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

[alien3dx]

Nonsense. What Apple really needs to focus on is delivering entirely new categories of products that the market isn't already saturated with and that the world has never seen before... like a smart speaker you can talk to. That... and more watch bands.

The more I think about it, really, just more watch bands. That is where they should continue to focus.

by that time, no point of apple developer, because apple make own software itself.. 100%

 

[scottsjack]

But that's the point. Windows 10 is actually reliable, secure, and workable. My work has completely converted to it and I use it at home too. So your premise, ("with all the associated problems") just doesn't apply to the great majority of users.

By comparison, Mac is NOT "working so well" anymore. This thread should have made this painfully obvious by now.

Good point. I still prefer Mac but my HP Z230 work station is a powerful quad-core that cost me a fraction of what I paid for my 2012 Mac Pro. Windows 10 has been problem free for me.

 

[groadyho]

This article is the dumbest bunch of crap I’ve ever read. Apple has gone longer than a year between updates. They almost never announce new hardware at WWDC. Last year was an exception and they stopped announcing iPhone updates at WWDC 8 years ago. It’s a software developers conference.

If you don’t want to buy a Mac right now, then don’t! It’s simple. The argument that their isn’t a Mac suitable for daily use in my opinion is rubbish. I use a mid spec MacBook Pro from late 2016 and I edit 8K video, I render huge projects in AutoCad and much more. I highly doubt many put their machine through that kind of pace each day and I get by comfortably on a mid spec from 2 years ago.

If you want more up to date specs (that most of you will never need), go buy a PC. You’ll probably have to replace it every year but hey, at least they’ll have the latest specs innit bro.....

Seriously, once again, where do you get this stuff?, replace a PC every year?! My goodness. Mac is great and win10 PC's are great too these days but that statement is just laughable

 

[alien3dx]

I too am shocked that Apple is somewhere between neglect and abandonment of Mac hardware. I wonder if it’s this ‘planned obsolescence’ that’s permeating their product line. It might work for smaller ‘i’ devices, but it doesn’t translate well to full-blown computers.

I’m at a crossroads where I need to upgrade my mac hardware around my house and I’m at a loss as to what to do. I need a new desktop since my 2011 iMac, which has served me well, is getting long in the tooth even after upgrading it and its beginning to behave in a way that shows some components are beginning to fail. My 2011 macbook, having also been upgraded, seems to be at the end of its life.

The 2011 iMac was a solid workhorse. Upgrading a little tough, but it went well. The new iMac’s can’t be upgraded without complicated surgery, not interested.

I was looking to get a Mac mini since I need a mac desktop that can run VM’s... so it needs memory and disk. Preferably more than 16 GB. I’ve been waiting for Apple to update the Mac mini and I’m holding out hope that it’s upgradable but I’m losing patience.

Taking away the ability to upgrade systems by soldering in RAM and using extensive amounts of glue is a terrible mistake on Apple’s part. This is done in the name of reliability and that is complete garbage trying to get me to buy a new apple-priced computer more frequently.

Things on the laptop are better since Macbooks have at least been updated “recently.” Though I don’t need gimmicks like the touch bar that comes on the high-end model.

My naive hopes are for Apple to make Mac OS to work on other hardware, but highly doubt they’ll ever do such a thing since it would kill off mac sales.

sigh

Karl

Apple Imac Pro not solder ram, but need to be upgrade by official service provider. But mine 2017 base imac also not soldered but cannot be upgrade by service provider.. Unfair .Yes.. But may in the future i will upgrade my self

 

[ocnitsa]

These forums represent the hypercritical fringe more than the average consumer. Having said that, I’m all in favor of Apple hearing it from as many sources as possible. They should either upgrade their hardware or definitively kill their macOS-running by hardware division. Most of us would prefer the former, but even those who only care about their iOS-running products want their cousins to rot from neglect.

The hypercritical fringe, though, is surrounded by mainstream users who ask them questions about technology all the time. My sister was just asking me for advice regarding a MBP purchase for her new job...While it's fair to say that we don't represent the mainstream, we do have influence over people in our lives that have recognized us as computer nerds.

