“If you want to watch a master at work, observe Apple’s timing of product launches,” Vlad Savov writes for The Verge. “It’s one of the underrated aspects of the American giant’s prodigious and prolonged success, but it’s been instrumental.”
“Today’s long-awaited MacBook Pro redesign is just the latest example, coming swiftly on the heels of Apple reporting declining earnings and Microsoft announcing an eye-catching new PC — both of which are liable to be avalanched by excited chatter about Apple’s exciting new laptop,” Savov writes. “What the MacBook Pro refresh is about is reasserting Apple’s lead as the premier laptop maker. The new machine will also serve as a swift response to critics casting doubt over the company’s future because of a lack of new and innovative products.”
Savov writes, “Of course, timing means nothing without a great product and all of this depends on Apple being Apple and delivering a device that becomes the benchmark for its competition. Reviving faith in macOS and Apple innovation at the same time as undermining an old rival’s biggest announcement of the year — who could ask for anything more than that from a product launch?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft is not Apple’s rival. They’re just another wannabe with an inferior OS. Apple owns the premium PC market lock, stock, and barrel.
SEE ALSO:
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Apple locations setting up line dividers overnight, suggesting new Macs may go on sale today – October 27, 2016
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Apple leaks photo of new MacBook Pro with OLED Magic Toolbar – October 26, 2016
New virtual keyboard layouts in macOS 10.12.1 confirm MacBook Pro OLED ‘Magic Toolbar’ reports – October 25, 2016
Trademark filing suggests ‘Magic Toolbar’ will be Apple’s name for new MacBook Pro OLED touch strip – October 20, 2016
It’s official: Apple sends invitations for ‘hello again’ event on October 27th – October 19, 2016
Apple set to release Final Cut Pro, iMovie updates with support for new MacBook Pro’s OLED ‘Touch Bar’ – October 19, 2016
Get ready, Apple’s new Macs are finally set to arrive! – October 19, 2016
All-new MacBook Pro, refreshed MacBook Air and iMac, and more coming at Apple’s October 27th special event – October 19, 2016
Apple plans to launch new Macs at special event on October 27th – October 18, 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
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
Perfect timing would have been to sell to the back to school crowd in July-August.
I guess Apple used the back-to-school crowd to clear out old inventory in preparation for this release. 😜
That’s exactly it. Students aren’t exactly flush with cash, so the discounts that retailers apply leading up to back-to-school are perfect for clearing old inventory.
Apple can keep selling lower cost machines but also entice with newer bling. These are not contradictory.
But, timing for the holiday/Christmas crowd may be better now that I think of it.
Added after the Keynote: so much for keeping the lower cost machines. Ugh.
Except that students DIDN’T buy Macs.
Wow an expert on all students. Surely it isn’t too difficult to understand that a lot of them did indeed buy the present products, it was those who want state of the art new products who held back. So now you can think upon it with a little insight.
Actually, my god-son’s father bought his MacBook for senior year in high school, just saying.
My kids have them.
It’s easy to announce something, but Cook has a propensity to botch each and every single launch… pushing products to a date so far in the future you’ll forget why you wanted it in the first place (Airpods).
https://www.change.org/p/apple-board-of-directors-remove-tim-cook-as-ceo-of-apple
I agree. I have always bought Apple computers, since I used them at school. For the first time in my life, I have started to consider buying a Windows computer.
My most recent laptop is a MacBook Air 13″, summer 2013 The screen has had to be replaced twice. Now, on the third screen, a ring is showing through from the lit Apple logo on the lid. The keyboard has failed and had to be replaced. The battery has failed and had to be replaced. Apple has been difficult with me each time there has been a problem. The amount of hassle is far from the BMW experience we all expect.
Worse than that, the updating of the machines has been woeful. My desktop Mac mini is no longer adequate and I stopped using it. But I could not replace it. Or rather, I could if I had dropped a stack of cash on an Apple computer that was three years old but charged tomorrow’s prices. I had to use my MacBook Air for everything. For nearly two years, I have been unable to recommend to any colleagues that they buy a Mac.
