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Will Apple make a laptop aimed for business use?
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You are asking for a bulky machine by today's standards. I did a quick tour of my company's office and saw precisely zero laptops fresher than two years old, of any brand, that had all of what you request.
o VGA is a physically large connector and is going away quickly now. There are still lots of VGA projectors and monitors out there, so I keep an adaptor in my briefcase. End of issue. (I carry an RS-232 adaptor for similar reasons... need it occasionally, but glad that my machine isn't a quarter inch thicker to accommodate one.)
o Similarly, Ethernet is a physically large connector and is rapidly disappearing from "business"-class laptops in the interest of thinness (and because WiFi is increasingly ubiquitous, and more secure when implemented well). So, if you need one, tuck an adaptor into your kit. There are both Thunderbolt and USB 2 & 3 variants.
o Replaceable parts are going away in the interest of reliability (connectors fail) and thinness.
o Ditto for multiple removable hard drive slots. Today, it's all about SSDs-- much more reliable in portable use (an attribute businesses prize) and typically faster, especially in the just-released Retina Macbook Pro with its blazing SSD transfer speeds.
o Docks are increasingly uncommon, again because their connectors are large, costly and add security and reliability vulnerabilities, and also because such functionality is better implemented over USB 3 and/or Thunderbolt today.
o About the only "security stuff" that a Macbook Pro doesn't already provide in industry-leading form is the Kensington-lock adaptor, which as others have noted was a mere inconvenience to a laptop thief at its very best. FileVault 2 in particular is a marvelous whole-disk encryption implementation.
Bottom line: It's not 1997 anymore. Visit any airport business-class lounge and you'll find that today's business users prize portability and power more than anything, and the MacBook Pro is very, very common among business power users such as myself. For good reason: It's a workstation-class system, sublimely constructed, very rugged and with excellent battery life and great worldwide support, with an Apple Store and Genius Bar in most every major city.
Also consider the rude awakening many business users and IT pros had to Lenovo's recent factory-issue malware issues. It's not a given at all that the business-class brands of yore are still regarded as such. Dell, maybe, but mostly because they're cheap.
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Your question is completely absurd.
I work as a software engineer in what's probably one of the largest companies in the Silicon Valley (I'm based in their Melbourne branch in Oz) and my workplace is 100% Macs (a handful of 12" rMBs, several MBAs, a hell of a lot of rMBPs and 27" retina iMacs at every workstation).
In fact, if anything, having soldered parts makes the computer more secure because there's no way hackers can exploit flaws by taking out the RAM anymore.
VGA and Ethernet are now done through Thunderbolt adapters, and these are easily replaceable for a really cheap cost. All our portables are connected to Ethernet via TB adapters (USB-C adapters for the handful of 12" rMBs that we have in the workplace, and most are using the Caldigit TB dock with Ethernet). Meanwhile, external displays are hooked up to portables (with TB ports) using the Caldigit TB dock (mDP cables connected to it), or through HDMI on the MacBook itself.
Docking stations are present in the form of Caldigit Thunderbolt docks.
I've just moved from a 50:50 environment based around Exchange, Outlook and Office 2011 for Mac where the only occasional hassle was the VGA projector (but that was hardly a daily issue), to a 99% Windows environment running off Office 365.
Only real change is that I don't now need the VGA adapter, ever. But I'm using the same MBP early 2011 13".
The move to cloud services will probably remove any reliance on ports, the only important factor wil be network connectivity.
OP needs to consider how a businesses IT is built is itself changing. Moving a presentation on a discrete machine to the point it will be shown, hence reliance on connector ports, is fast dropping away.
Even customer presentations, email it to the customer side of the team, they then handle projection.
Anyway, "business" is more than showing ppt's
Only real change is that I don't now need the VGA adapter, ever. But I'm using the same MBP early 2011 13".
The move to cloud services will probably remove any reliance on ports, the only important factor wil be network connectivity.
OP needs to consider how a businesses IT is built is itself changing. Moving a presentation on a discrete machine to the point it will be shown, hence reliance on connector ports, is fast dropping away.
Even customer presentations, email it to the customer side of the team, they then handle projection.
Anyway, "business" is more than showing ppt's
Thunderbolt docks exist, dongle exist to give you VGA and Ethernet
Kensington lock slot and replaceable parts are gone since 2012.
You really don't know what you are talking about. VGA? Really. For what. Even projectors use HDMI now.
No laptops are designed to replace parts. You are totally unaware of what PC laptops are like now.
By the way Lenovo now makes cheap low quality laptops with terrible support.
