except some games). And in terms of games, many demanding games won't run comfortably on native res on even the 15" screen. In that case, running the 15" and 17" at an equal, low resolution, the 17" will be better as it's a physically bigger screen.
 
Erasmus said:
It will run games at native res slightly slower than the 15", as there are more pixels to fill, obviously. However, I believe the graphics card is clocked slightly higher, and if not, can certainly be overclocked more due to the better cooling system. Which also allows the CPU to stay in turboboost slightly longer than the 15".

These factors are small, and the main benefit of the 17" is still the larger screen (which is far better for everything except some games). And in terms of games, many demanding games won't run comfortably on native res on even the 15" screen. In that case, running the 15" and 17" at an equal, low resolution, the 17" will be better as it's a physically bigger screen.
Click to expand...

I hear what you're saying about the better cooling and more screen real estate, but still the idea of having to lower the resolution to achieve the same performance is frustrating. I really don't like blurry images. But thanks for the feedback anyways. :)
 
JNL Productions said:
Forgive me if I'm best mistaken in my attitude towards the 17" MBP for a while, but isn't the high end 15" just as good if not better performing (at least for graphics)? That's the only reason I've never bought a 17" Pro. The top of the line 15 and 17 both use (I believe) the exact same GPU. And, since the 17" has more pixels to power, the 15" should run games (yes I game on a Mac blah blah) better since it has less pixels to power.

Price has never concerned me or the size and weight. It's the performance. In fact, I'd rather have the 17" display but I'm definitely not sacrificing frames in 3D games for it.

Can someone confirm this please? Oh and they shouldn't cancel the model, they have plenty of resources to continue it even if it is only a niche product.
Click to expand...

This is true, the 15 tends to run slightly faster than the 17 because there's less pixels to push. However, when you look at the power these machines put out, there's not much that taxes the system so thoroughly that the 15 would be able to handle it and the 17 wouldn't. The only thing I can think of is super high end gaming, at which point it makes more sense to have a dedicated gaming box.
 
I don't think the 17" will be discontinued. Just like the Mac Pro will not be discontinued.

I think of the Mac mini. Apple took over a year and half to update it. They did not discontinue it like many of the rumors said. They even ended up redesigning it.
 
GGJstudios said:
I understand the point you're trying to make, but you may want to check your math. Using your numbers, it's $50 million, not $50k. I don't think Apple is interested in dumping $50 million in profits, regardless of how well they're doing in other areas.
Click to expand...

Indeed. Those are the numbers per quarter (using the given guestimate of 1k profit per unit). For 1 year its $200 million , a nice bit of cash to have for a rainy day for any company.
 
Im having some trouble interpreting the thread title. If the discontinue it he will buy it anyway. I understand he must mean the current one, but still, the title rings ill in my ears.

Anyhow, I agree with the earlier comments, 50 million is not a terrible result in a quarter where alot of people are sitting tight awaiting the elusive redesign.
 
east85 said:
I don't care, long live the 17".

Rumors run free, but Apple knows there are people like me that depend on the 17". As well as others.

Many people depend on the 17 inch for design. Apple set the standard, and they have that standard for any out there.
Click to expand...

good for you....i guess?
 
17" is very important for professional music and creatives. To abandon this core group of Mac users would be a very bad idea. Apple still makes money selling them. i do not want to work all day on a small screen, and often I'm on the road. The 17" MBP is essential.
 
trajan2448 said:
17" is very important for professional music and creatives. To abandon this core group of Mac users would be a very bad idea. Apple still makes money selling them. i do not want to work all day on a small screen, and often I'm on the road. The 17" MBP is essential.
Click to expand...

I agree. As I've said on this forum before - pros and artists are the group that in some part (maybe less than in the past) make for Apple's image as cool brand, for creative people of music, film etc. To abandon this group would result in that image "fading" in the near future - maybe that's what Apple wants, but I would advise against it. Basically every computer manufacturer has a pro line (like HP's Envy etc), so when a Customer decides to buy a cheaper HP laptop it's probably in some part because of how similar and "almost" cool it is to the more premium (and too expensive) model. At the same time other manufacturers have zillions of models, usually budget ones - only their pro, higher end machines have any recognizability and make up for the rest in case of any image. But Apple has only 2 laptop lines and both may seem "pro" for the Customer, because of their similarity, the design, the materials etc.
Both sell well and assumably give them profit, so if all they should cancel iPod which sales dropped 15% year to year. From Apple's latest sales report:
iPhone - 35,1 millions sold
iPad - 11,8 ml - 151% growth
Mac - 4 ml, 7% growth
iPod - 7,7 ml, 15% decline.
From my experience: if a pro or an artist buys a (another) Mac, it's because: they have worked with Mac for the most of their career, they can rely on them and basically every his/her professional colleague also has a Mac, so it becomes a kind of a status thing. Now take that Mac away from them and I'm not so sure that they'll keep buying that iPhones as probably some other company will fill that niche with a nice telephone-OS-computer ecosystem (if so then I would vote for HTC:) + good marketing.
 
njean777 said:
Apple knows there are people like me that depend on the 17". As well as others.
Click to expand...
This certainly hasn't stopped them before. Why now? You act like Apple owes you something.

njean777 said:
I dont see why they would discontinue it, if anything they could just make less of them or make them BTO.
Click to expand...
Keeping their factories tooled and dedicating resources for an item that doesn't make as much money as other goods doesn't make sense.

All this is just my opinion but can't you guys see the writing on the wall? Apple is committing itself to its real bread and butter... the "consumer" market.

* The Mac Pro hasn't been updated in ages.
* The iMovie "style" rewrite to FCP
* OSX is going the way of iOS and iPads.
* And now the rumor of discontinuing the MBP17.

Apple can't keep up with consumer demand the way it is much less keep cater to those of us with above-average needs.
 
Guys,

If a business thinks they're not making enough money off a product, they discontinue making it, regardless of how critical it is to that niche market.

Sorry.
 
Ccrew said:
Because they sold 5.2 million Mac's in Q1. 50k were 17" MBP's. That's a drop in the bucket. At $1k profit per MBP that's only $50k toward the bottom line. That's a gnat fart in the grand scheme of Apple
Click to expand...

Damn you math! <shakes wrists>

One 'analyst' predicts the end of the 17" line an creates such a furor that is spreads and spreads like a virus across the internet.

This 'analyst' is probably the same guy who said Apple was going to have a bad quarter due to the phone companies "getting tired" of paying subsidies for the iPhone.

Good call before the quarterly report. Nice guess buddy. I hope you sold all your stock before the report.

The Internet is filled with sheep that will spew their unfounded facts to get attention.

Remember, because it is on the Internet, it has to be true.
 
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