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The MBP brand has been tarnished.

If you were to run things at Apple, nobody would be able to afford anything.

Continuing on from your BMW analogy.

Before, there was a 1 series (mini), 3 series (macbook), and 7 series (macbook pro).

Now, there is a 1 series (mini), 3 series (macbook), 5 series (macbook pro 13" & 15"), and 7 series (17").

The line isn't tarnished, it's been divided. It's just a name, so get over it. Why is it a bad thing that consumers can now afford professional-level products? Who cares if they don't need all the features that it has to offer?
 
the MBP line is finally flexible and now u don't like it?

some people like me, like small screens with high processor does 13" screen make it not a pro laptop?
 
This is how messed up the America is. We think higher price that the government artificially creates (inflation) is good.

I'm glad Apple dropped the price. It also shows that Apple is hurting right now since the unemployment rate is around 16%.

Especially when California has been bankrupt for the past 8 months.
 
I was browsing a few forums and was reading reactions and seriously, Apple are really geniuses at marketing. There are quite a few people who think the 13-inch MacBook Pro is more "powerful" than the old uMB's! :confused: (Unless you really think a minor speed bump and an additional 2GB RAM counts as being more powerful which could be achieved with the old MacBook) WOW!
 
I argee i think it should be like this

MB - Small screen - Lowest price - Lower specs
MBP* - Bigger Screen - High Price - Good specs powerful machine
MBA - Thin - light - Goodish specs

And all products should be unibodys.

But i kinda like what happened now because i just bought a whitebook and now the whitebook is currently the only 'Macbook'. Also it has the lil tag 'New' on it on the apple site makes me feel better :rolleyes:
 
Just buy yourself a Mac Pro and a 30" apple display. Carry those two around as your portable laptop.
That will show all apple users how much more elite you are and just how much richer you are.
Then you can look down on all those poor MBP owners. ;)
 
Sorry your elite fashion club has new members.

Really, it's a laptop? Are you seriously complaining that its name was tarnished because the price dropped and it's more affordable. Seriously, I've met few people that shallow.

Enjoy it because of what it does, not because few people have it. You sound like a teenage girl.
 
I am stunned by the amount of people (not including this thread) who are shocked by Apple's price drops.

With the global economy in the toilet and M$'s excessive Apple bashing about prices with those ridiculous commercials, they really had no choice but to deflate their margins a bit. It simply became untenable for them to maintain those inflated margins.

While I am not shocked at the price drops I am shocked that Apple is still charging $400.00 for an ATI Radeon x1900 for the Mac Pro and equally ridiculous prices for the other video cards. :rolleyes:
 
173080 said:
The problem is not that Macs are more affordable or that I want to pay more for the sake of paying more. The point is that I want to be able to buy a Mac that is the best of the best.

The way it works is that you provide a different experience depending on price point. Car analogies are cliché but they work: BMW has the 1-Series and the 7-Series. They are both made by BMW and share some of the essence of the brand. However, there are countless differences that make the experience better for the customer who paid more. The trim feels different, the sound the doors make when they close is different, the quality of the buttons on the console is higher, it just feels expensive because it is expensive.

What the Macbook Pro should be: Excellent build quality (Apple has been cutting costs everywhere), Quadro graphics card (no Quadro option is a really bad joke on Apple's "Pro" lineup), a matte screen option, the classic keyboard, ExpressCard slot, eSATA, a great sound card, and priority AppleCare service. Truly the best of the best in hardware and experience.

In their attempt to make the MBP more affordable Apple has crippled the truly high end Pro notebooks.
Click to expand...

Do you own a BMW? Because I don't think you really understand the differences between the series (and therefore your analogy is severely flawed from the start). I own an '01 3 series (E46 body) manual 5-speed with sports package. I don't own it because I couldn't afford a 7 series, I own it because it performs the way I want a car to perform. The 7 series is a large luxury car that is not available with a standard transmission. The 3 series is an agile DRIVER'S car. Every BMW is built with quality but different models are designed to do different things....

You seem to be extolling a somewhat shallow and rather snobbish approach to cost/quality/brand image.

;)
 
The lower prices are good, the problem is that now you can not get a product of superior quality, above the industry standards as it was with Powerbooks.
I believe there are enough people who agree to pay extra $ for the flawless custom-built machine with professional screen.
 
Their gonna come out with SMBP-super macbook pro. FW 800 and 400-express slot, and for twice the price of the 17" MBP have a mac that every 15 y.o. kid doesnt have. You also get a grown-ups iphone with this since those kids also have iphones. Or you could go get a classic and a blackberry
 
I guess it's more like if they dropped manual transmissionon the 3 series.
Now everyone can cruise around, but no one can get real performance of it
 
zero85ZEN said:
Do you own a BMW?
Click to expand...

