How Apple could have avoided much of the controversy

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Chuq Von Rospach, writing on his blog:

Here’s a basic reality: criticizing and second-guessing Apple is a hobby for many of us, and a profession for more than is probably healthy for the Apple ecosystem. That is a basic reality that isn’t going to change any time soon.

And:

A lot of it boils down to this concept: We demand Apple innovate, but we insist they don’t change anything.

And:

I think these computers are taking some valid criticism, but much of that criticism is ignoring a lot of the positives that these new computers have, including nice improvements in CPU and GPU speed and faster RAM, all indicating nice bumps in overall performance.

But having said that, the fact that so much of the Mac product line is such a cluster and Apple didn’t acknowledge that makes the criticism understandable and deserved. What we got from Apple was good; what we needed from Apple was that and more — and it didn’t happen.

This is a long read. Chuq captures a lot of the thoughts that have been flying around in response to the new MacBook Pro reveal. Thoughtful, and well worth the read. Great job, Chuq.



55 thoughts on “How Apple could have avoided much of the controversy”

  1. “We demand Apple innovate, but we insist they don’t change anything.”

    No. We demand Apple to keep making reliable, powerful devices.

  2. He makes a lot of valid points, but one that falls apart is paying for ports you’ll never need. To some extent that’s true, but how do you justify reducing the number of specialized ports and still raising the price? The base model 13-inch MacBook Pro – with no Touch Bar to affect the price – eliminated 5 ports and went up $200.

  3. These new MacBook Pros are much more powerful than the one I’m typing on. We’ll see about reliability.

  4. In the old days, pre-iPhone, there were incremental updates to the Macintosh line every year and yearly events where (Jobs) would tell us about Apple’s various products (new and old) and give us a sense of Apple’s direction.

    Now we have those yearly events for the iPhone which changes every year but Apple’s other products aren’t getting as much attention.

    I get it, the iPhone is Apple’s bread and butter these days but this is a big company, the biggest on earth and one would think they could update all of their products regularly enough to keep all of their users delighted.

    For me, as both a very long term user and stockholder, it’s bothersome to see monthly flyovers of the new campus which is costing a fortune and at the same time, feel like Apple isn’t capable of upgrading the entire Macintosh line in a single year. Again, maybe not new processors but new ports and SSDs all around and a vision for the future of the Macintosh that keeps us all excited and knowing that Apple cares about its long term users.

  6. People really got to get over this “can’t plug my new iPhone into my new MacBook Pro” pettiness. Buy a damn cable. If you can afford a brand new MacBook Pro and a brand new iPhone 7, buy the stupid cable.

    And it’s not about principle. I’m absolutely certain that the vast majority of iPhone buyers do not have a new MacBook Pro to connect their iPhone to. Apple will switch the cable out for a USB-C one when it makes sense. Now, given the vast majority of iPhone 7 buyers still have computers with USB-A ports, if they even connect them to a computer at all. It simply doesn’t make sense for them to throw extra cables around for those that don’t need them.

  9. Apple has never thought about that at all. They’ve never included a cable for a completely different product with their MacBook Pros. They should recommend you buy one when you place your order, but I don’t see why they should just give everyone one whether you need it or not.

  10. I understand where the money is going on the new models, I was commenting more on the article. The author didn’t really address the price hike complaint in his article, but he kind of argues that moving the ports to dongles – a la the iPhone 7 headphone jack – reduces the price of the computer. But that didn’t happen AND many people will still have to buy dongles/docks on top of that.

  11. With their push to make the iPhone “PC free” a few models ago, all Apple needs to worry about for the cable in the box is that it’s compatible with the power adapter in the box.

  12. I don’t know who he thinks wants Apple not to change anything. The problem for me and many others is we keep going to Apple Store to get a new Mac and coming home with a new SSD or whatever for the old one, because there is no new Mac to buy.

    I’m a graphic artist. I buy a new graphics tablet before each new Mac purchase. The best graphics tablet I can find for my needs today is called a Surface Pro and unlike all my previous graphics tablets, it does not require a Mac to be hooked up to it because it has a Windows 10 PC in it. That reduces the size and weight of what I carry much more than a 20% thinner MacBook Pro.

    The iPad Pro has a pro graphics user interface but the majority of pro graphics apps are on the Mac, which only offers a writing/coding interface. That was fine in 2006 when we were just happy that our graphics tablets got their own screens. But once they had the screens, the rest of the PC is very small and cheap. Of course graphics was going to go to Surface Pro form factor. We hardly type at all.

