MacDailyNews Take: No, we hadn’t noticed. Because we know that Apple quite some time ago said they would be slowing down the pace of Mac OS X updates. And, Aune, is correct: Aug. 28., 2009 really isn’t all that long ago. The days of annual Mac OS X updates ended on October 24, 2003 with the release of Mac OS X 10.3 Panther. Strike one for Aune.
Aune continues, “While I certainly don’t feel that Apple is about to kill off the Macs anytime soon, it does feel like the company is lessening the importance of the product line inside of its corporate structure, and amongst the developers. In case you hadn’t noticed, when the last update to the MacBook Pros happened, there were some major changes made to the product line. Normally this would have involved Steve Jobs having one of his keynote talks where he gathers the press on short notice, but this last time around it just all happened on the Apple Store website without any fanfare.”
MacDailyNews Take: That statement is incorrect. Apple normally releases Mac feature bumps via press release, not with special events hosted by Steve Jobs. Only when totally new models (for example, the aluminum unibody models) debut, does Apple sometimes have a special media event. So, Aune’s now got two strikes.
Aune continues, “All of this is speculation on my part, but when you start adding up the various pieces, it does point to something.”
MacDailyNews Take: Strike three. You’re out. All of Aune’s “various pieces” add up to nothing. New Mac OS X versions haven’t come yearly since the last one in 2003 and MacBook feature bumps never get the Jobs keynote treatment. Those are facts that in no way support Aune’s “Mac abandonment by Apple” concoction. WWDC 2010 is mostly about iPhone OS this year, because Mac OS X 10.6 was just released late last summer and nobody who’s been paying even the least bit of attention expects Mac OS X 10.7 this year.
Full article here.
MDN – “Think before you click” ?
Excuse me, how were those iPhone apps written?
Some users are like kids who want to be the centre of attention all the time. Apple updates one product, the user of another product feels all hurt and abandoned. Apple has a small well defined product range. They will not update all the things all the time. Wait your turn and get over it. Why on earth should they talk about 10.7 yet?
It would be nice to get a new version of iLife soon…
I COMPLETELY agree with your takes, MDN! As usual, you are spot on.
How do you improve upon perfection? Is Microsoft really that hard up for new features to copy?
“…MacDailyNews Take: That statement is incorrect. Apple normally releases Mac bumps via press release, not with special events hosted by Steve Jobs. Only when totally new models (for example, the aluminum unibody models) debut, does Apple sometimes have a special media event. So , Aune’s now got two strikes. …”
I don’t think this is true. Apple tends to announce updates to OS X at WWDC. You see, OS X is the Mac, not the hardware.
I also don’t think it’s hard to see the majority of focus at Apple is on mobile devices now. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Windows leapfrog OS X in the next year or so.
Snow Leopard isn’t even a year old. The last few Mac OS X updates have been closer to a two-year release cycle.
Complete non-story.
I don’t expect 10.7 this year, I agree with that. I put it midyear 2012.
@ TheloniousMac: I wouldn’t be surprised to see Windows leapfrog OS X in the next year or so.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!!!!!!!
…no seriously though, there must be a typo in there somewhere, right?
If Apple was abandoning the Mac then wouldn’t they change the way they activate iPhones, iPods, and iPads. You need a computer to do that. Also why would Apple keep doing upgrades to Snow Leopard?
If Apple was really done with Macs, why waste money and effort on the existing software. Also why did Apple just release newer portables?
Seems to be more wasted effort if Apple were really giving up on Macs producing more newer models seems to be a waste. I see no pattern that Apple is giving up on the Mac.
I feel snappier!!!
The trolls, including some posters on this thread, are trying to spread among Mac users. Don’t fall for it. M$ is spending a lot of time trying to catch up with Apple on mobile right now. Apple is trying to capitalize on their mobile OS lead and first-mover advantage, including by adding key features that weren’t the focus in the v. 1 devices. What has happened with iPhone will also, over time, happen with iPad. Apple will pay attention again to the Mac before too long.
That said, it would be nice to get at least an iWork for Mac update sometime this year. Numbers and Pages would benwft from a boost.
