Yep and that's the market Apple plays for, hence the sad state of affairs today... Q-6
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Waiting for the 2018 MBP
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Yep and that's the market Apple plays for, hence the sad state of affairs today... Q-6
That seems to be the case...Apple's new leadership has very much strayed from their original user base. The same user base that influenced the fundamental building blocks of Apple's core technology.
Today, Apple reminds me of an aging fashion designer that has passed their prime but is desperately trying to remain relevant by flexing their muscles.
Luckily for us, the students that Apple is so kindly screwing over (by telling them what they will buy versus what they want to buy) will eventually start another company to make Apple irrelevant.
Are you seeing it in the real world the impact of the new designs being a disadvantage to them.
I am starting to see the 2016/2017 design a lot on social media and everyday scenarios. For instance, I was watching a show on Engadget about Sex Robots taking over and becoming good enough. One of the participants in the video who is sort of a psychologist/author was using a base model MacBook Pro, either the 2017/2016.
Also, a Buzzfeed video talking to a famous youtuber detailing with hate online as an LGBT advocate showed segments where he is editing his videos on a 15 inch MacBook Pro, 2017/2016.
Then there is the Jamaica Apple User Group where I'm seeing more users popup with theirs, but they either hate it or reselling it.
I also follow some of the major Mac developers on Twitter and they have discussed their disappointments with the new MacBook Pro. But pretty much every single one of them are using the new MacBook Pro's. We are talking about engineers who work at companies like Linkedin.
The groups and opinions are certainly varied and polarizing about the new MacBook Pro's. Where I think Apple has a lot of clout with the MacBook Pro are those millions of iOS apps.
With 29 million developers world wide, those developers are likely to stick with whatever Mac they have, if they must have a mobile solution, its gonna be the new MacBook Pro - reluctantly.
So, I don't think the new design and component choices will affect their revenue with the MacBook Pro, but I believe if Apple continues on the current trajectory, it will affect their customer satisfaction rating.
To summarize my pulse on whats going on out there and this forum also - come on, this is a thread with over 5,000 replies about the MacBook Pro. People are not happy with the MacBook Pro, but they are not gonna stop buying it either. Why? iOS and macOS.
For anyone thinking about upgrading to the newer MacBook Pros, have a read of this:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-20/how-apple-alienated-mac-loyalists
An excerpt from the article:
“In the run-up to the MacBook Pro's planned debut this year, the new battery failed a key test, according to a person familiar with the situation. Rather than delay the launch and risk missing the crucial holiday shopping season, Apple decided to revert to an older design.”
They’re obviously still good machines, but that’s some pretty damning stuff.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-20/how-apple-alienated-mac-loyalists
An excerpt from the article:
“In the run-up to the MacBook Pro's planned debut this year, the new battery failed a key test, according to a person familiar with the situation. Rather than delay the launch and risk missing the crucial holiday shopping season, Apple decided to revert to an older design.”
They’re obviously still good machines, but that’s some pretty damning stuff.
I will never get a MBP with the current keyboard design. Rather get a refreshed mini or iMac
Innovation in the desktop/notebook market has stalled considerably across all major players, not just Apple. But that's because there really is only so much you can do with product design that space, and most of the good stuff has been done already. Don't get me wrong, there is some great hardware coming out from many manufacturers, but none of it is really that revolutionary. The real progress is with what's inside and that's where Apple's own choices, and it's reliance on unreliable third parties is starting to hurt.
The vision for the current MacBook Pro design would have started out some 4-5 years ago, at the very least. At the same time Intel released a fairly detailed roadmap, and it's fair to assume that Apple designed their product roadmap around that too. It's no secret Intel have failed to meet pretty much every original launch date they've set themselves over the last few chip cycles - but had they met those dates, the 2016 and 2017 MacBook Pro's would have launched with much more powerful and efficient specs, including better ram. Had the performance been there, then I don't think the negativity around these models would have gained as much traction as it has (the exception being the keyboard).
It's no surprise Apple is directing significantly more resources towards iPhone than Mac. But I don't think that's a sign Apple has given up on the Mac. Recent rumors suggest quite the opposite in fact and point towards Apple aggressively taking back full development control and grow the Mac user base. A move away from Intel and towards custom chips givens Apple more control over the overall product design and roadmap. And a move to make cross platform development easier with the stuff coming to MacOS in 2019 points towards Apple wanting to make it a more attractive platform for developers to develop for and in return consumers.
Yup that report is also one of the reasons why many people (including me) are still hoping for the 2018 MBPs to feature a MB-like terraced battery design that fills out the interior better. If Apple managed to do that in the meantime then that alone could easily improve battery life by 1-3 hours, maybe more. Without having to make the device thicker or change anything about the chassis.
They won’t change the design of the machine in 2018, that’ll be in 2019/20 when they release their new design. And that’s what I’m personally waiting for.
Apple's stance with the Mac is laughable at best. All Apple's vast resources yet it's seemingly incapable of keeping it's desktop hardware remotely relevant...
