USB-C's ecosystem was confusing and good products never materialized, or if they did nobody could find them in the sea of junk.
The lack of hardware updates, which seems to have started with the 5-10% performance bumps Intel piddled out in the absence of competition from AMD from 2011-2017. Most of the CPU's and GPU's that could have been used frankly weren't much better than what they'd replace, so from that standpoint, upgrading the hardware was kind of pointless for an extremely minor performance benefit.
The keyboards situation is horrible. Failure prone and loud without much point.
Apple is making a lot of money in the iOS ecosystem. Success hides problems, and it seems like "if it's not broken, don't fix it" was used as an excuse to let the Mac languish.
As someone who did nearly all of Apple's IT-related certs in the mid 00's then watched them slowly decontent and destroy all of their OS X Server and related software almost immediately as iOS was on the rise, I don't see good things coming on the horizon.
If you're on a Mac, try to start using primarily OSS software and. Don't get stuck on a platform that might get abandoned tied to a workflow on software that isn't portable.
The silly thing is that Apple could (and should) invest in the Mac as it was pretty great, and could be great again. I'm not holding my breath.
I think the low profile keyboard + touch bar combo is all about training users for what Apple sees as their new interaction model: a haptic keyboard; use your apple pencil with it, whatever, but when typing, it will give feedback similar to the low profile keyboard. A stepping stone. The touchbar serves to get people used to the idea of an interactive part to the keyboard area, get devs thinking up ways to use it.
It's seen a pretty wide-spread uptake over the last couple years, and you're hard pressed to find a new laptop from any manufacturer that doesn't use it for charging.
> Most of the CPU's and GPU's that could have been used frankly weren't much better than what they'd replace
Agree about CPUs, disagree about GPUs. GPUs have been making very good progress all these years.
E.g. nVidia’s 1080 Ti (2017) is almost twice as fast as the similarly priced 980 Ti (2015). The 780 Ti (2013) is about the same as 980Ti but 680 (2012) is again about 2x slower than 980 Ti.
I've had two MBPs with only USB-C ports, and this is a complete non-issue to me. I have a "microdock" that gives me the ports I want when I want them and otherwise stays put away. Even on my Samsung TabPro, which only has a single USB-C port, it's not really an issue.
> lack of hardware updates
This is a huge issue for me. Apple has kept the pricing high on their notebooks while not improving performance. The only thing they have going for them from my POV these days is build quality and macOS. Others are catching up in build quality, and even Windows 10 supports native Linux well enough that macOS has lost much of its luster.
> keyboards
Meh. I don't really have an opinion on this one. I'm typing on a "new" MBP keyboard right now and it works fine. It's a bit sensitive to sand and other particles, but so far I've not had one actually fail to the point that the issue wasn't resolved with a few hard keypresses and a shot of compressed air.
> try to start using primarily OSS software
This is probably the key to why I'm both dissatisfied with Apple and not as upset as others seem to be about it. I moved to macOS in ~2011 because I wanted a durable laptop, and planned to install ArchLinux on it. I gave macOS a shot and it was "close enough" to Linux that it didn't make sense to deal with all the headaches of dealing with a non-native OS.
> Apple is making a lot of money in the iOS ecosystem
... and as best I can tell, that's where they're innovating too. I sold my personal MBP this spring, bought a 6th-gen iPad, and haven't looked back. It's more than suitable for mobile media consumption, programming (via MOSH to a remote server), and photo processing.
Unless something big changes, my next machine will probably be an iPad Pro in a couple of years. I have no plans at this time to ever buy a laptop for myself again.
I've got an HDMI port, SD card reader, two USB ports, two thunderbolt ports, magsafe power, and a proper, reliable keyboard.
I despair at the current crop of mac hardware. If this machine dies on me before some decent mac hardware arrives, I'm not sure what i'll do - but it definitely won't involve buying a new macbook with the touchbar, stupid keyboards, and no ports.
I've used 2 new touchbar Mac for work since early 2017. When it came time to replace my ancient personal 2011 MBP I ended up just spending the $2000 for the "new" 2015-era MBPs that Apple still sells. While it's a bummer to spend that kind of money for a 3 year old spec machine, I still prefer it over my work machine with that dreadful low profile keyboard and useless touch strip. If things don't improve come next upgrade cycle I think I'm going to just find something that runs Ubuntu reasonably well.
