Mac Sales Continue to Slide Amid Lack of Updates

[Osty]

These were the specs on my first laptop.

• 14.1" TFT active matrix XGA (1024 x 768), 24-bit color (16.7 million)
• Intel Pentium III 700 MHZ, 2 MB L2 cache
• 256 MB SDRAM 100 MHz
• 12 GB 2.5-inch IDE
• UltraBay for 3.5" diskette or DVD-R, CD-RW
• Ethernet, Fax/Modem
• Lithium-ion battery
• 12 in x 9.8 in x 1.3 in, 5.2 lb (with DVD-R, CD-RW)
• Windows 2000
• Pointing Stick
• Bought 11-21-2000 for $3,384.56

The price is in real $, not AUD.

Mate, I can beat that!

My first was a Toshiba Tecra 500CDT with:

* Pentium 1 (120Mhz) CPU
* 16MB of RAM
* 12.1 inch display at 800x600 @16.7m colours.
* Windows 95
* Modem, but no ethernet
* Swapable 3.5 inch floppy and CD ROM
* 1.2 GB HDD
* a whopping 3.6 kilos with a battery that lasted 1.5 hours

That computer got me through 4 years of undergrad studies and I thought I was mustard!

That was back when Palm Pilots where a thing and Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the hottest show on TV.

Looking back and I was super productive on that machine. The internet was real chore to use, the OS was boring but functional and it pretty much only ran Dos games like Quake and Command and Conquer. But God, did I write a lot on that machine, including all my essays, honours thesis and my first novel.

 

[MH01]

You all stop complaining and buy an iPad Pro , that's what Tim wants you to do, much better profit margin. STOP thinking what's better for YOU .

 

[Costino1]

I want an iMac but apple doesn't want my money I guess. Not buying last years model when a new one should be around the corner.

 

[CaptainMarvel]

I wouldn't exactly call it indefensible. The newer mobile CPUs (especially quad core) don't offer any real noticeable performance benefit. I can appreciate why Apple didn't feel the need to update to newer CPUs.

But then they should say so. They should say something!

Bad marketing and disrespectful communications.

 

[inkswamp]

I wish I wasn't so cynical about this but after so many years of seeing Apple neglect the desktop line in completely puzzling way (not even keeping the hardware current—that's just a no-brainer) I'm seriously starting to think the Mac may be at the end of the road. I would be disappointed but not surprised at this point if they announced and huge scaling back of the Mac. It's unfortunate because I still believe that merging the iMac and Mini into a really good headless machine would be a killer product but they're too religious about the outdated all-in-one thing.

 

[briloronmacrumo]

Which Apple had no qualms in removing after Snow Leopard.

Well, that's misleading at best. Transitive Corporation developed the Rosetta technology and licensed it to Apple. Once Transitive's Rosetta was sold to IBM in 2009, Apple had few choices since they were only a licensee.

 

[a.gomez]

Well, you need to be insane or desperate to pay full price for a mac right now.

 

[briloronmacrumo]

I thought the rumors were pointing to an October release too. As a Mac supporter this is really discouraging.

October is not over and the few hints we have point to late October.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

According to rumors, Apple is planning to introduce a revamped MacBook Pro as soon as next month

Why next month? I thought October- now is November?
[doublepost=1476251853][/doublepost]

Well, you need to be insane or desperate to pay full price for a mac right now.

Or a company which refreshes every 3 years no matter what.

 

[Feenician]

Not all PCs are made of plastic anymore: Surface Pro 4 and Dell XPS, for instance. Dell XPS has a 4k screen option too...

Not but the one in question is
[doublepost=1476252136][/doublepost]

I want an iMac but apple doesn't want my money I guess. Not buying last years model when a new one should be around the corner.

Yeah those Skylake iMacs with 5k screens for barely more than a similar quality 5k screen alone are truly thumbing their nose at you

 

[CmdrLaForge]

I'd imagine Apple has ran evaluations internally and ultimately decided to skip certain intel chipset releases, due to insignificant incremental performance/efficiency, after weighing in the amount of engineering and testing involved.

