Popular Mac Developer Slams Apple for 'Sad State of Macintosh Hardware'

[jinnyman]

The article is spot-on.

The only possible reason for all this mayhem, I believe, is ARM mac, and I really hope it's not.

 

[crodonline]

Products do not need to be updated every year. That is financially impossible for the average consumer to update every year. Now the products that haven’t been updated in 4-5 years, that is a shame, but a year? Come on! Now if a product is defective, then yes but some of the line up, you’re asking for a speed bump. If you bought the last refresh and you’re asking for a speed bump, is there really something wrong?

Only a select few can buy new Apple products every year. Apple does need to work on their OS because the OS causes more physical problems then slightly aging parts (minus the keyboard debacle with MacBooks). Every two years should be the minimum for a refresh. And if they really aren’t going to update a product, be honest so people can think of the alternative product to get. If someone wants to stay with Apple, they will.

Be transparent Apple, but people...an every year upgrade seems silly. Shouldn’t we want products to last?

Okay, mini rant over

 

[Neepman]

Couldn't agree more. There is more energy at Apple put into pooping out a new and buggy iOS each year that's ultimately designed to sunset your two-year-old mobile device as it primary goal, than there is on hardware for users that actually need their computers to work for a living.

 

[Arran]

Products do not need to be updated every year. That is financially impossible for the average consumer to update every year. Now the products that haven’t been updated in 4-5 years, that is a shame, but a year? Come on! Now if a product is defective, then yes but some of the line up, you’re asking for a speed bump. If you bought the last refresh and you’re asking for a speed bump, is there really something wrong?

Only a select few can buy new Apple products every year. Apple does need to work on their OS because the OS causes more physical problems then slightly aging parts (minus the keyboard debacle with MacBooks). Every two years should be the minimum for a refresh. And if they really aren’t going to update a product, be honest so people can think of the alternative product to get. If someone wants to stay with Apple, they will.

Be transparent Apple, but people...an every year upgrade seems silly. Shouldn’t we want products to last?

Okay, mini rant over

Different people are on different refresh cycles.

 

[albebaubles]

And they evidently forget that a large reason for their resurgence in the 2000s was that the platform was attractive to developers. Without pro-level hardware, how will they attract the developers they need to keep the iOS App Store populated?

If JetBrains would provide app code on windows -- I'd switch back. It's difficult to put into words how much I hate this 2016MBP. It's not a bad machine as a desktop, but that 'keyboard' is the worst I've ever encountered. The membrane keyboard on my Atari 400 was better.

 

[Altis]

Can't believe the Mac has been so badly neglected.

Can only think that they're madly working on their new iOS Pro line of computers.

Horrible time to be in the market for a new machine.

Great time to be in the market for a non-Apple computer.

 

[mikethemartian]

Please explain where Apple is leading the world in tech?

It’s not just about ports and CPUs. But yes, some of us rely on CPUs and ports to do our work efficiently. But don’t let that detail wreck your argument.




ere

Apple leads in developing consumer products not in cutting edge technology. IBM and Microsoft work on quantum computing research. I haven’t found any information indicating any such interest from Apple.

 

[crodonline]

Different people are on different refresh cycles.

Some of those who complain aren’t the ones in the market to update their computer after 3-5 years. But even if you have a computer from 2011, a computer from 2017 is not a bad one to upgrade to.

But I guess we all forgot a time when we didn’t something that is a year old was a bad upgrade. The only exception is if that year old product has serious problems.

 

[groadyho]

Apple leads in developing consumer products not in cutting edge technology. IBM and Microsoft work on quantum computing research. I haven’t found any information indicating any such interest from Apple.

Apples only leading consumer product is Iphone. Every other product barely reaches 9-10% market share. I almost bought into Apple glad I didn't right now. Maybe down the road i will.

 

[Martius]

Arguing that it's not necessary to have updates every year is so wrong if you talk about Apple. Of course most of the Mac users do not buy a new computer every year, but when you do buy a new computer (every 3 years is ideal IMO), you want to buy it with the latest specs. I don't remember any other price cut than Mac Pro last year (since like 2010) that was caused by the obsoleteness of the hardware.

Ok, Apple, you have some problems with having the hardware up-to-date, make it cheaper after a year. You don't want to make it cheaper? So keep it fresh.

