Research Firms Paint Contrasting Pictures of Apple's Mac Shipments in Q2 2019

[Queen6]

5 years? So the 2014 MacBooks had bad keyboards? I had heard right here on the forum that everything up to 2015 was brought down by the wings of angels, perfect and flawless.

Nope 15" MBP has been problematic in the past, however it did present value to many profeshinals, unlike the 2016 design.

Butterfly was launched early 2015 on the now defunct MacBook, so maybe not a full five years of garbage unreliable keyboards, but not far off. The fact remains that the keyboard is a joke for any notebook, let alone an alleged premium line. Apple may have figured out the reliability with the 2019 models, equally it's likely costing them too much to produce reliably and the damage done on the PR side...

Q-6

 

[femike]

macOS usage declining, well that is no surprise. Outside the US the market share is very small.
The prices are just too high, especially outside the US.
The products are not suited to what most people want or need.
NTFS read/write still not available out-of-box.
Thermal issues, especially in warmer climates and no air con.
No reasonably priced user upgradable headless mac.
Lack of ports.
etc

i prefer macOS but Apple is just not interested promoting it, in getting more users.

 

[nexusrule]

macOS usage declining, well that is no surprise. Outside the US the market share is very small.
The prices are just too high, especially outside the US.
The products are not suited to what most people want or need.
NTFS read/write still not available out-of-box.
Thermal issues, especially in warmer climates and no air con.
No reasonably priced user upgradable headless mac.
Lack of ports.
etc

i prefer macOS but Apple is just not interested promoting it, in getting more users.

Have you read the article?
[doublepost=1562919122][/doublepost]

No Apple wants to sell $2000 notebooks to people who have no idea what they are buying, that are riddled with problems due to cutting corners and poor design.

Q-6

. I am a design professional with an income that’s 3.5 times the average salary in the country. I have a degree in social sciences, a master in design and in publishing. Would you say I have no idea of what I am buying? Grow up.

 

[ka-spot]

the 4 port 13" Pro for $1799 should have 16G of RAM as a base model

 

[pika2000]

This comparison is near pointless. Lenovo, HP, and Dell get majority of their unit sales from enterprise contracts, not actual consumer sales.
[doublepost=1562921151][/doublepost]

the 4 port 13" Pro for $1799 should have 16G of RAM as a base model

It should have 8-core CPU, 32GB RAM base, 1TB SSD for $300 sale price!

 

[throAU]

. I am a design professional with an income that’s 3.5 times the average salary in the country. I have a degree in social sciences, a master in design and in publishing. Would you say I have no idea of what I am buying? Grow up.

Maybe? None of your qualifications are in computing... and our CEO for example is on a lot more than you are and has no idea about computers either.

Waving unrelated qualifications and unrelated income around... doesn't really make any sort of point?

 

[PickUrPoison]

the 4 port 13" Pro for $1799 should have 16G of RAM as a base model

Whatever for? Because all pros need 16GB?

Why stop there? 1TB SSD should be the minimum, and iPhone XS Max should have 8GB RAM...

 

[throAU]

Whatever for? Because all pros need 16GB?

Why stop there? 1TB SSD should be the minimum, and iPhone XS Max should have 8GB RAM...

It should have 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of SSD for the price being asked.

16 GB of RAM is what... 200 bucks at RETAIL and SSD is 10-20c per gigabyte. Aussie peso price. And i'm not talking crappy RAM or SSD either. Samsung 970 EVO. RRP. Not Apple cost.

So yes. Given the price premium and "pro" moniker then it damn well SHOULD have those sorts of specs as a baseline.

 

[Mike MA]

Attempt to estimate...

 

[Coli22]

I am Apple user - last 20 years. I do design work, so comp. is my money earning tool. But the high-end 2019 Macbook Pro prices are just ridiculous!

 

[Queen6]

I am Apple user - last 20 years. I do design work, so comp. is my money earning tool. But the high-end 2019 Macbook Pro prices are just ridiculous!

Not so much the pricing for me, rather the lack of value coupled with reduced reliability. For the majority I do agree the pricing is ridiculous for what's on offer. Once I would have unreservedly recommended the Mac and did for many years even with higher price points. Now I simply advise people to save their money unless they have a specific need for OS X.

Q-6

 

[MoreRumors?]

Apple couldn't care less about competing with HP, Lenovo, or Dell in the plastic Windows turd box space.

I agree with you and they only focus on pushing the envelope to see how much customers are willing to pay for each products and services sold.

They didn't fix the storage pricing. They cut down the two most exorbitant cash grabs on their product catalog and left the base and next level up unchanged. It's clever cutting pricing on your two least purchased items and getting a lot of pub for it, but until they touch the stuff 90% of the people buy, it's all show.