For a company like Apple the internal release is a piece of cake in particular compared to the loss of sales due to lack of updates.
[doublepost=1476252486][/doublepost]

I agree with a previous poster - it's more of a psychological issue. I have the "top of the line" MPB 15 - and not once have I had ever thought geez I wish this thing were faster.

Besides games, what's taxing these machines? The current line is more then adequate for 90% of current use cases. Same goes for the other platforms.

I think it's a case of wanting the new every year...vs actually needing the marginal improvements yr over yr.

You are right but that's not the point. Point is that there an newer CPUs and gpu available and that these machines cost top dollars. Same for the upgrade cost of the SSD. Apple charges way to much.

 

[kamalds]

well there's a shocker...

/sarcasm

They should learn something from Lenovo and HP.

 

[Stingray454]

Remember the days when MacBook models were called something like "early", "mid" or "late" before the year? And when there would actually be more than one release per year? Those were the days..

 

[Feenician]

Remember the days when MacBook models were called something like "early", "mid" or "late" before the year? And when there would actually be more than one release per year? Those were the days..

That... that never happened. They're still called early/mid/late but the fantasy world you're living in where models were updated more than once a year... No. (at least post-Intel)

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Apple died with Steve Jobs. They've just been coasting for the last 5 years. Nothing reallly innovative anymore. Just rehashes of the same tired products.

You must have missed all the great bands for the Apple Watch

 

[Feenician]

You must have missed all the great bands for the Apple Watch

Ha ha ha! Courage, amirite? You're updating it wrong!

 

[pat500000]

I see graphic designers, video editors, people who work in hollywood, everyday users, business users with MacBook Pros that are at least 5 years old. They don't seem to be complaining. I think a lot of the want for the latest and greatest is a psychological issue. More of a want than a need. Sure, you want to have the latest, but if your 2008, 2009, 2010 or even 2012 MacBook Pro 15 inch were to break, are you saying the 2014 Haswell models wouldn't be sufficient? 16 GBs of RAM, Core i7, Iris or Discrete graphics, fash Flash is not good enough?

I can bet the most stress most of you ever put on your Macs is loading Macrumors and TMZ.

Some people prefer desktop...you know..sitting on a comfy chair while editing the crap like there's no tomorrow while starring at big screens ...

 

[Feenician]

Some people prefer desktop...you know..sitting on a comfy chair while editing the crap like there's no tomorrow while starring at big screens ...

There are pretty fast Skylake 5k models for those people.

 

[Brien]

Only an idiot would even defend a product lineup.

I dunno. Plenty of people here defend anything Apple. I just hope they update the MBP before the year is over.

 

[Feenician]

I dunno. Plenty of people here defend anything Apple. I just hope they update the MBP before the year is over.

And by the same token plenty of people whinge about "crapple" not shipping processors that, quite literally, do not exist and will not exist for another 6 months.

 

[Brien]

Probably. The internet's a strange place.

 

[Stingray454]

That... that never happened. They're still called early/mid/late but the fantasy world you're living in where models were updated more than once a year... No. (at least post-Intel)

Uhm, yes it did. Some examples:

Retina MacBook Pro, early 2013 and late 2013
Macbook Pro, early 2011 and late 2011
Original Macbook (still intel), early 2009, mid 2009 (specbump) and new model late 2009

 

[MacBH928]

Maybe the computers department should split into its own subsidiary/company. Tim is too busy creating new Emojis
[doublepost=1476255206][/doublepost]"According to rumors, Apple is planning to introduce a revamped MacBook Pro as soon as next month"

I have been waiting since late 2015 based on reliable rumors just like these! Next month, its going to be the month after that!

 

[pat500000]

There are pretty fast Skylake 5k models for those people.

You mean Pc?

 

[dotnet]

Well, that's misleading at best.

I think it's a mindset. If you have it in your head that Apple are bunch of baby-killing poachers then you'll see an Apple exec with a knife behind every corner.