How could Apple revolutionize the MacBook Pro?

[jjfcpa]

This might be a little specific to my needs, but I have a rMBP 15" and a MBA 2013. I use the rMBP in town for work related stuff; however, when I travel, I like to take the MBA because of the weight savings and size. Trying to use a 15" MBP on an airplane is nothing short of excruciating.

What I would like to see is a replaceable hard drive. I think it would be really nice to just pull the hard drive out of my 15" and put it in the MBA and away I go. Apple is already using a module for the hard drive on the MBA, why not carry this just a little further and make it a plugin module.

Another unique feature would be to use a 2nd MBP/MBA as a 2nd monitor. After all, who has just one Mac. If you got it, might as well be able to use it.

And if we're talking unique, why not add a solar panel on the lid and let it get a trickle charge?

What about eliminating all the cords. Wireless charging, wireless tethering to an LCD?

Time for Apple to push the envelope because the competition is knocking on the door.

 

[willcapellaro]

Lowest Hanging Fruit

Remember that Apple is extremely conservative. Despite their war chest, they don't like to have product failures, and they don't subsidize bleeding edge tech. So if they do something, they do it profitably. Which means skipping several iterations of things that might be useful for others, and that other tech companies are swarming around. They typically cherry pick technologies until it's a proven need and they can do it better than everyone else (this is arguable, but it's what is going on in their heads).

So here are two items that I think could be things we might see, given their current trajectory:

Dual Boot or hybrid iOS + OS X device. I know it's not exactly a gimme, but there are only technical hurdles that stand in the way of this. Apple eats technical hurdles for breakfast.

Something that makes every Mac portable, or Mac device with antennas into a powerhouse. General category that could including updated TBDs, Airports, or web services. The basic is to provide remote CPU, GPU processing and local or cloud storage. I think something like this could sell more base units and get more people into the ecosystem. Tell newbies they don't need to upgrade at all, tell power users that they don't need to worry so much about upgrading.

Just spitballing here. If I'm suggesting things that are not immediately feasible, at least I think these are the main pain points I have. By trying to solve them, Apple could "revolutionize" some of its products or create new ones. But if they don't, I'll still be pretty happy with slow evolution.

At the end of the day, I appreciate that Apple is conservative as they come. I've been using the Apple menu at the top of a menu bar for almost three decades now, and as long as they keep that, I'll still be a Mac user.

 

[Spacial]

Calling the new Mac Pro revolutionary...hmm

It's typical marketing hype that Apples known for, certainly no surprise. Most manufacturers do it, especially in the U.S. marketplace. Look at how well Apples done using their advertising. They've got shareholders & others to keep happy, it's profits that do that job.

 

[leman]

Remember that Apple is extremely conservative.

I am not sure I agree. They have been pushing quite new and untested technologies and concepts for quite some time now. Unless by conservative you mean that they don't immediately implement everything many people would like to see implemented. I'd say Apple is actually radically innovative, but they do it according to their own plan. The trick with Apple has always been that they don't react to the customer wishes, but instead create these wishes in the first place. I.e. their motto is 'we know it better' It is quite infuriating at times, but then, without Apple the laptop industry (and not only it) would be extremely stale.

 

[thekev]

You are kidding, right? Apple is the only company which has been innovating in laptop department in the last few years. Ultraportables, Thunderbolt, retina display, PCI-e storage... Everybody else is just copying them. Every third laptop out there looks like a MBP or MBA (yes, Samsung, I am looking at you!).

Thunderbolt originated with intel. It was never really supposed to be limited to Apple, even if they are the oem to use it. PCI express has been in development for years. Apple's proprietary fork doesn't make everyone else into a copycat. Even resolution has been going up for years. Others shoehorned 1920x1200 or 1080 into 15" and smaller prior to the rMBP. IPS in notebooks preceded Apple. Much like the rMBP, they were very expensive. Sony tested the ultra-portable model years earlier. The one area where you have any kind of point is styling. They are trendsetting. How do you equate the rest to copying? Generally when I read "copying" on this site, I interpret it as ripping off Apple in some form, and none of those concepts really justify such a distinction, as they either originated elsewhere or were not intended as proprietary features.

