Professional Mac Users' Complaints List Grows After 'Disappointing' Apple Event

[NT1440]

THIS!^, a zillion times THIS^

Haven't heard one peep from our content creators here at ESPN. They couldn't tell a toaster from desktop because they're more concerned about working within the given program they use than how many ports or what the Ghz rate is in the processor.

I don't understand why people here seem to conflate technology enthusiasts with "pros". I'd wager the vast majority of "pros" couldn't tell you the difference between RAM and hard drive space, they're content creators, not computer nerds.

 

[citysnaps]

Lmao omg! History repeats itself. Those comments are amazing. Wow.
Thank God for archives. Everyone reading this post, PLEASE read the comments in the linked article above. Apple is doing just fine.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-announces-new-aluminum-macbooks.580479/

Hilarious. Same tiny whines from the sad trying to find a bit power on the internet. Nothing has changed in eight years.

So adorable!

 

[69650]

So....with Phil Schiller stating Apple has gotten their highest number of pre-orders ever for Macbook Pros....can we admit that most of the outrage is from nerd rage forum dwellers? Seems like the "Pros" who aren't tech enthusiasts (and instead....just do their work) aren't all that discouraged. Or, perhaps, the MBP's main user base is consumers who aren't bothered either?

That's hardly surprising given the length of time since the last update. All that pent up demand will manifest itself in a high number of pre-orders. Once that initial demand has been satisfied I wonder how many they will sell over time given the price hike. I'm more annoyed by the fact that they haven't updated any of their desktop Macs.

As for the rest of your comment, just look at the numbers. Mac sales are falling, so clearly Pro users are either buying something else or waiting for updated Macs. Either way, Apple are losing sales.

 

[Lidar]

I hope people at Apple are listening to all of us and make some changes. There seems to more people complaining than just here on MacRumors. I say we keep griping and hopefully our message will be heard.

 

[jadot]

A lot of these people are living in the past. We are where Steve Jobs predicted we'd be, living in a post-PC era where the market for high-end traditional computer products is a niche within an already tiny niche.

What Tim and Apple are doing is absolutely right for the company. Those complaining and hating on Apple and Tim are broadly speaking living in the dark ages.

Sure, but to be fair a pro machine needs to outspec the consumer market whether it's hardware is niche or not. Personally I'm all up for the direction that the technology is going, but being a photographer I'm likely to always need a large screen and a large whack of RAM, with fast I/O. I can't see that a 13Inch 16GB machine is specced to be able to cope with what I need it to once I add an external 4K monitor and a Thunderbolt express Dock or whatever. If the new iMacs are crippled in the same way(s) I'm kind of stuffed. Professional users, photographers, videographers, designers, need and want 32GB RAM, possibly more. A laptop at this price should be able to do that. It might need to be marginally thicker, and possibly have a couple of legacy USB3 ports or something, but the option should be there for the pros who fit in this 'post PC' niche end of the market.

Give that Niche within a tiny Niche (as you call it) what they need to continue working and Apple can price it at what they want within reason and those pros will pay. Instead Apple have made it clear that they don't understand this market and priced it high anyway. It's a problem.

And we're not "hating on Tim and Apple" - This has got nothing to do with whining. It's a genuine concern for a lot of professional users who are deeply entrenched into Apple's hardware and software, along with their clients who are using iCloud and iOS and also in the Apple ECO system. Unable to simply swap in a Windows machine (which are very capable, BTW, in this post PC era) because of the cost and infrastructure changes that come with such a change, many Pro Users were hoping for at least some indication that the Pro Line of products wouldn't be merged with the 'Post-PC' product lines. We all love iPads and iPhones, but you sit there and edit 2000 pictures a day, design a few websites, and then publish a few blog posts on one and then tell me again how you'd like to spend more to do things in a more clunky and slower way just because you've misinterpreted something that the late great Steve Jobs 'predicted' years ago.

Don't presume to tell people that they are living in the past, by the way, when you're mis-quoting a dead man from years ago.

 

[NT1440]

That's hardly surprising given the length of time since the last update. All that pent up demand will manifest itself in a high number of pre-orders. Once that initial demand has been satisfied I wonder how many they will sell over time given the price hike. I'm more annoyed by the fact that they haven't updated any of their desktop Macs.

As for the rest of your comment, just look at the numbers. Mac sales are falling, so clearly Pro users are either buying something else or waiting for updated Macs. Either way, Apple are losing sales.

The entire PC industry is declining in shipments, how is Apple supposed to not be part of that trend?

As for the desktops, January my friend, I promise.

 

[paulvee]

http://imgur.com/a/zj5zA

 

[pika2000]

EDIT:
The Surface Pro is a Pro convertible, hardly a pro machine by itself anyway, just a marketing gimmick, like Apple is doing.... wrong in both cases!