Those of us who use our computers for work require regular support and consistency. When Apple changes its software, breaking features, or fails to produce machines to replace our older ones, it breaks or hampers our workflows. Rather than Apple helping us to succeed, it restrains us. It used to be that Apple users had the most advanced machines, the most powerful chips and the desirable computers. It is a sad state of affairs that anyone with or who bought a MacBook in the last two years has been carrying round a slower, chunkier, less advanced machine than other windows machInes of that class.
If it could not get worse, the beleaguered Microsoft now seems to be supplanting Apple as the producer of exciting computers and equipment. If I can think that, as a lifelong user of Apple, then something at Apple is going seriously wrong.
Josh, from one who has to use both Mac & Windows, there is no way I will use Windows on the web or for 50+ different applications like I do on the Mac. After 30 years, I hate crashes.
I successfully use Windows with one program off the internet and it continues to run just fine.
Sadly, my MacBook was crashing once per week – and once in a meeting when I was doing a presentation. In the end, I wiped the entire hard drive, reinstalled the OS from the internet and reinstalled my applications one by one.
That seems to have worked. But in the past I would have associated having to do that with windows.
A lot of what you say has reliance but equally much does not. Fact is apple products are still the most reliable out there satisfaction indicators prove that as does my own experience. Equally most pcs out there are not any more advanced than the current models though that does exclude my criticism of their raggedly state. Most of the experience that you presently condemn Apple for is the norm for most in the PC world so moving to that won’t cure anything.
And yes the Surface pc Microsoft previewed certainly locks good compared to the present lacklustre pc industry but lets think on this carefully in the cold light of day. It is an extremely expensive machine yet is competing against the iMac, yes that machine that we are told isn’t meant for the very professionals that the new pc is clearly aimed at and the design it effectively mimics. There really are double standards by many on these matters. This machine is effectively a niche as things stand, its about trying to raise some excitement from a bland company and the real test will be how they develop this concept into areas where it actually matters, after all the sort of pros (not a large section) who could use such an adaptive machine exploiting touch and tradition formats do not want a machine that is so limiting while it is far too expensive for the normal pc buyer. If it adds excitement to the pc brand then it will have done its job, but its the other pcs that are sold on its back that should more worry Apple if it doesn’t start to be more dynamic in its new products..
Granted, Apple does have a reputation for being more reliable, but those of us who have used their products for 25+ years have seen it slide and become a lot closer to Windows.
And having also personally been required to use Windows at work, despite how there’s IT to “help”, I’ve also become sufficiently familiar with its overall behavior to not be terrified of the prospects of moving my personal PC from Mac to Windows if Apple continues to be so utterly disengaged from my personal Use Case priorities.
…and what doesn’t help Tim Cook with the latter is that not only is Apple no longer selling Macs of configurations that are well suited for my use case, but the PC -vs- Mac comparison that I did last year resulted in the “Force Fitted” Mac solution costing ~$2,000 MORE than the PC solution. For virtually all consumers, that’s a very steep ‘Apple Tax’ to be contemplating, versus just converting one’s workflows over to a Windows based solutions.
I would be sad to see loyal Mac users go. But I would rather you leave for Windows than risk poisoning potential Mac switchers with your tales of woe. I started using Macs in 1987, so I have 29 years of experience and have stuck with Apple through some very dark times. In comparison, your disappointments are minor.
I have used a wide variety of platforms over the years, including warriors flavored of Windows starting with 3.11 Windows for Worksgroups. So I know Windows fairly well. And it does appear to be getting somewhat better…it should be after about three decades of chasing the MacOS. Except for the Xbox, perhaps, Microsoft has made its living from buying others, copying what it could not buy, and illegally railroading the competition out of business. Even now, the features that you appear to like about Microsoft are largely copied.
You talk about switching to Windows. Fine. I don’t care to hear about it. Just do it and move to Wintel Daily News. I doubt that the grass is greener, but you are certainly welcome to graze on that side of the fence.
Mel, what you might consider “poisoning”, I instead view as telling the truth.
And the truth is that MS no longer deserves the hyperbola that we traditionally piled on them as Apple supporters a decade ago: it is simply being objective and honest to acknowledge credit where credit is due.
