Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Than you haven’t understood Steve jobs. The pc is going to evolve into post pc, not to die into post pc.
What cook-Apple lacks is evolution. Touchbar is less useful than a touchpad with display (this would have been a perfect combination of Mac and iOS hardware).
You can spin this article further by including iPads on the list of overdue updates
I guess that is the problem. Apple doesn't have the vision any more. To be fair, neither did Steve Jobs knew. He wasn't totally comfortable with Mac being replaced by iPad either. And I think that is where Apple got caught in the middle.
And forgot what makes them great.
Continue to make the BEST product. Make the best Smartphone, make the best tablet, make the best PC.
And the market will figure it out!. Right now we can surely argue Apple has the best Smartphone and Tablet. I am not so sure on the PC.
And that’s so sad, because for a very long time it has been the best pc.
Yes, I am well aware of the noise this small but extremely vocal group of critics can make, having been on the receiving end more than once myself.
I bought an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil, Apple Watch and Airpods in 2016 alone. Speaks volumes about what I think about the mobile side of Apple.
Unless you mean their laptop wing. But I am more an iPad guy myself.
And this is precisely what I mean when I say that the people criticising Apple haven’t the faintest understanding about how Apple works.
Apple was never a tech company to begin with. Apple is, and always has been, a design company. That is why in the late 1990s, Steve Jobs shifted the power structure within Apple so that designers had control and influence over engineers. The logic in turning Apple into a design-led company was that design is the item that leads to great products. The iMac was the first product to be born out of this new power structure.
And their ignorance is all the more apparent when they openly mock the Apple Watch bands. Contrary to popular belief, this product is incredibly important for Apple. Watch bands are the primary reason Apple has been able to sell so many Apple Watches to date and become the wearables leader in the process. While there is value and convenience found with having a small screen positioned on the top of one's wrist, the key reason people are willing to wear that screen in the first place is because of Watch bands. It is not a coincidence that Apple Watch bands are the most frequently updated product at Apple.
So I do find it ironic when the people who claim to be the most passionate about the Mac (which is itself a product of the very design-led culture that they do hate) are the ones who don’t seem to understand the design process that led to its conception in the first place.
Perhaps we should. Perhaps we should.
I am in the market for 5 Mac minis but since they are 4 years old I am looking at the dell micros instead. Will likely pull the trigger on them but filled out a form to get a 15% off coupon and its been days and it hasn't arrived. The Dells are so much better in terms of engineering, case pops right off and you can upgrade the SATA drive, ram, add a M2 drive, all without any tools
apple is greedy no two things about it. I bought a windows desktop months ago with latest intel, no reason apple could have not upgraded. I've had it with Mac OS and switching over has made me realize I can run everything under windows with no problems and very speedy I must say with a nice graphics card for 1/4 of the price.
well, at least they made an ad. that's enough updates until 2020
People are used to a CEO with power. A CEO is typically hired to lead a company. Usually they are chosen to replace a CEO who is doing a poor job of leading the company.
The success of a company usually depends on how effectively the CEO leads. And when they make enough mistakes, they get fired.
In this case, a very successful CEO lead Apple to the top. And unfortunately passed away. Tim was essentially “willed” the position of CEO by Jobs. Same as some might inherit a piece of furniture.
Tim’s job title is CEO. But Tim’s role is not CEO. Tim’s role is that of delivering official statements (likely written by someone else), and acting as a figurehead much like Tony the Tiger for Kellogg’s.
He presents what the board tasks him with.
The confusion is to be expected. Kind of like the false impression that the Royal Family rules and runs England. We are educated to learn how Kings ruled the kingdoms and countries. So we would expect a King or Queen of England to run the country. But they don’t.
In the same way, we expect CEO’s to run companies. And typically they do. But in this case, Apple is more like England. So people are understandably confused.
Apple has become very slow in general about product releases and from my own anecdotal experience this is hurting them.
Thinking your device will be out of date in 6 months isn't a problem if you known that just happens EVERY 6 months, but thinking an Apple update is due soon and then the next one won't be until another 1-2 years kills my interest in them. I'd much rather go with another brand than regret paying the Apple tax at the wrong time.