A few places I have worked as an employee or consultant that use Mac laptops in the thousands:
Google (it's the standard laptop)
Motorola
Cisco
American Express
Oracle
Wells Fargo
And more
This is just a silly question and comment that makes no sense.
Let me chip in here with more companies that use Macs in the thousands as well:
VMware Inc (I work there as a software engineer)
Akamai (the CDN company)
BHP Billiton (one of the world's largest mining companies, Anglo-Australian company)
MøllerMærsk (the shipping company).
I've worked with the above 3 companies before (excluding where I work, of course) as they're some of the companies that VMware works with.
If those are you "litmus test features" to qualify a laptop as a "business" laptop, I am afraid the answer is "never".
Apple is moving away from user replaceable parts.
You can get Ethernet and VGA (or HDMI) connectivity via dongles.
Doubtful that Apple will ever add a "docing" (sic) port on the bottom of the machine - a thunderbolt dock is about as close as you will ever get.
Also, could you define "more security stuff"? Like a kensington lock? Pshaw. Those things are jokes.
Whole industry is moving away from user replaceable parts. Blame Intel for that.
http://semiaccurate.com/2012/09/07/intel-to-do-away-with-dram-in-pcs/
"security stuff"? Well the last place I worked I was keeping my MBP so the incoming (we were being purchased), IT peeps insisted on having me pull the internal HDD so they could wipe it, they were adamantly anti-Mac.
But they attached the drive in a dock to a Mac to carry out a security erase as they said that was most secure and better than they could achieve under Win??? (I can't comment, I have no experience in that field), but it would have been more cost-effective to hammer the old HDD and give me a new drive...
I have a pretty good security setup on mine, FV2, find my mac, Keycard (to automatically lock in my absence when my phone is out of BT range, long Appleid pwd with two factor (2-factor on Dropbox too)...physical loss and a Kensington slot is so 90's TBH...and never was very good!
But they attached the drive in a dock to a Mac to carry out a security erase as they said that was most secure and better than they could achieve under Win??? (I can't comment, I have no experience in that field), but it would have been more cost-effective to hammer the old HDD and give me a new drive...
I have a pretty good security setup on mine, FV2, find my mac, Keycard (to automatically lock in my absence when my phone is out of BT range, long Appleid pwd with two factor (2-factor on Dropbox too)...physical loss and a Kensington slot is so 90's TBH...and never was very good!
MBA and MBP work just fine as business laptops. Making them more like Thinkpads doesn't make them more for business anymore than making the iPhone a Blackberry clone means making it more for business.
I say this as someone who has a work issued Thinkpad. I haven't had to use a dock or ethernet port in 8 years. Specs wise they are about the same. I get a new work laptop every 4 years or so. I have the option of using my personal MacBook Air for work, I just choose not to cause I like to keep personal and business hardware separate.
As far as expandability and repair-ability, yes it is easier on a Thinkpad....but....my employer has a service contract. It isn't my job to fiddle around and try to repair a broken laptop. I send it in and get a replacement so I can continue working. If the business depends on a Macs they should have an Apple Care Pro contract or something similar. Let the service people worry about how to fix it or replace components. Unless that is your job it really shouldn't matter to you.
I say this as someone who has a work issued Thinkpad. I haven't had to use a dock or ethernet port in 8 years. Specs wise they are about the same. I get a new work laptop every 4 years or so. I have the option of using my personal MacBook Air for work, I just choose not to cause I like to keep personal and business hardware separate.
As far as expandability and repair-ability, yes it is easier on a Thinkpad....but....my employer has a service contract. It isn't my job to fiddle around and try to repair a broken laptop. I send it in and get a replacement so I can continue working. If the business depends on a Macs they should have an Apple Care Pro contract or something similar. Let the service people worry about how to fix it or replace components. Unless that is your job it really shouldn't matter to you.
I guess you should be glad you don't work for my dad's company. They're supposed to be trading in their ThinkPads and iPads for Surface Pros soon. That is the direction businesses are going in, and Microsoft recognizes it.
Excluding the SuperFish debacle, Lenovo likely isn't receiving anymore complaints than any other large tech company. Unless you have something to substantiate that claim it is just speculation on your part.
Apple #1, Lenovo a distant 6th...
Lenovo also dropped from 2nd in 2014 to 6th in 2015, so something's not right there...
http://blog.laptopmag.com/laptop-brand-ratings
What's the point of posting that if it isn't proof that Lenovo is receiving plenty of complaints for the direction they are going. I also was not comparing Apple to Lenovo so again what was the point of posting that? Brand ratings is not the same thing as the direction a company is going.