The Thinkpad T-series is much cheaper than Mac with better specs and support. Put a Linux distro on it and it's a great computer for programming. I paid $1,900 for my current laptop (T-460) with 24 GB of RAM, 11+ hours of battery life, matte screen (low glare), and a 4-year, next-day, at-home repair plan where they will drive to my home to fix any problems the next day, including accidents. That price included tax and shipping. I had considered buying a Mac, but in hindsight I'm very relieved that I didn't.
Same camp. One of my thunderbolt ports just died, and the screen itself is glitching more and more frequently. I'm praying that it hangs in there long enough for Apple to produce a machine I actually want to upgrade to, and that feels like an upgrade without compromise. If it dies before that happens I'll be reluctantly shopping for non-Mac hardware.
I switched from Windows to Mac in autumn-2013. I really hope that either Apple get their act together or that Microsoft ecosystem finally get the simple things such as hibernate and trackpads working properly before this machine gives up the ghost.
Having upgraded from the non-touch bar MacBook Pro (unwillingly, I might add, the old one died and it's a work machine so the replacement wasn't chosen by me), I'm surprised how disgruntled people are with it. While I'm not a fan of the touchbar either, everything else is for me either a micro-annoyance - for example, the need for a couple of adapters which most of the time I don't need anyway, or a total non-issue: keyboard works totally fine, I actually prefer the larger keys, and the USB-C charger is so much better for me - I had gone through countless of the magsafe ones due to the cable breaking where it connects with the charger, the design of this ones resolves that issue, plus I can replace the cable itself if necessary (say if my cat chews it up, which also happened in the past).
Also, there are third-party power adapters that are cheaper, car adapters that actually work for it now, I can charge it from a battery pack etc. Really, for me USB-C charging easily makes up for all the other downsides. That, and auto-sleep/hibernate finally working flawlessly.
rMBP mid 2012 here, i am totally agree with you.
Unless they have made a Macbook Pro with OLED or Micro LED display, 10nm+ CPU (preferably 7nm) and 32GB+ RAM options, THERE IS NO NEED TO UPDATE THIS 6 YEAR OLD LAPTOP! Apple...
Similar camp here. My 2012 MBA has been a lovely ultrabook but now that it's showing its age and I'm looking to replace it this year, I've decided to move away from the OSX ecosystem and am currently waiting for the next Surface pro to launch.
It got me thinking that the 2012 line of Apple products is the last one which was actually good. Since then it was constant decline in engineering quality and increase in price. I'm sure that Steve Jobs issued a memo before his departure telling everybody what to do in the next 5 years. After a couple of years, Apple is gradually losing their mojo, again.
The most dangerous thing here is that the public is increasingly getting the message and idea that Apple's mac hardware is decomposing.
They really need to make this a priority. I fear that the success of the iPhone is blinding them to the importance of the mac. And you can tell because they're kicking ass when it comes to iOS devices. They're so far ahead in certain areas, it's not even funny.
This is reminding me of the Steve Ballmer years at MS. The financials looked GREAT, even though the company completely stagnated when it came to technology (with some exceptions like the Developer Division).
Similarly, the Mac division's strong imbalance now of choosing form over function (the designers have taken over the asylum, removing ports, making keyboards thinner that nobody asked for), is going to continue hurting them until they change course drastically.
Hopefully we see it soon. Meanwhile, I am clinging on to my MacBook Pro from 2015, still the best MacBook Pro I've owned.
Apple needs to differentiate it’s lines further. The MacBook can be 2 mm thin and light as a feather for those who value those features. However, the MacBook Pro should be a true pro machine with a great keyboard, great screen, necessary ports, and built like a tank. Thinness obsession has gotten a bit far IMHO.
Like someone else said in another comment, the grass is not green on the other side. I tried every windows flagship option out there from Asus convertibles to XPS 15 (still have this) and my experience was not even close to what I had hoped for. From big issues like coil whine on the XPS 15 to little issues like battery randomly dying, it seems like no other manufacturer cares about quality control and human user experience at all.