 

[akdj]

Believe me or don't but I've got a coworker who has a son who works on Apple's black projects and my coworker says that there is a new Apple laptop coming within a year that will be as revolutionary for laptops as the upcoming Mac Pro is for desktops (his words).
I have no details.

Even assuming that I'm completely full of $#^@, what do you think a revolutionary laptop would look like?
A desktop could literally be anything but a laptop has to be portable, it has to have a screen, and it has to have a keyboard (or does it?).
The Air was pretty revolutionary but now there are virtual Air clones from many manufacturers.
What do you all think the next evolution in power laptops could be?

I'm not giving up on a 4k 17" rMBP. The new move to PCIe SSD systems, 100% efficiency with their RAM, thunderbolt 2---this could be a match for the new MacPro including workstation graphic solutions.

A laptop that cannot be configured with fast quad core, fast discrete graphics, 32GiB RAM, and 1.5TB of storage should not be called Pro anymore.

Configured at purchase or via immediate upgrade.

Immediate upgrade to 1.5 or even 2TB is easily done on a cMBP. 32GB on a laptop is a rare commodity. Having 4 RAM slots in a mobile mother/logic board requires more room, more power, more battery....and the physical need to utilize that much RAM. 16GB is a LOT of RAM. Other than After Effects (which will exponentially take advantage of every KB or RAM you have per frame!)...we use a lot of very performance oriented software and I'm not finding any RAM bottlenecks on any of our software. Smoke, ProTools and Audition, Maya, FCPx and 7, Premier and photoshop...more efficient RAM as Apple has managed to achieve near 100% in the rMBPs, something that can not possibly be accomplished with consumer dRAM modules...as well as faster storage, like the PCIe solutions in both the MBA and the new Mac Pro sporting speeds near 1200Gb/second...is close to half the swap speed of current RAM. Even with programs like AE or CAD software....why stop at 32? Not 64? Or 256GB? Real workstations that are made to take advantage of that much memory exist. However, that's an extremely nitch market. I'm not sure how many Dell Precisions are sold each year, but I can't imagine its many. Certainly not a profit driven choice and possibly a decision based primarily on big company contracts that they're more committed to providing than choosing to? Does that make any sense?

I guess I'd argue by 'pro' you mean making money with said machine, right? Isn't THAT the definition and difference between professional and amateur? These days I run my business and pay all of our bills as well as mortgages with Macs alone. And other than our 2010 MacPro, I've not found myself in a situation that I could make more money with 32GB of RAM in my MBP. I see professionals EVERYwhere with Macs, including an extremely successful pair of friends of mine using the new 13" MBA. They own one of if not THE most successful advertising agencies in our market. They were at our fantasy football draft last night going on and about what an 'improvement' for them their new (13") Airs were in comparison to their 17" MBPs. They run an ad agency...print, video/TV, radio/audio production. A lot of graphic, still and motion design and creative work...as well as the website design and digital 'apps' and social networking for local businesses. Point being...
TL/DR---as successful as possible which in my book equals 'pro' or Professional.

My doctor uses an 11" Air. I consider him a pro

We're doing the front of house and back line for about a dozen bands at the state fair this week and last. Foreigner, Bill Cosby, Philip Phillips, Bret Michaels, Hailstrom, Three doors down...several others. All DMX and recording is via Mac. A couple bands are using Macs and iPads on stage.
They're pros. I promise

Not everyone is designing rocket propulsion and guidance systems...or crunching DNA sequences, curing diseases w/folding @...and those that ARE doing these projects are renting time with super computers. Machines not available to most of us consumers.
Professional to me also means intelligent. Smart. And with common sense. There's a reason Apple goes back and forth by being the (or second/third) most valuable company in the world. They're making money...and their the only computer company that is continuing to make more money quarter after quarter. Some lower than others...but they continue to climb. I think Lenovo is the only other company doing the same. But not with the same consistency or quantity and they're not making 'pro' machines by your standards either.