Selling 4 year old Mac Míní for without any price cut since the launch is really like laughing at the face of the customers. It's their business, they can do whatever they want and it takes a long way for people to switch to another brand, but it will happen if you don't do anything about it. There were always haters that were not satisfied with anything Apple has ever made, but since last year I really see a lot of loyal Apple customers having doubts about the future of their beloved brand (including me). Apple should take it seriously.

 

[macgabe]

I buckled and got a new iMac this year. I was holding out for a new look but could hold out no longer. The new Mac's fine, I was blown away by the screen upgrade and love the keyboard. Performance is good but not wow, and there's nothing on the new Mac I didn't have on the 6-year old one. Absolutely nothing in terms of functionality. And it took me days to reinstall everything until I finally gave up and used the automatic transfer. Which was annoying because now I have every corrupt file I had on the old machine on the new machine. I also make my living on my Mac and there's no way in hell I'm going to Windows, so I guess they've got me. Slightly sad I couldn't get a really new model, but there you are. At this stage I've come to expect whether it's cars (Tesla excepted) TVs fridges or computers they're not going to reinvent the wheel. Just fewer crashes, better screen, slightly faster. Yours resigned.

 

[pl1984]

Products do not need to be updated every year. That is financially impossible for the average consumer to update every year. Now the products that haven’t been updated in 4-5 years, that is a shame, but a year? Come on! Now if a product is defective, then yes but some of the line up, you’re asking for a speed bump. If you bought the last refresh and you’re asking for a speed bump, is there really something wrong?

Products should be updated when there are improvements in technology. There is zero reason for Apple to be even one generation of technology behind.

Whether someone upgrades every year or not is irrelevant. The are two issues:

1. Someone who wants to buy a new Mac should not be buying 3, 4, or 5 year old technology. Would you pay today's prices for an iPhone 5S?
2. The lack of commitment. Regardless of anyone's upgrade cycle the fact that Apple hasn't seen fit to offer an upgrade, despite the technology availability to do so, to their product offerings shows a serious lack of commitment.

Most people don't need to upgrade their iPhone on an annual basis either but Apple doesn't seem to have a problem updating the iPhone. Why would this not apply to the Macintosh?

 

[lec0rsaire]

I love that my Mac has been able to grow with me, moving from a 500GB HDD, to a 1TB HDD to a 1TB SSD, and the RAM from 4GB to 8GB now to 16GB, as my needs have changed. Buying a similarly specced MacBook Pro now would cost $4,399.00,

But it’s not similar at all. The display is not the same and the integrated Intel graphics hold it back no matter how good the rest of the machine is. The SSDs are also not as fast as PCIe 3.0 x4. There is a huge difference between SATA III and NVMe.

I agree that having no upgradbility sucks but the machine has much less weight and is half as thick as the previous gen.

 

[Edsel]

Apps and storage are going to the "Cloud". The "horsepower" wars are over for 80% of consumer computer users. Offsite storage is easy, internet bandwidth will get bigger and faster. I've lived long enough to have experienced programming with punch cards/paper tape with centralized mainframes, to Wyse terminals, distributed computing (PC's) and now we are racing back to the "Wyse" era (tablets, smart phones) but in a more productive and flexible fashion.

The future is the cloud and we won't miss the "boat anchors" sitting on our desks today. Oh, I almost forgot, display technology is in for some stunning and amazing developments.

 

[QCassidy352]

On the one hand, my 2013 13" rMBP still works excellently for everything I need, so the lack of quality updates hasn't really hurt me.

On the other hand, if it died tomorrow, I don't know what I'd do. I love the Apple ecosystem and don't want to leave. But, there isn't a single Mac out there right now that I'd feel good about buying.

 

[pl1984]

Apps and storage are going to the "Cloud". The "horsepower" wars are over for 80% of consumer computer users. Offsite storage is easy, internet bandwidth will get bigger and faster. I've lived long enough to have experienced programming with punch cards/paper tape with centralized mainframes, to Wyse terminals, distributed computing (PC's) and now we are racing back to the "Wyse" era (tablets, smart phones) but in a more productive and flexible fashion.

The future is the cloud and we won't miss the "boat anchors" sitting on our desks today. Oh, I almost forgot, display technology is in for some stunning and amazing developments.

Perhaps you and that French mouse of yours won't miss it, others feel differently.

