“Apple has received its share of attacks this year, and some of it appears to be deserved. But I won’t dwell on the possibilities except for the device that used to be its most important product — the Mac,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “Up until the past year, you could usually depend on annual product refreshes.”
“In recent years, it appeared as if the annual improvements were so modest as to represent only a few percentage points on a benchmark. When it came to real work, most users — Macs and PCs — would probably not notice the difference,” Steinberg writes. “What happened was that even the lower-end machines delivered perfectly acceptable performance for most people, and only the power users cared about every percentage point improvement. So you could hang onto your computer for several years and depend on acceptable performance before it was ready to pass down to another member of the family, or retire.”
“The Mac Pro is another breed of cat. Three years in, improvements in Intel Xeons and graphics processors should have been significant enough to fuel a decent upgrade. As it is, you are basically paying the same money for a three-year-old computer, and it’s understandable customers are upset. Just what is Apple up to and why wasn’t anything done in 2016?” Steinberg writes. “Leaving it alone for three years doesn’t seem to indicate much interest, and there’s that published report about Apple’s 2017 plans that do not mention the two ‘headless’ Macs.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: One thing’s for sure: This is the year when Apple’s future plans for the Mac, or lack thereof, will come sharply into focus.
-Apple has no internal competitors in hardware.
-Apple has no internal competitors in software. OSX remains it’s main advantage.
Sorry, but you will eat what is served and enjoy it. No substitutions.
So let’s put the MB in perspective. I bought my first MBA in 2012 and it’s already hit its maximum upgrade because it is now a Legacy Mac. I have a Mini that hasn’t had an OS upgrade for 5 years because it is now a legacy Mac. Legacy Mac’s seems to come pretty fast in the Mac world, while my daughters HP is ten years old and still runs XP but still hums along at a fairly fast clip as long as you don’t have more than one application running. MS Surface seems to be MS’s big hit. Kids at college are preferring it to Mac, and you see fewer and fewer lit up Mac Logo’s on screens in many college’s. Compared to my 2012 MBA and my newest MBA which is two years old, there really isn’t that much of an OMG! difference, there are some differences, but for the everyday user, Mail still sucks, Safari is a joke and iTunes and Photo’s are an embarrassment.
While Apple can build a Space Ship that doesn’t fly, why can’t they build a OMG! Apple laptop with a touch screen and software that is equally OMG!? I don’t get it. Well actually I do get it, Tim Cook is no Jobs and there in lies the problem. The iPhone rules and that pays for space ships.
“MS Surface seems to be MS’s big hit. Kids at college are preferring it to Mac, and you see fewer and fewer lit up Mac Logo’s on screens in many college’s.”
Could you please supply some evidence. I personally don’t see it. And if one simply Googles (Images) ‘Microsoft Surface in schools vs Apple iPads, MacBooks, it’s obvious whose on top.
Better yet, search for Microsoft vs Apple ‘Crowed Stores’ as well and try to tell us MS Surface is a big hit, particularly in colleges.
I would love to see your pictures.
So do you want me to drop into a class at Kansas State and take pictures for you? I have three relatives and two grand children at K State and I get it from them. They all have Surfaces.
Genetic?
This is chick logic Michael. “My girlfriend told me X therefore everything is.” As for the difference between a 2012 and 2014 MBA the huge difference is Haswell which added 2-3 hours of battery life. You go on to conflate hardware differences with software problems. There’s plenty to criticize Apple for, but to argue that Msft is somehow passing them up is idiotic. No evidence for it.
I’m not sure that proves anything unless you can show that those images are recent and after surfaces were for sale for a decent period.
You thick shit. These boards are about argu,ment not evidence. Go and piss your request for evidence in a courtroom.
So tired and boring, get a Surface, then. I don’t want one. I don’t want an Apple Surface, either. A carpal tunnel inducing finger-printed ugly touch screen. Go join PC Daily News and eliminate whining from your life.
Did I say anywhere in my post that I wanted a Surface? I”m pointing out that kids, who take notes and such in school, prefer to be able to be able to use their fingers or a tool to be able to mark on the screen. If you haven’t seen a Surface in use, I would suggest you take a look at one, the Surface has many programs that respond very nicely to a pen or pointer. Just for your information, I have been using Mac since 1987 and Apple II before that, so for me to really wanna go to the Dark Side would be a light-year jump which I would rather not. I do own a HP running MS10 that I use for amateur radio applications and it has 8g of ram, 1T disk drive, Blue Ray drive, and two HDMI, two USB C ports. It cost me $379 on sale at Best Buy. Just having a HDMI port would be great on an Apple so we can hook up to a cheaper monitor instead of a now non existent Apple Thunderbolt Monitor.
auramac is one of those snobbish elitist trumplike dicks. take no notice of it. no common sense, towing the “company” line no matter how ill informed and out of date it might be.
the 90’s sure were cool..