If Apple had "courage", the base/upgrade would look like this.

MBA - RAM 8GB, 16 GB +$100 (currently is 8, 16 +$200)
MBA - SSD 256GB, 512 GB +$100, 1TB +$200 (currently is 128, 256 +$200, 512 +400, 1TB +600)

MBP - RAM 16GB, 32 GB (+150 when available) (currently is 8, 16 +$200)
MBP - SSD 512GB, 1TB +$100, 2TB +$200 (currently is 128, 256 +$200, 512 +400, 1TB +600, 2TB +1,000)

A true delineation from MPA and MPB, and storage fit for 2019.

I was in the market for a new MBP or Air and looking at the prices for added storage, I decided to skip and ended up getting a HP. And yeah, I have no issues using Windows and the HP does what I need it to do.

 

[BigBoy2018]

Maybe? None of your qualifications are in computing... and our CEO for example is on a lot more than you are and has no idea about computers either.

Waving unrelated qualifications and unrelated income around... doesn't really make any sort of point?

I was about to tell @nexusrule the same thing. But a little less politely.

Buying any butterfly keyboard mac laptop at this point would be a borderline idiot move, considering theres a keyboard overhaul right around the corner.

It just amazes me that theres still a handful of forum members here who fiercely defend these compromised pieces of Jony Ive turds.

 

[will_is_here]

Lenovo: Great keyboard, good prices, okay OS - Sales up big
Apple: Bad keyboard, bad pricing (storage pricing is a joke), great OS - Sales down

Seems pretty easy. Fix the keyboard, fix the storage...watch sales jump.

In 2012, the Macbook Air (!!!) had base 128GB of storage. 7 years ago. Searching for some (consumer) price history, in Mid 2013 a 128 GB SSD cost $92. Now a 500 GB costs $50, or a 1TB cost $100. The first price point for $500GB was in mid 2014 for $240.

So you could assume that Apple's 128GB SSD cost has gone from around $80 to probably $15?

The good, better, best on storage is really ****ing terrible, terrible, and acceptable on the storage side and then terrible, terrible, terrible on the price side.

The the high end the prices are fine: Going from 1tb to 2tb on the 13 inch MacBook Pro costs £400, less than the equivalent price jump on the Samsung 970 EVO. I think what they are doing is "subsidising" lower end storage options by accepting a smaller profit margin

And when you consider this, it makes sense why the base MacBook Pro plus £200 256gb ssd is cheaper than the XPS 13 with Microsoft office included even when on offer, as they are now.

 

[polbit]

Ha-ha. Having been around computers for 50 years and spent two decades fighting the various lunacies of Microsoft Windows 10 is rapidly becoming a 'do as we do and when we tell you to do it' kind of OS. Forced updates, borking after updates and those tiles! The last straw for me was making changes somewhere in the OS that stopped software that had been running for fifteen years dead. Even rebuilding it failed to produce a working solution.
Moved the code (C++ and Pascal) to MacOS and after a day or so to get the makefile right it now works again. Ported to CentOS 7 in a couple of hours. Again, it works like a dream.
Windows 10 is no more. I deleted the last copy a couple of months ago. As the saying goes, you can polish a turd but it is still a turd.
That is my impression of Windows 10 these days.
How long before they start charging subscriptions eh?

Silliness like this is why people need to take "reviews" of Windows 10 on this site with more than a grain of salt.

I've slowly transitioned from mostly-Mac to mostly-PC usage, and as a heavy user for data sciences and programming, Win10 has been less troublesome for me than MacOS. We can talk all day about some of the design concepts or the little things that make using something better, but from a reliability and/or support, for both legacy and for modern technologies, Win10 is my go-to.
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I was about to tell @nexusrule the same thing. But a little less politely.

Buying any butterfly keyboard mac laptop at this point would be a borderline idiot move, considering theres a keyboard overhaul right around the corner.

It just amazes me that theres still a handful of forum members here who fiercely defend these compromised pieces of Jony Ive turds.

I think you are talking about two different things here though - reliability, and usability. From a reliability perspective, I agree wholeheartedly, the butterfly keyboards are a bust. However, there is a decent group of people that do enjoy using them. It's OK to like something that's not reliable, just understand the consequences.

Like buying a used Land Rover 20 years ago...

 

[nt5672]

If relying on my buying pattern... and I'm a big Apple fan when they put out some that puts function before fashion... then they are definitely on a down trend. I still have a 2012 MacBook retina pro, and none of the new laptops in 7 years has been enticing. I can still plug in USB A devices, and if I trip over the power cord, the MagSafe does a safe release. Apple share holders must hate me.