Mark Gurman:
"Interviews with people familiar with Apple's inner workings reveal that the Mac is getting far less attention than it once did."
Peter Kirn:
"This is a company with no real vision for what its most creative users actually do with their most advanced machines."
Surprised not...
Q-6
It was meant to come with Icelake, I haven’t heard anything about Coffee Lake supporting 32gb of the low power RAM MBPs use, so very unlikely.
I know I’d be incredibly frustrated if I really needed to upgrade to a new machine now and it was only the current offerings available, a good year old, on last gen chips (when the new ones are a big step up) with no update in sight. When you’re charging this much for machines you just don’t let them get this stale, it’s ridiculous...
What I think is hurting Apple is their hardware engineering team is stretched thin. We are talking about the same people who work on iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, MacBook, iMac, Watch, HomePod, Mac Pro.
This is obviously affecting how much time and resources they can to get a decent product to market. Lets not forget about the elephant in the room - the iPhone. Its truly hogging all the resources. Sure, maybe if Steve Jobs was around to micromanage and beta test, they including Jony Ive would have to be pulling an all nighter.
If Steve said fix the MacBook Pro today, it would be fixed 6 months ago. But that driving motivation is not there anymore and the reality is, nobody at Apple including Ive particularly liked that approach to management.
They still believe they are doing their best work, but right now, its particularly about, good enough and just coasting it out.
Apple's next wave are some high level things: services, AR, automation, wearables and health.
Its understandable because what more is there to really exploit to really improve the user experience in something like the MacBook Pro other than faster chips? Lets not forget, Apple is not on the brink of bankruptcy anymore, they are a mainstream consumer electronics company. It started with the iPod, became official with the iPhone in 2007 when they changed their name to Apple Inc. Ordained by Steve Jobs himself. So, this was all planned.
When I see thousands of people entering a twitter contest to hopefully win a 2017 MacBook Pro, that even gives into theory that maybe they are doing something right.
You think Steve Jobs didn't have a sit down with the leadership in early 2011 to ordain all thats happening now?
This is obviously affecting how much time and resources they can to get a decent product to market. Lets not forget about the elephant in the room - the iPhone. Its truly hogging all the resources. Sure, maybe if Steve Jobs was around to micromanage and beta test, they including Jony Ive would have to be pulling an all nighter.
If Steve said fix the MacBook Pro today, it would be fixed 6 months ago. But that driving motivation is not there anymore and the reality is, nobody at Apple including Ive particularly liked that approach to management.
They still believe they are doing their best work, but right now, its particularly about, good enough and just coasting it out.
Apple's next wave are some high level things: services, AR, automation, wearables and health.
Its understandable because what more is there to really exploit to really improve the user experience in something like the MacBook Pro other than faster chips? Lets not forget, Apple is not on the brink of bankruptcy anymore, they are a mainstream consumer electronics company. It started with the iPod, became official with the iPhone in 2007 when they changed their name to Apple Inc. Ordained by Steve Jobs himself. So, this was all planned.
When I see thousands of people entering a twitter contest to hopefully win a 2017 MacBook Pro, that even gives into theory that maybe they are doing something right.
You think Steve Jobs didn't have a sit down with the leadership in early 2011 to ordain all thats happening now?
... and the pricing is ridiculous. If you compare specs.
This is basically my dilemma. I don't want to pay $3,000+ for a machine that is already relatively outdated (especially for the price) - but I need an upgrade. Now it's a waiting game of.... "maybe" October? I either wait 4-5 months to be disappointed again or get stuck waiting until possibly 2019. I wish Apple would either lower the price of the MBP's to be more reasonable since they are becoming outdated, or alternatively give us a loose timeline so we have an idea.
Considering the prices were eye watering even when they were new machines, they are by now overdue a price cut I’d say. If they really are going to wait until October or next year to refresh, they should have adjusted pricing from WWDC to reflect that the machines are now in excess of one ‘usual’ upgrade cycle old... it’s sort of the Apple planned-economy equivalent of other manufacturers products slowly coming down in price over the course of their availability...
I work in a tech company... and even a very-techy colleague of mine was like:
"Why is this machine slower? It has an i7... this one only has an i5!!!"
And I was like... "Umm... because i3, i5, and i7 is ONLY useful as a designation of the same CLASS of CPUs. A 45W i7 is faster than a 45W i5... in this case the i7 also has hyper threading while the i5 doesn't! And here you have a 15W i7... vs a 45W i5... ofc is the i5 FASTER!!!" He was mind-blown.
As a "super" user who doesn't do anything "creative" but needs a new laptop, I don't care that much about the CPU generation, but I won't buy a MBP until they fix the keyboard - and possibly lower the price to reflect its age. Same for the MB.
I just hope they at least fix them before September.
I just hope they at least fix them before September.
In Apple's defence - this obfuscation is exactly what Intel intended when they changed to this naming scheme.