“I”m pointing out that kids, who take notes and such in school, prefer to be able to be able to use their fingers or a tool to be able to mark on the screen”
To be fair you can do that on a 12.9″ iPad Pro. The iPad Pro has many great apps that take advantage of the Apple Pencil for note taking purposes.
But I think the biggest advantage to the Surface is that runs the FULL desktop version of Office as opposed to the mobile version of Office on the iPad Pro. And MS has partnerships with many universities and colleges whereby students can get free access to Office & Office 365 cloud-based service.
It’s the only reason I bought an iPad Pro. It does write extremely well.
“Can’t innovate anymore? My ass!”
Phil Schiller at the 2013 WWDC sneak peeking at the Mac Pro, the future of desktop computing.
“Our pipeline is full”
CEO Tim Cook
Apparently there is a pipeline spill someplace that we weren’t informed about.
Yeah. Up schiller’s ass.
There you go. Pipeline Tim. But, in the mean time, prices for these old systems have not gone down. Why?
Three years old, come on Pipeline Tim.
Prices have gone down for iPads (perhaps not directly through Apple but from 3rd party resellers). This is troubling because I think Apple really wants to push iOS as the future, perhaps eliminating Mac OS through some time of fusion with iOS in the not-too-distant future. At a bare minimum they could offer new color options for the $999 Air, but they’d rather push students to single port MacBooks at $1299.
The pipeline is full of crap…
As is Schiller’s ass (or anyone else’s)
Already moving OS X Server stuff to LINUX. Other Macs running Kerio moving to Exchange.
Highway to Hell.
Better then icloud.
enjoy the iWorld.
Dirty deeds done dirt cheap!
Why pay more?
Having been a mac user for my entire life since the Mac SE30 I just don’t know how a company as large and with the resources Apple has can’t keep up with the likes of Dell, Microsoft and others in the laptop arena. It seems like apple is becoming more and more becoming a shell of its former self. The biggest thing they have come out with this year are bluetooth ear buds. Come on apple, remember the I’m a Mac and I’m a PC days, it was something to be a Mac owner and know that we had the best equipment money could buy. Now It looks like Apple is becoming a Jack of some trades and a master at none. I think it is time to start rearranging the deck chairs. Apple needs to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time when it comes to being able to keep several product lines current. The final straw was when my son who is headed off to college next year asked for a Surface laptop. WTF apple.
I’ve been using a Mac since the IIci. I’ve had more Macs than I can remember in that period of time, both desktop and portable. Not every upgrade needs to be cutting edge. But when a new processor comes out offer the new processor. When the hard drive standard moves from 1TB to 1.5TBs or 2TBs then update the hard drives. Want to move Macs to USB-C? Great, but as long as your iPhones and iPads ship with cables that use standard USB ports then put at least one standard USB port on those Macs until you shift iPhones to USB-C cables. Want to move Macs to USB-C? Then upgrade your orphan Macs, the Mini and MacPro with a USB-C port. I remember how Thunderbolt was the next greatest port ever, only the top of the line Mac Pro never got Thunderbolt, so the machines most likely to take advantage of Thunderbolt never got it and Thunderbolt just died of loneliness.
Mac’s are premium price machines – all of them.
And yet even cheap PC’s have intel chips that run faster than those in Mac’s.
If Apple want to retain their reputation they need to give up on the nickel & diming of specs.
We need fully SSD machines of 1TB minimum, i7 or better chips and serious graphics power.
“It just works” is becoming “It just takes more paid work to stay in the ecosystem”. 😛
It’s Sculley all over again.
The more Tim Cook promises the more I doubt him. Just STFU, Cook, and deliver. No one needs to hear your latest version of Apple vapor ware. Simply deliver the best products available and them speak for themselves. This constant harping of what can and might happen is total bullshit.
FIRE TIM COOK – SIGN HERE
https://www.change.org/p/apple-board-of-directors-remove-tim-cook-as-ceo-of-apple
FIRE TIM COOK – SIGN HERE
https://www.change.org/p/apple-board-of-directors-remove-tim-cook-as-ceo-of-apple
FIRE TIM COOK – SIGN HERE
https://www.change.org/p/apple-board-of-directors-remove-tim-cook-as-ceo-of-apple
And then what?
have a leader there that gets the job done… something Tim is NOT currently doing…
Let me repeat the question (in hope the answer will actually mean something):
…and then what??? Exactly WHO do you intent to put there instead of Tim Cook?