I guess I disagree with you what constitutes a pro computer. Even the cheapest Windows machine @ Best Buy is many hundreds of percentage points faster, more efficient and MUCH more reliable than the guidance system that brought our astronauts to the moon and back....alive 40+ years ago! You had to have considered that a professional computer, right? It was one foot cubed and weighed around 70-80 lbs. before it was built, the power that thing put out took up an entire room before its inception

I guess my point is this, the 'pro' is not in the computer. It's in the user. Ask the fellas that started Rovio what they used to code the original (& maybe even the current) Angry Birds with

Compromises. The 2011 MPB 17" had an awesome array of ports, but the weight/size made it unattractive to a lot of people.

I dunno... seems to me most port-defficiencies can be solved (albeit inelegantly) with dongles, busses, daisy-chaining, but I respect your opinion if you'd rather not have to deal with the hassle.

And depending on who you ask, the tech world is hurtling towards 100% wirelessness so there is a good chance your port envy will be largely irrelevant a few years from now.

I've still got a pair of 2011 17" MBPs. I'm not at all fond of their 'port array'. The USB (2) ports are to close together to use more than two at a time for most USB devices...nothing has really caught on with the mini or micro or express PCMCIA slots....the rMBP (15) nailed it. If not one more USB 3 slot....twin thunderbolt. Twin USB 3 on opposite sides of the computer, HDMI, SD, an audio in/out single jack. Finally the thunderbolt docks are out and reasonable....and allow a lot of high speed connectivity including USB 3, FW800, DVI and HDMI, audio, et al. Having two ports compared to the single in the 17s has come in handy for us

If I were looking for a PC I would have bought one a long time ago.

But it's the only option that allows for a 'pro' build, right? I don't get your point. Are you unable to perform your Job with a Mac?

J

 

[willcapellaro]

I am not sure I agree. They have been pushing quite new and untested technologies and concepts for quite some time now. Unless by conservative you mean that they don't immediately implement everything many people would like to see implemented. I'd say Apple is actually radically innovative, but they do it according to their own plan. The trick with Apple has always been that they don't react to the customer wishes, but instead create these wishes in the first place. I.e. their motto is 'we know it better' It is quite infuriating at times, but then, without Apple the laptop industry (and not only it) would be extremely stale.

Not sure what there is to disagree with. Conservative was not a cut against them, nor is it a quality that is by nature in opposition to innovative.

I agree that Apple is innovative, but not in the way that most people mean when they say that. Plenty of companies do bleeding edge innovation without a thought to real world use. These companies are Apple's unpaid research department.

Apple's innovation, where it excels, is tasteful, reasonable bundling of technology, both hardware and software. They understand the real world compromises of everything they put in a product. They put out a small amount of SKUs at high volume and exceedingly high quality. On paper, that sounds quite humdrum, but in practice it has proven to be a wildly successful thing... and I'll hope you'll agree that to pull that off you would have to balance innovation (brainstorming and refinining ways to use new and existing technologies) with conservative decisionmaking (knowing which technologies to implement, when, where, and how). People will claim that their success is also borne of marketing, but I think their products are better ads than they could ever pay for.

 

[puma1552]

wireless power supply; that is to say plug the brick into the ac adapter, but thered be no wire from the adapter to the macbook, the laptop would just need to be within x feet of the outlet the power brick is plugged into to draw power

also wireless external displays, connect a thunderbolt display with no physical wire to the tb port

 

[mcarling]

Liquid metal chassis.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I am just saying that Apple never made a 'true' Pro laptop (according to your own definition) in their history. Which makes it a bit difficult for me to understand your point. If you are looking for a customisable workstation, why are you interested in a MBP in the first place? It should be pretty clear that no MBP model ever released satisfy your criteria.

Not true at all. Their original Core Duo and Core 2 Duo models were quite competitive. When i got mine in 2006, it had a DVI-D out, ethernet, some audio jacks, Firewire, 2x USB, and I don't recall everything else.

The Dell's of the time had about the same exact port array, with the exception of an SD slot instead of Firewire. eSATA wasn't standard yet, and at most I think I missed out on 1 USB port, but I got a DVI port instead of VGA, Express card, and firewire, so I was happy.