    Same for music, same for video.

    So to have Apple in 2017 say the future of the Mac is another redesign for the trackpad, a tiny $500 touchscreen on the keyboard, and 16GB RAM maximum is outrageous.

    In the iPad Pro intro video, notice all the Pixar artists have pen Macs on their desks. Those Macs are still there even after iPad Pro because iPad Pro has less pro graphics software even than Windows. It doesn’t matter if I am Phil Schiller’s son — I can’t show up at work with only an iPad Pro and not get fired. I have to buy my first Windows PC this year to replace my 2010 Mac because the simple fact of the graphics tablet being built-in and portable will make me 2–10x more productive than a MacBook Pro and external tablet which have to be used on a desk.

    So I think the author of this article completely missed what is happening. This is not a case of people fighting the future. We are complaining that the Mac platform is stuck in the past. They get thinner and the guts get marginally faster, but today’s MacBook Pro is worse for many users than the 2010 model.

    BTW, the 2010 MacBook Pro sold from 2010–2016 and outsold the 2012 model. Think about what a failure that is. Half a decade of no progress in MacBook Pro for most MacBook Pro users. It is MacBook Pro XP.

  13. Most of the arguments presented in the article are incredibly self-serving.

    Author doesn’t use the sd card slot? I use mine multiple times per day. One thunderbolt port. I wish I had more. No USB-A? provide an adapter. Don’t
    expect me to buy the first one.

    On top of all this, the 13′ base model skimps on the two ports provided. They don’t
    operate at parity.

    what Apple wants is for you to spend pro money for a not pro experience.

    It’s not about the processors. Kaby Lake will give no real upgrade in power. 32 GB of RAM would not result in less then half the battery life as the author states.

  14. The real problem with the new lineup of MBPs is that Apple didn’t really make a strong case for many of us serious users to upgrade. Many of us are still using MBPs that are 3-4+ years old with specs that are close enough (or even better if you consider new RAM limitations) to what was offered.

    The keyboard, trackpad, Touch Bar and port changes were all nice, but for many not the items that really matter such as for example a better GPU e.g., NVIDIA).

    I don’t care about the ports at all and most of my friends don’t either. That stuff happens often enough as technology improves so folks who haven’t been around long enough need to just get over it.

    But I really start to wonder what Tim Cook means nowadays when we talked about it being in our DNA. The Mac was what started and made Apple, but I’m not sure what made the Mac all that magical is still in their DNA.

  15. Who plugs their phone into their mac anymore (besides developers)?

    There are definitely some legit complaints about the state of the Mac (mostly the Mac lineup as a whole), but this one is just smoke.

  17. Speaking of self-serving… if you’re still using the SD-card slot, I have a feeling you’re in a minority, especially within the full Apple customer base.

  20. I do. Non-developer, just regular user. I like to keep a backup of the phone on iTunes. My girlfriend still prefers to sync with iTunes over the wire and not over iCloud as well…she plugs her phone into our iMac every morning.

  21. What new RAM limitations? Has Apple ever made a notebook with 32GB?

    The new 13″ looks like an incredible computer. I think they made all the right decisions for this machine, and I am buying one. As it happens, I’m coming from a 2013 MacBook Air, but if I had a 3 year old MBP I’d still be buying – the cumulative effect of CPU/GPU/wide gamut/fast+big SSDs/touch panel/etc would be enough.

    Scaling the 13″ design decisions up to the 15″ machine is a bit more problematic. The 15″ is also a great computer, but many 15″ buyers aren’t as interested in thin and light – they want more RAM, better CPUs/GPUs, more ports, whatever. If Apple made another laptop that satisfied these needs (which obviously would be bulkier), I think there would be far less outcry over the 15″.

    Compounding the problem is that the desktop lineup is a a tire fire. No new iMac until January at the earliest (at which point it will be as stale as the MBP was), and of course there is no way that Apple can possibly justify the negligence of the Mac Pro and the mini.

  22. I’m no longer a user that needs a workhorse computer, though there was a time that I was. It’s been a while since I saw the release of a new Mac and had that “I must buy this” feeling, because my needs got small enough that I was really taken care of…somewhere around six or seven years ago I’d say. Then the “I must buy this” urge went to the iPhone.

