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

[WannaGoMac]

Without a Mac I do not buy or use an iPhone. I am not the only one.

Eh, i dont agree. Tons of folks buy iPhones who dont own macs. Having a mac isn't at all necessary or that useful when using an iPhone. Everything is stored and backed up in the cloud. And only a limited number of people even sync their own music to their phones over streaming.

 

[fokmik]

I went from being the biggest Apple Fanboy/Stockholder

.

Really? You lost us already there...Are you Arthur D. Levinson? Biggest stockholder?

 

[Swazaloo]

Tim Cook is ruining Apple. The cheapest $1100 21" iMac still comes with a 5400 RPM drive as standard. The rest come standard with Fusion Drives that have just 24GB of SSD and the rest is slow mechanical storage. They are so fast do ditch legacy tech, yet for some reason Apple just loves mechanical hard drives. Also, why on earth are they still selling brand new Series 1 Apple Watches? Series 1, while decent at the time, is a horrible experience (super slow) compared to newer ones. All this slowness is going to put a bad taste in people's mouths.

 

[letsGoOn2]

Removing the glowing logo is also frustrating.

Yeah. And MagSafe. And don’t get me started on the missing escape key. TB3 is ok and all, but not worth the trade offs that were made with the current gen MacBook Pro.

As much as I loathed myself for doing it, I recently bought a maxed out MacBook Pro sans touch bar. My alternative was a Lenovo T560, which actually looks really nice spec-wise. I just wasn’t ready to commit to a Linux disto for my main box when I work from home and need to webex, g2m, outlook, etc for much of my interactions. (I actually don’t mind Windows 10 as a consumer os, but I’d have a hard time doing my job with it)

 

[Lesser Evets]

More worrisome than lack of updates: lack of public reassurance and explanation.

Apple has SUX-FOR-BRAINS public relations. A high figure should come out and say something, like, "We will be releasing Mac products a little late this year due to Intel being COXON CRACK and so we will release the iMacs in Oct, the MacBooks in August, and the Mini will get a refresh before Christmas. We also want to use DDR5 or something else we need a small wait to acquire for now machines. They'll be awesome. Sincere apologies, Timmy."

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Eh, i dont agree. Tons of folks buy iPhones who dont own macs. Having a mac isn't at all necessary or that useful when using an iPhone. Everything is stored and backed up in the cloud. And only a limited number of people even sync their own music to their phones over streaming.

I don't believe he was implying owning a Mac is essential (or required precursor) to owning an iPhone. I believe his comment was a protest, as in, I will not give Apple new money for a phone until I can buy a new (tech) Mac.

 

[Windlasher]

You've got it backwards.

The chips do more with less now. They make significantly less heat, draw less power, take up less space.

You could resurrect the Cheese Grater and give it supercomputer internals without any fuss.

Heck hipsters would probably buy it because it looks retro.

When my 2008 Mac Pro dies, that's exactly what I plan on doing with it. Unfortunately, it will probably then become a PC or a Hackintosh.

 

[WannaGoMac]

The Mac division is still a Fortune 500 company in terms of quarterly revenue. Which in itself might be the problem - as long as every quarter 5-7 million people spend $7-10 billion on "current" Macs, does Apple feel a strong pressure to update the most-popular models on a more regular schedule and the least-popular models at all?

Maybe they should spin off the mac division into a wholly owned subsidiary! Ha, never would happen.

 

[meme1255]

I’d rather call it their high-end line. “Pro” is really user overused by the entire industry. It’s nothing more than marketing. As for the keyboards some have problems and some don’t. The MBP keyboard is much better than the shallower one on the MacBook. There is still no other machine on the market with 4 TB3 ports besides the iMac Pro. Competitors include 2 at best combined with 2 3.1 Type A porta. While Apple got a lot of criticism for transitioning to USB-C early, that just means these will have a longer useful life. Once everything is USB-C, type A will be good for nothing but old peripherals.

I use the "Pro" monicker as it is used by entire industry... I have no problem with USB-C-only I/O, I wouldn't mind keeping the SD slot, though.