One of Apple's major benefits is product integration but this is delicate and once it starts to fall apart it collapses quickly.
And so now I find myself as an Apple fan having a minority of Apple products whereas once it was a majority.
Summary
Laptop: MacBook Pro from mid 2014 and no guarantee my next laptop will be a Mac
Desktop: linux workstation replacing 2012 Mac
Phone: iPhone user since the original but returned 8 Plus after a week and now using a OnePlus 6
Home speaker: Amazon Echo Plus instead of late and expensive HomePod
TV streaming: Amazon Fire TV instead of underwhelming and expensive Apple TV
Portable/waterproof speaker: Bose instead of whatever Beats branded speaker Apple probably offer
Wireless earphones: Bose SoundSport rather than the flimsy Powerbeats or AirPods which Apple announced would receive a wireless charging update about a year ago
Wireless hub: TP-Link rather than the outdated and then discontinued AirPort
Basically no significant money spent on Apple in over 4 years and consequently I'm now even looking to drop my iCloud and iTunes usage in case the trend continues.
Thinking your device will be out of date in 6 months isn't a problem if you known that just happens EVERY 6 months, but thinking an Apple update is due soon and then the next one won't be until another 1-2 years kills my interest in them. I'd much rather go with another brand than regret paying the Apple tax at the wrong time.
One of Apple's major benefits is product integration but this is delicate and once it starts to fall apart it collapses quickly.
And so now I find myself as an Apple fan having a minority of Apple products whereas once it was a majority.
Summary
Laptop: MacBook Pro from mid 2014 and no guarantee my next laptop will be a Mac
Desktop: linux workstation replacing 2012 Mac
Phone: iPhone user since the original but returned 8 Plus after a week and now using a OnePlus 6
Home speaker: Amazon Echo Plus instead of late and expensive HomePod
TV streaming: Amazon Fire TV instead of underwhelming and expensive Apple TV
Portable/waterproof speaker: Bose instead of whatever Beats branded speaker Apple probably offer
Wireless earphones: Bose SoundSport rather than the flimsy Powerbeats or AirPods which Apple announced would receive a wireless charging update about a year ago
Wireless hub: TP-Link rather than the outdated and then discontinued AirPort
Basically no significant money spent on Apple in over 4 years and consequently I'm now even looking to drop my iCloud and iTunes usage in case the trend continues.
Last edited:
Indeed. Good spot. It puts me off buying one more than the price/specification situation.
That’s when you consider thinner a meaningful design change for a desktop computer. My 2009 iMac still looks brand new as long as you don’t look at it from the side. And I don’t.
Ubuntu on my Dell XPS 13 is awfully nice. Truly the only time I have a problem is, tellingly, when the coffee-shop's wifi goes down and I can't get online using my iPhone SE instead... I'm sorry, but Personal Hotspot is not a compelling reason to buy a Macbook; more likely I'll switch off iPhone next time instead.
Emm ... most of the Macintosh computers "aren't really phisically made" by Apple. They are outsourced to other (chinese) companies. At least the iMac, Macbook series etc.
You forget to mention that report by IBM that shows Windows pCs may be cheaper but they last far less and have far inferior build quality compared to Macs.
So buying a Mac is cheaper long run when taken over say 5 year period. The PC WILL break down, it WILL suffer many many many errors and faults and it WILL more than likely get hacked and so on and so on.
I used to be a hardcore Windows user back to the days of DOS. I lost count of the amount of times I had problem after problem after fault after fault after issue. I even was willing to give Windows 8 a go and found it to be nothing but a pain in the **** and do not even get me started on Windows 10.
I then switched over to Mac and have had FAR less problems, faults and issues.
With Windows there was hardly a week where I did not have to reinstall the dam thing due to the stupid and insecure way the OS is designed and coded. Sometimes it was my fault but mostly not.
I mean with Win 8 I had it installed and nothing else, stock settings and the thing crashed all the dam time. Even reinstalling led to same thing, I thought that BSOD went out with Win 95, apparently not!
With Mac I only have reinstalled about 5 times in 4 years and they were all down to me being fussy. I did not need to reinstall because of a major fault, I chose to do so because I was being picky.
