Yesterday, with the new MacBook Pro, Apple “refined a critical product line in a portion of its business that Apple likely understands is in a permanent decline,” Mark Rogowsky writes for Forbes. “Total PCs sold peaked at 365 million in 2011, falling to 288 million in 2015. There is no turnaround in sight, with 2016 expected to finish the year down another 5% or more.”
“It’s against that backdrop that Apple rolled out the biggest upgrades to the 4-year-old MacBook Pro. Apple, more than many, understands that computing has shifted away from traditional computers to smartphones and tablets,” Rogowsky writes. “Yet it remains loyal to the Mac, which is now approaching its 33 birthday, as do many of its oldest customers. For those reasons, it will continue to update the Mac but is unlikely to ever emphasize it again.”
“Consider what CEO Tim Cook said a year ago, soon after the launch of the iPad Pro: ‘I think if you’re looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one? [T]he iPad Pro is a replacement for a notebook or a desktop for many, many people. They will start using it and conclude they no longer need to use anything else, other than their phone,'” Rogowsky writes. “Cook is betting that Apple can keep satisfying the generation that grew up on PCs with incremental change to the Macintosh while he keeps Apple pointed at younger generations, for whom PCs are less and less important.”
“The company decided several years ago that touchscreen PCs offer a lousy user experience: Whether on a laptop or desktop, the screen is too far away to be easily pressed most of the time,” Rogowsky writes. “Notably, the iPad Pro keyboard solves that [issue] …by being shallower than a laptop, it brings the screen closer to the user, making touching it dramatically easier.”
“Apple already makes about half the PC industry’s profits selling <10% of the world’s 'computers,'" Rogowsky writes. "With the new Macbook Pros it will likely see growth in that segment in 2017 even while the segment itself continues to slowly disappear."
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: iOS and iPad are not there yet for power users, but, with every iteration, they get closer, converting great swaths of traditional “personal computer” users into multi-touch users. To see an iPad being used in the hands of kids who’ve only used Multi-Touch computers is to see the future.
Jobs sent not his iPad into the world to condemn the computer; but that the computer through iPad might be saved. — MacDailyNews, February 8, 2010
Ask yourself, “What does the vast majority use a computer for?” Web browsing, email, some word processing, and games. That’s about it. Really. Of course, iPad does all of that and much, much more. — MacDailyNews, June 22, 2012
Welcome to the new world of personal computing for the masses. Given what the average users do, Apple’s iPad is what “personal computing” for the average user should’ve always been, had the technology existed back when Steve Jobs first delivered personal computing to the masses. – MacDailyNews, November 11, 2015
Yes, for anyone who feels that they are forcing themselves to use an iPad where they’d prefer to use their Mac, the iPad is not there, yet. For many, iPad is there already. As iOS and iOS apps continue to evolve and the hardware gets ever more powerful and sophisticated, most of us will get there eventually. — MacDailyNews, November 19, 2015
Traditional PCs (think Windows and even Macs) always were massive, massive overkill for most people. Way, way more complexity, power, and configurability than the vast majority required. The general public needed computing appliances, so that’s what Steve Jobs and his vast legion of patent- and trade dress-infringing imitators gave them. — MacDailyNews, April 12, 2016
Right now, I’d bet that the mac at Apple HQ are in a minority. I’d also bet that TC was brought up on windows.
The new Macbook pros are gorgeous workhorses for the niche users who need that power to edit however many streams of 4k video. It’s not a huge market numbers wise.
So I think they have to keep something like the Air as an option. Maybe that’s an arm powered iOS laptop but I can see the general consumer getting one of these Pro machines..
I think I know how Apple values the Mac, or maybe any product they sell.
If they can make an ad showing a couple of hipster types walking on a major metropolitan street carrying the thinnest possible metallic silver “devices” on the way to a coffee shop, they think they have done their job.
They have projected an “image” even though the device in the ad might not even be real. It’s all about what the users and the product look like, nothing more.
Make that physical product looks like and not what it does. er doesn’t do.
there is NO network printing on a iPad ANYTHING. F that BS.
Just heard they killed the original Mac startup chime on the new machines. I miss THIS Apple more and more each presentation, keynote, update and product release:
Hahahaha! It’s pretty insane when you have 7-8 machines doing that all at once, all day as you work on other people’s computers. Oddly, we never really got tired of that groove. Whoever wrote the music and then did the graphics for it, did a great job. Sometimes it would still make us stop and dance like nerds. 😉
Snow Leo was a great OS too. Fast, small, light on its feet. Ever notice how all of the even numbered OS releases seem to be that way, while the odd numbered ones are dogs? 10.8, 10.10, and hopefully 10.12 just seem to be better, more stable and long lasting releases.
For once I wish to thank Tim Cook. He has made my decision easy. I have been a Mac user since the mid-1980s: No more. The magic of the Mac, its OS, and associated programs is gone. As I wrote in this very forum several years ago, Tim Cook would kill the Mac. Today’s Mac are over-priced and uninspired, the OSs have become ridiculous retreads with little innovation, and the number of programs increasingly limited. I’ve already purchased a PC laptop that outperforms my 13″ Mac Air (mid-2012), which continues to operate more slowly with each mindless yearly OS update. And for the Fanboys, knock Windows 10 all you want: It works, it’s mainstream, and offers a better choice of programs than the Mac. In addition, my new PC laptop doesn’t require an assortment of expensive dongles for quick and easy access and it has a current GPU with more ram than a Mac. Make no mistake: I am saddened to move away from the Mac, but it just isn’t what it used to be. Tim doesn’t have to wait until I die: I’ve decided to let the Mac die, since it has become increasing less relevant and less useful as a great computer.
Agreed! Except I went Linux Mint. I’ve been using Linux on the side anyway so I just went 100% to Mint. Tim Cook doesn’t care about Macs and neither does Apple. How obvious could it be? Cook is killing Macs.
Incredibly well said.
Apple owner since my Lisa.
I’m about to make the leap to PCs myself.
The Mac line is being treated like a poor relative or a drunk uncle.
Sad to see it happen … 😡
The Mac isn’t going to die for years to come unless they can actually make a device that will have the same capability as a Mac. Otherwise I don’t see that happening.
I’m not seeing IOS get closed to what a Mac can do. IOS gets better, sure, but all the old reasons why IOS can’t substitute for a mac, still exist just as they ever did. This is why I think MS is amazingly on the right track here by bringing the two experiences into one.