New MacBook Pro Has Already Outsold All Competing Laptops This Year

[gnasher729]

Youngsters today have a very different understanding of "incompatible" than I do. Any peripheral I can still use with a $4.50 adapter or a $9 replacement cable is not "incompatible"

Apparently you are one of the rare people who can go to the Amazon or eBay website and find what you need at the best possible price, while the complainers look at the most expensive way to connect things. Both my home and work MacBooks have one massive powered USB hub to connect _everything_, and all I'd do is either buy a new hub with USB-C for £30, or one of those £2.99 adapters and just plug the existing hub in. The whiners here would somehow manage to spend $200 to achieve the same - or run out of ports because there are only so many ports.
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OTOH, for a 3rd Party company who's contemplating offering something like a USB-C peripheral, they want to know how big the potential customer base is, so their metric of merit is more likely to be units sold & out in the wild.

So who do you think is going to buy more peripherals, someone who has demonstrated that they are not afraid to put their hand in their pocket and pay $2,000 for a computer, or someone who scraped together just enough to buy a $500 laptop?

Make a guess. How many hard drives are being sold to be attached to a $2,000 computer for backups, and how many for $500 computers?

 

[mur.mur]

I think the issue with this new line of macbook pro it's something more subtle than just specs or the debatable bar...

I asked myself this question.... what is wrong with this thing? why I'm actually buying a EOL macbook pro 15 retina instead of the new one?

well... I think the answer is .... there is something intangible, a sort of magic / mystic element in most of the macs.... even when they were a failure... like the cube... I remeber when the first macbook air was presented... underpowered, expensive, no ports basically.... and yet... it was so easy to fall in love with it... it seemed coming from a different planet, a game changer.... yes I didn't need it and I didn't buy it but i loved it nevertheless.

And you can say the same for many of apple products in the past.... even the new macbook is lovely with its extreme, superthin profile .... this one though like the iphone 6 and 7.... well u may respect it because it's really well done, it does tick on paper a lot of good points... but I cannot fall in love with it .... it lacks the wow factor like i dunno 14 and 16 inch bordless screen, a spage age material instead of aluminium... ...something that besides the numbers you know you are getting something special, something unique.... and I'm sorry but the touch bar it's just not enough.

I also guess the expectations were really high considering we were waiting a complete redesign for ages....

for the lack of better words I would call this new macbook pro... souless.

 

[flat five]

and I'm sorry but the touch bar it's just not enough.

the larger trackpad doesn't do it for you either?

i don't know if it adds soul but the trackpad alone is seeming a-ok.

 

[michaelsviews]

I've had the base 15" in my cart twice CC number entered and just cannot justify spending $2600.00 + what ever dongles I need. Love a bigger than 13" screen that I currently use but looks like I may have to buy something else and put linux on it.

Cheaper is NOT always better either

 

[cmaier]

Apparently you are one of the rare people who can go to the Amazon or eBay website and find what you need at the best possible price, while the complainers look at the most expensive way to connect things. Both my home and work MacBooks have one massive powered USB hub to connect _everything_, and all I'd do is either buy a new hub with USB-C for £30, or one of those £2.99 adapters and just plug the existing hub in. The whiners here would somehow manage to spend $200 to achieve the same - or run out of ports because there are only so many ports.

I can't believe the complaint is really that they have to buy a new USB-B -> USB-C cable or two or an adapter for existing thumbdrives for a few dollars. I am reasonably sure that if apple threw a few spare cables and adapters into the box, they'd still somehow rationalize that Apple adopting the cutting edge connector is somehow done simply to spite customers.

 

[mur.mur]

the larger trackpad doesn't do it for you either?

no, not really.... it's just larger.

 

[flat five]

no, not really.... it's just larger.

right. that's what's good about it.
idk, i guess it depends on what you use the trackpad for.. for me, it's an improvement.

 

[mur.mur]

right. that's what's good about it.
idk, i guess it depends on what you use the trackpad for.. for me, it's an improvement.

I'm not saying it's a bad machine and it's not improved.... I wouldn't expect nothing less for the price.... I just cannot fall for it.... to me it's just a well executed computer. Which I agree is not a small task, but it lacks the extra mile.

 

[Abazigal]

Well, I guess that the so-called professionals who were hoping for poor MacBook sales to somehow serve as vindication that their complaints were legitimate will now have to look elsewhere for support.

You will have to forgive me if I gloat. Not because I don't think that their concerns were unfounded, but because they have managed to singlehandedly destroy whatever sympathy and goodwill they may have once had with all the incessant whining and griping of theirs.

