“One thousand, five hundred and fourteen days. Or: four years, one month, and twenty-four days,” Sam Byford writes for The Verge. “That’s how long it’s been since Apple released the last MacBook Pro to come without a Retina display… The $1,199 13-inch model was powered by a 2.5GHz Core i5 Ivy Bridge processor, a solid option for a midrange laptop in June 2012. I got one that month and am actually typing this column on it right now… Nothing unusual about that, of course — technology moves on. Except it’s now August 2016, and Apple is inexplicably still selling the exact same laptop.”
“For longtime Mac users, MacRumors’ Buyer’s Guide is an online institution. The publication catalogs the release dates of each major Apple product line and contrasts them against the company’s usually predictable timeframe for updates, ultimately delivering a verdict on whether it’s better to buy now or wait,” Byford writes. “Apart from the 12-inch MacBook, which was refreshed in April, every single Mac line from the mini to the Pro is designated as ‘Don’t Buy’ because of how long it’s been since Apple updated them.”
“The Retina MacBook Pro is 442 days into its current cycle, despite refreshes coming every 268 days on average in the past. The Mac mini has gone 657 days since its last update, which was controversial in itself since Apple removed quad-core options and made the product harder to upgrade after purchase,” Byford writes. “And the Mac Pro, released in December 2013 following much ‘Can’t innovate any more, my ass’ – fueled fanfare? It hasn’t received a single update since then. ‘This is without a doubt the future of the pro desktop,’ Phil Schiller said when announcing the Mac Pro on stage that year. Did he mean that this was the precise model Apple expects professional users to use literally forever?”
“There’s a certain point at which it just starts to look like absentmindedness, and many Mac computers are well past that point now,” Byford writes. “If Apple doesn’t want to keep its products reasonably current, that’s its prerogative. But if that truly is the case, maybe it shouldn’t sell them at all.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Sad, but true. Outside of the 12-inch MacBook (and that’s only for real road-warriors doing certain kinds of work), we wouldn’t recommend buying any Mac today. When people ask us, and they do quite frequently, our advice is the same: “Don’t buy now. Wait for new Macs.”
How many hundreds of billions of dollars more does Apple management need at their disposal in order to do their jobs properly? Any other reasonably competent company a quarter the size of Apple, generating a quarter the amount of income as Apple, should be able to unveil a new iPhone every year while still keeping their Mac lines at least reasonably up-to-date. Apple can’t seem to manage the former or the latter.
What’s the problem? Too big, too fast? Moving into the spaceship? Getting fat and lazy on easy recurring revenue? Too much old blood and not nearly enough new in Apple’s upper management ranks and on Apple’s Board of Directors? Jony’s painfully obvious disinterest or outright absence (see the ugly iPhone Smart Battery Case and the awfully-designed Apple TV Siri Remote, for two recent examples)? No Steve around to really motivate the troops? Founder’s quotes on the wall no longer cutting it already?
Seemingly confused, distracted, and lazy management is a painful thing to witness.
“Oh, but Apple is doing great!” you say? Sure, but you could make the case that they could be doing even better, perhaps much better. Perhaps even to the point of having Macs available that MacRumors and MacDailyNews and anybody else with a pulse could recommend buying today.
When you’ve sold yourself on the idea that the iPad is the future of personal computing by swallowing your own marketing hook, line, and sinker, and then fail to deliver on that promise for too long (skimping on RAM, offering underpowered multitasking, etc. – now, finally, largely corrected with iPad Pro), you neglect the horse that brung ya (Macintosh is his name) and shoot yourself in the foot (Q216 results, Mac sales unable to make up for the continued iPad sales decline, and Mac’s streak of outgrowing the PC market shattered).
Mirror, Tim Cook. Tim Cook, mirror.
A big picture revision and course correction would be well advised. Perhaps some new blood — not stuffed quite so complacently with RSUs, perhaps? — high up on the food chain, as well?
SEE ALSO:
Is Apple phasing out the pro-level Mac? – August 2, 2016
Apple confirms Mac market share loss – July 29, 2016
Apple prepping new MacBook Air with USB-C, reports claim – July 27, 2016
What’s happening with Apple’s Macintosh? – July 14, 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
Here’s the problem: Apple is ignoring the Mac – April 28, 2016
Apple’s Mac sales tumble 12% in second-biggest downturn since ’07 – April 27, 2016
Apple reports earnings miss in Q216 – April 26, 2016
Apple’s languishing Macintosh: Is a massive re-invention near? – April 25, 2016
Hey Apple, how about shipping a new computer sometime? – April 15, 2016
Apple’s aging Mac Pro is falling way behind Windows rivals – April 12, 2016
Well I don’t think they are out of date. Give me an example of another computer that can do more and better? Other than getting your screen dirty by touching it and getting sore arms. Or a finger print scanner which Apple made obsolete with there close Apple Watch login. You don’t even need to touch the computer. Oh yea maybe you like getting viruses on those PC’s that sounds like fun, NOT!!!!!
“Give me an example of another computer that can do more and better?”
go read page 1,2,3…. of this discussion
No Mac OS no deal.
Steve is spinning like a top in his grave. Tim Cook SUCKS. He is killing the Mac. Literally.
I just tell people Apple stopped making Macs. They’re just selling old ones until the inventory is gone.