I have problem mainly with the price increase for (not that useful) TouchBar (400 EUR!) and the unfair USD -> EUR ratio Apple uses for EU, in my country this adds up with unfair CZK/EUR rate. The 13" TB/512G/16G costs 2450 USD WITH student discount WITHOUT VAT here. It is ridiculous for such a outdated hardware.

 

[James Bondo]

Apple should just start licensing/selling Mac OS on standard PC hardware and stop fooling themselves and everyone else with hardware. No reasonable person would buy a brand new Mac mini today and think to themselves that they made a smart purchase.

Here's the thing: More than anything else, I want an updated 2015 MBP Retina.
Modern screen, real function keys, at least 1 USB-A port, a couple USB-C/Thunderbolt ports, and an HDMI port.

But, if I can't have that, then sure. OS-X on a Dell XPS-15 will do, but I'd really rather just have the above.

 

[apolloa]

Billions in revenue, even more billions sat in off shore bank accounts, endless resources, thousands employed globally. And it can only manage to update 1 product line every year... one...

It has to keep those billions I guess somehow? Either that or Apple is utterly utterly incapable of actually operating as a business.
[doublepost=1529105696][/doublepost]

Part of the issue is the state of the industry. People aren’t buying home computers at the rate they previously did. It’s now possible to live entirely with your mobile devices. In some ways the Mac (and PC) are relics in the consumer world. The situation will look more dire in 10 years. Only dinosaurs like me will probably be buying another Mac.

What do you think they use to make all those apps you can get on the iPhone? It’s not an iPhone or iPad.

 

[cmwade77]

It's really sad. I wish apple would realize that, while the profits come from iGadgets, it's the technologies from the Mac that makes iOS possible, not the other way around.

Not really, you can have iGadgets and have everything work without a Mac. Not saying that Macs shouldn't be updated, they should, but they really aren't all that necessary anymore, aside from a few niche industries.

 

[Sweetcheetah]

Where is Steve Jobs when you need him? I feel like it's dejavu when Steve was out of the loop a long time ago and apple boards begged him to come back and bring Apple back up. Well, his spirit may be dwindling in this modern day? Maybe got too comfortable wish so much cash for the company? They said they were just close to becoming the first trillion dollar company in the world, right?

 

[Will.O.Bie]

As long you can have the latest emoji, run Instagram and use filters for my narcissistic lifestyle... all good.

Apple, Inc. 2018

 

[Little dude]

Just wanted you guys to know that I rarely post, but I am your common-man Mac user. I don't do serious computing. Not a gamer. So my mid 2011 Mac mini is fine with me. It's slugs along at times, and my wife has one, that had a problem that apple quickly fixed free. I paid $400 for one of them refurb, $500 for the other one, added 4gb Ram to total 8, $200. That's six years of pleasurable, fast enough, reliable Macs, for $1100. I know that mini has not been refreshed for a long time, but I don't care because I don't need one! When I do, I will get some value from my old minis (admittedly probably just $50 each) and go forward with what is best at the time. We are definitely get a MacBook Air next time, and if I had the dough, I would buy the year old 13.3" Air for like $850 tomorrow and not looked back. People want to keep Macs longer and longer, because they still perform well for everything we need! OK, maybe Apple spends way too much resources on the phone, but the hardware they produce is really viable for users like us. Calls for Apple's "head on a stick" for not updating (insert your Mac here) at such and such a time, is really silly.

Maybe they are trying to get people to hold on to their machines longer, just like the new iOS 12 is going to do for older phones. Who knows? Not that many people care. I read these comments a lot if I am interested in the subject.

I get good information from this board, and I enjoy it.

Happy Father's Day!

 

[MrGuder]

I'm glad to see an article about this, in fact I wish more articles would be published with captions like this...Don't Buy/Caution on Apples hardware. I'm sorry but Apple is sitting on boat loads of money and they don't upgrade their hardware products nearly enough. In fact I was brought over to the Mac from Windows on my first (and still using) 2012 Late Mac Mini and they have not had a decent upgrade since then. I'm running 16GB/512 SSD 2.5 i5 and I guess this will last me for a another 5 yrs when Apple may or may not update the Mac Mini.

