“A refresh of Apple’s flagship laptop, the MacBook Pro, likely will be the highlight of an event scheduled for this Thursday at the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California,” John P. Mello Jr. writes for TechNewsWorld.
“The update to its flagship MacBook line couldn’t come at a more critical time.
“Apple has been under increasing pressure from Dell, Lenovo and others in this space and needs to up its game considerably lest it be accused of neglecting notebook users and customers,” said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT. Apple will make a play for corporations at the event by focusing on specific business class qualities in the new products,” Mello Jr. writes. “‘That would emphasize the value the company has gained from its partnership with IBM,’ King told TechNewsWorld. ‘But frankly,’ he added, ‘Apple needs to make a far better case for the benefits its products offer to corporate customers than it has in the past.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Frankly, the case has already been make in stark terms:
The debate is over: IBM confirms that Apple Macs are $535 less expensive than Windows PCs.
“A new 13-inch MacBook Air with USB-C ports also might be introduced. It’s been rumored that Apple could announce some new iMacs and a 5K display as well. While not total discounting those possibilities, highly regarded Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI Securities indicated they are highly unlikely,” Mello Jr. writes. “However, even if those products were announced at Thursday’s event, they wouldn’t be ready for shipping until next year, he noted. Maybe Apple is planning another event for that time that would be for all its desktop models: the iMac, Mac mini and Mac Pro.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The event will be streamed live by Apple here and we’ll cover with live notes, as usual. Look for the link on our home page on Thursday. See you there!
SEE ALSO:
‘Hello Again’ means Apple ‘A’ series-powered Macs – October 24, 2016
Three new Mac laptops appear in Russian regulatory database ahead of Thursday’s ‘hello again’ event – October 24, 2016
Apple’s A10 Fusion chip ‘blows away the competition,’ could easily power MacBook Air – Linley Group – October 21, 2016
Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple to unveil new 13-inch MacBook, 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros at ‘hello again’ special event – October 22, 2016
What to expect from Apple’s ‘hello again’ special Mac event – October 21, 2016
What Apple’s new MacBook Pro might have learned from iPhones and iPads – October 21, 2016
It’s official: Apple sends invitations for ‘hello again’ event on October 27th – 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
Apple’s A10 Fusion chip miracle – September 20, 2016
The iPhone’s new A10 Fusion chip should worry Intel – September 16, 2016
Apple’s remarkable new A10, S2, W1 chips alter the semiconductor landscape – September 15, 2016
A couple of takeaways:
Upgraded laptops are nice, but we need updated DESKTOPS. Specifically a workstation type design that accepts standard cards and can be user upgraded. Fuck everything being wireless, Jony. I don’t give a damn about thin or no seams industrial design- I do care that I can add memory, connect stuff, add HD capacity, slap in a card. It does not have to have a Xeon CPU standard, but one should be available. Adding a Quad Core i7 Base model might make it more affordable and boost sales.
For the love of Gawd, give laptop users either an external GPU option or build a GPU accelerator into an updated LED Cinema Monitor. 4k or 5k with a built in GPU and a connector bus would instantly make Mac minis and Mac Laptops serious machines for people who need something beyond Facebook, IM, eMail and Safari.
A nice list you wrote there. Too bad Tim Cook has no interest at all in such things.
Tim Cook has had YEARS to give power users what they want and for YEARS they have been left holding an empty bag.
Defend that Tim Cook apologists.
It is a good list and Apple will hopefully address most of them, sooner or later. But your incessant negativity is distressing and, frankly, ridiculous.
You dub yourself “Birdseed,” but you are channeling the spirit of Chicken Little.
Amen to that DavGreg! A whole different design aesthetic needs to be applied that isn’t the normal consumer one to the pro line & pro needs. It’s quite simple, and awful if they don’t understand it or care.
If you are a business with a contract with a government agency, you probably have employees working on the customer’s site. Many agencies do not permit laptops with wifi to be brought into the office, for security reasons. Even if a company were head-over-heels in love with Macs, they’d have to give their on-site employees Dells with Windows. Just putting that information in the hopper.
USB-C to RJ45(ethernet) adapters DO exist, you know. All is not lost. In my corporate environment, I use a Thunderbolt Dock with wired ethernet connectors as wired connections are simply more reliable.
Just the presence of the wifi—and Bluetooth—is a problem in some agencies, even if you promise on your honor to use ethernet instead. It’s still a security problem just by being there. They might supply government computers with wifi and Bluetooth that meet their requirements, but you can’t bring one in that is equipped that way.
The Mac is like a car that comes with all the options. If you want one without wifi and Bluetooth, it’s a special order that has to be done at the factory. Adding them on later would not be trivial.