Fast forward 6 years and they've only removed ports. There's no more Firewire, Express card, mic in, ethernet, and they never adopted eSata. Instead there's death by 1000 dongles. What was once a pro machine faded into mediocracy.

BUT RETINA!!!!111!!!1eleven!!!!!

Heck, my Macbook Air from 2011 is 87% as fast as the Macbook Air they released last month. That's less than an 8% increase per year, on Apple's part. The only thing that's still high-end on a mac is the exterior, screen resolution (not even the whole screen), and the SSD speed.

 

[Memole]

You are kidding, right? Apple is the only company which has been innovating in laptop department in the last few years. Ultraportables, Thunderbolt, retina display, PCI-e storage... Everybody else is just copying them. Every third laptop out there looks like a MBP or MBA (yes, Samsung, I am looking at you!).

Thunderbolt was made by Intel

Retina display is not even a innovation also some laptop makers did push earlier on 15" laptops some high res screens but not high as apple but Apple has never been a display company so again Apple is using tech from Samsung and LG for displays...

PCIe SSD have been out on the market for years...

Ultraportables u got it right Apple made it mainstream but even at MBA presentation Steve Jobs said that without Intels help Apple wouldn't manage it to release 1st gen MBA...

And todays management of Apple is not so innovative like the Apple from before... What Apple have been innovating in last 4 years...

 

[Zeov]

a 17" with quad-core, 770M+ and upgradeable storage and RAM.

thats all i need.

 

[GermanyChris]

believe me or don't but i've got a coworker who has a son who works on apple's black projects and my coworker says that there is a new apple laptop coming within a year that will be as revolutionary for laptops as the upcoming mac pro is for desktops (his words).
I have no details.

i hope not!!!

 

[NbinHD]

I wouldnt be surprised if Apple came out with the laptop/tablet conversion.

 

[sofianito]

Thunderbolt was made by Intel

Retina display is not even a innovation also some laptop makers did push earlier on 15" laptops some high res screens but not high as apple but Apple has never been a display company so again Apple is using tech from Samsung and LG for displays...

PCIe SSD have been out on the market for years...

Ultraportables u got it right Apple made it mainstream but even at MBA presentation Steve Jobs said that without Intels help Apple wouldn't manage it to release 1st gen MBA...

And todays management of Apple is not so innovative like the Apple from before... What Apple have been innovating in last 4 years...

Innovation and bright ideas come from engineering. The management then decide to provide or not funding... Nowadays, Apple has likely less maneuver than before because of lower revenues (compared to the past) and the pressure of investors...

 

[Quu]

None of what I'm suggesting below is revolutionary but I think they should make the bezel on the Retina MacBook Pro much thinner. Razer thin, maybe 1-2mm thick. I think they could fit a 16" display (diagonally measured) in to the current 15" body if they did that and it would drastically change the look of the notebook making it appear much more sleek and thin.

Then make the screen 4K. Not 2880x1800 but 3840x2400. So effectively we get 1920x1200 in working area but retina'd so it looks even better.

They should add another USB 3.0 port to the left side. Having only one on each side is too few. Thunderbolt is great and all but the amount of accessories available and their price mean I'll never use it for anything more than connecting a Display Port equipped monitor. I could really do with a 2nd USB port however to charge my iPhone while using my Dual-Link DVI to Display Port adapter (which requires USB of its own for power).

Apart from this stuff I'm pretty happy with the Retina MacBook Pro. Sure I'd love a 17" model but I'd be happy with the current 15.4" model if they reduced the bezel and shoehorned an even larger and higher density display in it.

 

[yliu]

I remember that Apple said that it's not interested in making a multitouch laptop (unlike other laptop manufacturers) because its awkward to use. Apple doesn't seem to implement new things unless they are really sure that it's simple to use and is more intuitive that what it replaces.

So I think they will probably keep on improving performance and thinness or they will release something very very new

 

[Hephaestus]

Instead of "revolutionising" it, how about bringing it up to scratch for 2013?

- Upgradable storage
- Upgradable RAM

They could "revolutionise" it buy building an SSD which is removable, instead of soldering the darn thing onto the logic board. Or how about "revolutionising" the RAM so it can be removed?