As such, when it comes to a emotions-removed assessment of our objective workflow needs, MS gets the opportunity to compete, based on the actual merits, and not demonized by their past. And the same is also true of Apple: their lack of attention to the Mac means that they’ve now finally spent all of the 39 years worth of “Goodwill” that they have accumulated with me as a customer, where I would have in the past granted them some intangibles when deciding on my next desktop purchase.
To this end, I’m not trying to say that the MS grass is greener, but rather that the Apple patch has withered so much, that I can no longer believe any Apple Advocate (having been one myself) that things are going to somehow reverse course.
I agree spy. But the comparator is not most PCs but the specific ultra books and a Microsoft’s surface.
I’m not for Windows or anti-Apple. But I do feel let down by Apple and annoyed by its lack of responsiveness – after 20+ years of continuous, sole use. And if I am upset and having my head turned by others, I cannot be the only one.
At home I have a 2007 24″ iMac still going strong. A gen 2 MBA still going strong. A 2008 24″ iMac that developed a graphics card problem because she used it 24/7 for years as an electronic photo frame. I hooked up an external monitor and it is still going strong. I have used macs at home and work for a *long* time with very few functional issues. I do recall a SCSI HDD going bad on my 1996 PowerMac after five or six years.
Your nightmare is so six-sigma out there that I have to question the veracity of your account, anonymous Josh. I know that Apple isn’t perfect and there are occasionally failures or design flaw with its products, but you sound like a computer abuser.
FU King Mel. If you can’t open your eyes and see issues to improve or recognise that quality has decreased then you are the worst type of apologist clapping apple to irrelevance.
MDN, Not in the enterprise (read business) market. Major companies mostly run Windows, it is sad but true. And there is no easy way out of it.
But there is a way. IBM is a prime example. Sometimes situations are not as difficult as they might initially appear. Someone just has recognize a problem and try to solve it.
If you are a multi billion dollar company like say, IBM, and you have RD CV money to burn and massive Apple discounts to make it look good then, yes there is a way.
Oh please its the pc industry that have traditionally offered those massive discounts, unless you can offer up some evidence Apple has gone against years of preference and gone anywhere near to, let alone beyond pc levels of discount (which IBM admitted it got from Microsoft itself remember) I would put down such a claim on your part as delusional.
By the way Apple has always done rather well amongst small businesses like my own, by comparison to large Corporation sales because they can see the overall cost effectiveness of the products over its life (its saved me thousands since 1988) and are not tied to PC specific software and self serving IT operatives.
I’m with you, Trondude.
In spite of what many have argued against you here, the fact is that there aren’t many companies out there who *can* pull off what the IBMs of the world can do.
My company has 5 employees. We’re dependant upon software written 20 years ago by two guys, maintained most of that time by only one of them, now out of business with zero support. We’re in an industry where there aren’t many options, and none have ever been Mac compatible.
One part of our business uses a newer company/model that does have “remote” apps (i.e. iPad) that can tie in for *some parts* of what is done, but that is very limited, and still requires a Windoze server setup on the other end.
There are many other industries out there “stuck” in a Windoze world just like we are.
BOOTCAMP & ReBOOT to WINDOWS OS on your MacBook Pro. Problem solved. NeXT…
No expert timing would have been release new computer just before your customer started complaining about how old you CPUs are not a year or 3 after. IE in the Mac Pro I am sure they are not paying the same amount for the 3 year old processors as when they were newish, have they passed any of those saving on to customers NO, just keep milking the face that Windows sucks so we have to pay whatever they want.
I’m actually not excited about whatever the product release or announcement is today. That’s not a good sign. Maybe they will have something wonderful, but I no longer expect it from Apple. Hate to admit it. Evolution in products is great, but revolution doesn’t seem in their DNA anymore. Everything they do can be mapped to a strategy around protecting margins and enhancing the stock price. Important for a public company, but not something to keep an enthusiastic public yearning for more.
Apple no longer seems willing to cannibalize itself, which means they opt for safe and boring enhancements rather than leaps. They incorporate “the best technology with the best margin”, rather than simply “the best technology”. Other companies beat Apple to the punch with absolute regularity – it’s guaranteed that new technology will show up elsewhere first, making Apple’s hardware announcements fall flat. Ya, ya, when they release stuff they do it better, agreed.