Ended up getting a 2017 touch-bar 15' pro and could not have been happier. At least with MacBook I do not have to think about the machine getting in my way while I am trying to do something productive.
The keyboard situation is bad but I am sure at one point they are going to have to do a recall or offer free repairs (Apple has done this before, look at the GPU issues).
The touchbar issue is overblown. Once I adjusted my workflows to use touchbar and customized the touchbar for the apps I frequently use I have definitely been a little more productive than my old macbook. People do not like adapting to changes.
USB C is not a problem anymore, since most of my devices are using USB C already I can usually get away with just couple of cables (usb c and lightning) while traveling.
Mobile took precedence during the last decade, but now everyone is starting to realize that tablets and smartphones aren't going to replace regular computers for a large portion of the population.
Get an x1 carbon, install FreeBSD with gnome. Hardware and software blow windows and macOS out of the water. I can’t fathom how people think MacOS has angood desktop is — everything is a struggle with their os.
The keyboards. The failure rate makes them a risky purchase. You could be just out of warranty and locked out of your machine. This is happening and driving people away. I personally am really going to miss that perfect trackpad as it's not going to be another MacBook Pro for me until this is fixed.
Touch bar as well, the theoretical upsides were few and didn't really pan out. It would have been an interesting and possibly useful addition to function keys (especially at a $300 markup) but it's just awful as replacement.
Aren't they on the third iteration of those keyboards now, I wonder if the failure rate is still high.
I guess we will find out when the next revision of laptops comes out, if they really are unreliable then Apple will fix it as it is clearly doing them some reputational damage.
Interestingly for me, the annoyances of the new MacBook have faded into the background (no escape key, worse keyboard). I learned to hit ctrl+[ in vim, and don’t mind the keyboard until a key sticks for a little while.
Meanwhile I can’t imagine going back to the thicker form factor.
I don’t mean to downplay people’s issues, and Apple definitely didn’t do a wonderful job here.
But I do find that my day to day experience is net positive. Humans are very adaptable.
It may be unpopular, but I agree. I held off as long as I could, but finally ended up with a 2017 MBP. It works fine. I like the keyboard feel. It is a bit noisy though, and I worry about failures, but good so far. USB-C means I plug less into the computer than I used to. The dongle situation is a bit overblown. My 2014 MBP already had special cables for mini-display port and a dongle for gigabit ethernet.
I am annoyed that Apple cannot seem to just do simple upgrades though. Not every release has to be some out of this world new design.
I agree with this in principle, but repeated hardware failures are likely to test my patience to its limits.
Since I cannot see myself switching to a combination of by and large inferior hardware and (at least what I consider) inferior OS on other platforms without considerable comprises and pain, I've persevered with the OS bugs. Sadly, hardware failures are too disruptive and costly to put up with in the long run.
I agree and have the same feelings, but there should at least be an option for people who don’t want to prioritize size over performance.
Apple is the worlds biggest company, they can do better than ‘one size fits all’. Yes, that mantra is also part of their design philosophy, but it needs to be executed intelligently not blindly.
There’s a long but diverse tail of professional use cases, and there’s definitely not a single box that can hold all of them.
Is there any indication that Apple is taking these complaints to heart?
I suspect that the lack of updates may be indicative of Apple switching to an ARM based CPU for their laptops and desktop machine. If this is the case it probably wouldn't make sense for them to invest a lot in designing a new laptop around an Intel processor. It would also explain the delays since they would both need to get to grips with the hardware design AND provide a solution for running software compiled for x86 on ARM.
While they have done this before, the task is much bigger this time as there is considerably more software available for the Mac that would need to work on the new architecture.
Of course, this still raises questions. The first being how long it would take to stabilize the platform again. The second whether Apple will be sufficiently interested in the desktop/laptop market to deliver more consistent and meaningful product updates going forward.
If they are indeed going to ignore the desktop/laptop market the interesting question would be how this would affect the sales of their other products.
My guess is that if they manage to break up with developers, through inaction or otherwise, there is probably going to be a slow decline that nobody gets particularly worried about until it can't be compensated for with cheap sales tricks.
