To me, I think Apple is trying to ultimately make the Macbook Pro an iPad pro with one usbc port. I feel like that's where the Macbook should go, no the Pro. While I like a nice and thin lapotp, if it is a pro line then I'd expect it have some compromises in terms of portability. I think Apple thinks of portability first, power second.
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So what do you think Apple's ideal Macbook Pro is they'd want to sell?
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No. That's what people say when they are angered by ineffciencies and build problems that arise.
To understand how Apple gets itself into messy situations sometimes (heatgate, this gate, that gate) you must go back to when Jobs returned to Apple.
He always envisioned Apple to become a lifestyle brand, not just a computer company. He really liked what Sony was doing with the Vaio and was seriously considering letting them offer OS X on their machines. That didn't happen and the PowerBook G4 was born to compete against the Vaio.
Jobs wanted sexy machines that grabbed the public's attention because he understood that humans are attention seeking. They want to look fashionable, and stylish, and luxurious. If you sat in an a cafe with a PowerBook G4 then everyone looked at you. They didn't look at the guy with the blocky Dell Inspiron.
That's how PowerBook G4 sales rocketed. That's why Apple Stores became the busiest stores on the street. They sell style, not just computing.
This came at a cost. The first 15" PowerBook G4 was too hot and cooked your legs. The first 12" PowerBook G4 was so hot it was useless and was quickly updated. Cube G4 cracked from the heat. If you're trying to sell stylish and efficient form factor then heat will always be an issue.
When Apple moved to Intel and when throttling was introduced to x86 chipsets, there has always been users angry that they can't render some of their CG/video work on a mobile device. Even if you give them a two inch thick laptop they will find a way to throttle that. It's Jevon's Paradox - even if you improve efficiency you will find users who will want to increase their energy demands.
So it should be no surprise that when you jump from quadcore to sixcore in the same slim form factor there will be extra heat and some users will do impractical things to pressure a machine that isn't suitable for desktop workstation tasks. You can blame users for trying to fry their laptops, you can blame Apple for trying to have luxurious designs that are not updated often, or you can blame Intel for having a really messy roadmap for the last two years.
If Intel were more predictable then Apple could have designed a new chassis around new CPUs. That will most likely happen next year. For now, Apple was caught off guard. A firmware update should keep everyone happy for now.
And they really should have regularly released Mac Pros so that users can do all the serious workstation rendering on those and stick to lesser intensive work on a laptop.
You make a good point. I know that desktops are largely disappearing, but even every couple of years would be good. Not sure why Apple designed it, released it and then left it largely alone.
Just like the current iteration of MBPs they painted themselves into a corner by having extremely narrow margins in their thermals. They wanted the smallest machine possible. Then GPUs (IIRC this is the bottleneck) started coming out with higher and higher power designs which the machine couldn't support.
So they're stuck between a) total redesign, b) not updating the GPUs for five years, b) not updating anything for five years and hoping people forget it exists.