That would be insanely magical, considering its a PRO machine.

 

[leman]

Thunderbolt was made by Intel

[..]

Ultraportables u got it right Apple made it mainstream but even at MBA presentation Steve Jobs said that without Intels help Apple wouldn't manage it to release 1st gen MBA...

Of course it was made by Intel. But would it be made without Apple's influence? Don't misunderstand 'innovate' and 'invent'. Many tech companies do amazing stuff all the time which gets canceled because the market won't adopt it.

Retina display is not even a innovation also some laptop makers did push earlier on 15" laptops some high res screens but not high as apple but Apple has never been a display company so again Apple is using tech from Samsung and LG for displays...

The innovation of retina display is not only the high DPI but also the software part - resolution independent UI which actually works.

PCIe SSD have been out on the market for years...

Sure. Now show me a laptop that uses them

And todays management of Apple is not so innovative like the Apple from before... What Apple have been innovating in last 4 years...

I see no basis for such conclusion. Just in the last two years we had retina display on laptops, PCI-e storage on laptops, Mavericks, iOS 7, new Mac Pro, new iMac design (which is technologically really impressive) and Fusion Drive, just to name a few.

Or how about "revolutionising" the RAM so it can be removed?

The whole industry is moving toward non-replaceable RAM No matter what the next gen of RAM will be (HMC looks nice), it will probably be fused on the mainboard anyway. As I wrote before, we are moving towards unified system RAM, where CPU and GPU access the same ultra-speed RAM over a very fast connection. And non-replaceable RAM further improves performance, power consumption and reliability.

That would be insanely magical, considering its a PRO machine.

Well, that is precisely the point I have been trying to make. Its not a PRO machine. I am not even quite sure what this means, but a PRO machine for me is a mobile 3D workstation (e.g a Dell Precision). The MacBookPro (retina) is an very good all-round laptop which is very competent for most tasks but not particularly well suited for heavy duty workstation work. Which I don't see as a disadvantage, to be honest.

 

[akdj]

.....

There's no more Firewire, Express card, mic in, ethernet, and they never adopted eSata. Instead there's death by 1000 dongles. What was once a pro machine faded into mediocracy.

BUT RETINA!!!!111!!!1eleven!!!!!

Heck, my Macbook Air from 2011 is 87% as fast as the Macbook Air they released last month. That's less than an 8% increase per year, on Apple's part. The only thing that's still high-end on a mac is the exterior, screen resolution (not even the whole screen), and the SSD speed.

Thunderbolt doesn't need 'dongles'. Grab a Thunderbolt break out box according to your needs and every I/O option you named x 3 are available immediately, with the ability to tie your display(s) out of said break out box. 1 output, many in/out options. And there are two of them, they also added USB3 (10x the speed of USB2)---HDMI, SD card...and yes, if you need a dongle, there are a pair of TB ports you can use one on. FW800 didn't really catch on. Nor did the Express card. T/B does either but SO much more---and as far as CPU speed, that's addressed and offered by Intel. Not Apple. And no---your 2011 Air is NOT '87% as fast' as the current model. The GPU and PCIe SSD alone are 3 and 4 times (300 and 400%) faster than your model (I have the 2011 'Ulitmate' 11" air as well....thinking about next year's upgrade)...as well as the addition, again, of USB 3. CPU speed isn't everything. It works as a 'system'....the faster RAM, storage and graphics work together to provide a smokin' little 2 pound rig (if we are talking Air)...4 pounds if we're talking 15" rMBP.

Thunderbolt was made by Intel

Retina display is not even a innovation also some laptop makers did push earlier on 15" laptops some high res screens but not high as apple but Apple has never been a display company so again Apple is using tech from Samsung and LG for displays...

PCIe SSD have been out on the market for years...

Ultraportables u got it right Apple made it mainstream but even at MBA presentation Steve Jobs said that without Intels help Apple wouldn't manage it to release 1st gen MBA...

And todays management of Apple is not so innovative like the Apple from before... What Apple have been innovating in last 4 years...

