19 thoughts on “On the sad state of Macintosh hardware, with a twinkle of hope”

1. I’ll feel more optimistic when the MacRumors’ Buyer’s Guide doesn’t show “DON’T BUY” for 5 out of their 7 products, including ALL of the laptops.

   (… and even that is conservative. There’s a “CAUTION” for the Mac Pro, because the Guide re-started its clock when they “dropped” the price on the Mac Pro after the roundtable. It should really be “DON’T BUY.”)

   In other words, words are words. Where’s the action? As Gruber puts it, if a friend were to come to you today and ask what laptop they should get, would you advise them to buy one now, or wait until… when?

   (FTR, I’m aware that Coffee Lake may be one reason they’re holding back, but IMO there’s plenty of pieces in their lineup that could have used at least a simple refresh. And then there’s the utter embarrassments that are the MacBook Air and Mac mini.)

   I’m lucky I get my laptop through work, and spent the money on an iPad Pro, so that I can get out of this game. I’d be really stressed about getting a MacBook right now.

2. And with all these ancient computers populating Apple’s shelves, they’re still better than the latest Windows computers in many ways. Certainly, if you took that parts from those Windows PCs and put them into new Macs, the difference would be even more dramatic.

3. The biggest problem is that the notebook lineup is a mess. I periodically get asked what to buy, and I don’t have a good answer.

   The new models have a lot of bad design decisions. The unreliable butterfly keyboard is a major problem. The touchbar is an expensive feature of dubious benefit. Going all-in on USB C way to early was a mistake. They don’t make a real “pro” machine – instead, the 15″ is basically just a stretched 13″. The MBA is a cool, but the single port design makes it practically awkward for most users.

   Meanwhile, the MacBook Air, which in many ways is _still_ is the best choice for most people, hasn’t been meaningfully updated in something like 3 or 4 years.

   I think that if they took the current MacBook Air, added a modern CPU/GPU, a retina display, and a 16GB RAM option, virtually nobody would buy the other models.

4. The problem with seasonal releases has been Intel. Apple got burned three times in a row with Intel promising major speed bumps and power reductions in time for the next revision of Macs, then missing manufacturing targets by months and years, even being unable to manufacture what speed bumps they did accomplish in bulk until long after the target dates Apple needed in order to meet their seasonal demands. Mac customers were constantly waiting for the next “fastest” chip, but Intel could only produce a tiny number of them, which they sold to boutique PC manufacturers who only needed to produce a small number of machines to obtain bragging rights. And Intel themselves had a habit of announcing theoretical speed improvements right before Apple hardware announcements, driving demand on the newest and fastest machines down. They are unreliable partners if you needed steady progress.

5. The problem with seasonal releases has been Intel. Apple got burned three times in a row with Intel promising major speed bumps and power reductions in time for the next revision of Macs, then missing manufacturing targets by months and years, even being unable to manufacture what speed bumps they did accomplish in bulk until long after the target dates Apple needed in order to meet their seasonal demands. Mac customers were constantly waiting for the next “fastest” chip, but Intel could only produce a tiny number of them, which they sold to boutique PC manufacturers who only needed to produce a small number of machines to obtain bragging rights. And Intel themselves had a habit of announcing theoretical speed improvements right before Apple hardware announcements, driving demand on the newest and fastest machines down. They are unreliable partners if you needed steady progress.

6. “Going purely by the numbers, clearly iOS should have Apple’s attention. ”

   This is true, but Apple is a big enough company that they should have sufficient engineers on hand to do both. It seems more and more apparent that, in fact, they don’t.

   They’re sitting on a helluva lot of money. Spend some, and get more talent.

7. There’s a new iMac Pro already out, there’s a new Mac Pro coming, and Intel doesn’t have chips for the MBP.

8. Apple should have, like Microsoft, an in house game division. It will help them stay afloat and grasp the changes faster, among the pros, at least.

9. I’m pretty happy about MacOS/iOS, especially after WWDC. I don’t see a single hardware option to replace my beloved 2015 MacBook Pro in either the Mac or iPad Pro lines.

   I used to get excited every year about buying Apple hardware, now I think about choosing the ‘least worst’ option.

10. … seriously?

11. … you do realize that Microsoft’s in-house game division is focused on XBox, right?

12. I am talking about technology.
    Game tech is evolving, and it will engulf
    CGI art. NVIDIA seems to be at the front with direct development with DX11

13. Indeed!

14. I’ll feel more optimistic when the MacRumors’ Buyer’s Guide doesn’t show “DON’T BUY” for 5 out of their 7 products, including ALL of the laptops.

    (… and even that is conservative. There’s a “CAUTION” for the Mac Pro, because the Guide re-started its clock when they “dropped” the price on the Mac Pro after the roundtable. It should really be “DON’T BUY.”)

    In other words, words are words. Where’s the action? As Gruber puts it, if a friend were to come to you today and ask what laptop they should get, would you advise them to buy one now, or wait until… when?

    (FTR, I’m aware that Coffee Lake may be one reason they’re holding back, but IMO there’s plenty of pieces in their lineup that could have used at least a simple refresh. And then there’s the utter embarrassments that are the MacBook Air and Mac mini.)

    I’m lucky I get my laptop through work, and spent the money on an iPad Pro, so that I can get out of this game. I’d be really stressed about getting a MacBook right now.

15. Look at RenderMan, very few freelancers and Studios use it nowadays. Pixar got lazy. It can happen to Apple.
    Imagine if a small shop/company end ups creating the next Generation 3D renderer, why would they bother to care for the Mac, if most studios run only Windows and Linux in their machines?

16. Many pro users are doing game related work nowadays, and many are switching to PCs machines, which might lead to groundbreaking and industry standard softwares to be windows only.

    It is frightening, Apples’ shortsight.

17. Something people seem to forget, is that you should attribute a large portion of that $68 billion in iOS revenue to the Mac, since there would be no apps, and likely way less sales of iOS devices, if it weren’t for the Mac. The Mac is the power behind the iPhone and iPad.

18. To be fair though, this is the worst time to look at the buyers guide for most of Apple’s products, not just the Mac. Apple brings out the majority of their products in September and October in time for the holidays. If you look at the buyers guide for iOS devices it’s pretty bad reading too with nearly 50% of items tagged with a ‘Don’t Buy’ flag.

19. iPhones are announced Sept/Oct annually. iPads have been annual and have switched to spring over the last couple of years.

    Certainly MacBook Pros were announced in 2016 and the iMac Pro in 2017. But it’s been years, if not close to a decade, since Macs had an annual release cycle. Or even a predictable release cycle for buyers to make a decision. That’s really the problem.

    I get it that they are dependent on Intel who ran hard into a 10 nanometer wall but even incremental upgrades aren’t happening on a regular cycle.