Does that mean I’ll buy from other companies? No. I’ll continue to stick with Apple for the foreseeable future. But more and more I feel like I’m settling for Apple than I feel like I’m proud of them.
I want to be wrong on this. I really do.
There is truth in all of that.
But – the 12″ MacBook was the kind of risky move you mention. Look at all the shit Apple has taken from complainers about the lack of ports. I have one and I don’t miss the ports and I think it was a brilliant move that paves the way to today’s likely machines.
I own a 12″ MacBook (among a slew of other Apple products), but wish they had another port on the other side for a mouse or for a more appropriate power connection. One port to rule them all…requiring dongles to work…isn’t great. I’d be thrilled with only a smidgen more optionality with that computer than its current configuration. Otherwise it’s really nice. I keep the computer on the right side of the desk (iMac front and center), having a left facing port for power and mouse (use right hand) is less than optimal. Or as Steve would say “use your other hand”. 🙂
It’s obvious from Microsoft’s surface event that they have been studying Apple very deeply and closely. The surface presentation was filled with that pure Apple magic. They have watched old Steve Jobs videos closely…over and over and over. I think Microsoft has shown there is a market for a touch screen laptop/tablet hybrid. The Microsoft iMac even brought some innovation with it. I’m really hoping that Apple’s Mac event blows it out of the water but honestly I’m doubtful it will. Public perception is everything and Apple’s marketing efforts have been seriously lacking since the “Hello I’m a Mac” ads. Yes I know this will get under some of your skins but I’m a huge Apple supporter and user but the truth is the truth.
Sad but true. Many Mac creative pro’s are salivating over the “new Microsoft,” even declaring it to be the new Apple. Anyone in or out of Apple underestimates the value of the creative pro market at their own risk. I don’t want to have to do Windows to be a part of the AV community. Apple ceded ed. to Chromebooks. That’s bad enough. To next generation. It will be others than Apple people will see as pursuasive and cool.
I call “bull” on that! No mac professional would let their display get smeared up with dirty finger grease. I hate it when anybody pokes my screen. M$’s ads have fake ass “professionals” paid to say “the mac can’t do that” and it’s so stupid and demeaning.
Chapter and verse!
Again a lot of what you say is true, hey I have expressed it, but a machine of the type announced by Microsoft has little use to most creatives, it will be more about the mindshare on which point I totally agree with you increasing the appeal of the brand to young people who had as good as written it off in recent years. Its trying to use the stealth that Apple used so successfully to undermine the Microsoft empire and thats what Apple has to be concerned about especially as of late it has looked slow and stale. I am not aware of any Mac pros salivating over the new Microsoft thats ridiculous but if Apple doesn’t get its act together slowly but surely it will start to be taken seriously and thats what this new machine is designed to do, a sort of showcase that will appeal to all their unquestioning acolytes in the press and troll community. But that in itself is a danger that Cook seems slow to recognise from competitors and that does worry me.
If apple’s new pro desktop/laptop don’t use Nvidia GPUs then the new computers want be “Pro” for the graphics industry.
I doubt that Power Users believe Apple has a monopoly on high end PCs.
Power user here … where is my new Mac Pro?
The MacBook Pro’s look absolutely great, but if your workflow involves using 2 extra monitors, external RAID systems, etc., then having a thin Mac instead of a fat (many modern GPU, dual CPU) Mac makes exactly 0 sense.
I was actually disappointed of this presentation. They didn’t presente a new macbook pro but a new laptop keyboard, a very good one and very welcome laptop keyboard. But I was expecting a new iMac, Mac Pro, or at least a keyboard with this amazing new bar available for the mac mini, the iMac, the mac pro.
Exactly, why can’t I get a bluetooth keyboard with the new function pad?
Both software suppliers and customers would like to be able to have that feature across the board as soon as possible, to maximize the value of that feature.
Expertly timed? Total BS.
Nothing discussed today moves the needle.
We saw an overpriced incremental update to only one item of Apple’s old lineup. We could have seen this 5 months ago.
Meanwhile about a dozen items Apple has let languish continue to go without any update at all.
Apple has gone from inspiring to lackluster in 5 years.
I would like to see Tim put back to operations and new CEO take over – https://www.change.org/p/apple-board-of-directors-remove-tim-cook-as-ceo-of-apple