Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What Happened? (Apple has forgotten its roots)

M

Macpropro80

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 31, 2009
408
0
Over the last year or so, I have been feeling as though apple has forgotten its roots. I am not going to stop using macs, because they are still better then any PC, but I would like to state my complaints in a public and open forum.

My Problems with Apple INC. (mostly in regards to their Mac Pro and Mac Book Pro Line)

1) Apple has begun to nickel and dime the customer. I recently bought two Nvidia GT120's for my mac pro, neither came with any form of an adapter to use the display ports. These are $150 a piece graphic cards, and yet still, apple made me buy two $100 dual link DVI adapters! My old ati 2600 HD's came with two dual link DVI ports and a DVI to VGA adapter, for $130 a piece.

2) Apple has begun to ignore major software problems. Over the past year I have had more software glitches on my mac pro, then any other computer I have EVER used. iMovie doesn't show all my clips, iPhoto wont export my slideshow, final cut wont render, the list goes on. When ever I call apple care, Which by the way cost me $250 on top of a $4000 machine, they tell me that they do not have a solution and to wait for the next software update. I have an idea apple, Il stop payment on my mac pro next time, and tell you to wait for my new job.

3) Apple has recently enacted on a plan to screw customers with macs older then 3 or 4 years old. My 1 year old mac pro, again a $4000 mac, did not support open CL in Snow Leopard. The only graphic cards I can get to support open CL, cost over $400 a piece, and I cant run 8 displays with them. (I bought the mac pro with the intent to one day run 8 displays) I mean come on! I decided to wing it with the Gt120, and it gives me mouse errors ALL THE TIME. * mouse jump

4) Forcing users to download new software. Example; Itunes. If you want to use the itunes store you need to latest version of itunes. Not only that but you also need the latest version of Safari. I don't use safari, and I dont want to update something I don't use. And if you have ilife 08, every time you open a program you are greeted by a pop up window telling you how your old software blows and how you should buy the new one.

I don't know about you, but I feel the apple I fell in love with has changed. And not for the better. they have become almost like Microsoft.... almost.
 
If you can afford 8 displays, can you not afford to trade up your machine every 3 years :confused:
 
I'm gonna agree with Macpropro80 all the way.

I bought *two* ATI 3870s, one last year, and one this year. Seeing how the card is perfectly capable of running OpenCL, Apple has been very kind to NOT support the card with OpenCL.

I completely agree with the whole Safari thing as well, I don't use it either (i think it sucks) and shouldnt be forced to update it. Suppose I trashed it completely? What then?

Steve Jobs' has completely forgotten about Mac Pros and OS X. His attention has shifted to iPods and iPhones, and everything to do with them (itunes music store and the app store). OS X Snow Leopard has gotten some nice updates, but its still lacking some much needed options.

Ive been a mac user for about 9 years now and this whole ipod/iphone cult has really affected us ACTUAL mac users.
 
ungraphic said:
I'm gonna agree with Macpropro80 all the way.

I bought *two* ATI 3870s, one last year, and one this year. Seeing how the card is perfectly capable of running OpenCL, Apple has been very kind to NOT support the card with OpenCL.
Click to expand...

To be quite honest Apple had no obligations to make sure OpenCL were running on the Radeon HD 3870 out of the gate, seeing as the card never officially were offered by Apple but by AMD.

Besides that the Radeon HD 3870 is not really suited GPGPU as the architecture had some limiting factors, which the Radeon HD 4800 series corrected.
 
Pressure said:
To be quite honest Apple had no obligations to make sure OpenCL were running on the Radeon HD 3870 out of the gate, seeing as the card never officially were offered by Apple but by AMD.

Besides that the Radeon HD 3870 is not really suited GPGPU as the architecture had some limiting factors, which the Radeon HD 4800 series corrected.
Click to expand...

Dont put words in my mouth! I said two ATI XT 2600 HD's THOSE CAME WITH MY MAC PRO!
 
I will have to agree with the OP. They have been going down hill the past 2 years. And snow leopard took its cue from Vista. Totally sucks. Apple should have waited until the other apps from apple were rewritten to take advantage of the new OS. But like any business, they concentrate were the bacon is. Portable computers, cloud computing, and entertainment. Its sad apple lost there vision. Now they are on par with microsoft!
 
bearcatrp said:
I will have to agree with the OP. They have been going down hill the past 2 years. And snow leopard took its cue from Vista. Totally sucks. Apple should have waited until the other apps from apple were rewritten to take advantage of the new OS. But like any business, they concentrate were the bacon is. Portable computers, cloud computing, and entertainment. Its sad apple lost there vision. Now they are on par with microsoft!
Click to expand...

I feel that apple has lost its "start up" style, it is now more interested in making a quick buck, then improving the computer experience for the masses. (the principle it was founded on) I hope Steve Jobs or Woz reads this, so they can know..... things have changed.
 
bearcatrp said:
I will have to agree with the OP. They have been going down hill the past 2 years. And snow leopard took its cue from Vista. Totally sucks. Apple should have waited until the other apps from apple were rewritten to take advantage of the new OS. But like any business, they concentrate were the bacon is. Portable computers, cloud computing, and entertainment. Its sad apple lost there vision. Now they are on par with microsoft!
Click to expand...

How would Apple otherwise convince developers to make use of OpenCL and GCD without finalizing and getting it out the door first?