That's my point. So claiming a product should exceed its own hardware limitation (by intel) just because it has a Pro branding is pointless. Samsung put a Pro branding for their J-line budget phone. Meanwhile, Dell has Dell Precision mobile workstation without any "Pro" branding on it.

 

[sleepydinosaur]

The delays are on Intel people. I have and will continue to say that Apple should be designing MacOS for ARM so they can control the chips and not having to be subservient to Intel.

As for 16gb of RAM, that's very limited in terms of effected users and I've read that it too is an Intel issue. Seems like a stop-gap in terms of processor as Intel flounders.

 

[AJ5790]

Might sound silly of me, but I really hope this Macbook Pro flops, it would be a great lesson for Apple.

Head over to Apple insider. The story is mysteriously absent here at macrumors but Apple has had more orders for the MBP than any other, ever.

 

[NY Guitarist]

Tsai concludes: "It has seemed clear for a while that the CEO doesn't really understand the Mac, or simply doesn't like it that much, and that's a problem for those of us who do."

Von Rospach... ...concludes by suggesting that creative professionals need to realize the Mac line has become a "niche product" in a world driven by market forces where Apple technology has gone mainstream.

As I've said, Apple is slowly and very carefully moving away from being a computer company and becoming a consumer electronics company. Locking-down hardware and dumbing-down software is the roadmap toward that end.

Oh well, it was a good run.

 

[Rocketman]

I Read through the comments themselves and I seem to agree in principal Apple needs a full power laptop that does not try to achieve maximal miniaturization and port simplicity, darn the dongles.

Given the price point of the MacBook Pro I for one expect to see legacy ports for my legacy hardware. Sometimes there is no replacement for an Ethernet port, or a port that your phone wire plugs into directly, or a card reader for cameras.

Yes one could use a device that has several ports on it, which is fine for desktop use, but for actual portability I think two things should be brought back to one of the MacBook Pro line. Upgradable insides, several types of ports.

It should be done with a CPU and GPU chip class that is notably better the what we see now. Heck, how about a machine capable of greatly expanded GPU processors.

Apple clearly has a plan to move folks into some future, but there is a bunch of legacy equipment that would sell newer machines to attach to it. I think Apple knows this because look how long they kept the 2012? Powerbook around. We just need a modern version of that. CanonLake is fine, we can wait till the beginning of 2H 2017. Make a version with these features.

While you're at it make a headless Mac that plugs into PC peripherals in all those stores, businesses, and factories. The sales might be surprising.

 

[peter2]

So....with Phil Schiller stating Apple has gotten their highest number of pre-orders ever for Macbook Pros....can we admit that most of the outrage is from nerd rage forum dwellers? Seems like the "Pros" who aren't tech enthusiasts (and instead....just do their work) aren't all that discouraged. Or, perhaps, the MBP's main user base is consumers who aren't bothered either?

Might well be.... but at least two other explanations come to my mind:

1. It's kind of cheating if you don't upgrade something for a long time and then, naturally, the purchases are postponed / aggregated to/at the timepoint when you actually do upgrade the hardware.

2. There used to be no pre orders for MBP in the past. As far as my memory serves me they were available when announced.

After all, isn't Phil from the marketing department? ;-)

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Its just not creatives that are upset/disappointed. I think many long standing mac fans who stuck by Apple for years are voicing their displeasure.

The new MBPs are not bad, per say, but the update is just rather mediocre, but the price is anything but mediocre

I agree.

Apple can't help the slow down in processor improvements.

Apple can't help Intel's delayed chip releases.

But Apple can help what price they charge for their new MacBook Pros. It's just too much more money for not enough performance improvement. And with the slow down in technological advances the great gains of the past may be gone for a long time.

 

[aplnub]

Almost every professional user is part of a minority, but together they add up to quite a significant number.

Photographers that regularly swap SD cards are not happy that connecting a dongle (and make sure you never forget to take it with you) is now part of their workflow.

Canon professionals are still using CF and now CF Fast cards. SD has not been a thing on Canon Pro cameras yet. With the 5DIV and 1DXii just coming out and no SD option. Nikon has their XQD cards. I am not saying that professional photographers can't use SD card cameras (Sony, Olympus, Fuji, etc.) but most cameras pros have used over the past 5 years would more often than not use something besides an SD card.

The direction of what card will be used going forward is still up in the air. The SD card line seems like it changes weekly. Faster cards are coming and that means new hardware to read the cards. SD is the overwhelming photo card but most likely not for the "professional" photographer, yet.

 

[8692574]

That's my point. So claiming a product should exceed its own hardware limitation (by intel) just because it has a Pro branding is pointless. Samsung put a Pro branding for their J-line budget phone. Meanwhile, Dell has Dell Precision mobile workstation without any "Pro" branding on it.

