You are so very right, when not happy you really should tell Apple. So I took your advice and wrote them:
Dear Apple,
I'm a pro user, Apple solution expert and a APPL share holder and I'm very sad to say that I was totaly and utterly dissapointed by the new notebook product line. Here are my thoughts.
Glossy screens
Those who have tried both matte and glossy screens knows what I'm talking about. Sure, colors may appear more saturated on a glossy screen but there is nothing that says that a good matte screen shouldn't be good at displaying colors. With a glossy screen there is much greater problems with reflections, mirroring, dirt, dust and smudge than with a matte screen. Then there are personal preferences as well, myself I develop hedaches when using a glossy screen, I have two MBP 17", one with glossy and one with matte screen so I do notice the difference. There are several reports that confirm this and in several european countries there are regulations about using glossy screens in workplaces and those regulations are there for a reason. Sure, you can move or adjust your work place to avoid reflections in the screen, but why would I have to rearrange my desk in order to make my new $2000 laptop work as it should? Also, rearranging my workplace or moving around gets hard when travelling like on a train or in a plane. Sure you can turn off the light in the room to avoid refelections but why would I want to work in darkness? Sure, I can adjust the screen brightness to compensate the reflections but then agian, why would I do that? How grey would the black parts of the screen get and how much would the increased brightness affect the battery performance while travelling? All those problems could easily be fixed by offering a matte screen as an option to the glossy one. To me a glossy screen is a big "no no" and I will simply not buy a machine with a glossy screen based on my thoughts above. This is a worsening of the product line.
Firewire
First, the Macbook. I currently own a white Macbook that I mainly use when on vacation. Checking emails, backing up photos from my camera and movies from my DV-camera. But that will no longer be possible since there is no firewire and my DV-cam is firewire only. Also, at home, this Macbook serves as somewhat of a mediacenter using Eye-tv and that's also firewire only. So there's a "no no" on the Macbook as well. Considering the alternatives, buying a $2000 MBP just to be able to connect my DV-cam when on vacation? No way. Buying a new DV-cam just to be able to connect it to a USB? No way. Big dissapointment. Also, Apple has until now always promoted firewire so all my external equipment such as backup disks etc. are firewire only. What about Firewire target disk mode when troubleshooting or transfering accounts to a new Mac? This is a worsening of the product line.
The Macbook Pro then. Well, when introducing the Macbook Pro CoreDuo there was only one firewire port which was bad and when the Core2Duo version arrived it was equipped with two ports, much better. Why is that better then. Well, many firewire peripherals such as soundcards, Eye-tv some harddrives lacks firewire throughput connectios thus ending the firewire chain. Well, I have two such devices which makes it impossible to connect them both to the new Macbook Pros. Sure I could get myself a expresscard with firewire ports but why would I have to do that on a $2000 portable? This is a worsening of the product line.
The overall design
My personal preferences are that the black border and keyboard are ugly but that is my personal preferences although I think that I shuld share them with you, they are not design flaws as the problems described above but still an issue to me. Also why is the new macbook 15" heavier than the old 15"? That seems really backwards. To me this is a worsening of the product line.
I might sound bitter and disappointed and perhaps I am but I consider yesterdays "upgrades" to be "downgrades". Apple has finally become more style than substance and functionallity has become less important which is sad.
I feel that Apple is unfortunately loosing its goals and failing to provide to fullfill the customers requirements. I have now spent a lot of time reading forums and blogs to get a feel of how the new product line was recieved and I have noticed two things:
1. "Regular consumers" feels that the product line is to expensive and that Apple is to much into the pro-market.
2. "Pro users" feels that Apple is turning to much "consumer" especially when it comes to the glossy screen and firewire flaws and that Apple is forgetting the Pro-users.
That leaves Apple with a very small and uncertain target group, those who are willing to pay premium prices for non-pro products. As a share holder this is troubling. Lycky enough Apple has very loyal customers who are determined to stick with Apple whatever happens and many, like myself, have built and purchased so many things based on the Apple platform such as peripherals and software that there really is no alternative than to stick with Apple. This is sad.
Those are my thoughts and I hope that they are valuable to Apple.
Fantastic post.