I'm having a deja-vue. 25 years ago Apple was facing a similar decline in product diversity, innovation and novelty. With Steve Jobs gone forever I don't think Apple will survive that one. By a long shot Apple will burn through their cash very fast, with mediocre products and no innovation in the pipeline. And I don't see another innovation genius like Steve Jobs with a determined vision to come around at Apple these days. Good luck with that!
Actually, Apple had too much product diversity and one of the things Jobs did was to simplify the product lineup and make sure that each product counted.
Apple have maintained a relatively simple product lineup when it comes to the computers, the problem is that they no longer know how to make products that deliver where it counts.
(Of course, they do have boneheaded products like the dead end stovepipe Mac Pro, which completely misses the point of what power-hungry users with generous budgets need, but it appears as sort of a tradition to have the odd boneheaded computer to satisfy the egos of designers. Given the past history of Apple I think it is safe to say that high end users have never been a great priority)
The Macintosh was also doing well, rising from 1.3 million units in 1990 to its all-time high of 4.5 million units in 1995. Macintosh market share peaked at 12% in 1993. It was a boom time for Apple, with the future looking bright.
They can do what MS is doing in the Mobile market... focus on software... They can bring those "great" applications (including iOS development) to Windows/Linux/BSD.
Hear, hear! I type this on a "Late 2013" MacBook Pro that I would have upgraded years ago if the replacements were desirable and they can't even keep those up to date.
I sadly gave up on the Mac. My next personal device is a Dell XPS.
The platform is great, and I liked the (declining) 3rd party ecosystem, but if the company doesn't give a crap about the platform, why should I?
It's probably too late, but Apple needs to break the industrial design team's stranglehold on the platform. You can only focus on things that the customer doesn't care about for so long. I pulled the plug when my colleague had to spend about $350 on magic dongles for his $2k laptop.
I switched back to a Linux workstation, after being "all mac laptop" since 2003 (!). My current Macbook Pro is from 2010 and my professional Macbook pro from 2015. The newest Macbooks with their stupid keyboards and USB-C only are total garbage, IMO. Sad.
Completely agree. Reliability has plummeted with almost every release since the retina MBP. Crashes are a regular thing and most of the physical "improvements" outside of compactness and weight have been unwanted. The touch bar in particular is just a dead appendage.
But my previous and extensive experiences with Linux and Windows ecosystems tell me that the grass is not greener, so I stay and put up with the problems.
I am a former Mac user who has “come home” to Linux and BSD in recent years.
Between the sad state of the Mac ecosystem (I like both the hardware AND software less today than I did 7 years ago) and the repost about desktop Linux UX this morning, I feel like the F/OSS and Mac communities have missed a golden opportunity.
If I had a time machine and a magic wand, I’d certainly have blessed the GNUStep project to build the desktop many of us wish we had today. Had some hypothetical GNUStep desktop captured the mindshare of the majority of Linux desktops, I could imagine living in a world today in which Mac and Linux software were more or less a recompile away from portability. I could imagine a world in which some developers prefer building Mac software with GNUStep tooling. And I imagine a world in which Apple’s focus, priorities, and missteps weren’t an existential threat to people trying to make their living on the Mac.
I know a lot of people I know have seen this coming and in the past few years have either switched to Windows (creative types) or to Linux (developer types).
It's fascinating to see Apple's fall from grace. They were once considered the go to hardware vendor in nearly every market segment, are now being easily passed by their competitors.
I've been repeating this point over and over but: if you are a software developer AND your target platform is non-Apple Unix -- in other words if you're developing for Web or Android -- there isn't a single reason to choose Mac over a solid PC running Linux. I've used Mac for years before switching to Linux, and two years ago had the chance to revisit Mac as the primary development machine for about 10 months, and my opinion only became stronger.
That doesn't mean that MacOS is not a solid system, and even Apple hardware is quite good -- I've recently bough a 2013 MacMini (the one with an optical drive) as my main home theatre and am quite happy. But as a software developer, I find using the same platform I'm developing for a very important detail.