Apple, Microsoft and many others should not brand NON pro machines as Pro...otherwise they should not complain about....complainers

 

[TurboPGT!]

The amount of people who seem to think the MackBook Pro is a desktop and not a mobile device are indisputably hilarious.

If you choose to use the MacBook Pro as a desktop with an array of peripherals - that is your choice. But don't expect it to match an actual desktop in performance. For that, get an iMac, or a Mac Pro. When you choose mobility as a primary concern, you're making a tradeoff with performance. This the story of all notebook computers on the planet, every Mac notebook in history, and every Mac notebook of the future.

 

[remydlc]

16gb pro my rear. I cant believe tou have phones nowadays with more RAM than they need for the next 5 years, but you have a 'PRO' computer,in the couple of thousands of dollars limited to 16gb. That should be the minimum. My MBP keeps topping 15gb out of 16gb and i dont even use any professional software. That is VPN to work, remote desktop, outlook and safari or chrome. Oh and WhatsApp web app.

There are Windows laptop with 64gb, maybe more. I hope this **** doesnt sale so they stop giving share owners what they have been getting for the past 8 years at customers expenses.

 

[Lone Deranger]

As a software engineer myself, you are just living in the past. I've never needed more than 16GB of ram to date.

So *you* don't need more than 16GB of ram. I'm happy for you.

 

[emailnotebox]

Perhaps MacDoomers would be a better name for this site now.

Check Apple's official facebook page. General consensus on new Macbook Pro is just as bad if not worse. I think its official page is more of macdoomers than here.

 

[halfloaf]

I think Apple are holding out with minimal design updates in order to get iOS and MacOS hardware to merge in the near future. The two product lines are almost on par in terms of (non)upgradeability and the custom chips in the iOS devices is getting onto MacBook style performance. Once the two streams hit parity they will kill off the 'professional' notebook / laptop line, iMacs and Mac Pro's and have a single line of touch and voice enabled hardware powered by iOS. We'll end up with touch enabled compute nodes that connect to external devices for 'professionals' which can all be picked up and taken on vacation if you so wish.

I just don't think they have the hardware on the iOS line to make this happen, yet. They have far to go if they want to pull 9+ tflops of GPU compute power out of a iOS device for creative professionals. In the meantime they'll pull out these small updates...

 

[mtcowdog]

I make about a dozen Mac purchasing decisions each year and advise researchers and developers on computer choice dozens of times each year. For myself 16GB RAM and graphics options in new MBPs are fine. But for about half the people I work with, 16GB is not enough. And the graphics options can be problematic. usb-c only is challenge for a lot of legacy science and storage peripherals, but that's the one thing I don't complain about. It's manageable. But finally the increased prices are problematic. In a higher education setting, it is already difficult to justify Mac prices. And these researchers, educators, and professionals work with hundreds of students each year. They are part of the Apple network, showcasing the Mac. I may have to move to the commodity wild west of Windows PCs. I really don't want to do that.

touchbar - blah. 3 distinct hand input devices, and the new one is dynamic. I look at the screen, not the keyboard. The whole thing feels like a complete gimmick to me. I am highly skeptical, and that was the NEW innovation. That struck a nerve with me. I have a MacBook (typing on it now) and an iPad Pro 9.7. I use both of those as my portable devices. I think over and over how I want Apple to merge those two into the ultimate portable computer. Yet for the Pro line, I need more options, not another ultralight. But power with some mobility is still highly desirable over a desktop. And ta da we get a touchbar. This makes me quite grumpy.

The bigger issue is that if Apple has a vision for the Mac, other than slimmer, lighter, and gimmicks to jack up price, they haven't told us anything. iMac, Pro, mini? i am stupid vested in Apple across their product lines (watch, phone, TV, tablet, monitor), but the Mac is still the core of my computing life. Not surprisingly I continue to see Mac as the core of Apple, even if it isn't the big profit hammer. Where do all those great apps and groovy content come from? i started using an Apple IIe in the 1970s and Macs from the 1980s. It appears as if Apple is moving away from the Mac and the community that supported it and allowed it to grow into what it is today. That would be a dagger to the heart of my Apple brand image.

 

[joueboy]

Clearly Tim Cook has no balls!

 

[Stella]

But what sort of work would that be? There's only a small drub set of work that can be completed on tablets - more true in an office environment.

You are seeing these people working from old computers and laptops they never intend on replacing, while rapidly transitioning to doing more of their work from phones and tablets.

 

[Abazigal]

That's what the AIR is for.

Which is practically one refresh away from being discontinued. It's specs haven't been updated in ages and I can't recommend it to anyone unless they simply want a cheap Mac.