As to the lack of hardware updates in the Mac line up I agree that Apple needs to stop saying they have not abandoned us and start showing it instead of focusing on iPhone users and profits.
Refreshing the whole Mac lineup once a year with fresh processors would be hygenic from Apple. No need to reinvent what already works great and redesign stuff, just keep it updated. Their products are not cheap, selling a premium product with a few years old hardware is not a good practice IMO.
Waiting for the usual "Apple is committed to the [insert product here] and will address concerns in the near future" comment from Apple.
[doublepost=1529146377][/doublepost]
Been using several dozen Windows machines at work since 2008. We've only lost one. And that was because a cleaner accidentally pushed it off a desk.
Macs on the other hand are constantly breaking down and given their much higher software restrictions / obsolecence over Windows they're becoming a very difficult platform to deploy.
[doublepost=1529146377][/doublepost]
Been using several dozen Windows machines at work since 2008. We've only lost one. And that was because a cleaner accidentally pushed it off a desk.
Macs on the other hand are constantly breaking down and given their much higher software restrictions / obsolecence over Windows they're becoming a very difficult platform to deploy.
The iPad hasn't missed any A-series processor generation yet. They simply haven't gotten them always at the same time as the iPhone.
I agree with this.
It's not that the current machines are bad, it's just that there is no compelling reason to upgrade (for existing users).
My personal experience:
I have a 2009 iMac 27" with the i7 processor - the first quad-core iMac.
I also have a 2012 iMac 27", again i7.
In day to day usage, there is no discernible difference. The performance is within a few points of each other. Looking at newer machines, the only 'pull' to a current iMac 27" is the retina display.
There would be nothing to convince me to upgrade from the 2009 to a brand new machine, let alone from the 2012.
Laptops are a little different, as the form factor of the latest MacBook Pros is massively smaller and lighter. If only I didn't have to carry a bunch of USB adaptors with the new USB-C-only machine!
It's not that the current machines are bad, it's just that there is no compelling reason to upgrade (for existing users).
My personal experience:
I have a 2009 iMac 27" with the i7 processor - the first quad-core iMac.
I also have a 2012 iMac 27", again i7.
In day to day usage, there is no discernible difference. The performance is within a few points of each other. Looking at newer machines, the only 'pull' to a current iMac 27" is the retina display.
There would be nothing to convince me to upgrade from the 2009 to a brand new machine, let alone from the 2012.
Laptops are a little different, as the form factor of the latest MacBook Pros is massively smaller and lighter. If only I didn't have to carry a bunch of USB adaptors with the new USB-C-only machine!
And can you name a year that hasn't happened for the MBP? Or a processor generation the iMac skipped over?
"Apple needs to publicly show their commitment to the full Macintosh hardware line and they need to do it now," writes Carnicelli.
Unfortunately, is not that this statement is true but also true is the fact that running for profit is a must but remain top with loyal user also. Is time Tim Apple CEO show that Mac users has a value in keeping the ecosystem alive and working. Is a shame that Mac mini still run on so obsolete hw and in general other hw refresh are so slow. Last issue size is matter ! Still being capable to change battery, memory and HD by ourselves is a value we really so much.. Tim wake up !
Oh no, my friend. That was innovation. Some would go so far as to say bravery.
I have the same opinion about Windows. I've been a Windows user since my first PC in 1994 and I think I've lost one HDD to a failure and a couple of GFX cards, one of which I suspect I killed myself with static. My current gaming PC is nearly 6 years old and the most trouble I've had with it was when I had 8.1 installed and the USB would stop working. Rebooting fixed it. It hasn't happened since I installed Windows 10 on the same PC. In 24 years of computing, I don't think that's too bad.
Can't say anything about Mac because I don't have one (yet) but there have been issues such as the screen coating problem and recent keyboard problem that I am aware of.
The Mac Pro is a 2019 product Apple did say this earlier this year, the MacBook Pro’s were last updated last year as were the iMac’s, MacBook’s and so on. The only exception I believe is the Mac Mini which hasn’t been updated in about 5 years. I think Apple will update the Mac’s in October maybe holding an event.