 

[lec0rsaire]

consumers like yourself show up on an internet forum and justify that showing off your gadgets on a signature as if they were some kind of "life success". People here are trying to run big companies which are he

Life success? What are you talking about? A MacBook isn’t a mansion, a yacht nor a private jet. It’s a damn computer and many people list what they’re using in their sigs especially on enthusiast forums. I buy Apple products because I genuinely prefer macOS and iOS, not to be seen in a coffee shop with one.

Since when a customer can't expect high performance on a premium product because they chose a "base model".. ffs.

The base model of a product is just that. It doesn’t matter if it’s a car, computer or whatever. It is good enough for some and not for others.

 

[LegacyMacUser]

Mr. Carnicelli couldn't be more right. Macintosh has been suffering from neglect for years and Cook & Crew would rather squander time and money on a self-driving car than on the bread-and-butter products that put Apple on the map in the first place. Or place priority on Mr. Cook's personal agenda. Tragic.

Then we get a MacBook Pro with this Touch Bar thing at the highest price point in 8 years. Throw in a crappy keyboard and there's little doubt as to why long-time (and long-suffering) Mac fans are pissed.

As one of your astute Forum posters stated a few years ago on another topic, "Time for Timmy to hit the road."

 

[shpankey]

Prices are pretty fair. The retina iMac 5K is really not expensive considering the I/O and amazing display. The iMac Pro is reasonably priced and the MacBooks as well except for the 12” which costs $1949 for the fully loaded config. $2-3k is a reasonable price for a modern, well-built aluminum machine. Besides they can be picked up used in great condition for much less or refurbished through Apple.

You have to be kidding, a base iMac Pro is $5k and a fully loaded iMac Pro is like $13,200

 

[Glideslope]

I miss you SJ.

 

[lec0rsaire]

You have to be kidding, a base iMac Pro is $5k and a fully loaded iMac Pro is like $13,200

Xeons, huge ssds and ecc ram are not cheap stuff. These machines are not meant for the average customer and those who buy them will make back the money spent rather quickly unless they just bought it to show off and are not using it for work.

 

[DesertNomad]

Apps and storage are going to the "Cloud".

I run a software development company and have more than 10TB of data. The cloud does not work for that especially when internet bandwidth isn't able to match. Not to mention all the security aspects and not really having ownership of your data. We keep our data on local RAID systems. When I can download 1GB from the cloud in less than a second, let me know.

 

[pl1984]

Xeons, huge blade ssds and ecc ram is not cheap stuff. These machines are not meant for the average customer and those who buy them will make back the money spent rather quickly unless they just bought it to show off.

Nothing wrong when you're referring to current technology. However when you're talking 5 year old technology, as found in the current Mac Pro, one can't help but feel like a chump for paying current pricing for such old technology.

 

[lec0rsaire]

Nothing wrong when you're referring to current technology. However when you're talking 5 year old technology, as found in the current Mac Pro, one can't help but feel like a chump for paying current pricing for such old technology.

I was talking about the iMac Pro. Mac Pro is apples and oranges especially given that they already announced it's on life support at this point. I think the design was beautiful but obviously custom designs like these will never be as practical as a standard ATX like case. When it was brand new it was probably worth the money for a professional.

 

[Queen6]

A longtime coming, Apple should be ashamed at the current state of the Mac, sadly Apple has to be literally publicly shamed into taking action, if any at all

Dumped Apple for all professional purpose, nor have I observed so many speak of abandoning the platform and follow through. For many professional users Apple is now little more than a company of excuses...

Q-6

 

[Greymacuser]

I'm glad other people are voicing their dissatisfaction with Kook's Apple.
They say they haven't forgotten about pro users that work on mac gear for their livelihoods, but really they have.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Kook just stopped making actual desktops and focused everything on watches and phones. They make him a lot more money after all.
Why worry about those pesky professionals who carried Apple all through the 80's-early 2000's?
All they did was stay loyal, promote your product and prop up the company by enduring wave after wave of outrageous Apple-Tax.
Now Apple has throngs of children and hipsters vying for the next status symbol iOS gee-gaw. In a few months they'll just buy the next one you crank out.

If Apple just sold the OS and allowed people to build their own machines, or authorized manufacturers to build mac clones, then we'd see the mac line flourish, innovate and grow. When it's all penned up in one unimaginative monopoly it just stagnates. Like some weird techno-inbreeding nightmare.

Also, the switching from Intel chips to in-house Apple ones will only yield higher prices for their hardware. *Apple tax intensifies*

But hey, Apple Computers has better things to put its vast fortune into, rather than computers.
Like Oprah for example.