Thunderbolt was built, conceived of and worked on by BOTH Intel and Apple, hence the reason Apple was the first to get Thunderbolt on their custom logic boards.

Retina absolutely IS innovation. No other OS has been successful by pixel doubling the resolution to take advantage of the HiDPI and still maintain the same readable and usable UI. While they're using the technology from Samsung and LG---THEY are the ones making it actually 'usable' in the operating system. Tried Windows 8 yet? See how it deals with HiDPI @ this point? UGGGH!

PCIe SSD on the market for a couple of years, sure. But until the Air released, a PCIe SSD was close to if not MORE than the price of the total Air itself! Again, with Apple's buying power...and their engineering department working together with RAM suppliers, they've brought a part that was once exclusive to the high end, professional sector to the masses...with faster read speeds than any regular 2.5" SSD on the market.

Apple doesn't come out with a 'revolutionary' device every year. The iPod was 2001. The iPhone 2007, the iPad in 2010 (but actually invented before the iPhone)...constant improvements to each have been more than adequate to make the company the most valuable in the world. Current management is getting ready to release a new Mac Pro. They call it revolutionary...we'll see (IMHO---they haven't lied about the former declarations of revolutionary products). Lots of doubters....but I read the same about all three previously mentioned 'revolutionary' products---including the original iMac when Steve returned.

Of course Apple couldn't release a computer without the help of a CPU. That's only common sense....Intel is the chief architect of exceptional CPUs...and Apple's relationship with them allowed the release of the MBA. So what? I don't get ANY of your points...At ALL!

J

 

[cube]

I am just saying that Apple never made a 'true' Pro laptop (according to your own definition) in their history. Which makes it a bit difficult for me to understand your point. If you are looking for a customisable workstation, why are you interested in a MBP in the first place? It should be pretty clear that no MBP model ever released satisfy your criteria.

We are talking about a product revolution.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Thunderbolt doesn't need 'dongles'. Grab a Thunderbolt break out box according to your needs and every I/O option you named x 3 are available immediately, with the ability to tie your display(s) out of said break out box.

...

And no---your 2011 Air is NOT '87% as fast' as the current model. The GPU and PCIe SSD alone are 3 and 4 times (300 and 400%) faster than your model

I think you're missing the point. Unless I can plug an ethernet cable into my computer, I'll need a dongle. And if I go somewhere without a quality wireless network, I'll need some form of dongle, either in the form of a breakout box or dongle or voodoo magic.

And let me re-phrase that: My Air's CPU is 87% as fast as the current gen, and it's because Apple isn't selling a laptop that's high end. The PCI-e SSD isn't anything new - they've been around for years, and likewise the video card is simply a matter of Intel's natural progression, not Apple's desire to sell a high end computer.

 

[mcarling]

They could "revolutionise" it buy building an SSD which is removable, instead of soldering the darn thing onto the logic board.

All SSDs which have been shipped by Apple are removable.

 

[cube]

Immediate upgrade to 1.5 or even 2TB is easily done on a cMBP. 32GB on a laptop is a rare commodity. Having 4 RAM slots in a mobile mother/logic board requires more room, more power, more battery....and the physical need to utilize that much RAM. 16GB is a LOT of RAM. Other than After Effects (which will exponentially take advantage of every KB or RAM you have per frame!)...we use a lot of very performance oriented software and I'm not finding any RAM bottlenecks on any of our software. Smoke, ProTools and Audition, Maya, FCPx and 7, Premier and photoshop...more efficient RAM as Apple has managed to achieve near 100% in the rMBPs, something that can not possibly be accomplished with consumer dRAM modules...as well as faster storage, like the PCIe solutions in both the MBA and the new Mac Pro sporting speeds near 1200Gb/second...is close to half the swap speed of current RAM. Even with programs like AE or CAD software....why stop at 32? Not 64? Or 256GB? Real workstations that are made to take advantage of that much memory exist. However, that's an extremely nitch market. I'm not sure how many Dell Precisions are sold each year, but I can't imagine its many. Certainly not a profit driven choice and possibly a decision based primarily on big company contracts that they're more committed to providing than choosing to? Does that make any sense?