 

[gertruded]

Will Apple be a business school study 10 years from now on the dangers of hubris? Big corporations can and do fall hard. Think a hardware mistake on an new iPhone similar to the keyboard issue with the macbook pro, and a similar response. A more severe "you're holding it wrong".

 

[Defthand]

Apple will never allow macOS to exist outside the Apple ecosystem.

Never say never, especially when something has occurred before. In the mid 90’s, Apple licensed its ROM and OS to PC manufacturers who produced Mac clones.

Personally, I think it would benefit Apple to license the OS to vendors who cater to content creators. Apple can maintain its iMac and Macbook hardwares for consumers, while licensed partners can make the pro feature hardware for professionals and hobbyists. I, for example, would embrace an Adobe branded PC optimized for my occupation. Meanwhile, Apple would keep me in their ecosystem. I would still use their services and mobile products.

 

[Abazigal]

Never say never, especially when something has occurred before. In the mid 90’s, Apple licensed its ROM and OS to PC manufacturers who produced Mac clones.

And look how badly that turned out.

 

[Strider64]

In my opinion companies are working towards a computer that will eventually be based on the internet and the average consumer will be using just the keyboard, mouse and a display (back in the good old days called a dumb terminal). That way companies like Apple and others (Microsoft) can control the pricing on computing power/graphics and the Operating System. If (or when) this day every comes true then all I know there will be a lot of angry people.

 

[azentropy]

It really does suck, and not just the infrequency of updates but when they are updated they are producing less desirable systems (at least to me).

- Mac mini only dual core options, memory no longer user upgradable
- iMac Pro, no user upgradability
- Mac Pro - horrible design with no upgradability
- rMBP - removing ports I use and now only USB C, no MagSafe
- 21 iMac still 5200rpm drives, all ram now soldered.

 

[calderini]

So you are saying you are not able to do your work on the latest MacBook Pro? How many pixels will be enough? Do you need 1 billion pixels for your wallpaper? Opening Photoshop takes 5 seconds on my 2015 MacBook Air with only 4 GB of RAM. I imagine it's faster on the new MacBook Pro. Is five seconds too much? Producing music, creating Websites, filling out spreadsheets, what is so fancy that you physically cannot do on the latest brilliant MacBook Pro?
This always comes down to this. What is the such brilliant task that cannot be performed greatly on the latest models? Who cares about the family of the processor. It could be called Celeron or i12, at the end it is about the interaction with the computer. That's why we never change our television sets. Because it performs as advertised. I press a button and I can watch tv. I don't care about anything else. That's also why we don't exchange our speakers every year. I press a button and then I can listen to my music on the same big and beautiful speakers that I have since I am a child. Do we need to change our couch and bed and glasses every year? Should I exchange my guitar each year?
We are so used to have our components changing all the time that we don't understand that computers are mature now. This is not 1995. And one day, it will be the exact same thing with the iPhone, you'll see. And people will complain, because that's what they do. On my side, I deeply love Apple, as the best company on Earth and by a wide margin.

I dunno. How about ANYTHING related even remotely to VR?

 

[Defthand]

And look how badly that turned out.

How so? It actually allowed them to survive when, earlier, it was possible to install Apple’s OS on a modified Intel machine without Apple’s blessing.

 

[Martius]

Completely untrue. The Mac will always be part of Apple’s future because the company relies heavily on professionals to create apps and content.

I agree and the developers will be the first to realize that Apple doesn't care about Mac and will leave the sinking ship. People are buying Apple products because someone said that they are cool. Who made the devices cool? The tech influencers / creators / famous people. Why? Because of the apps, design and the way Apple devices work and what they can create with them. Who made it possible? Apple & developers. So there is possibility that if Apple will completely ignore the dev needs and the hardware will be less & less reliable, devs will move to another platform, a lot of good apps will slowly die, tech influencers / creators / famous people will no longer be using Apple products because of that and consumers will move to something more cool than Apple. It might take like 5 years, but it could happen.

