Joe Rossignol, MacRumors:
Apple on Tuesday reported that it sold 3.72 million Macs in its third quarter, which spanned April 1 through June 30, the fewest in any single quarter since it sold 3.47 million in the third quarter of 2010.
And:
There are a number of possible explanations for the decline, including consumers increasingly shifting towards the iPhone and iPad. Together, those devices accounted for 65 percent of Apple’s revenue last quarter, compared to just 10 percent for the Mac. Apple even markets the iPad as a computer replacement.
The bigger reason, however, may have been that nearly the entire Mac lineup was outdated last quarter. Beyond the iMac Pro, released four months before the quarter began, no other Mac had been updated since 2017 or earlier.
I find it no wonder that Mac sales are down. The only updated machines have been dogged by the keyboard reliability issue. As I said yesterday, I think the new warranty and anti-crumb membrane are enough to make me bullish on the new MacBook lineup.
The other Mac elements that need to line up here are the new Mac Pro and the Mac mini. The question is, does Apple truly care about the Mac as more than just a balance sheet line item?
Apple just killed the App Store Affiliate Program. Presumably, the goal there is to maximize services revenue.
Apple is holding fast to a paltry 5GB of iCloud base storage. Presumably, this goes to maximize services revenue as well.
Is this “maximize revenues” logic correct? Apple is not communicating any other message, even in the face of howls from their loyal base.
Is the Mac becoming an afterthought? Will we ever see a new Mac mini? How about a new Mac Pro? And what’s the status on the AirPower charging mat?
My two cents? I think Apple should come out and address all of this. I get playing cards close to the vest, but sometimes you need to let the troops know you feel their pain, give them reason to hope.
We’ve stuck with you through thick and thin. But more and more, the relationship is feeling more like financial calculation than shared passion. Just saying.
“does Apple truly care about the Mac as more than just a balance sheet line item?”
If the answer was “no,” then they wouldn’t be continuing to have the Mac be the only platform on which one may code apps for their phone, tablet, watch, tv, and smart speaker devices.
“does Apple truly care about the Mac as more than just a balance sheet line item?”
The answer is no, made obvious by the fact that they do not upgrade processors when new ones come out. If the chip has the same socket and TDP, there is ZERO excuse not to provide an immediate silent upgrade of Apple’s machines – unless, of course, Apple wants to continue to sell the same machine with a cheaper, older processor for the same price, thus increasing margins for a few months.
People will continue to buy the machines because they have to. How else will they code their next app? It’s not like you can code on an iPad, as Glaurung-Quena says above.
I know I am foolish and naive here… but Apple already is a very successful company, talking about profit. Why even more profit? Apple should care more about the users and the ecosystem, even if it makes get less profit on the short or mid term.
– Only 5 GB? Better please shareholders than loyal users that spend a lot of money on Apple devices.
– Removing the affiliated links program for apps? Better please shareholders than loyal communicators that ultimately create more business for Apple.
– Selling devices with the greatest profit ever per device that any other manufacturers cannot even dream about? Better please shareholders than loyal users.
– Selling devices with several shortcomings (read as: “design decisions”) that annoy users? Well, I do not think they are pleasing shareholders here, but themselves.
Apple should stop all this profit maximization bullshit and care about their users and their communities.
Without users, Apple is nothing. Apple should focus on REALLY create great devices and experiences for their users, if they really want to keep people happy about being Apple users, keep them loyal and keep them buying more devices and paying for more devices.
Personally, I can assure that now I am not as happy as before, as an Apple user.
But, yeah, I know, corporations gonna corporate (read as: “maximize profits”).
Yeah, I am a foolish one that thinks that money should not be ALL. What a loser.
