Apple actually stopped making pro hardware. They're unpredictable when it comes to upgrades(15 Retina ethernal Haswell, 2013 Mac Pro, even iMacs), they do not seem to have an idea how the platform should evolve and they're obsessed with thinness, while in the pro market performance and battery life are vastly more important.
Last but not least, their recent idea of progress is gimmicky touch bar and emoticons everywhere. Sorry, it just does not fit. Add to it degrading software quality (iOS10 sucks, MacOS just got rid of battery prediction, because they couldn't work with new processors - come on!), frozen progress on software front in general and there is not much left.
Currently Apple is a company sitting on an extremely large pile of cash and they have not idea what to do with it. Not sexy at all.
Pro users are at the same time extremely demanding and extremely conservative. Apple has never done much to cater to that market, and the fact that they have so many pro users these days is a happy accident which has more to do with how awful these people used to be treated when they were Windows users, and not a lot to do with anything Apple did specifically for their sake.
Apple doesn't care about pro users, whom they rightly consider demanding and ungrateful. Apple cares about ordinary people, the ones lots of pro users talk about often in the most condescending of manners. Apple's mission has always been to make computing accessible to the masses (remember the slogan: "The computer for the rest of us"?), not to make it better for the elite few who already know how to use one.
Apple has been reaping rewards from the pro market for years. It's been those pro users who have been advocating the platform among friends and family. It's been those pro users who have been the perfect subject for those marketing campaigns showing how awesome new products are. It's been those pro users who write tech blogs and make the noise about Apple. It's been those pro users who made the brand what it is.
I'm not saying that pro users directly bring cash to Apple (they do that too - look at the number of computers IBM is buying and tell me it's not because of those pro users who made mac the ultimate development plaftorm). The point is, Apple was using the pro users as their market driver, creating positive buzz and actually telling people about the alternative (out of US Macs never been that popular). Also, basically any pro user is better for making an ad than normal user - normal users use stuff that's available in the browser everywhere.
Pro market does not have to be the main one for Apple. It has probably never been. The problem is that with pro users you lose a ton of market influence and its going to happen. The proof is in the article - Tim Cook would not bother to comment on the subject unless it was actually important. And it is important. Apple was always about the ecosystem. If they break the ecosystem, they will fail. Right now it does not look to good for them in the long run.
> If you believe pro users have that kind
> of clout, you are delusional.
> The iPod most certainly didn't succeed because
> it was endorsed by pro users, nor did the iPhone.
> In fact the reaction from the pro market to
> those products when they were introduced, was one of
> dismissal
Back to present day, the effect of pro users isn't hard to see. Major publications have started writing articles asking if Apple has gone down-hill, and it's not the occasional think-piece, I see a new one every day (just read one on Bloomberg an hour ago). Heck, I read that Rush Limbaugh was trashing Apple last week. Not exactly a typical pro user. These views make it normal people, and don't make buying Apple products seem attractive.
No, not strange. Simply not true.
Actually the iPod, when it was first released, was not a mass-market product
Who cares what kind of product the iPod "actually" was, when it was first launched? The point is that it went on to become the biggest consumer electronics hit and Apple's most successful product ever. And it had nothing to do with endorsements from pro users.
Major publications have started writing articles asking if Apple has gone down-hill
Are you new on the internet? Big publications have been writing doom and gloom stories about Apple always. That is not a new phenomenon. Meanwhile Apple has enjoyed success like no other company ever.
> endorsements from pro users.
The iPod wasn't just successful because it was a good product. It was also "cool" because it was high tech. We were just coming out of the beige box era, and standalone devices of any kind that connected to a computer were less common. It had particular cache. If pros hadn't considered Apple good technology, it would have spoiled that, and I doubt the iPod would have sold as well as it did.
> Are you new on the internet?
> Big publications have been writing doom and gloom stories about Apple always.
If pros hadn't considered Apple good technology…
Was it a good product because the pros said so, or do you think perhaps that the pros said it was a good product because it actually was?
And why do you think that only pros are capable of judging if a tech product is good? Can't non-techies judge if a product is delightful or frustrating to use? Do they only know if they like it if someone who is an engineer tells them it's ok? In my personal experience, tech people give the worst advice when it comes to gadgets, because they often have bo empathy for the fact, that normal people don't have the time or the inclination to deal with stuff that might ostensibly have great tech, but is difficult to set up and finnicky to use. Non-techies want stuff that easy to use and just works, and don't care about specs or acronyms.
There is a massive difference between the tone of the press this year, and previous years.
Your original point was that pro users' influence was apparent in the fact that the press is writing negatively about Apple. To which I replied that the press always has written negatively about Apple with the implied point that the influence excerted thusfar, does't seem to have hindered Apple's success in the slightest. But you're telling me that because the tone has changed, this time for sure the opinions of the tech press will suddenly become relevant to Apples customers, even though most of them are not interested in tech and don't follow the tech press at all?