 

[Rookbird]

Really? This sounds like twisting and manipulating statistics to make your self look good. They are really comparing the MacBook Pro sales to just 5 other "notable" laptops. That's a joke. That looks like comparing apples to oranges to me. Also note how they say the MacBook Pro "accumulated more revenue from online orders". First off I think people always order MacBooks online more so than other manufacturers laptops ESPECIALLY since the MacBook Pros with the touch bar is ONLY available online right now. Second notice how the say the MacBook accumulated more revenue. Well sure. It's quite expensive. It's a better comparison to compare units sold not revenue made. Like I said it sounds like they are doing damage control and trying to make it look like the MacBook Pro is a huge hit by manipulating statistics.

 

[darkandlong]

People really will buy any old **** if Apple makes it.

Maybe it's the djs buying them up. They'll need two each. They just gots to get their fingers on those tiny strips. Ebay is probably swamped with Vestax turntables.

 

[dilbert99]

I literally don't even care about this anymore. I don't care if the new MacBook Pro sells well in the first few days. I'll just stop complaining and do whatever suits me. Moving on in life.

EDIT: I'm getting kinda tired of the complaints. Even though I agree the new Macs aren't as good as before, I feel that more complaints won't do any good.

Complaints = half price dongles so it does work to complain.

 

[brianvictor7]

I’m not willing to take it. I’ve had £2.5K with Tims name on it since December ’13, but they released that trashcan style Mac Am instead. Hopefully they’ll do the right thing.

Maybe there will be a Mac Pro update in spring.

 

[d4rkc4sm]

Can't trust polls or statistics, you know what i mean?

 

[brianvictor7]

Would that be the retina iMac that cost only slightly more than Dell were selling the same monitor panel for? The retina iMac was introduced at a very good price.

The Retina iMac seemed appropriately priced at the time of released given they explained the bargain you were getting for the screen alone. That's fine. I think the real problem here is Apple's brand value has diminished in the old guard's eyes and we're just not liking that Apple continues to charge like it is still heads and shoulders above the competition. They're not anymore. They're still good. We're still willing to pay a high price, but we don't appreciate having to pay *that* high a price anymore. It's admittedly subjective.

 

[dilbert99]

When I switched from my 2013 MBP to the 2016 MB I was worried about only having one port, but seriously, until you use it, it's not that big of a deal! Give it a try everyone. Buy something different on a sad day like today.

How do I plug in a drive and charge at the same time? It's a huge deal.

 

[vvs14]

The cost of the laptop certainly includes the cost of the adapters or wires required to get it to work in your workflow. If it costs too much, then don't buy it.

But Apple has made the decision that the usb-c connector is the connector of the future, and has removed all other connectors to help hasten that day. And to say that Apple only cares about profit and doesn't care about the future, and to cite that decision as proof, is crazy.

Again, I don't agree with the argument of if its too much for you then don't buy it... Take an example of someone who previously started using Mac for business with previous price point, which he thought was reasonable. Now he is at a point where he cannot leave the Apple ecosystem and needs to upgrade his laptop for whatever reason. But Apple suddenly makes the laptops expensive which means that upgrading is going to be unaffordable. The customer loses when something like this happens.

And I am not of the opinion that Apple only cares for profit. Clearly they have brought about positive change in the portable electronics industry.

 

[brianvictor7]

Abuse?? I actually lol'ed when I read that word. It does not belong here in this consumer forum unless you're talking about putting iPhones in blenders. I hope you were being partially facetious.
Not sure how you feel disrespected either. I don't think apple ever promised or even strongly implied a release schedule for the mbp nor that they would keep it at an affordable price for any particular person. Like any company they charge as much as they think enough people will pay, and so far it looks like they guessed right. Good for apple and the ones buying, bad for the rest of us. But there's no foul play here.

I was expressing my feelings. No I wasn't being facetious. When I used the terms disrespectful and abusive, I was expressing how many of us feel treated as loyal customers. We helped get Apple where they are. Now Apple's star is lower in the sky. Its still a fine company. We still like what they make, but their perceived value compared to competitors doesn't continue to command the increase in prices that they are charging. Not in many of our minds. Not when you have Microsoft starting to really compete with Apple at its own game of being creating both the hardware and software in a nice shiny attractive getup with a mind-blowing intro advert to boot.

It is subjective, admittedly. And you are correct that Apple seems to have guessed correctly at the price that people are willing to pay this time around. Now that competition is rising, I don't expect them to continue to get away with that. When they continue to charge hundreds of dollars to double up on SSD memory that you can buy for 1/10th the price, we eventually start to feel taken advantage of.

