Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Will Apple make a laptop aimed for business use?
- Thread starter 0x100
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Curious, what do you consider the differentiator? Why is the MBP not a suitable business laptop?
What does a "business" laptop have that the "consumer" MacBook Pro does not?
Last edited by a moderator:
Things like easy acces to replace parts that malfunction, things like ethernet and VGA, docing port underneath to dock the computer for expansion, some more security stuff
1. This is slowly going the way of the dodo, even for Windows-based PCs. You'll have to adjust to that.
2. http://store.apple.com/ca/product/MD463LL/A/thunderbolt-to-gigabit-ethernet-adapter
3. http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=104&cp_id=10428&cs_id=1042802&p_id=5107&seq=1&format=2
4. Not going to happen, besides, Apple wants you to use their display as a docking station. Plenty of third parties offer docking stations that use a single Thunderbolt port to add USB connectivity, display port, HDMI, etc etc.
https://www.elgato.com/en/thunderbolt/thunderbolt-2-dock
http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F4U085/
5. Like what? It's not like a good yank or wire cutters can't destroy a Kensington lock slot in a matter of seconds.
If you're waiting for an Apple dock you should give up now as it will never happen. If you want to go third party, then CalDigi and others offer docking type devices. The rest of the world is moving away from repairable laptops to the Ultrabook model. VGA... VGA is dead and should never be found on a modern laptop.
I can understand consumer laptops having to use dongles and such, but on business that stuff should already be there! And from what I know the Thinkpads and latitudes still comes with easily replace and acces to hard drives and ram slots, even the thin ones and ultrabooks.
Using thunderbolt for docking is pretty good though.
----------
Business ultrabooks have repairable parts with hard drive ram slots. VGA is being slowly but surely replaced by HDMI. Having both would be great!
MacBook Air and 12" Macbook are among the best business laptops I can think of. They are extremely portable and ergonomical, easy to set up and use, and have more then enough power for office applications.
Furthermore, as someone who maintains IT infrastructure for more then 50 workplaces, I would argue that for business, mobility and administration tools are the most important features, while repairability and initial cost is by far the least important. If a laptop of one of our employees breaks down, I can have a replacement restored from Time Machine within an hour. Profile manager allows me to configure computers by a few clicks even if they are in a different country. And repairability? Who cares about that? Its cheaper for us to pay the service company for repairs then to do repair ourselves. And it might sound weird, but its cheaper for us to pay 2000 euro for a MacBook Pro than 1000 for a Windows laptop, because of the initial time we need to invest into setup and maintenance.
Furthermore, as someone who maintains IT infrastructure for more then 50 workplaces, I would argue that for business, mobility and administration tools are the most important features, while repairability and initial cost is by far the least important. If a laptop of one of our employees breaks down, I can have a replacement restored from Time Machine within an hour. Profile manager allows me to configure computers by a few clicks even if they are in a different country. And repairability? Who cares about that? Its cheaper for us to pay the service company for repairs then to do repair ourselves. And it might sound weird, but its cheaper for us to pay 2000 euro for a MacBook Pro than 1000 for a Windows laptop, because of the initial time we need to invest into setup and maintenance.
Just chiming in, I use a MBP for work and it seems to fit the bill. IMO, most of the things you mention are not really needed much anymore, at least for me. Most places have wireless service nowadays, i rarely go on location that doesn't. I do however carry a VGA adapter in my bag for places that don't have HDMI. So that's covered.
As far as removable/upgrade-able parts, I've used Lennovo laptops before for work and never upgraded anything in em, and as far as repair... knock on wood, my MPB is still solid 1 year in. I suppose if something breaks, out tech team will replace it and send it off for repair.
And the docking ports, there are many 3rd party solutions out there, just no underneath ports. Take a look at Henge Docks, they make a cool upright dock.
When I think of a business class Notebook, I think of a powerful enough processor to handle anything thrown at it, a good long lasting battery that wont die an hour or two in, and features that suit YOUR business needs (USB3, HDMI, Thunderbolt). The MBP does fit the bill.
I think his concerns were valid. There are solutions to most of them, but you can see how the MBP might not be a good fit in an established organization that's been home to Windows laptops for many years.
Case in point, most projectors installed out there are still VGA. So the dongle issue is annoying when so many laptops still have readily accessible VGA ports.
IT departments that are used to being able to swap parts out and upgrade won't necessarily like the situation with the MBP, and Apple's on site AppleCare is not available in all cities.
I don't know, but our 25,000 mac users might disagree that it's a hassle (and headed to 200K+).
The thing is, you don't have to swap out parts because they just don't break at anywhere near the rates for windows machines. AppleCare for the Enterprise is available worldwide btw.
And if I were starting a new office, I'd be 100% Mac and I'd make all the purchasing decisions around that choice and I know it would work out great. But a Windows shop would have a lot more annoyances dropping Macs in.