There have often been cases throughout history where a leader of a company (or some other entity, like a community, village, town, city, country) has been driven out by some popular movement, only to leave disastrous vacuum in his place, since the movement’s only concern was removing the leader, without any clue as to what next, once the leader is gone.
For all those advocating removal of Tim Cook, the most important part of that drive would be the name of the person to replace him.
At least that Nic Chahine guy from Marketfly had a name to go with his call to remove Cook. Obviously, it was a stupid suggestion (Jeff Bezos), but at least he did think a little beyond just “fire Cook” mentality.
Bottom line:
Pro Machines need to be updated at least yearly AND a clear update road map needs to be communicated by management.
I’ll know Apple is back on track when they produce a wired numeric keyboard with USB 3.1 ports on it. It’s my “van halen remove a color of m&m s”contract detail. A benchmark. 😀
Nothing you say makes sense.
Exactly WHY do the “pro machines” need to be updated annually? Is this some law in your country? Is there any compelling reason why a computer maker must guide their development cycle based on a calendar? And since WHEN has Apple EVER communicated “a clear roadmap” ahead?? So that competitors can jump-start their copiers and release competing products at the same time / before??
And about that keyboard, exactly WHY do we need a wired keyboard? What problems would that keyboard be solving? Let us not forget, one such keyboard already exists in Apple store, it looks exactly the way you describe it (except for, perhaps, USB3.1; it is USB2, which doesn’t really matter), and it is $50. Remember also that Mac Pro comes with no keyboard or mouse (or display). You buy the pro gear that suits you, you don’t have to purchase the new Apple bluetooth keyboard with it. And if you are hell-bent on having USB3.1 devices hooked up to your keyboard (only god and you know why), you’ll need to look hard, since there apparently aren’t any keyboard makers who put USB3 ports on their wired USB keyboards. Apple’s USB pro keyboard (with numeric keypad) supports speeds up to USB 2.0 on those ports. For your external hard drives and any other data-intensive connections, you’ll need a direct connection to the computer (or a USB 3.1 hub).
To answer ‘why’ pro machines should be updated annually, I would submit that it is a reasonable compromise to businesses accepting computers with soldered-in, normally user upgrade-able components. As to a road-map, Apple is attempting a strong push to sell to businesses and enterprises that can’t afford to be left with devices that are legacy in 5-years or less. Road-maps were not so important when Apple primarily sold to the general consumer.
Having a ‘wired’ keyboard at the Enterprise level is one less maintenance item to worry about that may involve changing batteries or ‘fixing’ wireless problems. If as you state, keyboard and mouse are not included in the purchase of a Mac Pro, perhaps it’s time to make sure the consumer is aware they cannot expect a set like they do when they purchase a PC and should budget for them when purchasing.
There appears to be at least one wired keyboard with USB3 passthrough (in addition to earphone and mic ports) called the Gigabyte Osmium. Really pricey though since it was designed to be a gaming keyboard.
Another reason is based upon Apple’s complete control of both the hardware and the OS. Apple has always been the recipient of negative punditry because of their hardware being static, unable to be upgraded internally by the user. The only way you can upgrade is to purchase a new machine. Upgradability in that price range would be the only reason why I would spend that much.
Hmmmm. MDN take says it all, don’tcha think?
agree… and if you think my little posts will be the end of my attention to remove him, think again… i have the resources, knowledge and experience to get a large audience’s attention rather quickly.. this jackass better start getting his job done… I invested a TON of money into this stock and he manages it terribly… not to mention, I use Macs in all 14 of my companies and they are in dire need of refreshes…
“The Mac Pro is another breed of cat. Three years in, improvements in Intel Xeons and graphics processors should have been significant..”
GPUs not being powerful enough in the last 3 years?… Hum, some journalists are not doing their job and keep generalizing what they can’t understand.
Top GPUs from Nvidia are 2 times faster now than in 2013, not to be confused with 20-30%, but witch is also significant to update.
Apple is just PCI-E handicapped. The Mac Pro lost most of its credibility with their soldered GPUs (two). By now Apple needs to produce at least a cylinder Mac Pro with 2 PCI-E slots, to give the user the choice to use, or to experiment with the cards that are relevant from their perspective, even at their own risks.