PD: Maybe the problem is the absurd new enterprise adventure that Apple is doing here: become a media company, a content creator company. Maybe this profit maximization obsesion exists in order to keep shareholders happy, telling them: “hey, we are inverting a lot of money in content creating, but we generate more profit than ever! so you can’t say you are happy!”. Well, in my case, and I am sure this is the case for a lot of people, I don’t buy Apple devices or services to consume their content. I despise their content. I want great computing devices that work well and are not insanely expensive. Yes, I am ranting.
The entire PC ecosystem is essentially stagnant. This is not a Mac issue. The generally accepted top tier GPU for gaming, GeForce 1080, was released in 2016. No significant performance increase has been had in processors in a couple years either. Apple is clearly moving to try to address these issues by pouring money into their own chip designs. Apple has said a new Mac Pro is coming next year. The iMac Pro is by all accounts a great machine. Apple just updated the Macbook Pro and addressed the keyboard issue. Apple still tops customer satisfaction surveys.
I’m not sure I understand what people want from Apple, other than to be transported back to the time when year over year gains in PC tech were significant and interesting.
Of course Apple still cares about the Mac. If they stop caring about something they discontinue it, like the Xserve, iPod classic/shuffle/mini, their photo book service, etc.
I feel like people are placing too much emphasis on the age of the machines as if that’s one of customers’ primary considerations when buying a Mac. For most people, it’s not. Look at how many people still buy the iPhone 7, iPhone 6S, or even the iPhone 6 despite those devices being released in 2016, 2015, and 2014 respectively, and they do it for the same reason they still buy Macs that are the same age: Because they still work well.
Technology doesn’t improve as much year-over-year as it used to but a lot of people are still stuck in the mindset that if a device doesn’t have the absolute latest-and-greatest then it must be junk, but that’s not true. Sure, that’s more true in the PC and Android world where OEMs are in a race to the bottom and use lower-quality components in their cheaper devices but it’s not the case with Apple devices.
Of course they do, that’s how they continue to create all the products they sell. They wouldn’t let their primary creation tools languish in the name of profit, that would be absurd.
You know what they say about making assumptions.
I agree that the amount of base storage needs to increase but I think people are simplifying what it takes to do that. Should the new base storage be a fixed amount like it was before? Should the fixed amount increase with every additional device on the user’s account? Should it be proportional to how much storage a user’s primary device has, how much storage the user’s multiple devices have, how much storage the user’s entire family’s devices have? What if the user has a dozen MacBook Pros with a 4 TB SSD in each, should they also get 48 TB of iCloud storage for free? What if a user manually upgrades the storage in their device after their purchase, will the additional iCloud storage increase as well? If there’s a cap what should the cap be? How long should they get that additional storage, a few years, a decade, the lifespan of the device, or for as long as Apple supports the device? If Apple ends support for the device does the storage simply drop off their account? What if a user stops using a device but forgets to remove it from their account? If a user’s storage decreases because a device is removed what happens to the contents of their storage? What about the devices that a user purchased before these changes were implemented, will users be given additional storage retroactively? How old of a device will be eligible for the additional storage? How will the accounting department, well, account for that? There’s a lot more variables than people think.
Apple isn’t communicating any message at all, you’re just making an assumption again.
Personally I have a feeling the new modular Mac Pro might also be able to fill in for the Mac mini as the modular components could theoretically span the entire performance range from the most basic parts to the most powerful on the market. Time will tell.
They’ve done this multiple times in PR statements and during quarterly results calls. Maybe they’re not doing it as often as you’d like but that’s no reason to disregard the numerous times they’ve already done it.
techies often fail to think as normals. apple does not cater to the “speeds & feeds” techie crowd, it caters to the mass market which is normals. normals dont know or care about i7 vs i9, dual-core vs quad-core, etc. they just want a nice computer that works well. Macs do that.
walk into an Apple store and buy any mac as a normal and you won’t be disappointed. hell even as i techie i wouldnt be — im a dev and my desktop is a (loaded) 2011 iMac. any iMac sold today simply destroys it! and yet Marco Arment’s Techie Echo Chamber of Doom, Worry, and Concern ™ whines about not having the latest silicone.
you guys just dont get Apple. sorry.