 

[dilbert99]

Apple doesn't care about specs as much as experience. You should know that by now. It's still a powerful machine through perfect hardware and software integration.

They don't care about experience either
Removal of ports, removal of pro software, inflated prices, 1/10 repair ability and eye watering repair prices

 

[brianvictor7]

What world are you guys living in? These prices are about on par with previous years. If you want a cheaper laptop go to Dell.

I bought my rMBP in 2012 for about $2500. The new ones include a Touch Bar, thunderbolt ports and a MUCH FASTER SSD and still around the same price.

In 2012, the retina was still a new thing for laptops. The price was more justified. Apples perceived value was also still at zenith. It isn't anymore. Its still high, but not as high as it used to be. And of course, the new gen machine would have faster/better, but does the Touchbar and incremental port upgrades really earn the price bump? That is up to the consumer to decide. I decide it doesn't. Others will disagree. That's fine.

 

[JohnnyGo]

Yes, that's me, and I am still struggling to decide to buy it or not (actually, more like which one to get and which USB-C dongles I need). I am like most people here, I don't like what Apple has done to the new Macbook Pro. But I am just too tied to the mac ecosystem, and MacOS is still a pretty good OS.
So although I am disappointed with the hardware, and still very happy with the software/OS.
I did made the transition to Android a couple of years ago, but that was because I was disappointed with BOTH the hardware and software from Apple.

So yes, I desperately need to upgrade my 4+ years old MBP...........

Maybe you will be able to solve your problems with a docking station (OWC) or changing some cables (for monitors and external drives). I ordered the same dongles I used with my MBA: HDMI-usbC

It has been ages since I used a flash drive but I will eventually buy a dual usbC - usbA flash drive just in case.

 

[dilbert99]

MR is full of Apple haters, so are most of the sites.

The Verge forums, they ban the people who simply like Apple, for example, because MS is running the show after all...

I am an Apple fanboy and I have now been clean for a few weeks
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Also, I think this has to be balanced with the amount of time spent doing it the "more". Sure I can connect a lot of peripherals to my Late 2011 MBP 15 with 16GB RAM and SSD, but ultimately, a 2015 or 2016 MBP is going to run rings around it (for the most demanding of use scenarios).

Yet a 2016 mbp won't run rings around a 2015 mbp, go figure

 

[brianvictor7]

But you are getting more than you were before.

Before Price for a normal macbook : $X

New price of a NEW normal Macbook: : $X
New price of Normal Macbook + Additional Features = $X + 300

Let me first say how much I appreciate that you are making me think this through. I've not been able to clearly articulate my reasoning so far. You make a fair, implied point. The price jumps are similar to what we've seen with significant new releases. Apple knows how they've priced things in the past, so they're working off a strategy that has worked before. So why do so many of us feel taken advantage of here?

It took me until this afternoon to pin it. Apple's perceived value in many of our eyes has dropped significantly. It's still a great company. It still makes products we'd like to own. But it isn't heads and shoulders above the competition anymore. This is an admittedly subjective opinion, but it doesn't come out of a vacuum. Apple's competitors have (finally) begun to emulate Apple's winning strategy. Microsoft just released the innovative Surface Studio wherein it both controls the hardware and the software. It even had an Apple-worthy promo for the Studio to boot.

So now there is valid competition for Apple. As a consumer, I see Apple's value decrease, so I expect the price to follow. That isn't happening. Of course, Apple doesn't have to agree with me. It doesn't have to validate my "hurt" feeling by charging them what I consider an insulting price. They're a business and they're at liberty to risk losing me as a customer.

So far, it looks like not enough of us feel the same as I do to make a difference. So be it.
Personally, I am still rooting for them to make better products than the competition. They're my favorite and they worked hard to earn that. It will take a lot more than this to lose that loyalty.

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Out of curiosity, why aren't you comparing the old entry level MBP 256GB for $1499 (price before new release) with the new entry level 2016 MBP 256GB for $1499? Wouldn't that be more of an apples to apples comparison....if so, then it seems like the prices are basically the same.

As with my reply to Crzyrio, let me say how much I appreciate that you are making me think this through. It seems my reply to him merged with yours, so I'll humbly refer you to that one (so that the moderators don't scold me for writing a duplicative response).

 

[Iconoclysm]

Deny a prisoner water long enough, and he'll eventually drink anything.

Then why not drink the PC choices?

 

[Dammit Cubs]

There is a reason people are on a message board and Tim is still there...

If you can make a better computer - please do so. On a message forum, everyone is a billionaire right?

There is a reason why they make as much money as they do. If you don't like the product, just don't buy it. End of story.