Uh, no. They don't. Business ultrabooks are just as limited as the MBP. Things like the X1 Carbon or the Thinkpad Yoga, which are the direction that business ultrabooks is going in, show that you can't have all these ports and maintain a slim figure. My Thinkpad Yoga has 2 USB, mini-HDMI, a proprietary OneLink port, and SD card slot. That's worse than the MBPr.
Yes, and Lenovo is receiving plenty of complaints for the direction they are going. However, they do make the X250, which is much more along the lines of what the OP is talking about than the X1 Carbon or Yoga.
And the main reason for that is Windows vs. OS X. If a company has its IT built on Windows, a Mac will be alien, no matter how many ports to has.
We just leave a dongle with every projector, problem solved. And our employees prefer a dongle + Mac, because they end up carrying less compared to a Windows machine with a VGA port.
I guess it depends on what "business" you are in. I work in digital/content marketing. Nearly everyone I run into, even outside my agency, has a modern laptop such as an Air/Pro or something like a Samsung Series 9.
My Series 9 for work gets me along just fine when I am at a client's office which is very much IBM/VGA/Ethernet old school. They have wifi and adapters in conference rooms for projectors.
Companies with lots of hamsters spinning in wheels/cubicles is not Apple's market. Never was and will never be.
It's 2015, a Macbook Air is common and a standard computer for many professionals.
My Series 9 for work gets me along just fine when I am at a client's office which is very much IBM/VGA/Ethernet old school. They have wifi and adapters in conference rooms for projectors.
Companies with lots of hamsters spinning in wheels/cubicles is not Apple's market. Never was and will never be.
It's 2015, a Macbook Air is common and a standard computer for many professionals.
Apparently a business laptop is classified as a thick, black/dark Grey block. This discussion is as useless as trying to determine what constitutes as Professional and a Professional laptop.
My initial thought was "no, I don't want to respond", but then...
In a former less efficient life, I used Dells and Thinkpads as my professional laptop and I guess I was pretty happy. Yes, I had docking stations and external monitors because that was the way it was done.
Then I got a Macbook Pro and my life became simpler and much more efficient, and more importantly, less costly.
No, not because of the OS, even though that does have something to do with it. Once I started using the clamshell method of connecting my Macbook Pro to external monitors and ethernet. My first thought was why does Lenovo and Dell make you pay hundreds of dollars for a docking station just to use your laptop as a desktop (that you can take with you) and Apple charges you nothing?
Then I found that their pairing with external monitors worked so much better than anything Dell or Lenovo offered. I had constant problems with the PC and getting the resolution to switch properly when docking. Never had this problem with a Macbook Pro.
BTW, one of the first things I did when I switch to a Macbook Pro was install Windows (via Parallels or VMWare) and found that the Mac ran Windows better than any PC laptop I ever had. I didn't have to run all of Dell's or Lenovo's additional configuration and updating crap that just slowed everything down.
That was about 7 years ago and while I've been tempted to see if anything has changed in the PC world, I've just been too content to even look.
The Macbook Pro is the most business savvy computer that I've ever used and it will probably remain that way for the foreseeable future.
In a former less efficient life, I used Dells and Thinkpads as my professional laptop and I guess I was pretty happy. Yes, I had docking stations and external monitors because that was the way it was done.
Then I got a Macbook Pro and my life became simpler and much more efficient, and more importantly, less costly.
No, not because of the OS, even though that does have something to do with it. Once I started using the clamshell method of connecting my Macbook Pro to external monitors and ethernet. My first thought was why does Lenovo and Dell make you pay hundreds of dollars for a docking station just to use your laptop as a desktop (that you can take with you) and Apple charges you nothing?
Then I found that their pairing with external monitors worked so much better than anything Dell or Lenovo offered. I had constant problems with the PC and getting the resolution to switch properly when docking. Never had this problem with a Macbook Pro.
BTW, one of the first things I did when I switch to a Macbook Pro was install Windows (via Parallels or VMWare) and found that the Mac ran Windows better than any PC laptop I ever had. I didn't have to run all of Dell's or Lenovo's additional configuration and updating crap that just slowed everything down.
That was about 7 years ago and while I've been tempted to see if anything has changed in the PC world, I've just been too content to even look.
The Macbook Pro is the most business savvy computer that I've ever used and it will probably remain that way for the foreseeable future.
Valid point about organizations that have been established windows for many years... but the same can be said if you work for an organization that is an established Mac organization. This doesn't make Windows laptops poor business machines though. So I don't think that situation makes the MBP any less of a business laptop.
Regarding the second point, you are still plugging a single plug into your laptop. How much difference does it make if its a VGA to your laptop, or a mini DVI to your laptop (using an adapter)? Still one cable plugging into the machine.