They aren’t going to abandon the Mac overnight. The end of the platform is now visible though. To be fair, it’s not just Apple. The industry is shifting to low power, mobile, Internet dependent, “cloud oriented” devices. When people say the iPad represents the future, this is what they mean.
The quest for “the next big thing” shifts us back and forth from powerful personal computers to simple clients repeatedly. We are due for the shift to cloud clients now. Consider that the iPad is almost useless without the Internet. This is the new paradigm.
@John…
As connectivity becomes ubiquitous, Apple will change activation to be done over the net with the device as opposed to requiring a computer.
Apple will never let go of the mac. They have a very nice profit margin there and while the focus may be on mobile at the moment. That’s because apple is pushing to stay ahead in that Arena. While the macs are building up more people all the time it comes from People using iPhones and iPods and now ipads. Apple is using the mobile to win over the desktop
without the mac OS there is no iPhone or ipad
If anything people should say they are giving up on the AppleTV though I am awaiting to see that turn into a huge gaming device once iPhone OS 4 comes out. I wont be shocked if they allow games on it and it should. Use your ipad or iphone/touch as a controller.. people would be thrilled
TechnoBuffalo news, opinions, postings, etc., on my ignore list.
Reason: Ignorance
Doesn’t Grand Central mean anything? Developers must tap into this first before Snow Leopard can shine? But then developers are flocking to mobile apps now, so not sure what kinds of applications developers and the customers are willing to spend resources on to take advantage of all that SL computing power.
@Original Jake…
I’m not trolling, I’m bemoaning. I see what’s coming and it makes me a bit sad. The Mac has been a big part of my life since 1984.
Everything I see Apple doing now is about cheap mobile devices. Keep an eye on iTunes and the coming war with Pandora and Netflix. Steve is going to sell you media consumption devices, and services that stream media.
Applications will shift to SaaS (software as a service).
John Gage, the 6th employee of Sun, is famous for the phrase, “The network is the computer.” He was right. The network is indeed the computer.
Almost everything your conventional computer does now will move to the Internet. The majority of apps on the app store are already just clients for Internet based services.
It’s an iPad world. We just live in it.
We are attached to our computers. I suspect we will be attached to our net based digital presences in the not to distant future.
I hope the Mac platform doesn’t go away. I mean, sure, it may be more relegated to the pro market, the musicians, the graphic designers, the animators, the film editors, and so forth, but the Mac platform is just too essential to that pro market to abandon completely. If the consumer market wants to go with the iPad, that’s fine.
Hacky journalism: “Idea”, “Yeah, I can do it.”
Gush on for 5 paragraphs in 15 minutes. Article done. Screw any facts or research online even. I’m hot.
My editor is happy.
Off to the Beer Garden to collect more intelligence!
@fonz:
But Mommy loves me most of all…
@Eric
Even those pro applications can and will move to the cloud eventually. It’s all about bandwidth and availability. The old model of purchasing a massive application that reside on your Mac or PC will evolve into a subscription based model. This excites the crap out of developers because it will obliterate piracy. Heck, even software development will be cloud based.
We won’t be storing lots of data locally, or storing applications, or media… we will just be carrying lighter and ever more disposable client devices.
I don’t know, I played with a friends Window 7 lap top the other day, and Wow, that new “snap” feature was really cool, and that new innovation, “task bar” just blew me away
@Thelonious
Here comes a glitch in your internet connection (THAT never happens, right?) and POOF… there goes your work.
Most of the world is not connect always, everywhere.
It’ll be a long time before we see the complete abandonment of local apps and operating systems.
@theloniousMac
Pro Applications? You mean like Final Cut Pro or Aperture being accessed via a cloud? Dream on. Somebody has to come up with broadband that is equal in speed to that of a Mac Pro’s internal buss. Even that struggles to keep up with the bandwidth demands of graphics and video editing tasks. Yeah. Good luck with that!
10.6.3 messup up my Adobe CS3 app.
I had to revert back to 10.6.2… I can’t shell out another $450 for a new CS5 app. When I got CS3 new around the time 10.5 Leopard came out.