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We don't know that. Introducing an improved internal battery design would not require any visible exterior changes – from the outside, the machine would look and feel identical to what it does now. Let's also not forget that there have oftentimes been advertised improvements in battery life in-between the big redesigns of MBs and MBPs, and for good reason – if a new MacBook generation consists otherwise solely of new specs and doesn't bring any visible new features to the table, then a "Up to 3 hours more battery life!" can make such a refresh in-between redesigns much more appealing.
Obviously we don't have any certainty that it won't come before the next big redesign (or at all), but if these rumors that such a battery design was originally planned for 2016 are true, then it doesn't seem too far-fetched that they put it out there 2-3 years later once it's ready, instead of waiting for the next big redesign just because.
Tim Cook will or should be remembered for this keyboard design flaw, the ****** 2016/2017 MacBook Pros and his neglect of the Mac platform in general. I can only hope he either walks or is pushed and that his successor comes swiftly, but I suspect he’s far too egotistical, deluded and controlling to voluntarily move on.
Just watched this video review; it’s (sadly) spot on. I feel as disappointed and frustrated as he does in pretty much all the same ways (and no he didn’t actually destroy the MacBook!).
Just watched this video review; it’s (sadly) spot on. I feel as disappointed and frustrated as he does in pretty much all the same ways (and no he didn’t actually destroy the MacBook!).
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I generally believe a logistics guy should NOT helm Apple. Sadly, people with a real vision are far and between. Only one I can call right now... is actually Elon Musk. I'd not be against Apple buying Tesla... and making him CEO in the process.
Here's part of your 32 GB quad-core 13" MacBook Pro guys:
https://www.intel.ca/content/www/ca...one&query=BGA1526-ICL-U&keyword=BGA1526-ICL-U
Too bad it won't be out until late 2019.
https://www.intel.ca/content/www/ca...one&query=BGA1526-ICL-U&keyword=BGA1526-ICL-U
Too bad it won't be out until late 2019.
I was going to say the same. Sometimes someone in this or other threads asks "is there a CPU suitable for MBP/rMB/etc. 2018?" and gets a link to Intel's charts as explanation. I've got a M.Sc. in maths, and I don't understand anything from those charts other than wattage, "delayed", "postponed", and "not available". Ice Lake, Coffee Lake, Kaby Lake, Tomato Juice Lake, i5 that's faster than i7 which is actually a renamed m7...
While iOS 12 is easier to figure out as upgrade to iOS 11 than Mojave succeeding High Sierra, at least macOS doesn't come in Mojave only for 2017 rMBs, while High Sierra is available for Mac Mini 2012 and 21" iMacs purchased on Thursdays, and Sequoia for Mac Pros postponed until the release of the Rose Gold Magic Trackpad.
Totally and 100% agree with you (both) - thanks for sharing the video
With no new machines it looks like I'm keeping my 2012 13" MBP. It is a good machine, has ports-a-plenty and no soldered memory or drives. I should be happy with saving £2000.
The thing is I really would like to upgrade. Not because I need to but I want to. I use my MBP a lot so am happy to pay the extra for a great machine. For the time spent using it the cost of a new machine is still good value.
For me, I think the plus points of a new MBP are:
I actually do like the new keyboard. Last weekend I tried both old and new keyboards side by side in an Apple store. Both are good but I do prefer the new one. Reliability aside I would really like to use the new keyboard. The screen is also better as are the speakers, Touch ID and space grey colour.
The negative points are:
Soldering - so if anything goes wrong I lose the machine for days while Apple repair it. That isn't good on a professional machine used daily.
Lack of ports - I can cope with that.
No Magsafe - a big loss and I would miss that a lot.
TouchBar - don't need it, don't want it but have to have it to get the TouchID. That is not good.
So I’m stuck. Ideally I want a new MBP with Magsafe, TouchID and no TouchBar but I am never going to get that. If Apple just made a machine with TouchID and no TouchBar I could live with it and would buy. As they don’t it’s just too many compromises. It’s a shame as I have wanted a new MBP for a while now and really like certain aspects of the new machines.
Hopefully they do something good later this year.
The thing is I really would like to upgrade. Not because I need to but I want to. I use my MBP a lot so am happy to pay the extra for a great machine. For the time spent using it the cost of a new machine is still good value.
For me, I think the plus points of a new MBP are:
I actually do like the new keyboard. Last weekend I tried both old and new keyboards side by side in an Apple store. Both are good but I do prefer the new one. Reliability aside I would really like to use the new keyboard. The screen is also better as are the speakers, Touch ID and space grey colour.
The negative points are:
Soldering - so if anything goes wrong I lose the machine for days while Apple repair it. That isn't good on a professional machine used daily.
Lack of ports - I can cope with that.
No Magsafe - a big loss and I would miss that a lot.
TouchBar - don't need it, don't want it but have to have it to get the TouchID. That is not good.
So I’m stuck. Ideally I want a new MBP with Magsafe, TouchID and no TouchBar but I am never going to get that. If Apple just made a machine with TouchID and no TouchBar I could live with it and would buy. As they don’t it’s just too many compromises. It’s a shame as I have wanted a new MBP for a while now and really like certain aspects of the new machines.
Hopefully they do something good later this year.