    But I still do watch the Mac announcements with interest, once removed as it were, and try to feel those excited feelings again about technology. This is the first one that I came away not saying, “Gee, I’d like to have one of those.”

    Perhaps I’m just too old now to gear up for another turnover of my peripherals (I don’t think it’s bad that the technology turns over, just that I’ve been through a couple and I don’t feel like another one). Or perhaps it’s just because my needs are plenty met. Though I was very unlikely to invest in a new computer for the last few years, I could still drum up enthusiasm…this time it’s not there.

  23. Interesting how apple is always accused of ‘not admitting’ problems. What’s the last time any hardware company of that size admitted a problem? Sony? Blackberry? Nokia? Microsoft? Good analysis though.

    PS
    I will miss the magsafe.

  25. Re. Laptop RAM: which is why I still lug around a 21″ iMac from 2011 to get my work out. Apple’s 16GB RAM limitation has kept me using a luggable for years.

  27. My experience is that having swap on an SSD really helps reduce the need for physical RAM. Your mileage may vary, of course, but please don’t tell me you’re lugging around a non-retina iMac with a spinning disk….

  29. “It’s not enough to create wonderful machines that hardly anyone can afford, they need to create wonderful machines that they can get into the hands of as many as possible. Steve understood that,”

    Revisionism. Both Steve and Tim understand that you can’t build quality and very cheap. They always built quality that was attainable. Could Apple build a $500 laptop? Sure. But it would be a piece of crap because you simply cannot do high quality for that price and make money.

    The entry level MacBook is the same price as the same configuration last year. It’s $200 more than the very bottom MBP config last year. I fail to see how $1299 was affordable and $1499 is unattainable.

  30. It’s a faster, more capable machine that the prior versions and tossing specialized ports is a feature. Think about it… if you needed the old HDMI port it was useful. If not, it was a waste of space. Now, you have 4 ports any one of which can whatever you need. Need one to be a data transfer port? It is. Want to use it for power the next day? Do it. Crap, the next week space is tight and you really want to plug video into that port. Go ahead. Need two of them to be video? Not a problem. On the old system, you have one HDMI… need a second one? Uh….

    You’re arguing that limited, configurable ports are better than flexible, highly configurable ports that just work. Think about that logic for a second.

  31. See the link I posted above. Apple almost certainly knows how few people use the SD slot. Shall we keep every port that someone, somewhere uses? You’re mistaking your particular needs for market needs and in this case I’m going to bet that Apple has a far better grasp of the market than you (or I) do.

  32. and you’re in a TINY minority of people. But I love that you try to pose as a person who needs a ton of power to do your work… and you use a 5 year old computer.

  33. That post is full of faulty logic. Based on the same logic of that post, no one can criticize any business decision made by Microsoft or IBM or Google because they have reams of data and an understanding of the market that none of us have. Yet all of those companies have made huge, predictable mistakes.

    Yes, Apple has reams of data, but you know what following the data led to? New Coke.

  34. No, I was arguing that the author of the article didn’t make his case regarding ports. It’s unusual for Apple to do a spec bump AND raise the price on a specific model. Phil said the 13-inch MacBook Pro with function keys is essentially the updated 13-inch MacBook Air, but they called it the Pro to justify the price.

  35. I agree with what a lot of what’s said here, except the key point.

    Nothing would have avoided controversy, because the Apple blogosphere survives on controversy.

  36. His example of a pro laptop was extreme, something that would get 2 hours of battery life. Is Apple so incompetent these days that they can’t deliver something powerful without it getting 2 hours of battery? Also there’s this weird idea that keeps circulating that Apple couldn’t make any new designs because intel hadn’t produced new hardware. Apple’s designers can’t come up with anything new and cool without a new chip from intel? That didn’t used to be how they rolled.

  37. That’s true enough. The 2D pro and the video pro can get by with a different machine than the 3D pro

  38. If you bought a MBP one month ago, it didn’t come with a USB to lightning cable. If you buy a MBP one month from now, it won’t come with a USB-C to lightning cable. But next month it’ll be a scandal…

  39. Excedpt Phil didn’t say that. And they still make a 13″ Air if you want one. The new entry level Pro is quite a bit more capable than the Air. I have one and coming from an Air, it’s noticeably faster etc.

    I think Chuq did make a good case regarding ports. Not so much the cost issue but the fact that with specialized ports everyone gets the same set. With multi-use ports like USB-C the adapt to what you need to do. If a give machine has 2 USB ports in the old scheme, you were screwed if you needed 3. But you also had a wasted port if you only ever needed 1.

