“Has Apple forgotten that it has a Mac lineup?” Adrian Kingsley-Hughes writes for ZDNet. “Apple’s Mac and MacBook lineup is, frankly, a disgrace. I can’t think of another top-name brand demanding a premium price for hardware that is so outdated.”
“Apart from the MacBook, there’s nothing in Apple’s computer range that I’d recommend buying right now,” Kingsley-Hughes writes. “Everything is either old and crusty (5K iMac), or very old and crusty (Mac Pro), and you’ll be throwing top dollar for technology that is, by the standards of the fast-moving tech industry – ancient.”
“And remember that these aren’t cheap systems that you can pick up for a couple of hundred dollars. Mac mini aside – which starts at $499 – you need to have close to $1,000 to even think about buying a Mac,” Kingsley-Hughes writes. “It’s like Apple has total forgotten that is has a Mac line at all, and has instead been focusing on the iPhone and the Apple Watch… Predictably, this stale offering is having a negative effect on sales. According to Gartner, Q3 shipments of Macs has declined 13.4 percent compared to the year-ago quarter.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: There’s no way to sugarcoat this, but to say that Apple hasn’t forgotten about the Mac and new Macs are (finally) coming. As regular readers know, we’ve already vented multiple times about the appalling lack of new Macs, for example:
“This is absolutely shameful for a company claiming to be a leader in technology.”
We couldn’t agree more.
Exactly how rich and big does Apple have to be before the company runs like it has more than five guys working 18-hour days trying to do everything? The world’s most valuable company is incapable of updating the Mac Pro for two and a half fscking years? Seriously? “Mismanagement” is not too strong a word to apply to the ongoing Mac Pro fiasco.
Just like every other human, there are things Tim Cook does very well and there are other things about which he seems painfully inept.
Hint: Make new Macs and update them with regularity while advertising them strongly. Obviously, as you might have noted by perusing iPad unit sales reports, not everyone has fallen for your “iPad is the next PC” meme, yet, Tim.
We only say that as those who were already Mac users for over 13 years at the point Cook was still over at Compaq trying to get his Windows PC to work. — MacDailyNews, July 12, 2016
SEE ALSO:
For some reason, Apple’s Mac sales plunged last quarter – October 12, 2016
As new MacBook Pro models loom, Apple issues fourth beta of macOS Sierra 10.12.1 – October 11, 2016
Thoughts on Apple’s MacBook Pro OLED touch strip – August 11, 2016
Apple preps all-new MacBook Pro line with OLED touch strip and more – August 10, 2016
Apple’s new MacBook Pro expected to feature OLED touch-panel, Touch ID power button – August 8, 2016
Sales suffer as Apple neglects the Mac – July 12, 2016
Apple’s Mac sales fall, economies shudder – July 12, 2016
IDC, Gartner: Apple’s Mac no longer bucking PC industry’s sales slide – July 12, 2016
Next-gen MacBook Pro could feature Touch ID power button – June 28, 2016
Leaked photos pretty much confirm 2016 MacBook Pro’s OLED touchpad – June 1, 2016
Thinner, lighter 2016 MacBook Pro may feature OLED display touch bar and Touch ID – May 24, 2016
Tim made plenty of time to weave custom rainbow watch bands for the Apple employees he implicitly pressured to march in yet another Gay Pride Parade, yet there have been no new Macs, some models for years.
It’s about priorities. It’s about misplaced notions of social crusading that impinge upon the very reason anybody listens to your sanctimonious bullshit-laced preaching anyway.
Cook should worry about running Apple properly and leave the political bullshit to the politicians. Or quit and run for office instead.
Try to comment without sounding like a homophobe. Yes he’s gay. Does that mean that’s all he thinks about? Lots of us are gay and it doesn’t have any impact on our work lives. Grow up a bit and stop airing your inadequacies.
I don’t have a problem with Tim Cook being gay.
I have a problem with Tim Cook using Apple to push his gay agenda while Apple products are being ignored.
And I’ll bet my bottom dollar that you would be having a hissy fit if I used my top position in a major corporation to push something like heterosexual marriage.
CEOs of many companies “push” heterosexual marriage. Did you know there are things like family benefits that many companies offer? Until recently, many companies were pushing heterosexual marriage via these benefits and excluding gay partners. The “gay agenda” you disdain was people demanding to be treated equally.
What is wrong with you people???
“Heterosexual marriage” is the bedrock of human society.
You may have bullied your way into getting your phony ‘weddings’ legalized but they’re still phony, and not a single one has ever once produce children naturally – THE primary reason why marriage exists.
You are a very hate-filled individual. I feel very sad for you.
