Wasn’t it mainly discontinued because of all sorts of hardware issues?
Failing SSDs, the butterfly keyboard, the USB port… I may be wrong but I feel like I read those things primarily.
Of course, they may have led to lack of sales over time.
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Here Are All the New M3 Apple Macs Expected This Year
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Failing SSDs, the butterfly keyboard, the USB port… I may be wrong but I feel like I read those things primarily.
Of course, they may have led to lack of sales over time.
I still have my 2014 11" macbook air & have it in my backpack when I do my all-day-long walks in the city. It's stuck at Big Sur, but that hasn't bothered me. I wouldn't mind a new one with Apple silicon inside.
Maybe they view a 12” like they viewed the iPhone mini (one of my fav phones). Just doesn’t sell enough I guess but I’d be all over it.
Really? Most people here often offer criticisms, sometimes well thought out, and sometimes just whiny rants.
I accept the expertise of others. I know how hard it is to build, deploy, and support large systems over many years. Many of the people whining do not, I propose.
Many of the decisions Apple makes are well thought out, in my opinion.
And the brief history of electronic computers tells me that most computer companies go out of business in waves, but the few that remain for decades have learned how to survive the changing global landscape.
Apple has survived because it cultivated its market carefully over many years. That's a business success, and in this case (compared to, say, Exxon-Mobil) one to applaud.
Compare that to Commodore. As a former Amiga owner (and there are many others here) it was a sad, but in hindsight an obvious, thing when Commodore went down hill. Commodore went down hill because it was managed poorly.
The small computer market has collapsed down to a few big players - Lenovo, Dell, HP (aka Compaq), and Apple. And out of all of them, I maintain Apple makes the best products (over all.)
So if Apple has discovered a pricing strategy that works for Macs then good on them.
Assuming we're all capitalists (small c) here, then we must accept that Apple executives are beholden to the company's owners. And Wall Street seems to think that Apple is doing fine.
I think Apple is doing fine. A fixed price schedule of $200/upgrade-step is part of the pricing strategy that continues to make Macintosh computers a viable product in today's market.
And looking at the other small computers out there, I am glad that Macs are still around.
100% need another 12" model, especially since 13" evolved into 14". I still use my 12" MB i5, but it's (been) pretty sluggish since day 1, lol.
Or even an 11” MacBook but I fear that it is unlikely with a push to get an iPad Pro instead. Although I find that to be an unsatisfactory compromise
They also said, right after the September iPhone event, that there wouldn't be a Mac event in 2023 and hence no M3 Macs in 2023 either due to supply constraints of TSMC's N3B node. They were obviously wrong.
For a produc that's so-called losing ground, it's amazing that it just celebrated its 40th anniversary. Supposedly, the Mac still remains an important product within Apple;
“The Mac is the foundation of Apple... and today 40 years later it remains a critical part of our business,” he said. “The Mac will always be part of Apple. It’s a product that runs deep within the company, and defines who we are.”
“We run Apple, one of the largest companies in the world, on Mac.” - Greg Joswiak
There were also rumours we might see new M3 Macs by the end of 2023, and we did. Evidently they were right.
In the early part of 2023 there were rumors of M3 Macs coming in 2023 by both Mark Gurman and Kuo, who the majority of people on this site consider the prophets of leaks. Right after the September iPhone event, both of them redacted their predictions saying there would not be any M3 Macs in 2023 and there would be no Mac event. They were wrong.
The M3 only launched in Q4 2023, so I highly doubt there will be an M4 this year as the refreshes are around 18 month cycles.