First of all regarding the Mac… There is only ONE reason for the decline, not several; No new Macs were released during the quarter. Macs are not going away because Apple and customers are no longer passionate about them or losing interest. They were not released simply because they were not ready to be released. Why is there so much controversy surrounding this?
Which leads me to next topic… “Greedy Apple” Does anyone here really think iCloud Storage and AppStore Affiliate program are such a huge burden on Apple that they need to do what they’re doing. Or is it more likely that they have all the data and that data points to how they go about running their business? How much space a majority of their user base uses on average. How significant the affiliate program is and whether it’s worth keeping around?
It’s a sorry state we live in today when everyone immediately attacks, rather than try to understand.
Apple punditry is a synonym for bullshit.
The problem is classic corporate PR: trying to explain it helps a few, but gets others angrier. You have to carefully weigh the cost of saying anything, and years of experience has shown that the threshold has to be incredibly high.
The reality is, what % of people will know about the affiliate program ending? I do, of course, but I’d assume it’s <1% of users. If Apple comes out and says something, then many more users will know, and they’ll have strong opinions, either way.
As for the MacBook Air, Mac mini, etc., I can’t help that this is a combination of Intel falling down and Apple’s desire to roll out ARM to lower-end Macs, and not saying anything until they’ve a set of products to commit to rolling out, and it’s taken longer than they’ve expected for any number of reasons. I can’t imagine any other explanation.
I think more bad came from the affiliate program than good, with apps pushing each other on users.
Dropping the affiliate program is very much in keeping the focus correct. Developers need to focus on delivering value in an app (which is of benefit to users), not in using that app to drive users to other apps (which usually isn’t).
The affiliate program was counter Apple’s motives for years. Frankly, I’m unsure Apple will even make money dropping it. It seems that push to acquire more apps was probably profitable to them.
Now if only they’d dump the promoted search.
Thanks for the info, Janak. Much appreciated, I learned something today. 🙂
Agreed. What they should do (and should have done at WWDC since that’s a great place for this message) is this:
1) Announce a revision to the Mac line. If a model is staying, announce an upgrade for it.That is, if the Mini is staying, upgrade it and announce that. Drop things that you won’t update.
2) Have an easily explained and defended rationale for that line. I know why the Air is there from a price point and margin point of view but it makes no sense from a consumer point of view.
3) Commit to upgrading models at least every 12-18 months with the only reason for going longer being Intel screw ups.
4) Deliver on #3.
If a model isn’t worth updating every 18 months, drop it from the line. See #1.
What would be the rationale behind having to upgrade models? If something is working and filling its niche, why must it be updated?
Why should I buy a model with an old CPU for a premium price? AS extreme examples, look at the Air and the Mini. They WORK…. but you’re being asked to pay the same price for years old tech as you would have paid when it was new.
Apple can do what it wants, but if they don’t update things they’ll naturally see sales for those things fall off. And, come on, it’s silly that the mini hasn’t been updated in 3 years.
It’s worth listening to ATP episode 284.
tl;dr: TDP is not what you think it is. The impact of TDP has changed as Intel has been stuck at 14nm. A 45W TDP Skylake vs. Coffee Lake in fact output quite a different amount of heat. You do need to test the thermals and rework them accordingly, it’s not as simple as dropping a chip in.
Apple makes this problem worse by very closely tailoring their designs to thermal outputs, requiring a disproportionate amount of work, compared to PC vendors, to literally drop the new chip in, perhaps with a bigger heatsink.
(And, yet, all of that still doesn’t explain the mini. I can only guess two things: either it sells just enough to avoid dropping the product completely, or they’re waiting for the ARM transition to happen.)
If you ignore everything Apple has ever said about valuing devs, techies, creatives, pro users, the Pro Workflow Team, the existence of a Pro lineup, the relentless iteration on increasing performance, especially in their custom silicon, all of that, then yes, you have a point. And by yes, I mean no, you don’t have a point at all.