It doesn't have much bearing on this discussion. I just think it's interesting, all these years later.
In my parents' case I simply couldn't provide them tech support since I switched to mac. So they switched over.
And then indirectly lots of clients and people in cafes have seen me using a mac, an iphone or an ipad. I'm sure that's contributed. And I doubt that's an unusual amount for the typical pro user.
Except the masses buy Windows 10 laptops that cost $199 or whatever. The Mac has never been "accessible to the masses" because they won't pay Apple's prosumer prices...
Anecdata: I know of several Windows laptops, but only one Mac laptop, which are now effectively desktops.
Also, Apple's market share is much higher now than it was when the masses adopted PCs. That happened under Windows 95 (which nearly drove Apple out of business) and XP.
When Windows brought computing to the masses, Apple's global market share was closer to 2%.
It's true that Macs have never been the cheapest, but many, many ordinary people buy them none the less. Why? Maybe because a lot of people need a computer, but hate using it. So they choose to spend a little more to get one that is a little less user hostile. That doesn't make them feel dumb. Maybe even delights them from time to time by the many small considerations its designers have made for them.
True, but Windows still has around 90% (or more) of the global PC market. Windows actually brought computing to the masses. Apple didn't.
And however you define it, the fact is that Windows did bring computing to the masses and Apple didn't.
The App Store has millions of apps. Who created those apps, if not pro users? Without the App Store, who would buy iPhones, iPads and iPods?
If Apple shit on the pro users they shit on themselves.
[1] I know, I know; the disappearing of the escape key and the function keys affects everyone! Whatever will we all do?
Well, times have changed. Apple is servicing the user group that is making them ultra rich now.
I'm not a big fan of the direction they've taken, but I also don't blame them for it.
I've been wanting a mac laptop the size and weight of a MacBook Air 13" ... how about the size and weight and price??
They removed a bunch of ports, reduced battery life and upped the price.
USD $1799 to $2799 (with touch bar). Pricing is out of reach. Especially if you live outside of the USA where exchange rate kills it completely.
I love the 13" Macbook Air, just wish they would add retina, retain the ports, AND the price point.
I second that. I also agree with the OP that the amount of complaining about the MBP is a little weird considering it's still one of the nicest laptops you can get for the vast majority of users, but the fact that they found it necessary to increase the price even further really is somehwat insulting considering the few improvements they added compared to the (already very good) Macbook Pro. For all the waiting, I either expected more innovation, or better pricing. I'm not saying they should have decreased their prices, but they could at least have provided better and more options at the lower end.
Apple could have saved itself so much negative sentiment by simply not being so damn greedy, and by updating their existing desktop hardware (Mac Pro and Mac Mini) more often. They've now painted themselves in a corner where they can't serve a sizeable part of their target audience, but are asking crazy prices for them, even by Apple's standards.
By lowering the price of all the dongles shortly after launch, they confirmed that they may have underestimated how price sensitive their "Pro" market has become.
Mostly because the Pro market now encompasses everyone wanting to upgrade their lower-end MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs. Because there's no upgrade path for these users at the moment (other than the iPad Pro which is a non starter for so many reasons).
A new, 13" MacBook would be a good step towards bridging the gap, and providing an upgrade path for everyone else.
That's exactly the boat I was in myself, my 2012 MacBook Air just wasn't cutting it anymore for my light Xcode use, but none of the MacBooks would have been much of an improvement in terms of computing power. Because I'm really not prepared to give up OS X yet I was basically forced to stick with the MBA, or buy a MBP at an even higher premium than before.
That said, I decided to close my eyes and plunk down the cash for a tbMBP anyway, and from a hardware perspective I love the machine, as I'm not affected by any of the (IMO for most people mostly artificial/overblown) 'problems' people are complaining about. None, except the price, which still leaves me with a bad taste. Something I haven't experienced with any of my numerous previous Apple purchases...
And while the new 13" MBP is technically less volume, it's thick the whole length of it. There was something oddly nice about the MBA's shape when holding it in one hand.
Reddit thread from 4 years ago (curtesy of Gruber): https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/1244m4/apples_13_mac...
1) Very slightly faster. (2.9 vs 2.8) 2) 2 TB SSD instead of 1 TB. 3) Ability to charge and drive monitor over single cable.
But what is the price?
1) $4,199 -- nearly $1000 more expensive than the last one. 2) Complete inability to plug in any peripheral I already own without a dongle. 3) No physical ESC key.
It's only $150 more if I stick with a 1TB SSD. But if I do that, literally the only significant benefit I get from the new machine is the ability to drive monitor and charge over a single cable -- and of course, I've got to replace my existing (expensive, beautiful) monitor to do that.
Plus as an added bonus, they're discontinuing the Time Capsule, which has been my main local backup solution for years.