I have an early 2013 MBP that I'm going to hang on to as long as I possibly can. It is truly a wonderful machine. I'm long out of warranty and just opted to pay $600 for repairs rather than upgrade. Really hope apple can turn things around before it finally kicks the bucket for good. Pretty amazing and sad how a company can take something so good and completely ruin it. To be fair it probably doesn't help that our culture is so obsessed with constant new-ness in tech, expecting huge advances every single year which puts pressure on companies to come up with shiny new features all the time. If it ain't broke...
I don't get the hate about the MBP. I have the 13-inch 2017 model without the TB and I absolutely LOVE it. It's such a master piece, I simply love it and use it as my daily driver. I also don't have any problems with my keyboard, I only can tell good things about it. The 2 ports suck, but I never was in need of more, I only use the power adapter and the USB C to HDMI/DP cable that goes in my 4K screen and that's it. Havn't used any regular USB devices for years anyways.
The only thing I hate about it is the super slow CPU, but that's only partly because of Apple.
The only thing I hate about it is the super slow CPU, but that's only partly because of Apple.
If apple had upgraded the MBP internals for WWDC, it could have had the i7 8650U by now, instead of the i7 7660U. That's a quad core part compared to a dual core part, which runs up to 50% faster in multi-threaded workloads.
[+] [-] zdw|7 years ago|reply
USB-C's ecosystem was confusing and good products never materialized, or if they did nobody could find them in the sea of junk.
The lack of hardware updates, which seems to have started with the 5-10% performance bumps Intel piddled out in the absence of competition from AMD from 2011-2017. Most of the CPU's and GPU's that could have been used frankly weren't much better than what they'd replace, so from that standpoint, upgrading the hardware was kind of pointless for an extremely minor performance benefit.
The keyboards situation is horrible. Failure prone and loud without much point.
Apple is making a lot of money in the iOS ecosystem. Success hides problems, and it seems like "if it's not broken, don't fix it" was used as an excuse to let the Mac languish.
As someone who did nearly all of Apple's IT-related certs in the mid 00's then watched them slowly decontent and destroy all of their OS X Server and related software almost immediately as iOS was on the rise, I don't see good things coming on the horizon.
If you're on a Mac, try to start using primarily OSS software and. Don't get stuck on a platform that might get abandoned tied to a workflow on software that isn't portable.
The silly thing is that Apple could (and should) invest in the Mac as it was pretty great, and could be great again. I'm not holding my breath.
[+] [-] bnj|7 years ago|reply
My two cents.
[+] [-] subway|7 years ago|reply
It's seen a pretty wide-spread uptake over the last couple years, and you're hard pressed to find a new laptop from any manufacturer that doesn't use it for charging.
[+] [-] Const-me|7 years ago|reply
Agree about CPUs, disagree about GPUs. GPUs have been making very good progress all these years.
E.g. nVidia’s 1080 Ti (2017) is almost twice as fast as the similarly priced 980 Ti (2015). The 780 Ti (2013) is about the same as 980Ti but 680 (2012) is again about 2x slower than 980 Ti.
[+] [-] LyndsySimon|7 years ago|reply
I've had two MBPs with only USB-C ports, and this is a complete non-issue to me. I have a "microdock" that gives me the ports I want when I want them and otherwise stays put away. Even on my Samsung TabPro, which only has a single USB-C port, it's not really an issue.
> lack of hardware updates
This is a huge issue for me. Apple has kept the pricing high on their notebooks while not improving performance. The only thing they have going for them from my POV these days is build quality and macOS. Others are catching up in build quality, and even Windows 10 supports native Linux well enough that macOS has lost much of its luster.
> keyboards
Meh. I don't really have an opinion on this one. I'm typing on a "new" MBP keyboard right now and it works fine. It's a bit sensitive to sand and other particles, but so far I've not had one actually fail to the point that the issue wasn't resolved with a few hard keypresses and a shot of compressed air.
> try to start using primarily OSS software
This is probably the key to why I'm both dissatisfied with Apple and not as upset as others seem to be about it. I moved to macOS in ~2011 because I wanted a durable laptop, and planned to install ArchLinux on it. I gave macOS a shot and it was "close enough" to Linux that it didn't make sense to deal with all the headaches of dealing with a non-native OS.