I guess I'd argue by 'pro' you mean making money with said machine, right? Isn't THAT the definition and difference between professional and amateur? These days I run my business and pay all of our bills as well as mortgages with Macs alone. And other than our 2010 MacPro, I've not found myself in a situation that I could make more money with 32GB of RAM in my MBP. I see professionals EVERYwhere with Macs, including an extremely successful pair of friends of mine using the new 13" MBA. They own one of if not THE most successful advertising agencies in our market. They were at our fantasy football draft last night going on and about what an 'improvement' for them their new (13") Airs were in comparison to their 17" MBPs. They run an ad agency...print, video/TV, radio/audio production. A lot of graphic, still and motion design and creative work...as well as the website design and digital 'apps' and social networking for local businesses. Point being...
TL/DR---as successful as possible which in my book equals 'pro' or Professional.

My doctor uses an 11" Air. I consider him a pro

We're doing the front of house and back line for about a dozen bands at the state fair this week and last. Foreigner, Bill Cosby, Philip Phillips, Bret Michaels, Hailstrom, Three doors down...several others. All DMX and recording is via Mac. A couple bands are using Macs and iPads on stage.
They're pros. I promise

Not everyone is designing rocket propulsion and guidance systems...or crunching DNA sequences, curing diseases w/folding @...and those that ARE doing these projects are renting time with super computers. Machines not available to most of us consumers.
Professional to me also means intelligent. Smart. And with common sense. There's a reason Apple goes back and forth by being the (or second/third) most valuable company in the world. They're making money...and their the only computer company that is continuing to make more money quarter after quarter. Some lower than others...but they continue to climb. I think Lenovo is the only other company doing the same. But not with the same consistency or quantity and they're not making 'pro' machines by your standards either.

I guess I disagree with you what constitutes a pro computer. Even the cheapest Windows machine @ Best Buy is many hundreds of percentage points faster, more efficient and MUCH more reliable than the guidance system that brought our astronauts to the moon and back....alive 40+ years ago! You had to have considered that a professional computer, right? It was one foot cubed and weighed around 70-80 lbs. before it was built, the power that thing put out took up an entire room before its inception

I guess my point is this, the 'pro' is not in the computer. It's in the user. Ask the fellas that started Rovio what they used to code the original (& maybe even the current) Angry Birds with



I've still got a pair of 2011 17" MBPs. I'm not at all fond of their 'port array'. The USB (2) ports are to close together to use more than two at a time for most USB devices...nothing has really caught on with the mini or micro or express PCMCIA slots....the rMBP (15) nailed it. If not one more USB 3 slot....twin thunderbolt. Twin USB 3 on opposite sides of the computer, HDMI, SD, an audio in/out single jack. Finally the thunderbolt docks are out and reasonable....and allow a lot of high speed connectivity including USB 3, FW800, DVI and HDMI, audio, et al. Having two ports compared to the single in the 17s has come in handy for us



But it's the only option that allows for a 'pro' build, right? I don't get your point. Are you unable to perform your Job with a Mac?

J

I said 32GiB because that is the maximum achievable today with 4 DDR3 SODIMMs. I could probably use more.

If they are all Pro, the moniker makes no sense, they are all BUSINESS laptops, but not pro technology.

It should be Pro like in the Mac Pro, iMacs are fine for most business users after all.

But you don't need workstation graphics for all serious power tech uses. What I would say is more important in general is ECC RAM, but Xeon is not made for laptops, I would expect AMD to show leadership here, like on the Desktop.

 

[Krazy Bill]

Wow. You guys are totally off the mark here. What makes you all think Apple will still be producing "laptops"? (or whatever hybrid you want to call them). OSX comprises only 15% of their revenue right now and that market share is dwindling (for everyone actually).

Apple has discontinued their polycarbonate macbook and the MBP17. The MacBucket Pro is an enigma and I wonder if it is just someone's pet project given approval when the stock price was still high. I think it will be short-lived and die in 4 years. The iMac soon following the same path.

I do believe the writing is on the wall and the question you should be asking is what is the evolution of the iPad, ARM processors and iOS.