Dell is like a car where nothing is standard. They install options, like steering wheels in this example, at the end of the manufacturing process, and they can be added even after the computer is delivered.
It’s a good idea for Apple to have all computers with the same options, because customers don’t get buyer’s remorse about not buying something that they later discover that they need. This, however, is one situation where Apple’s strategy doesn’t work out well.
The non-WiFi niche does not sound like something in which Apple would be interested. Besides, the same used to be true of cell phones with cameras. After a few years, it was no longer an issue.
And, if you work for defense contractors (and other paranoid agencies), add a camera to the list of things you can’t have.
Cameras are in just about every cell phone these days, and they can also do wifi and Bluetooth. I went on a job interview with a company that required all employees and visitors to check their phones with the receptionist.
Incidentally, the agencies aren’t paranoid because the danger is real and spies really do exist.
Recently it turned out that the US was spying on Germany. (In fact, on all but five of the countries friendly to the US.) There was a structure on the roof of the US embassy that hid antennas that were aimed at German government agencies. Angela Merkel’s cell phone was a gift from the US, and was tapped. Angela Merkel got a new phone.
The German government’s reaction was disillusionment with the US, because they had trusted the US and had no provisions to protect themselves from US spying. That changed.
It’s hard to be in, say, trade negotiations when the other side can see the cards in your hand. Wifi, Bluetooth, and cameras are real security risks.
Exactly,
Wireless is a no no in many environments. HIPPA makes healthcare providers very security minded.
What you see in many workplaces is Mac mini sized thin client Windows Embedded and locked down. Here one from HP:
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/thin-clients/t420.html?jumpid=re_r11260_us/en/pc_comm/thin-clients/operating-systems-tab/windows-embedded/view-all/t420-thin-client#!&pd1=1
And another thing: Apple needs to learn how to chase more than one butterfly at a time. It’s a big company, there’s no reason for monomania.
They used to hold products and release them together at big events but Steve himself announce the change in this policy. Telling us all that products would be release when they are ready, not on a schedule. Of course he then created the annual update cycles for OS’s and iPhones. Never mind.
I don’t mean release them at the same time. You get more press coverage if you spread them out. I mean they should not be obsessed with the product du jour to the detriment of the rest of their product line. They have neglected the Mac for four years even as every TV program showed characters using MacBook Pros. For a company their size, that’s dumb.
Tim Cook can’t chase more than one bug at a time. He’s simply unable to innovate or lead innovation in today’s world.
Do we think the Mac event this week will counter the stock drop later today after earnings are reported?
Unless they announce Kaby Lake quad cores, with GTX 1080s inside, then no. That means the macbook pro is DOA.
at least for anyone doing Pro Graphic/Video work.
Those Pro Bloggers will love it though, they can display their page hits on the oled bar.
Yesterday I gave a call to a small local company referred to me by a major Big Box vender. I’d been referred to their Mac specialist. We discussed upgrading my Mac Pro (early 2008 with 22GIG RAM) so that I can have a peppier Mac that’ll run Sierra without purchasing a new model that is not user upgradable. Turns out that it’s not so far-fetched and will run in the neighborhood of $900.00 -$1,200.00 for a faster chip, an SSD drive, a replacement video card, Windows, Parallels, Linux, Disk Warrior, all installations, etc. etc. Why bother with this strategy? Because I am currently able to upgrade this box as I should be able to. As to the Johnny Ives concept that slimness is everything, count me out: for me that amounts to a lack of power as well as planned obsolescence and I intend to hold out for as long as I can or until Apple sees the value of upgrading what users already own (which is admittedly not too likely). That will have to be my strategy until Apple licenses Mac OS (a la Power Computing, but we see how well *that* turned out).
Will the CEO of Belkin be onstage at the MacBook “Pro” announcement?
Seems like their CEO should be there – the market for USB-C adapters is about to explode. USB thumb drives, digital card readers, printer cables, HDMI monitor hookups, Apple LIghtning cables…just a few of the common items that will require an adapter.
Maybe they’ll sell them in 5-packs.
The Mac Pro?
Schiller — VP of marketing — indeed had to innovate his sales pitch for such an undesirable desktop configuration. It checked few of the boxes people wanted and in now familiar Apple tradition, it took away tons of features that people rely on every day. Face it, the trashcan and the latest MacBooks have been complete sales disasters.
Never before have I seen a company with this much resources do such a poor job keeping its products relevant. Seriously, the product lineup is full of holes and mostly stale if not totally moldy.
If it wasn’t for competitor screw-ups, Cook would be dumped by now. Apple needs bold leadership badly.