> Apple is making a lot of money in the iOS ecosystem
... and as best I can tell, that's where they're innovating too. I sold my personal MBP this spring, bought a 6th-gen iPad, and haven't looked back. It's more than suitable for mobile media consumption, programming (via MOSH to a remote server), and photo processing.
Unless something big changes, my next machine will probably be an iPad Pro in a couple of years. I have no plans at this time to ever buy a laptop for myself again.
[+] [-] mamcx|7 years ago|reply
Now, I'm in the position of get a worse (in SSD space + other things) machine for more money or get hackintosh
[+] [-] metabrew|7 years ago|reply
I've got an HDMI port, SD card reader, two USB ports, two thunderbolt ports, magsafe power, and a proper, reliable keyboard.
I despair at the current crop of mac hardware. If this machine dies on me before some decent mac hardware arrives, I'm not sure what i'll do - but it definitely won't involve buying a new macbook with the touchbar, stupid keyboards, and no ports.
[+] [-] dbattaglia|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JoshMnem|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fredley|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] radicalbyte|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pegasus|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] itsfirat|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown_apostle|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lagadu|7 years ago|reply
The current lineup is just so unappealing.
[+] [-] iClaudiusX|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dschuetz|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|7 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] bootsz|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] atonse|7 years ago|reply
They really need to make this a priority. I fear that the success of the iPhone is blinding them to the importance of the mac. And you can tell because they're kicking ass when it comes to iOS devices. They're so far ahead in certain areas, it's not even funny.
This is reminding me of the Steve Ballmer years at MS. The financials looked GREAT, even though the company completely stagnated when it came to technology (with some exceptions like the Developer Division).
Similarly, the Mac division's strong imbalance now of choosing form over function (the designers have taken over the asylum, removing ports, making keyboards thinner that nobody asked for), is going to continue hurting them until they change course drastically.
Hopefully we see it soon. Meanwhile, I am clinging on to my MacBook Pro from 2015, still the best MacBook Pro I've owned.
[+] [-] dstroot|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ksubedi|7 years ago|reply
Ended up getting a 2017 touch-bar 15' pro and could not have been happier. At least with MacBook I do not have to think about the machine getting in my way while I am trying to do something productive.
The keyboard situation is bad but I am sure at one point they are going to have to do a recall or offer free repairs (Apple has done this before, look at the GPU issues).
The touchbar issue is overblown. Once I adjusted my workflows to use touchbar and customized the touchbar for the apps I frequently use I have definitely been a little more productive than my old macbook. People do not like adapting to changes.
USB C is not a problem anymore, since most of my devices are using USB C already I can usually get away with just couple of cables (usb c and lightning) while traveling.
[+] [-] pier25|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vivafrance|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bogle|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] masklinn|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tonyedgecombe|7 years ago|reply
I guess we will find out when the next revision of laptops comes out, if they really are unreliable then Apple will fix it as it is clearly doing them some reputational damage.
[+] [-] grzm|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] slewis|7 years ago|reply
Meanwhile I can’t imagine going back to the thicker form factor.
I don’t mean to downplay people’s issues, and Apple definitely didn’t do a wonderful job here.
But I do find that my day to day experience is net positive. Humans are very adaptable.
[+] [-] matwood|7 years ago|reply
I am annoyed that Apple cannot seem to just do simple upgrades though. Not every release has to be some out of this world new design.
[+] [-] jkcl|7 years ago|reply
Since I cannot see myself switching to a combination of by and large inferior hardware and (at least what I consider) inferior OS on other platforms without considerable comprises and pain, I've persevered with the OS bugs. Sadly, hardware failures are too disruptive and costly to put up with in the long run.
[+] [-] huebnerob|7 years ago|reply
Apple is the worlds biggest company, they can do better than ‘one size fits all’. Yes, that mantra is also part of their design philosophy, but it needs to be executed intelligently not blindly.
There’s a long but diverse tail of professional use cases, and there’s definitely not a single box that can hold all of them.