It’s because of the serial # since my logic board was replaced in 2007. It’s been out of warranty since last September (2009).
And 2 months ago, I replaced the stock 160GB hard Drive for a 500GB Hard Drive myself which voids me any service from Apple to input a correct serial number. I hope theres a software fix for this soon.
Aune plus IT equals Auntie.
Auntie Sean hasn’t got a clue. OS X was updated at a rapid pace to get a good, full featured OS out there. The speed bump of switching to Intel slowed that down a mite.
Snow Leopard just removed the G4/G5 crap. The new feature list was anemic. Why? It was already a full featured OS.
10.7 may bring us a touch interface. That takes time and must coincide with new touch hardware platforms.
It could take a while. Are there any other missing features we can’t live without? For those in a big rush, there’s always Windows 7. Paul Therrott says it’s way past Snow Leopard already.
Whatever changes Apple makes to the way we use their technology will be a good thing for both pro users and consumers. I do foresee changes though, but rather than worry, be excited. Apple is driven by forward movement. They pioneer the future, and aren’t afraid to abandon the past. That’s a good quality, even if it shakes things up.
@theloniusMac
Yeah, I agree with The Mac That Roared and JakeB – free public wifi just isn’t as readily available, and the 3G network just can’t handle the sort of bandwidth you’d need to run Final Cut Pro or Logic. As for collaborating on software development, at least there you can write code locally on your device and then upload it to the collaboration space, but you still need some sort of local client rather than just relying on the cloud.
ack when OS X was launched, Steve Jobs said it would be the basis of the Mac platform for the next 15 years. It’s 2010 and we are about 2/3rds of the way there. The platform has matured and evolved with hardware technology and 10.6. is miles ahead of 10.0.1 ( the first ‘Real’ version of OS X).
The future of OS X is evolution- not revolution and it is a mature OS. I would bet that somewhere in the Apple Skunkworks there are people working not on the next version of OS X, but on it’s ultimate replacement as a desktop and server OS.
Whatever about OSX updates…we’ve been holding off updating our hardware because the new Mac Pro has been ‘imminent’ for ages now. Wonder what the delay is…
At the announcement of 10.6, Mr. Jobs said that Apple was working on an 18 month cycle for OS updates. 10.6 was primarily for 64 bit and wasn’t going to include any new features.
So that indicates 10.7 will have new features. Good things come to those that wait.
MDN word – things
It’s such a waste of time to talk about mobile devices being the ‘future of computing’. For the average consumer who just wants their Facebook page and the ability to download their snapshots from the bar last night- sure, an iPad could be their only ‘computer’ (with no proper backup of those photos).
However, those of us in the REAL world who get REAL work done, there is no way that anything less than a full computer with a fullsize screen and the ability to interface with thousands of peripherals would allow us to make our living and keep the world turning. In fact, if you take current Mac AND PC usage into account, a computer is the ONLY way science and industry, criminal justice, publishing, graphic arts and design, robotics, health care, and any number of other industries get their real work done. Enjoy your iPad, but don’t expect NASA to build a moonbase using them, OK?
The GUI elements introduced with Leopard (10.5) are great, and the new technologies introduced with Snow Leopard (10.6) “under the hood” are great. Each incremental update for Snow Leopard seems to make my aging “late 2006” iMac run smoother. So I would have no problems if there was no Mac OS X 10.7 for another TWO years; by that time, it could be a good excuse to get a new Mac.
There is no need to release something new every year, when the existing solution is nearly perfect. Microsoft does a major GUI overhaul every time (and not every year), because there is always a lot of room for improvement in Windows, and they need to give their customers an excuse to buy the upgrade. Apple makes it’s profit primarily from selling the hardware, not OS upgrades or licenses.
Apple is trying to give iPad full attention this year. They did the same thing in 2007 when iPhone was introduced, and some media morons were speculating that Macs were on the way out. Before that, when Apple was earning more and more revenue from selling iPods (and Apple took “Computer” out of its name), those media morons were speculating that Macs were no longer important to Apple.