Yes. And I take the longest route just so I can drive more.

zero85ZEN said:
Because I don't think you really understand the differences between the series (and therefore your analogy is severely flawed from the start). I own an '01 3 series (E46 body) manual 5-speed with sports package. I don't own it because I couldn't afford a 7 series, I own it because it performs the way I want a car to perform. The 7 series is a large luxury car that is not available with a standard transmission. The 3 series is an agile DRIVER'S car. Every BMW is built with quality but different models are designed to do different things....

;)
Click to expand...

And that's a great car you have, I really miss my E39. The E39 and E46 are timeless designs. The lack of a manual transmission is my biggest gripe with the 7-Series, I was hoping BMW would offer the option with the F01 again since it doesn't have the column mounted shifter the E65 had - a 12-cylinder 7er with a manual transmission and straight pipes would be sweet. I was disappointed that its auto only. Not even SMG is an option. That said, I am curious to see what Alpina managed to do with the auto in the new B7.

BMW offers vastly different experiences at different price points. From an insane 135i with a manual transmission that'll make you need new pants to a heavy X5 with a 3.0 engine to an M6 convertible. The differences cover several orders of magintude. What Apple did is blend the experiences and price points into one big blob.

Writing this got me thinking, maybe what Apple needs is something akin to what Aplina is to BMW.
 
Pivzavod said:
I believe there are enough people who agree to pay extra $ for the flawless custom-built machine with professional screen.
Click to expand...

You mean a non-glossy production-worthy color-accurate screen? On a machine with Firewire? (ok, so the Firewire is pretty much a dead issue now).
 
173080 said:
While watching the WWDC keynote I began to remember the good days of the PowerBook. Owning a computer from Apple's pro lineup meant you had shelled out a decent amount of cash, and you were getting the best of the best in terms of industrial design along with the exclusivity.

I remember paying $3,100 for my PowerBook G4, and there was an incredibly clear difference between my $3,100 PBG4 and a $1400 iBook. The materials and build quality were completely different, as they should be. It was truly a special machine, and it showed.

And then comes the unibody Macbook. Apple gives their entry level customers access to the nice metal casing we've had for some eight years but at a much lower price point, and so the blending of the Macbook and Macbook Pro lines begins.

Yesterday Apple gave the final blow to the Macbook Pro brand and ruined it by adding the "13'' Macbook Pro" starting at a measly $1200. They bring the Macbook and Macbook Pro lines together by crippling the Macbook Pro enough to be somewhat like a Macbook. Now, why is a $1200 computer allowed to carry the name of what once used to be the 7-Series of computing? An atrocious democratization of the Macbook Pro!

What is Pro about the MBP anymore? There is no matte screen option. The screen bezel is huge. No ExpressCard slot. The classic keyboard had better tactile feedback. The 13" and base 15" can't run CUDA. An SD card slot is for consumers with P&S cameras. No built-in eSATA. The video adapters and remote are not included (a matter of convenience, even if it means a higher price).

And so the Macbook Pro brand has been tarnished. It is no longer a special badge worn only by the few - it has lost its essence.
Click to expand...


This has crossed my mind also. For me, i used to think that if you had a macbook pro you must have had some computer knowledge and the macbook was better for people what dident know as much. Now little kids will have macbook pros because they look pretty, their small and they can take pictures
 
173080 said:
... rant snip ...
Click to expand...

Get yourself together. You just want to be an elitist prick. Right now the fact that you paid $3k for your machine while other people get to pay less is eating at you.

I'm sorry to break the news for you, but, your attitude shows someone of immaturity. You'd be better happy as you can now buy yourself a cheaper machine in the future.


Goes to show, that no matter what Apple does, there is always someone complaining.
 
I am only annoyed cause the 13" and base 15" Pros have integrated graphics. Pro machines should have Pro graphics, or something better than a crappy integrated chip.
 
Whats funny is that if back in October, Apple had announced that they were dropping the macbook completely and introducing a 13" MacBook Pro (which would have been the unibody MacBook), then everyone would have been cool with the changes.

Instead they waited, and now people are pissed.
 
173080 said:
Yes. And I take the longest route just so I can drive more.
Click to expand...

Wow, I really hope you are not really from mexico (as in, thats where you live). If so, You must be in the 1 percent of the population that actually makes a decent living, and shows it off everyday driving your overpriced/heavy/gas guzzling/overpriced BMW, and thats great.

Then to come on here, basically complaining that your Macbook Pro, isnt so exclusive and Pro like anymore? and someone that didnt have the extra 1k dollars to buy a REAL MBP, can know own a version of what you own. That really makes you mad?

You are trying to use your BMW and Macbook pro as a status symbol. Im glad apple rebranded the macbooks, to piss people like you off.
 
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