 

[pipis2010]

I have immensely enjoyed the sustained bib-dribbling and spoon clanging from all the techie boyz who, on one hand, will tell you that Macs sustain their value longer than other computers, and then on the other hand, will complain that Macs have no value because they are "old" inside.

You are not the primary market for this company. Your limited talent for doing benchmarks, stupid unpacking videos and pretending you are video professionals because you make unpacking videos, at the expense of everything else is not the business model for this company.

But please proceed, techie boyz. Keep up the decibels with your whining about how this company needs to cater just to you and your gaming fetishes. Because, you're "super power users," after all.

I don’t want to burst your bubble (am 38 years old), but actually that’s EXACTLY Apple’s target audience these days, millennials. Why do you think they are trying to rebrand and reposition themselves as a lifestyle company? Because they need to keep their cool, to be included with all the FB, Instagram and Snapchat teens/crowd. This is the same audience that most companies target nowadays to show how cool and modern they are. This is the target audience who leads the innovations and makes or breaks coolness...

Trust me, just check around you and research a little bit more and you will understand that I am right...

 

[barkomatic]

I gave up on Apple’s outdated computers a year ago and it’s worked out well. PCs are frequently updated and far more powerful and innovative. Mac OS is still better than windows, but not better enough to justify paying about 20-30% more for old hardware that Apple just doesn’t seem interested in. Who knows? Maybe Apple sees the future more in self driving cars and AR/VR and that’s where the effort is going.

My mobile devices are all still Apple, since the company still cares about that lineup.

 

[BacktoMacNJ]

What are these guys spending their time on? Just a shame.

 

[citysnaps]

Hubris knows no bounds. Will Apple be a business school study 10 years from now on the dangers of hubris? Big corporations can and do fall hard. Think a hardware mistake on an new iPhone similar to the keyboard issue with the macbook pro, and a similar response.

No. It will be (and has been) a business school study on how Apple became one of the largest and most successful companies by developing outstanding and innovative well-supported products driving 10s/100s of millions customers to repeatedly open their wallets to purchase those premium-priced products year after year after year.

 

[groadyho]

True. Lol, I know how to fix Windows-only problems but would rather not. Also swapped out my grandma's Win7 PC for a Mac cause she kept getting it infected with crap.

Sounds like grandma needs to avoid porn sites. 20yrs windows user and never been infected. Since win10, windows defender has replaced the need for a separate security.

 

[hans1972]

But that's the point. Windows 10 is actually reliable, secure, and workable. My work has completely converted to it and I use it at home too. So your premise, ("with all the associated problems") just doesn't apply to the great majority of users.

So why do you care? Windows is working great for you both professionally and private. Why care what Apple do?

 

[TSloper74]

I ended up picking up a Yoga 920 (4K / 16GB / 512GB) yesterday. I found most of my work was spent around Windows apps via Parallels or Bootcamp. OS X was reserved mainly for e-mail and browsing. Obviously everyone has different needs but the Yoga 920 is a solid machine. I have zero complaints so far. For my uses case I no longer see the value proposition with Apple MacBook Pros. I was hesitant about going back to the PC world but there are a lot of quality HW options out there now. OS X also holds no major advantages anymore. Windows 10 is not bad.

Tim

 

[pipis2010]

In my opinion companies are working towards a computer that will eventually be based on the internet and the average consumer will be using just the keyboard, mouse and a display (back in the good old days called a dumb terminal). That way companies like Apple and others (Microsoft) can control the pricing on computing power/graphics and the Operating System. If (or when) this day every comes true then all I know there will be a lot of angry people.

I don’t know if it will suck or not, but the majority of average people only use their computers for browsing, emails and streaming. In the end, one has to think that 80% of modern cpus is basically wasted on crap usage that the average person doesn’t need and will never use. I am not talking about pro users btw!

So in that sense, I can see this future coming fast....everything is on the cloud nowadays, no matter if you are using windows, osx , linux, unix, android, etc... most things for the average user can be done with their smartphones/tablets.