But this has fuck all to do with a Mac Tech site. can we get back to when new Mac’s will be coming out, and leave the misguided, and vile, homophobic slurs for other sites?
Yeah, mentioning that someone who wears their sexual orientation on their shirtsleeve is gay, is homophobic, get real.
You’re an idiot. Your homophobic political nonsense invalidates your comment. Go back to your wall.
Apple has 100 engineers slaving away to re-paint the Trashcan rose gold, and 1 engineer removing the 3.5 mm headphone jack.
It’ll be absolutely fabulous!!! Says Tim Cook.
Cook is too busy spending his time fighting for social injustice. He has no time for such silly things like updating Macs.
I’ll bet you can’t even name the times and paces Tim Cook has done that but it’s simply your own biased, misguided & specious conjecture. Nor do you have a copy of Tim’s daily schedule to prove it. I’m not defending Apple letting the Mac line languish a little too long but disingenuous statements like yours are just moronic. You use these kinds of articles to advance your own agenda anti-Cook stupidity. And you don’t fool anyone.
You too.
TOTALLY agree! Today’s Mac is a complete disgrace, across the board. Tim Cook has shown the Mac nothing but contempt and neglect. He is an abysmal CEO of Apple, incapable of doing two things at the same time.
As a shareholder, I expect more, a LOT more from the CEO of what was once the world’s preeminent innovative company.
Build a Hackintosh with motherboards that do not require any hacked drivers. That way you can choose the hardware you want, not what Apple thinks you should have.
I had the original Mac Pro. Sold it when I could no longer stand how slow it was becoming. Bought a MacBook Pro (mid-2012). Getting tired of how outdated the hardware is. Decided I’m building a Hackintosh (to run macOS 10.12 Sierra and Windows 10 Pro) and getting a Windows 10 Pro notebook. Tired of Apple’s stupid shit after all these years under Jobs and now Cook. :/
https://www.tonymacx86.com
Good luck with that. You may very well need it. It would take a great deal to push me into purchasing a Windows-based computer. I honestly cannot imagine a scenario leading to that result.
I would like to point out the fact that your hackintosh workstation will illegally utilize Apple MacOS software. But as a future Windows user, you might as well dive into software piracy at the same time.
Holy shit that’s a lot of work. And I definitely have the technical ability and have built my own systems in the past…it can just easily turn into a nightmare spending hours/days/weeks troubleshooting some annoying driver/bios issue. And the problem is compounded whenever something changes (OS or HW).
Yes I’m highly annoyed that Apple has let Mac lineup languish and is charging ridiculous prices and margins on old hardware. But my tinkering days are over and I have no interest in wasting my free time troubleshooting something like an HDMI handshake issue lol
Roger that. I also no longer replace the oil pan gasket on my car, or rebuild the master cylinder and bleed the brakes.
And yet Apple’s stock keeps going up. Odd.
Great for shareholders, crap for people who like innovative computing hardware.
Apple stock has lagged the Nasdaq composite. Apple stock has basically been flat for 4 years. An insanely low multiple shows Wall Streets lack of confidence in this managements team ability to innovate. Very late
With streaming music. Terrible UI when I did. No Social platform, cloud lacking. The sticky eco system will continue to be less sticky if continue this way. No movie streaming. Leaving their future to others.
I’d honestly like to know why Apple tries to cripple its hardware. It seems it’s doing so for the sake of design because that’s what makes Apple different from other computer manufacturers. I’m mainly disappointed over Apple’s GPUs when I see the Windows PC crowd always getting the most powerful GPUs available and Apple doesn’t even allow upgrading.
I understand the iMac’s case design needing mobile GPUs which run cooler but the Mac Pro should be fully upgradeable. The Mac Mini should have Intel Iris PRO graphics by now but doesn’t. As a shareholder, I would like to know why Apple is making the choices it does when it comes to hardware. Is it simple economics or design-driven. I just know Apple can afford to do a lot better.
You’re absolutely right about Apple’s share price performance. Plot the course of Apple vs Microsoft over the last 5 years and Apple has barely edged out Microsoft in share gains. All the nonsense of Microsoft dying doesn’t seem to gel when Apple is doing not much better.
https://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chfdeh=0&chdet=1476388800000&chddm=501653&cmpto=NASDAQ:AAPL;NASDAQ:MSFT&cmptdms=0;0&q=NASDAQ:AAPL,NASDAQ:MSFT&ntsp=0&ei=R7__V5C2CI2SeYmjvMgB
(hit the 5yr plot in the graph)
Wall Street has very little confidence in Apple or should I say Apple’s management team. Apple continues to sit on a mountain of cash while other companies move steadily forward. If Amazon’s Jeff Bezos had Apple’s cash, he would have devoured half the stock market by now. Apple seems to have very little aggression in terms of growth. The company is coasting on past laurels.
