R2FX
macrumors regular
Small based on the research Apple did when they decided to can the 17” (as well as the 11” Air) - if you was a profitable enough of a market, they would have created 17” models...
either you KNOW and have seen the research or you're pulling stuff out of your @rse mate... 17" was quite profitable machine. The problem IMHO seemed to coincide with 2 things:
1) lack of Retina LCD & powerful GPU
2) abandonment of Pro photo/graphic design segment
First one was explained and as of today we do have all components available, just not in a MacBook Pro shape. Second one is tricky and is far difficult to fathom especially as Apple continues to invest in Final Cut X and Logic. To me photo/graphic design is an important segment that would have been wonderfully complemented by iPads running some Apple software (they could have bought Pixelmator long ago and improve, not abandon Aperture). Why they chose to leave this segment is another topic, but if they didn't care about these customers it didn't make sense to create new laptop for them either
R2FX wants one gaming laptop with very decent level of performance, which is exact point of 17 inch laptop in this context.
Actually not a gaming laptop - a decent, portable desktop replacement
I went the expat route and needed a desktop replacement that I could carry around if needed and 17" was perfect for that. In addition to the 17" had better thermal stats - I lived in Middle East and I saw friend's MBP 15" getting far more hotter and louder than my machine ever did during normal use indoors.
As you pointed out there are things that don't necessary scale up with larger displays, but this does certainly apply to graphic design and photography. Someone mentioned that Apple didn't differentiate 15" and 17" enough - maybe, but then how does one explain iPhone Xs and Xs Max which have identical specs and the only difference is screen size? At work (mobile telco) I see roughly 50:50 split of both models. Again, I couldn't care about specs difference, I would always prefer 17" and gladly pay premium for the screen estate alone. Apple knows that screen size is important (iPad Pro 10.5" and 12"), they just can't be bothered to do something new in the Mac lineup.