Those who love Apple most complain most bitterly.
Excerpted from Michael Tsai’s master list of grievances…
Seth Lewin: Apple no longer makes anything I care to buy. Flat statement. Sad to admit after nearly 30 years of buying their products but true. Apple could care less what its customers think or say or want, it seems.
Lloyd Chambers: The people at Apple no longer have a clue what is desirable in a computer. At this, Apple is now incompetent. Tim Cook thinks everyone should just use an iPad.
Michael B. Johnson: Very disappointed with the state of Mac hardware. No good excuses left.
Brian Benchoff: In the past, I have defended people who choose MacBooks as their laptop of choice. A MacBook is a business-class laptop, and of course carries a higher price tag. However, Apple’s latest hardware release was underwhelming and overpriced. If you’re looking for a new laptop, you would do well to consider other brands.
Steven Levy: With the exception of a novel feature called the Touch Bar — a multi-touch strip above the keyboard that Disney-fies what function keys used to do — these new machines were pretty predictable iterations of how Apple does generations these days: thinner, faster, and more expensive.
John Gruber: Rather astounding how much backlash last week’s event has generated. I can’t recall an Apple event that generated such a negative reaction from hard-core Mac users.
Jeff Johnson: Those complaining about Apple’s current Mac lineup are not haters, they’re lovers. They’ve spent 10+ years and 5+ figures on Macs.
Greg Koenig: The sad thing about all this, is just how unnecessary it feels. It would not take much for Apple to delight hardcore Mac users.
Click here for Tsai’s full list.
Tim Cook, are you listening?
For me the issue isn’t these new MacBook Pros although the price increase did give me a start and made me hesitate on a plan to buy one.
For me the issue is larger than that; it’s Apple’s lack of attention to both the Macintosh line, and to it’s core “Pro” users.
I’m totally fine with incremental upgrades to already excellent machines, just as Apple does with the iPhone and iPad. This is not a matter of Intel coming out with a new processor, it’s a matter of the entire Macintosh line being all over the place now, with varying video systems, ports, and more. The Mac Pro still has running Aperture faster as a reason to buy it. Apple hasn’t sold Aperture for two years.
And, the fact that Apple seems to have completely forgotten about its long-term users who have multiple Macintosh computers on an AirPort network and are early adopters of iOS devices and Apple TVs is bothersome to me.
The entire line should have been updated to USB C/Thunderbolt 3 and Apple should have tossed appropriate dongles into the box for free or at a lower cost.
Two things to consider that I mined out of the various rants in that list:
Apple led with a great video on disability access on Apple’s various devices. Great video and I worked in that field for over twenty years. Not sure how a person with a physical disability would use a Touch Bar… So, putting that video in front of the introduction of the Touch Bar might have been an oversight.
Many who will buy the new MacBook Pro and a new LG monitor will most likely use their new machine in clamshell mode (many who use external monitors with their MacBook Pros do). That kills the Touch Bar unless Apple puts it on its stand-alone keyboard.
Sigh.
I think Gruber elaborates a bit about the situation and also references an excellent article/review
https://chuqui.com/2016/10/how-apple-could-have-avoided-much-of-the-controversy/
The silliness of the criticism is deja vu again for each stage of tha Mac evolution.
My guess is that early next year the next generation of desktops will address the needs of the Pro niche. Simply put, a true laptop needs to address three key features light, long battery life, great screen, and respectable but not desktop performance (where power, heat, and even foot print are secondary) these are well done in the new Pro laptops. The dongle issue is entirely peripheral and petty.
As observed, Apple being hostage by INTEL continues to support Apple’s eventual migration to its own chips for laptops first to see the progress being realized for iOS devices.
The transition will create howls of agony from “long time and loyal fans” as well as “pros.” Deja Vu 68000 to PPC and PPC to INTEL.
My guess is that (as with no audio jack iPhone) the users will make the new MacBook Pros a success. But we will need to wait until January (like the iPhone 7) to have good data from this quarter.
Excellent linked to piece, one of the better ones. My “issues” with Apple are meta, as in this quote from the piece:
“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.”
I don’t think the criticism of Apple is silly at all. The Macintosh line is all over the place when the line is small enough it should and could be better integrated, and it does not seem like Apple is paying enough attention to Pro users. That’s not a trivial criticism. Most of us are locked in enough so we’re not going anywhere, but that doesn’t mean we have to be happy with the way Apple is treating the Macintosh.
That and the price point of the new machine, which I may buy but which gave me pause. For me, pause is not good as I rarely pause on buying Apple products.
I really like what Apple did with the new MacBook Pros and the keyboard. I tried the non-Touch Bar model in the store and the thinner profile is great — this IS a portable machine ya know.
Complaining about the chip or limited RAM isn’t Apple so much as it is Intel, walking slow as usual for portables. Frankly, 16GB of RAM is probably sufficient for most if not all. I will have to buy one cable — big deal.
I paid $3k for my MacBook Pro 3 years ago. Same price with the new ones but a much better machine, so I don’t understand the bitch and moan unless one compares the price of a 1TB machine 3 years ago with a 2 TB machine today.
The ship times for the higher end 15″ MacBook Pros are pushing out 4-5 weeks now. Hope some of the pig-pile members cancel their orders so I’ll get mine sooner.
Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like an Apple fan scorned.
Sounds like most of the rage is coming from Apple’s “boutique” clientele. The IBM’s of this world will snatch these puppies up without issue.
“Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like an Apple fan scorned.”
Bill Congreve and Steve Jobs shudder in their respective graves.
Since every New Apple product is met with derision, it’s hard to separate the true concerns of longtime users and the band wagon jumping haters. A lot of the headlines are just the normal click-bait. The claim that the touch bar is simply a Disney-fication of the function keys sounds very close to the iPad as toy bit. How dare Apple add a delightful context sensitive color touch bar where we should have F1, F2, etc. Is this for real?
My guess is many folks who get these laptops will be delighted with them. Is this Apple’s fate now? Reveal each product to a chorus of scorn? I’m going to wait for the q1 results to decide how much of a failure the laptops are.
Well said, Jonathan.
It has been Apple’s lot to have its new products reviled and derided since way before the introduction of the iPhone and the iPod. As much as people wish to see into the future, many look on in disbelief and shock when it is shown to them summarily. Apple tends to do that.
What ensues is a grudging acceptance of that vision of the future as other manufacturers eventually embrace it and make it the present.
What a load of …..
Last week I started the process of planning a purchase and got the flu before completing it so it had to wait for a clear head. Today I bought two laptops with two LG screens but with a much longer wait than it would have been last week.
I am a power user of Mac for data analysis and have been since the Mac Plus. Can’t understand the issues being raised here, the new Laptops seem to be cheaper than I recall past years, better thought out (who wants touchscreen with a spreadsheet) and the reduction of cables is exactly what I have already done.
I was just notified of an approx 20% price reduction being applied to my order for the yet to be delivered LG screens