… stock get to be THE most valuable – in the WORLD – if it has been “flat for 4 years”?
Agreed … low multiple suggests lack of confidence. That has been the situation since before the Return Of Jobs. Yet the price continues to go up.
Maybe you should stop following the Gamblers?
Perhaps it could go up MORE?
Running after trend and producing only gadjets to please the shareholders might fire back seriously. Apple made his history on good machines for creatives. Maybe there’s not a that large consumption with these, but it’s a solid base to stand on!
While it’s painfully obvious that Apple has let the Mac Pro and MacBook line languish, it’s just as obvious that when they DO update them most of the hand wringing and gnashing of teeth will go away, drowned out by the paroxysms of joy from those who actually care. Where would you think Apple should take the Mac Pro now? BACK to more internal storage? Larger to be more like the bland boxes Dell makes? How about a clear plexiglass cube.. oh wait.. that didn’t work..What form factor and set of internals will make it seem as if they are leaders again in your mind? Not speed alone.. that’s a chimera. Is it an 8k screen? A 5ghz quad core chip? What would constitute leadership as the next step?
You are assuming Apple is in a position to upgrade the Mac line on par with current top performance market options. But the situation is more complicated than this.
Apple may be able to stay competitive using CPUs from Kaby Lake series as Apple is using Intel CPUs. But also Apple is not using the most powerful Intel CPUs for their top desktop Macs. No Intel CPU “K” series on any Mac and no (desktop) 6, 8 or 10 cores. Mac Pros from 2013 already include 6 cores or better, but those are Xeons. And MP GPUs are 3 years old.
The GPU problem starts and end right now with AMD graphic card options (sorry AMD). Go to AMD and find it for yourself. AMD 4xx line is a rebranded 3xx.
At the same time Nvidia’s 1080 GPUs are 3X more powerful but there are no Nvidia GPUs on any Mac. This may change next year.
And lastly and very crucial is that Apple refuses to create top Macs with truly user upgradable options. Great for 90-95% of users but terrible for demanding users.
And who creates the content and apps for Macs?
Also the numbers from Mac sales are declining abruptly this year. It is a real problem.
Y’all need to get a life.
II love the Mac. I love life more, a life free of recriminations, of toxic dependencies, of outmoded expectations, of the same ol’ same ol’. So I say bring it on, or not. I can adapt to a new challenge, though it is not as easy as whining or campaigning for an extension of the status quo.
The days of Apple caring about Macs is over. It is not a profit center for them. Both windows and mac desktop sales are going to continue to slow down.
There really needs to be just one desktop operating system. Time to bite the bullet and merge desktop OSes. The future is mobile devices and the cloud.
But you need your own in house fast powerful computers for OS-App program and hardware development, unless you want Microsoft to control that too which would be the end. Apple had better come to its senses.
and the ecosystem will follow …
My first gen retina MBP is still going strong. I had never had a mac last this long without starting to fell sluggish.
As a result of this and the lack of compelling upgrade I have not needed to buy a new machine. Apple’s loss is my gain.
I can’t shake the feeling that Apple is working on a new architecture to upset the traditional desktop/laptop paradigm. Could they be working on abandoning the memory-hard disk architecture and move to a unified memory-storage model with one type of storage? Certainly they are exploring using their own silicone. IDK, This refresh cycle is so long in the tooth I would like to give Apple the benefit of the doubt. The longer we wait the harder that becomes.
It’s like Trump: I want to believe in him but I just can’t. Actually, it’s not like that at all.
While it’s true that updates have been less than rapid and some are small changes, the article overstates the paucity of these updates, for instance, the article claims that the MacBook Pro hasn’t been updated in 1,584 days … actually it has. The most recent update to the MacBook Pro was May 19th 2015, far more recently than the absurdly long time claimed in the article. They are mistaking major generational design revisions for updates. A serious oversight on the author’s part.
The MacBook Pro 2015 update was lame.
It was still an update. There have been small steady updates much more recently than the article states, so it’s factually wrong.
If the chips aren’t there, they are not there. I’m inpatient like everyone else but the truth is, I wouldn’t have bought an updated MBPro with old chip sets.
And remember you can buy those cheap $500 systems but even the latest ones don’t compare to any Mac on the market. Made up BULLSHIT is what this article is.
PATIENCE!
Apple inc. will deliver an astounding array of New Macs very soon, that will blow the “competition” out of the water, because even with all their high spec systems, they still Only run Windows (so last century!!).