It is proof, it's their annual survey of laptop users. When Lenovo drops that much, and the article says due to technical support issues as well as the adware thing, it DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS your claim that Lenovo has no more complaints than any other manufacturer. You compared Lenovo to all other laptop manufacturers, which includes Apple. You asked for proof, I provided it. Why are you now trying to change your position?
I guess I did say no more than any other large Tech Company which would include Apple but my reference was with where the company was headed.
Technical Support complaints have little to do with where Lenovo is headed as a company when talking about design which is what the conversation was about. How one of the sacrifices of ultra thin computers is at the cost of many standard ports, one of them being RJ45. Position unchanged and still waiting for proof that Lenovo has more complaints when it comes to computer design than other Tech Companies.
I never seen any business people carry a MacBook, rMacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook with retina anywhere. All I can see hipsters, students, nerds, geeks, musicians, DJ, video editors, photographers, and average joe.
In the past I bought a new and powerful Compaq notebook they told I don't look good with this notebook so I switched to MacBook, they love me.
In the past I bought a new and powerful Compaq notebook they told I don't look good with this notebook so I switched to MacBook, they love me.
LOL. Just LOL
I think that must tell us either more about where you hang out, something about your definition of "business people" (which presumably excludes "musicians, DJ, video editors, photographers"), or something about your definition of "average joe".
Believe me, a LOT of business people use Macbooks of all varieties. Try an airport business lounge for example...
IMHO it just reflects the fact, that the corporate world is locked in to Microsoft ecosystem. It does not mean, Mac's are unsuitable to be deployed in corporate environment from technical (or even cosmetical) perspective.
I never seen any business people carry a MacBook, rMacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook with retina anywhere. All I can see hipsters, students, nerds, geeks, musicians, DJ, video editors, photographers, and average joe.
In the past I bought a new and powerful Compaq notebook they told I don't look good with this notebook so I switched to MacBook, they love me.
Funny, I see lawyers, doctors, Ph.D.s, business executives, etc all the time with Macs.
As others have said, the MBP offerings are fine for businesses. What I see though are 4 major issues preventing businesses from using Macs.
1) Price. My company uses Dell PCs and when we bought them, we got a volume discount. Apple doesn't offer such discounts. Not to mention 1 Mac is a lot more then a capable Windows PC.
2) Support. With Dell, if there's an issue that's beyond our IT guys, a tech will come out and help fix the problem. With Apple, make an appointment and bring it to the Genius Bar. If there are no open appointments for several days or if the nearest Apple Store is an hour plus away, that could be costly to the company in downtime. The company would need to keep IT and repair techs on site, with a stock of repair equipment.
3) Software. Most of the software we use is Windows only, and I'm not just talking about Office. So we would need to either use Boot Camp or a VM with Windows installed. And the payroll people would be like, then why not just get a Windows system.
4) People. Counting myself, there are only a few people in my company that currently use or have in the past used Macs. That would mean we would have to train the others to use Macs and the new Mac compatible software. And I would imagine most of the people would be resistant to the change.
1) Price. My company uses Dell PCs and when we bought them, we got a volume discount. Apple doesn't offer such discounts. Not to mention 1 Mac is a lot more then a capable Windows PC.
2) Support. With Dell, if there's an issue that's beyond our IT guys, a tech will come out and help fix the problem. With Apple, make an appointment and bring it to the Genius Bar. If there are no open appointments for several days or if the nearest Apple Store is an hour plus away, that could be costly to the company in downtime. The company would need to keep IT and repair techs on site, with a stock of repair equipment.
3) Software. Most of the software we use is Windows only, and I'm not just talking about Office. So we would need to either use Boot Camp or a VM with Windows installed. And the payroll people would be like, then why not just get a Windows system.
4) People. Counting myself, there are only a few people in my company that currently use or have in the past used Macs. That would mean we would have to train the others to use Macs and the new Mac compatible software. And I would imagine most of the people would be resistant to the change.
In Anchorage? I didn't know that!
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Airport lounge? I will check it out on my next trip.
Those issues affect pretty much any business and its decision to invest in any platform for anything it needs, IT, mining equipment, aircraft, (there are equivalents to the Software item in all these areas), businesses make these decisions all the time. That said, market share is what it is so will account for the relative visibility of Macs in business. Doesnt mean there are global inhibitors preventing Mac takeup in business though, just means it is a comp,ex choice for businesses inc the cost of change.