Yep, I also quit buying Apple laptops when they became no different than the competition. Before every two or three years, now no reason. No differentiation, no MagSafe, no lighted logo, bad keyboard, too few ports, short battery life, low performance, etc.

Now all we get are expensive devices that cannot be upgraded and have toy features like Touch Bar. Apple does not have a cheap low end, or an expensive performant top end laptop. Instead there are 20 models that are all about the same except for screen size.

 

[hagjohn]

to be fair.... Apple doesnt sell garbage $200 laptops to people who have no idea what they are buying...

I do not think people are saying they should but they could put together around $700 one though.

 

[nihil0]

You probably haven't used the latest iterations of Windows 10. Satya Nadella seems to be steering the Microsoft ship with skill and focus. I hated especially W8, but even W10 at first. Today, Windows 10 is my first choice in desktop OS.

I use Win 10 at work for 8 hrs a day, so probably more than my iMac at home and I have to say... IT SUCKS same as previous versions

 

[LordVic]

Maybe? None of your qualifications are in computing... and our CEO for example is on a lot more than you are and has no idea about computers either.

Waving unrelated qualifications and unrelated income around... doesn't really make any sort of point?

I was going to respond with the same point, but probably a bit more rudely

I work in banking and finance. Everyone who uses their computers here uses their computer to make a living. That doesn't suddenly mean they know what their computers are, or they pick the right computers for what they need.

CEO for example was demanding a MacBook (we don't support Macs) because "I'm the CEO, I KNOW what I need"... but when pressed what they were doing, the MacBook was a TERRIBLE choice. Especially considering tools she wanted and needs don't exist on MacOS.

This is where us in IT come in. When we say "That's a nice computer and all, but we can't recommend it for X reasons" you should probably heed some of our reasons.

This isn't saying that Mac computers and laptops don't have places where they excel and or shine. But throwing around meaningless non-IT Related credentials as some sort of evidence that you know IT comes accross as .... Haughty.

 

[MistrSynistr]

The Mac mini got me hooked into the Apple Ecosystem, but when I got it, it was 50% cheaper than before. I rationalized moving up to an iMac thru that. If they dropped the mini's they'd see more growth on their other products.

 

[realtuner]

Growth stopped when Tim Cook became the CEO. I'm shocked.

Except that’s not true at all.

 

[inkswamp]

All PC-Mac arguments aside, it still amazes me that Dell ranks as high as they do in just about any metric. They are such a crappy company. I've had so many bad support experiences with them and their products are third-rate. I don't get it.

 

[mrothroc]

But throwing around meaningless non-IT Related credentials as some sort of evidence that you know IT comes accross as .... Haughty.

It really depends on your perspective. They were demonstrating that they have a productive workflow. They alone are experts in their own workflow, and know what tools make them most productive. They further have staked their livelihood on a Mac-based workflow.

From this view, saying that being an expert in IT makes you an expert in everyone else's day-to-day working tasks seems like the irrelevant credential.

 

[cocky jeremy]

Apple couldn't care less about competing with HP, Lenovo, or Dell in the plastic Windows turd box space.

And why would they? Fighting over tiny margins. Not Apple's game.

 

[LordVic]

It really depends on your perspective. They were demonstrating that they have a productive workflow. They alone are experts in their own workflow, and know what tools make them most productive. They further have staked their livelihood on a Mac-based workflow.

From this view, saying that being an expert in IT makes you an expert in everyone else's day-to-day working tasks seems like the irrelevant credential.

While also very possibly true, a "GOOD" IT person is capable of understanding user needs and providing recommendations on hardware that are best tailored for those needs.

While someone who knows their workflow very well would be considered an expert in that workflow. That workflow dictates the requirements of hardware. I have seen numerous times where an expert in their workflow (which is good) is not well enough versed in the actual details of the hardware they use. But think they have "the best" hardware for that workflow because it "works"

while that's true. I consider myself not doing my job if I'm not recommending and providing the BEST solution for that workflow. I'm not going to dictate what that workflow has to be, only the hardware and tools that would best suit that workflow.

For Example: I did some consulting for an engineering firm who were using iMac's and were wondering why they were losing contracts regularly. the number 1 reason was turn around time. This firm thought that the mac's, due to their pricing and marketing would be the absolute fastest computers for their work. They were running cross platform software. I was able to demonstrate that they were losing business because they bought the wrong hardware that was not competitive compared to their immediate clients. Swapped out a couple of those iMacs for standard Lenovo towers with more geared components and suddenly those machines, running win10, but still capable of completing the work within their workflow 20% faster than the iMac's were.

in IT, it's NOT our place to dictate the workflow, But to recommend the best hardware to maximize productivity of that workflow. Something we are typically experts at. While other professions do have the odd person who knows this stuff, I do tend to find that it is less common that people here on MacRumours likely realizes.