Hopefully, Apple will have new Macs soon but I can guarantee that the competition will have updated hardware, too.
HP and Dell seem far more competent at updating and delivering latest technology PCs than Apple does. And the only explanation for that is Tim Cook.
Because candy crush teeny boppers are the main market for Apple now, you didn’t know that?
My 2014 MB Pro still feels strong so I am not hurting. But there is no arguing that the Macs in general are not leading the way right now. I hope to God that Apple has something up its sleeve or I am going to be forced to look at other alternatives for my next buy. I’ve been a Mac shop for 30 years.
Bilge like this post get 1 starred.
The pro-grade Macs and MacBooks are the most important, because anything less capable CAN be replaced by an iPad, so regularly updating a 12″ MacBook TWICE before updating ANYTHING else is what really angers me.
Since the dead of Mr Jobs, Apple haven’t change a much. Mr Tim Cook is more focus on the financial department or adding pink to an iPhone. No longer on the research area. I think that what made Apple a great visionary company; is that no matter what, Mr Jobs made possible what it was impossible. This is how a real visionary extent the boundaries beyond the mind of others.
I believe the real question is what is Ives focused on.
Heh, that could be taken two ways:
What is Ives going to eff up next? or
What is Ives going to deliver next?
The two are not mutually exclusive.
At the upcoming introductions for what is believed to be new Macs, I would at all cost avoid using the word “courage” on stage.
Even I cringed when that word was used last time and I’m a fanboy.
I am concluding with all this situation that the true reality of Macs being so outdated is because Apple refused to many years in a row to include upgradable GPUs.
And this neglect came back this year to hurt Apple sales.
If you had a Mac with a fast CPU you will mostly be up to date with a lates generation GPU. And maybe you will be able to wait longer and happier for Apple to redesign the Mac line.
But Apple mismanagement in this regard implied a “less elegant design” – Nothing true professionals or enthusiasts care that much. So the form prevailed over the function in desktops but also in Pro Macs with its current consequences. But even top mobile Macs are suffering from this decision from Apple.
And I don’t think Apple is ready right now to present a Mac line with upgradable GPUs or with powerful GPUs because they forgot about it years ago and because Apple also forgot about Nvidia.
The only option this year will be for Apple to bring an external GPU option but it will also be best used with a TB 3 connection.
Another polite way for Apple manage this situation is to announce they are listening to their power users and that they will bring an answer. A promise for next year!
On this one I will sadly have to say I blame Cook. Just without the childish vitriol.
Indubitably! Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!
Mr Cook,
I am waiting a decent Mac lineup to replace the aging models I use and have elsewhere in my home. Sealed up Mac minis with lame Intel Iris graphics, outdated Mac Pro laptops with lame Intel Iris graphics and CPUs, Home Theater PCs marketed as Mac Pros and skinny, overpriced iMacs that cannot even accept a memory stick are not acceptable.
Many of us want a user upgradeable Macintosh that accepts standard cards and memory sticks- not a skinny box without connections. I would gladly take a beige box that I can upgrade over an overpriced styling exercise that is obsolete 24 months after purchase.
You are pushing many of us, Apple’s most loyal customers, toward LINUX and Windows 10. Many of us are the people who never switched away and stuck it out through the dark days, who bought Mac computers when others thought Apple might not be around much longer, who took the plunge and bought iMacs, iPods, iPhones and iPads before the trend shifted in your favor.
Some of us are developers who write applications for the Mac and for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad. Some of us are Engineers & Scientists who need something more than a dumbed down consumer device with no internal expansion. Some of us are artists by vocation or avocation who have significant (for us) money tied up in hardware and software that you neglect of the Mac has put at risk.
I would remind you that the Mac kept the lights on at Apple. It built the first Apple Retail Stores, paid for the R& D that brought the iPod and iOS devices to life. It was Mac sales that built the core upon which all of Apple rests today as iOS is derived from mac OS.
Late in his life Steve Jobs made the analogy of computers to cars and trucks. He implied that a market shift to mobile (cars) was going on, but that there would always be a market for PCs (trucks). If you do not build us a truck how can we stay with Apple? An iPad Pro will not do what I need and the only other options are Hackintoshes and Windows- neither of which you approve of.
Apple needs to shit or get off of the pot. Kill the Mac or grow it.
I must admit, usually a fierce defender of Apple, but the neglect of Macs is inexcusable. A simple, undramatic refresh would have been better than… nothing. I’m still waiting to replace my dead iMac. Not gonna do Windows, not gonna do Hackintosh. A lot of people are buying old refurbished Macs. Doesn’t that enable Apple’s… “milking it?…”