For the pro/hardcore users, which are more of a niche for all computer companies, that’s another discussion...

 

[AxiomaticRubric]

That’s the thing though. iOS is definitely not sinking so developers don’t mind using Mac hardware to create apps if it makes them money.

Apple cannot afford to neglect developers, but they definitely can (and do) afford to neglect:

• Gaming on the Mac
• Productivity apps on the Mac
• Business apps on the Mac
• macOS in the role of server

At this point the Mac is becoming a development machine for Android, iOS, .NET, and web apps. Apple is doing the absolute *minimum* to keep developers happy until they can launch the new ARM super chip Macs.

Even then, I’m not expecting the heavily promoted role of iOS app development to change for macOS.

I agree and the developers will be the first to realize that Apple doesn't care about Mac and will leave the sinking ship. People are buying Apple products because someone said that they are cool. Who made the devices cool? The tech influencers / creators / famous people. Why? Because of the apps, design and the way Apple devices work and what they can create with them. Who made it possible? Apple & developers. So there is possibility that if Apple will completely ignore the dev needs and the hardware will be less & less reliable, devs will move to another platform, a lot of good apps will slowly die, tech influencers / creators / famous people will no longer be using Apple products because of that and consumers will move to something more cool than Apple. It might take like 5 years, but it could happen.

 

[opeter]

If you want more up to date specs (that most of you will never need), go buy a PC.

This is very sad, don't you think?
Most of the Macintosh computers hardware-wise aren't in the same league with the PCs anymore.

And by the way, how do you know, what people need?
This is the typical "dictator type of thinking", as it was from the former Apple CEO.

You’ll probably have to replace it every year but hey, at least they’ll have the latest specs innit bro.....

Every year? What, where? I don't know in what universe are you living.
You can use your computers as long as you want or until it dies. No need to change it/buy a new one.

The desktop computers have many advantages over the notebook cousins.
If in you deskop PC your PSU dies, you can (in most cases) swap and replace it with a new one, quite simply.

And not to speak of upgrading staff. You don't need to throw the computer out of the window.
You can replace everything: the HDD/SSD, add additional RAM, graphics card, additional PCI-Express cards etc. If you want to go extreme, swap the motherboard, CPU, etc.

You cannot do that with a Mac anymore. Except maybe last years' iMac (2017), where you can change/swap the CPU (but with one from the same generation), RAM, HDD/SSD. But that is. If you GPU goes bye-bye, you need to swap/replace the logic-board. Expensive stuff.

 

[Rocketman]

You can whine all you want but so long as Apple is committed to Intel, and they drag their feet, the Mac will have slow updates. Furthermore we have reached the near end of that wacky law that says power doubles every couple years. The next thing will not be smaller silicon or more coprocessors. It will be quantum computing and cloud computing.

Cloud computing is fractional ownership like Lyft. It is inherently more economical and higher performance. Future Macs might have chips, but will act as dumb terminals like on my old PDP-11-70 terminals. Adjust to reality.

 

[Naaaaak]

It really does suck, and not just the infrequency of updates but when they are updated they are producing less desirable systems (at least to me).

- Mac mini only dual core options, memory no longer user upgradable
- iMac Pro, no user upgradability
- Mac Pro - horrible design with no upgradability
- rMBP - removing ports I use and now only USB C, no MagSafe
- 21 iMac still 5200rpm drives, all ram now soldered.

Horrifying thought:

What if it gets worse?

Think about a MacBook Air refresh with only a power port and a headphone port. Resurrecting the eMac for a lower cost Edu offering with 5200 RPM drives all across the board (imagine your impression as a student using that). Touchbar 2 and new oversized trackpads and new even thinner keyboards across the entire mobile line. A new Mac Mini using the ultrabook series CPU without any fan to keep it “extra thin” and no ports but power and a single displayport out (wireless peripherals only). A Mac Pro that offers the loadout customization of a PC starting at 5K and comes with ultra slow fans because “whisper quiet” is a “pro need”.

Can you see it happening?