 

[lec0rsaire]

I also believe that Apple limiting their amount of models, confígs and a single refresh per year is what contributes to the high resale value of these machines. Most PC manufacturers have really bloated lineups that make it confusing for everyone but people like us.

Many models are redundant. A slightly different chassis, 1080p or 2160p res, dGPU or just iGPU, TB3 vs. no TB3. Also many competitors don’t offer up to 2TB SSDs, even though most people don’t have the money for a drive that costs just about what the machine itself costs.

 

[Nicky G]

I have no problem with upgrade cycles that are every 12 months, 18 months, heck, even 24 months.

4 years? 5 years? Apple, give me a break, yo.

 

[isomorphic]

Here is my nightmare scenario:

Late this year, Apple announces a completely up-to-date Mac Pro, with expansion ability built in to a quiet, unobtrusive case design that will scale up to blow-your-hair-back throughput. Top-end Xeon CPUs, your choice of AMD/Nvidia GPUs, etc., etc. $$$$$. I, of course, buy one flat-out top-end config'ed.

Late next year, Apple announces a 128/256-core ARM-based Mac Pro with even MOAR CPU heft than Xeons, just to prove that they can, and to thumb their nose at the naysayers. $$$$$. I stare at my now-obsolete Xeon monster.

Here is my happy scenario:

They build a machine that can handle both architectures, has the CPUs on a daughterboard (like the cheese grater) which can be swapped out (even across architectures). Or they build a machine that has *both* architectures in it simultaneously. I don't care if $$$$$ + $.

 

[MacBH928]

As a long time Apple follower, I never understood why Apple ships their hardware with outdated tech. I remember Jobs in the 90s used to do these demos where he compared mac speeds vs pc speeds and the mac would be faster.

Today everyone knows the mac is the more expensive less capable machine. Everyone is staying for the OS X. Thank You Jobs

 

[robbieleffel]

This is would almost be a non issue if the hardware was consumer upgradeable. But alas, most of it isn't.
[doublepost=1529106097][/doublepost]Where is Taylor Swift when we need her?!
[doublepost=1529106144][/doublepost]If you want Apple to take real notice, next time begin your letter with, "John Mayer here"...

 

[meme1255]

You've got it backwards.

The chips do more with less now. They make significantly less heat, draw less power, take up less space.

You could resurrect the Cheese Grater and give it supercomputer internals without any fuss.

Heck hipsters would probably buy it because it looks retro.

You probably haven't read reviews of the Coffee Lake chips. To put it simple. They consume a little bit more power than the Kaby Lake chips, thus they run hotter (it is much more complex than only "they consume more" ... it is the root of the issue, though). This is what I have meant by that post.

 

[pubwvj]

Hmm... I disagree.

I like the stability and longevity of the Mac and i hardware. In our family and business we have Macs that are six, eight, ten, 15 years old. They still run great and do their job. Macs last and that is a selling point.

Quite frankly, you only need so much speed, memory and such for doing 99.9999% of the tasks 99% of people do. The rest is a waste, glam.

I'm more interested in Apple continuing to support legacy hardware and software, making systems that are stable and world rugged and such than adding extra CRU.

 

[gugy]

As a professional that makes my living using a Mac for over 20 years, it's heartbreaking the state of affairs. I still use my 2012 MacPro 12 core. Still rocks but for many years I looked to upgrade and buy also two 30" displays to substitute my ACDs that still also rocks by the way but it's time to go.
Still, there is no good reason to understand Apple's lack of commitment for the Mac. I get those iOS devices make the bulk of profits but for a company the size and prestige of Apple they could very well just keep their hardware line up to date. There are no excuses.
Get your act together and stop just trying to sell the usual BS.

 

[trip1ex]

The Buyers Guide shows that Apple releases Macs every year.

A new MBP was released every year the past 7 years.

MBA released every year until the MB came out and then that has been released every year.

iMac released every year but one. And that year followed a year the iMac had 2 releases.


Those are surely their best sellers.

The ones that haven’t got love are the Mac Mini and Mac Pro. But they already came out and talked in some detail about the state of the MAc Pro. They are working on a new one and released a hi-end iMac Pro in the meantime.