“Apple just killed the App Store Affiliate Program. Presumably, the goal there is to maximize services revenue.”
How will that maximize revenue? Revenue is what you sell before costs (before paying the affiliates).
If your ox is gored, then you complain the most. It isn’t simply dollars Apple is chasing, their stock price is not determining what they do, and they do care more about the users and the ecosystem than simply piling up money. If they listened to the predictable complaining, everything that made them successful would be gone, and only Dell and MS would be left. Apple picked up a lot of Windows and PC users, they still really want Windows and a PC or are hard core gamers. There is not a lot of innovation left to do with the typical PC as it is. Silent, almost meaningless upgrades that affect a tiny portion of users are not high on their list anymore. They never wanted to be Windows or Dell (well, prior to Job’s return, when they almost did just that). They probably have a vision of computers that just doesn’t fit this current model. Whatever they are working on has been in place for some time. The workhorse will always be needed, but how many of you have one of those? My guess is they are trying to reinvent the horse.
Updating the MPB was a good and necessary step. Hopefully they got the keyboard right this time.
But those models are too expensive for most users. Most Mac buyers are non-pro notebook users, and Apple does not offer a good choice to that segment (by volume, its largest segment by far). The Air is ancient, and the non-touchbar MBP still has the bad keyboard (and questionable design decisions).
Retina is the most obvious. The iPhone and iPad have been all-retina for years. MacOS is increasingly being optimized for Retina.
Also:
Modern CPU/GPU/SSD.
16 GB RAM option.
A USB C port instead of thunderbolt 2 might be nice.
Being able to buy a machine with 2018 tech makes it much more likely that you’ll be able to effectively run 2023 Mac OS on it. The pace of change has slowed, but it hasn’t stopped completely – ~4 years of incremental improvements would make a difference.
You are listing items, not problems the current offering doesn’t solve. This is the issue. People get hung up on specs without tying those specs to actual user needs.
There are rumors of a new Air coming this fall (with a retina display and updated processor). That’s a year and half since the last speed bump, which doesn’t seem crazy.
Oh come on. Why don’t you drive a 1954 car? Same functionality.
By your lights, they should almost never upgrade. If you don’t get why people expect the current level of tech in products that, relative to the market are premium priced and that cost the same as when they were in fact current, this conversation is useless.
There are lots of cars that have been produced since the 50s with relatively little change. The Suburban has been produced for 80+ years with only incremental changes. The basic Porche 911 design is more than 50 years old. And of course Volkswagon Beetles were produced from the 30s right into the 21st century.
I think most people understand the concept of a tool being a tool. People think nothing of using a 30 year old lathe or camera lens if it fits their purpose. A computer is a tool to most people. They just want it to do what they need it to do. Whether it is brand new or several years old is largely immaterial.
You are paying the same price for the same functionality. Interestingly in many cases it was actually cheaper to get many key components (GPU, RAM, storage) several years ago than it is now.
They really just need to have a new model when the previous models hit end of life. That’s 6+ years for a lot of people. A three year update cycle is not crazy given the minimal development of PC hardware. My issue with the Mini is that it doesn’t seem to solve many problems in its current state.
As I already said, including contemporary tech increases the likely useful lifespan of the computer. That’s a feature everybody likes. Would you rather have a machine that can be upgraded to the latest MacOS for the next 3 years, or the next 6?
The last speed bump was a 200mhz clock boost with no other changes. The last update of any significance was 3.5 years ago. And even that one was pretty minor.
If there is a new MBA in the fall will be great, but that is just a rumor at this point. It doesn’t change the fact that Apple’s mainstream notebook choices have been lacking for quite some time.
What do these users need that the Air doesn’t provide?
The issue is not how old a design is, but how well it satisfies the needs of the user. We don’t get mad that Stanley doesn’t release a new hammer every year.