[+] [-] bborud|7 years ago|reply
I suspect that the lack of updates may be indicative of Apple switching to an ARM based CPU for their laptops and desktop machine. If this is the case it probably wouldn't make sense for them to invest a lot in designing a new laptop around an Intel processor. It would also explain the delays since they would both need to get to grips with the hardware design AND provide a solution for running software compiled for x86 on ARM.
While they have done this before, the task is much bigger this time as there is considerably more software available for the Mac that would need to work on the new architecture.
Of course, this still raises questions. The first being how long it would take to stabilize the platform again. The second whether Apple will be sufficiently interested in the desktop/laptop market to deliver more consistent and meaningful product updates going forward.
If they are indeed going to ignore the desktop/laptop market the interesting question would be how this would affect the sales of their other products.
My guess is that if they manage to break up with developers, through inaction or otherwise, there is probably going to be a slow decline that nobody gets particularly worried about until it can't be compensated for with cheap sales tricks.
[+] [-] thisisblurry|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dschuetz|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bborud|7 years ago|reply
Apple have maintained a relatively simple product lineup when it comes to the computers, the problem is that they no longer know how to make products that deliver where it counts.
(Of course, they do have boneheaded products like the dead end stovepipe Mac Pro, which completely misses the point of what power-hungry users with generous budgets need, but it appears as sort of a tradition to have the odd boneheaded computer to satisfy the egos of designers. Given the past history of Apple I think it is safe to say that high end users have never been a great priority)
[+] [-] scarface74|7 years ago|reply
The Macintosh was also doing well, rising from 1.3 million units in 1990 to its all-time high of 4.5 million units in 1995. Macintosh market share peaked at 12% in 1993. It was a boom time for Apple, with the future looking bright.
https://arstechnica.com/features/2005/12/total-share/
[+] [-] mtzaldo|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonknee|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Spooky23|7 years ago|reply
The platform is great, and I liked the (declining) 3rd party ecosystem, but if the company doesn't give a crap about the platform, why should I?
It's probably too late, but Apple needs to break the industrial design team's stranglehold on the platform. You can only focus on things that the customer doesn't care about for so long. I pulled the plug when my colleague had to spend about $350 on magic dongles for his $2k laptop.
[+] [-] titzer|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lucisferre|7 years ago|reply
But my previous and extensive experiences with Linux and Windows ecosystems tell me that the grass is not greener, so I stay and put up with the problems.
[+] [-] peatmoss|7 years ago|reply
Between the sad state of the Mac ecosystem (I like both the hardware AND software less today than I did 7 years ago) and the repost about desktop Linux UX this morning, I feel like the F/OSS and Mac communities have missed a golden opportunity.
If I had a time machine and a magic wand, I’d certainly have blessed the GNUStep project to build the desktop many of us wish we had today. Had some hypothetical GNUStep desktop captured the mindshare of the majority of Linux desktops, I could imagine living in a world today in which Mac and Linux software were more or less a recompile away from portability. I could imagine a world in which some developers prefer building Mac software with GNUStep tooling. And I imagine a world in which Apple’s focus, priorities, and missteps weren’t an existential threat to people trying to make their living on the Mac.
[+] [-] at-fates-hands|7 years ago|reply
It's fascinating to see Apple's fall from grace. They were once considered the go to hardware vendor in nearly every market segment, are now being easily passed by their competitors.
[+] [-] samplesizeme|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BerislavLopac|7 years ago|reply
That doesn't mean that MacOS is not a solid system, and even Apple hardware is quite good -- I've recently bough a 2013 MacMini (the one with an optical drive) as my main home theatre and am quite happy. But as a software developer, I find using the same platform I'm developing for a very important detail.
[+] [-] bootsz|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nik736|7 years ago|reply
The only thing I hate about it is the super slow CPU, but that's only partly because of Apple.
[+] [-] Joeri|7 years ago|reply
If apple had upgraded the MBP internals for WWDC, it could have had the i7 8650U by now, instead of the i7 7660U. That's a quad core part compared to a dual core part, which runs up to 50% faster in multi-threaded workloads.
[+] [-] StyloBill|7 years ago|reply
See how this is anecdotal? Pretty sure if you were to have different use-cases you'd like your MPB a lot less.