1. The removal of the physical escape key. I flat out reject having to remap the caps lock. The touch bar soft key is not an acceptable replacement. A physical escape key is unequivocally non-negotiable.
2. The price. I'm not going to pay $1,000 more for the same level of upgrades I got in 2013. With taxes, I had to dole out $3,200 CAD for a personal laptop, which was right against the fence of what I was willing to pay. I refuse to spend over $4,000 on a laptop.
These two issues, along with the removal of the headphone jack[1] on the latest iPhone puts me in the uncomfortable situation where for the first time in a decade I am researching alternative hardware outside the Apple ecosystem.
[1] My IEM headphones cost $1,500. I'm not going to carry an adapter to plug them in, and lose the ability to listen while charging.
MBP Model Read Write
Jul 2014 15" 1.1 GBps 1.0 GBps
May 2015 15" 2.0 GBps 1.5 GBps
Oct 2016 15" 2.9 GBps 2.2 GBps
They are a worse product in every way for me over my current rMBP. Literally the only advantage is they are thinner and lighter and the display has a wider color gamut. Not worth all the trade offs. The old ones already had plenty of USB ports which today are more useful than USB-C.
Regardless of strategic Cook leaks: Apple is deprecating macs-as-computers-for-professionals. It should be obvious why; so many HNers love to cheer market forces. Apple makes way more money on phones and shiny things, so that's all they're going to make from now on. Because the market cannot afford inefficiencies, and anywhere someone is making $0.99 when they could be making $1.00 is an inefficiency that must be corrected.
It's more about regression for cosmetic reasons then not being revolutionary. There's potential with development of newer hardware and yet they use it to make slimmer devices and with less ports. Smaller motherboard ? Instead of slimming the shell, make it thicker and use the rest for batteries. 50 hour battery laptop, now that's revolutionary.
If they'd sold these new models as New Air, everyone would be fine; Air customers would be ecstatic and Pro customers would be interested. But they called them Pro and slapped (raised) Pro prices on them, which is basically trying to sell me shit for chocolate.
It's an utter failure of branding and marketing, which is what Apple is supposed to be the best at.
Since the Touchbar may convince noobs like my 15-year-old, provided they're spoiled with laptops no-one can afford, you may end up with a situation where old farts are only 5-10% still cursing at the lack of hardware Esc/Function keys. But that's because of the attrition of professionals, not because you've made a good product.
Face it, the market actively rejects this innovation. A lot of people who wanted to renew held off, and are replacing their Macbook with... nothing. It's a bit like if your boyfriend leaves you, and if he doesn't have anyone else to date. He just leaves you because you're bad, because your prices increased too much, and because your features are missing. I don't even thing Microsoft's innovation plays much of a role in Apple's attrition.
Now let's talk about the missing battery life incidator, the missing battery life, the missing magsafe, the missing USB ports, the missing compatibility with iPhone 7's USB key.
One more thing. The new Macbook isn't on display in stores (in France at least), 6 weeks after the keynote and one week before Christmas. Apple really has a problem with procurement.
I keep mine dynamic, have been using the laptop for a month now, and can say there has not been one occasion when the escape key wasn't there when i wanted it.
And having TouchID sensor more than makes up for it.
Of all you criticism not one has been a problem to me except battery life which is quite bad on mine.
I've been wanting a mac laptop the size and weight of a MacBook Air 13" but with a retina display for years, and the ability to connect usb, power and external display with just a single cable is just icing on the cake. The TouchBar - meh, but using TouchID to unlock 1Password is handy if not revolutionary. But the point is, by most standards the new MBPs are great laptops for most professionals, especially software developers - solid build quality, fast, great screens, long battery life and lightweight. Sure, there are undoubtedly some people who really need to plug a ton of USB-A devices every day or need more than 16gb to run a ton of VMs or something, and for those it must be an unwelcome regression. But honestly, I have a hard time believing that can make up more than 5-10% of the market of the previous models.
I can't really see how that can explain the public opinion turning against them to quite the extent that it has. I'm guessing it's a combination of several other factors: 1) Apple hasn't made a really revolutionary product since Jobs died. (Apple Watch was an honest try, but the product category was as dead a fish as the nay-sayers predicted). We expect these people to produce magic every x years, and they are long over-due with their next miracle. They put out an evolutionary product but it gets judged against the revolution that we were longing for. 2) Microsoft's entry into the laptop market has been with some surprisingly solid, and even innovative products (e.g. the Surface Book). They might not quite be revolutionary, but they are at least more so than the new MBP is. And their willingness on taking on niche markets (e.g. a Cintiq-killer for graphic designers) is contrasting with Apple's 'regression to the mean' where niche audiences are increasingly being neglected in favor of the less demanding mainstream consumer. Those 5-10% Apple just pissed off might not make a big difference on the bottomline themselves, but they are part of the hip trendsetters that used to be the poster child for the mac platform.