    I’m a little stunned that geeks and power users don’t get the advantage of a set of ports that adapt to what each person needs.

  40. Most devices won’t saturate a USB-C line, and you can chain 6 devices on either of your 2 full speed ports. In what scenarios is the slower USB-C ports likely to be a problem? Seriously? And I don’t know that anyone has said what amount of disparity there is. At a certain point you have to decide whether you’re angry because you can be, or angry because you should be

  41. Yes they have. But he’s not saying data means no mistakes, he’s refuting the silly, emotional argument that Apple makes decisions based on what a couple of execs want with no regard to other factors.

  42. Yup – for me the wider gamut is pretty cool, the performance is great.

    13 days out of 14 I won’t need a super powerful CPU, and GPU either. I could get by with a MacBook or even an iPad Pro for most of the year.

    1/14 of the time I need Xcode and some oomph too, MacBook isn’t quite enough, I’ll need an up specced Air or at the least the cheapest 13″ MBP. Or otoh, I could probsbly “get away” using the MacBook to lay out projects or concepts and then goto a Mac mini or iMac with a bit more oomph. Desktop replacements are OK but they are always compromised if they are mobile.

    Keep the powerful machine in the office and use a portable as a portable.

  43. As long as they don’t kill off the mini line I’m pretty happy. I love my headless mini, almost silent and does a terrific job. I’d love if they brought back “first party” clustering software with all these new high speed ports the machines could work together nicely again – imagine a stack of 5,10 minis working in concert! Not for my computing needs but some could really use that amount of. Flops? Whatever it is.

  44. This.

    Imagine if they had come with 4 lightning ports or something not so adaptable. I miss MagSafe but otherwise this new system is amazing

    Obvious that Apple wants the user to Not leave it on a desk charging all day, that’s when you should probably use a desktop form factor instead!

    IMO they’ve done this to encourage people to actually use portable as a portable, and also not cook the battery as many are in the habit of.. my MacBook Air is either 4 or 5yo now and the battery is in brilliant shape, it never sits on the charger Or flat either, LIon is good but they need to be treated well.

  45. I’ve been in the corporate world long enough to know that some executives’ desires and will can trump data or, at the vary least, put a thumb on the scale of which data matters. E.g. Data shows feature X is the most popular feature, though feature Y is the feature most popular with our biggest spending customers. The decision between X over Y can frequently come down to politics.

  46. Not sure if they ping back home base ala w10 but if they do –apple has some very solid data to work off on who uses which ports, how often if at all etc.

  47. It will not fit or work. Next year maybe they’ll offer it but there is no compatible ram..

    I was in the same whinging boat but ideally unlike other bad memory management OS’s it’ll be fine for a year or two, ideally right when i get to the EOL for my MacBook and I’ll get 64gb woo!

  48. Sure, that does happen. But we have zero evidence of it happening here, just some sour grapes whining. About the management at a company that 20 years ago was near death and now grosses over $200b a year. Forgive me for this, but I’m betting they know more about what sells than tech bloggers.

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  50. Apple is always right because Apple has often been right in the past is not a technically sound argument.

    Apple is not a magic objective decision-making machine. Read any book about the history of the company, and you’ll find plenty of anecdotes about SJ or Jony Ive pushing for something they wanted, “data” be damned. (As it happened they were usually right, but not always).

    Apple is the best company in its space by far, and maybe the best company in the world. But they still screw up. The 3 year old Mac Pro is the existence proof of that.

  52. Excuse me? Do you know me well enough to troll me? Yeah, I thought not. “We” have 3 Mac Pros from 2008 in our edit suites, 2 iMacs from 2009, 3 PCs from 2012 and my 2011 iMac. I have added a 2016 MacBook Pro at my expense to evaluate.

    All of these systems are dedicated to video editing, compositing, and animation. We’d LIKE to upgrade but corporate doesn’t see a business model for the TV unit…at all.

    You know what? The 2011 iMac is nearly as fast in getting product out as the MBP because of the RAM. I imagine if the MBP had more RAM it wouldn’t be close but … it doesn’t and it is.

  53. It is a 2TB “fusion” disk; so yes, it has a spinning disk and yes I did lug it around until February of 2017.

  55. Yeah. It popped up in a Disqus sidebar a year later. Go figure. The “pose” bit seemed a bit to personal to let pass.

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