Well, Macs sales are better than ever before. Apple gave us a 27-inch quad-core iMac just six months ago, a great new “low-end” white uni-body MacBook at about the same time, and amazing new MacBook Pros just a few weeks ago. New Mac Pros are likely to be next up. Snow Leopard is still under one-year old. How does that point to Apple abandoning Macs and Mac OS X?
> All of this is speculation on my part, but when you start adding up the various pieces, it does point to something.
Yes, it points to Sean P. Aune being an idiot.
I disagree, I come from a battle on other website where I was insulted arguing in favor of the iPad which I don’t have yet and I don’t know if I am going to buy or when. But that does not make me loose my mind and see the potential.
Well, the Mac Pro used to receive a lot of Apple attention but that is not longer the case. Good, I have one, I love my machine but I can’t deny that I feel any Apple indifference. I do. The update to Snow Leopard was more a battle to Microsoft than a good service Apple could produce for their users. I suffered the lack of stability for weeks so I am going to wait longer before updating to a new OS. Apple solved most issues and is fine now.
There may be reasons for Apple to apparently “slow down” their pro line a bit compared to the exiting more commercial line of products. Apple may think this line doesn’t offer the opportunity for great innovation as a product category they create with the iPad.
Still Apple has a healthy financial situation to hire engineers and designers so lets hope the better and see what Apple can produce for their pro line. I am waiting with great expectation but I think it may be very possible that the upgrade will be just another next step. In the proline we could enjoy more CPU and GPU options and manny other great features.
Also Apple did good with 10 million Macs sold, but I don’t know how manny of those where Pro machines.
@MDN
As stated above, Apple might once have said they were slowing down releases of Mac OS X, but more recently said they would be speeding them up, to every 12-18 months.
Can we have more story and less MDN take? No one is interested in the take – just the story.
@ cb
I’m usually more interested in the “take.” There are plenty of places where I can get a consolidation of today’s Apple-related news.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> The others are usually more comprehensive.
I read MDN to get the news and the opinions (including the Take and the comments). That’s what makes this Apple news site different and more interesting.
@TheloniousMac
@JakeB & The Mac That Roared,
I can see where T.Mac is coming from on this one and agree with him. I also agree with your arguments regarding bandwidth and speed but if you look back over your shoulders you will see that technology has taken a giant leap over the lat few years, so mark it on your calendar and get ready to buy T.Mac a drink when it happens, cos you better believe, it will happen!
@Macduff
Who or what the hell is ‘T.Mac’?
@MacDuff
That may be where we’re eventually headed, but I think we’re still eons away from it. There are many issues still to be confronted before we can just put all applications into the cloud.
*As has been mentioned, the bandwidth just isn’t there yet. 3G (or 4G, 5G, or higher) has to become powerful enough to handle high bandwidth applications like a DAW or a video editor or an animation program. Wi-fi just isn’t widespread enough for people to depend on it entirely for their applications.
*The iPad (or other devices) don’t have peripheral access. For example, even though you can do a touchscreen based piano keyboard, there will be those who will still want a physical keyboard to get the feel of a real piano, not to mention velocity sensitive.
*How would these apps be monetized? I doubt people who use DAWs and video editors currently and pay a flat fee to have them on their hard drive would move to pay a monthly fee to use applications stored in the cloud. Sure, they may pay an arm and a leg to get the application installed, but once they do, they can use it wherever, whenever. Not so in a subscription model.
Until you get these three (and other) issues solved, we’re still going to be dependent on Mac OS X for these applications and for this market, and 100% cloud computing is still eons away.
As a counterpoint, let me say that I am rather concerned at the lack of Macintosh-centered information at WWDC. A quick perusal of the WWDC schedule shows that well over 80% of the sessions are centered on the iPhone/iPad, and the sessions that do concern Mac OS X seem not to be as technically in-depth as what I would expect, based on past events.
Certainly this is not proof by itself that Apple is moving away from the Mac, but taken with everything else that people have discussed elsewhere, I think we can say that, at the least, Apple is not giving Mac Developers strong signals of their future commitment to the platform.
David