Reflecting on why I'm honestly upset

[mmarcus178]

I'm a researcher -- so my job is often to look at consumer attitudes and ask "why" folks respond a certain way. In this case, I'm trying to ask myself the same question as to why I initially responded so negatively to the MPB announcements. Here's my thoughts.

We're an "apple house". I run a mac mini file server, three MBP's (one per individual), iphones, ipads and a Time Capsule as backup and router. We also use a Synology NAS and Unifi AP's, so there are a lot of moving pieces....but it all works. It works well, and pretty seamlessly.

We work on our macs. I do some web development, photography and a lot of writing on mine. My wife runs her business off hers (psychotherapist). I also use my ipad extensively for work (notetaking via a Wacom pad). We've been waiting a while for new MBP's to upgrade all current laptops.

So here's the deal. No, the new MBP's are not ideal for us. The keyboard and ports are the primary reason, but there are others. And I was upset when after the presentation. But the real reason? I think it's a larger issue as to how I interpreted the new MBP's, and how they were presented, as Apple no longer being committed to the PC market. Our Mini could use an upgrade at some point, but an upgrade that makes sense doesn't even exist. Where is Apple's evolution of the home network? Our Time Capsule from 3-4 years ago is the exact same model for sale now, I believe.

So many of Apple's products are stale at this point. I hoped for something "more" from the MBP - Apple's vision of how PC's that are used professionally will evolve. Something. Instead it was an incremental improvement, or in my use case a significantly reduced value proposition. What I took away from the presentation is that I shouldn't expect a new Mac Mini. I shouldn't expect a new router/backup solution. That my "system" at home, which works wonderfully now, doesn't align with how Apple sees the future of their business. And so at some point I'm going to have to rebuild this system, maybe with Apple products, maybe not. But Apple doesn't seem interested in offering "solutions" any more to the types of PC, professional, or network issues I need.

Is it fair to put the weight of all that on a MBP update presentation? Maybe not. But Apple doesn't give me enough information to plan against, and it's beginning to cause some tension. What is the future of the Mac desktop computer? Does Apple honestly still think it makes professional tools? What products can I reasonably expect to be available in the future? And it's because I rely so heavily on Apple products to run day-in, day-out in the background or on my desk to keep our lives moving.

It's these questions, and the way that I - fairly or not - interpreted the MBP presentation as providing uncomfortable answers, that I think led me to respond so negatively to these new Macbooks.

 

[dyn]

Actually it is your lack of knowledge of the IT market and development of a device. Sales figures are decreasing each year and the development of hardware is slowing down each year. Intel had to change their course and slowdown CPU development tremendously. This affects OEMs like Apple. If Intel doesn't have new chips ready and if those chips don't offer a big difference compared to previous generations then Apple can't offer a desktop/notebook that have a big difference compared to their previous models. They have to go looking for other components to innovate such as the trackpad and when they've done that, they have to go to the next (which apparently is the keyboard now). Eventually you've gone through all of them; then what?

Hardware development has slowed down over the years which is causing Apple to come out with the current MBP and Microsoft with the Surface line (which is also using yesteryears hardware). The only new areas where they could improve is I/O (which Apple did by using TB3 which now gives the user full control of what kind of ports will be on the notebook instead of having to pay for ports they're never ever going to use) and the keyboard.

So what to expect in the future? A further decline of the desktop/notebook market with even less differences between previous generations which will cause us to rethink how we are using the hardware. Microsoft and Apple are already working on this (tablet + desktop/notebook in one vs a platform with various kinds of hardware that integrate with each other; or something like touchscreen display vs touchscreen function row). The difference between smartphone/tablets and desktop/notebooks is going to decrease too which will also cause us to rethink computing in general. We are already seeing this happening with apps (apps integrate into the messaging app of whatever OS your mobile device is running).

What you need to ask yourself now: why do I need to upgrade? Is it because I want to or is it because of a technical reason (can run certain software, old machine broke down, etc.)? And if it helps you: you are not the only one having difficulty to see the future of computing. A lot of things we need to find out/invent. This is basically like looking at a new house (difficult to see its potential because you get distracted by what's there (or not there) currently).

 

[jackoatmon]

people just get excited about all the wrong things

better colour gamut screens, more quiet, cool machines with finer aesthetic design are so much more exciting and innovative than if Intel released a new 5.3ghz quad core processor, 90% of the capacity of which would never get used