I don't see how Snow Leopard took any cues from Vista; I used vista since day 1 and the only words I have for Vista are words that rhyme with "Vista"'s first syllable... :eek:
 
I have an '06 Mac Pro. Now I do have issues from time to time. I had some bad hard drive failures before, but not using drive bays 2&3 eliminates the issue. It sounds like a lot of the issues are software related. I am running 10.5. I will most likely not update to snow leopard until at least 10.6.3. I need a couple updates before I feel safe updating. Like you I do not use Safari. Now I as a little pissed when I installed 9 and was told I needed to upgrade Safari. Now, I would not have to USE it just install it. I still did not want to do that, so I downgraded to iTunes 8.

Just with what open CL is and what it does you can assume that not all video cards are going to work. With the power behind the Mac Pro it should be expected to pay over $400 for a video card that does open CL.
 
thermodynamic said:
How would Apple otherwise convince developers to make use of OpenCL and GCD without finalizing and getting it out the door first?


I don't see how Snow Leopard took any cues from Vista; I used vista since day 1 and the only words I have for Vista are words that rhyme with "Vista"'s first syllable... :eek:
Click to expand...

By giving them a copy of snow leopard before selling it. Heck, they could have used the beta to get going. Yeah, vista does suck but look how they rolled that out. Apple did the same thing with SL with no apps ready for it. And look what apple did with quicktime. What a joke. If they would have came out with a pro version right away, there wouldn't have been so many complaints about quicktime.
Microsoft learned from vista and looks like they did win7 right. Runs pretty dam good. But its no OS X. Looks like we will have to wait until OS X 7 before things get better (I hope). Until then, my copy of SL will remain dormant on a disk until update 5 or so comes out. I'll stay with leopard for now.
 
J&JPolangin said:
...if companies don't stay profitable they can't re-innovate and progress = blame it on the stock holders...
Click to expand...
Apple haven't had trouble with profitability for a long time. They've just followed suit of getting bigger and crappier as time goes on. It's a shame, but I suppose not entirely surprising :rolleyes: :(
 
People have the wrong expectations if they don't recognize the change in the marketing approach that hit the Mac Pro with Nehalem and SL.

Mac Pro is a product segment which went from cash cow to cash out. Apple will squeeze as much bucks out of it for the least bit of development and it looks pretty good for them to be successfull with that strategy.

They do not need to make any serious development effort to run Gulftowns in the existing logic boards. So it is a bit of microcode which they will obviously denie to 2009 users. The over pricing will continue to reduce the numbers of sales but keep the margins up.

When they are faced with a decision to kick off a new development for Sandy Bridge to launch in 2011 they will simply add up the cost for that development against the deminishing return. If it looks unfavourable they may pull the plug on Mac Pro in mid 2010. If it looks tolerable we may get one more tick/tock out of the Mac Pro. I would not bet the farm on it.
 
J&JPolangin said:
...if companies don't stay profitable they can't re-innovate and progress = blame it on the stock holders...
Click to expand...

And if they don't stay profitable, they go bankrupt from the first business hiccup. Then we'd all be stuck with Microsoft OSs.

I like knowing that Apple is fiscally stable. It gives me confidence that they'll be around to continue supporting Macs.
 
gugucom said:
People have the wrong expectations if they don't recognize the change in the marketing approach that hit the Mac Pro with Nehalem and SL.

Mac Pro is a product segment which went from cash cow to cash out. Apple will squeeze as much bucks out of it for the least bit of development and it looks pretty good for them to be successfull with that strategy.

They do not need to make any serious development effort to run Gulftowns in the existing logic boards. So it is a bit of microcode which they will obviously denie to 2009 users. The over pricing will continue to reduce the numbers of sales but keep the margins up.

When they are faced with a decision to kick off a new development for Sandy Bridge to launch in 2011 they will simply add up the cost for that development against the deminishing return. If it looks unfavourable they may pull the plug on Mac Pro in mid 2010. If it looks tolerable we may get one more tick/tock out of the Mac Pro. I would not bet the farm on it.
Click to expand...

What a good laugh.

Really.

Now, having regained full control of my senses you have to understand who really uses the Mac Pro. Professional people in many segments of audio and visual fields use these machines for their brute force and good value. Yes, good value on the high-end.
 
edesignuk said:
Apple haven't had trouble with profitability for a long time. They've just followed suit of getting bigger and crappier as time goes on. It's a shame, but I suppose not entirely surprising :rolleyes: :(
Click to expand...

So true! I think that cloud computing will redefine computing. Won't need a super computer to do the tasks. Mostly handhelds and small laptops. As stated earlier, the mac pro's will be targeted to the professionals who can afford them. Looks like I may consider a hackintosh as I can build a similar mac pro for almost half the price. Not cheap parts either. :rolleyes:
 
This is a whine thread. Started by a usual suspect, I might add. This issue has been discussed to death. There's still plenty of profit in the Mac Pro and there will be for some time. We're fine. Just because your 3 year old machine isn't the cat's meow doesn't mean it's going nowhere.

I don't think serious graphic, photo, or A/V professionals are having trouble with their Mac Pros. I'm not.

Lots of people who use this machine use it at work, too. Don't forget that a lot of the people buying it are companies, not individuals.

Yes, people who bought the 2006 Mac Pro got burned a little. The 2009 Mac Pro is expensive. It happens. The rest of us are doing fine, if disappointed with the pace of software upgrades. But software development always falls behind the pace of hardware development.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back