I think the simplest explanation here is that where previously the MacBookPro was a device for professionals with Mass Market appeal, it is now a device for mass market that hasn't quite lost the professional price. When your company has catered so heavily to one demographic over the years it's more than a bit disingenuous to use the same product name to sale vastly under suited machines to those individuals. The new MacbookPros are clearly not going to work in a lot of pro use style environments. It's fair to argue that most people don't plug anything in but power, and that 16gb of memory is already overkill but I'd argue that's what the Air and non pro lineup are for. The pro moniker has meant something for the past 15+ years, and these machines do not honor that. If Apple isn't in the business of making machines for developer and serious creatives that's fine but they need to do a better job communicating that.<p>Also as a side note the new iPhone not coming with a cable is just bad. Directly connecting the phone to the computer remains the easiest way to transfer content and the only real way to reset the device in certain situations. Just complete failure to not have that included.
I have a new Macbook Pro on order, I'm excited to try out TouchBar, I hope it hangs around and isn't just a gimmick that falls by the way side.<p>The price is high and I'm surprised they pushed it that far (being in the UK it's even worse since at the same time they corrected for the USD > GBP exchange rate changes) but I'm also not hugely price sensitive. I just like a robust, light, laptop that works.<p>I use Windows, macOS, and Linux daily and while I'm comfortable with all of them I'd never choose anything else for a laptop (equally I never use macOS in a desktop setup).<p>macOS feels, to me, like an operating system designed for laptops. The power management is excellent, the hibernation is robust, the screen (on the Macbook Pro line at least) is high quality and crucially the OS is well optimised for a high DPI display.<p>I get the feeling there is some sort of internet/blog drama war going on here, it just doesn't seem to warrant the response it's getting.
The analysis here pretty much echoes my own thoughts.<p>Computers are becoming closer to appliances as time moves forward and "we" are not the target market. A lot of the chatter here has been about how Apple has "forgotten about us", developers/power users. The same outcry happened when Apple moved away from catering to video professionals. It doesn't seem like that really hurt their sales.<p>I know more people who own Apple products that are not power users. They buy their Apple products to read email, take care of their photo, music, and movie needs, and maybe do some homework. Being light, sleek, and fast enough is more important than having every port under the sun with the absolute newest CPU with the absolute maximum memory. I feel pretty confident that Apple is chasing their main user base.
The highest price of the 15" MacBook Pro 2013 was 2300 € with a 512 GB SSD, 2,3 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB Memory and a Nvidia Whatever Card.
Basically I even added a 100 Euro/140USD extra Storage with 256 GB to fit my needs (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WGARJGU/" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00WGARJGU/</a>).<p>Now the cheapest model with 512 GB SSD would cost 2500 € without a Extra Slot, which would make it 200 € pricier without taking inflation into account but which would only be 20€ - 40€ in Germany and I forgot that it won't have a dedicated graphics card which the 2013er had for a smaller price. (And not taking into Account that SSD prices are dropping)
Actually even their additional option do suggest that "Developers" are not their target. You can preinstall Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro, you couldn't pre install that on the 2013er and now you can even upgrade your dedicated graphics card memory, so that makes it even a bigger target for Designers, Movie specialists etc.<p>Just not useful for developers, since they will probably need more dongles than just one, I can count myself at least buying 6-7 of them.
> You do have to buy a new cable, yes, but you don’t need any clunky adapters [to plugin in an iPhone 7 to a new MBP]<p>I think the semantic distinction he's trying to make is that a new cable is a replacement for the old cable, and that you don't need to carry around a new thing in addition to your charge cable.<p>But for most people, we'll now need to carry around two types of iPhone cables: one for use with our shiny new MBPs, and one for use everywhere else. My wall chargers? USB-A. Every charger in a hotel room, coffee shop, or airport? USB-A.<p>So while it might be possible to buy a new cable, it would actually be easier (and five bucks cheaper!) to buy an adapter because it's smaller than a cable, and multi-purpose.
One of those new Macbook Pros, combined with that 5k LG display, would be my dream setup. Plug in a single cable, and you're connected to power, keyboard, display, network & mouse.<p>I don't use VMs, so 16GB are enough for my development needs (thanks to compressed Memory I seem to rarely fill up my RAM anymore). CPU performance has never been an issue for me.<p>Since I carry my Macbook Pro with me every day, and I often use it on public transport, I appreciate low weight & long battery life.<p>One thing I'd really like would be a built-in 3G/LTE modem because connecting to public Wifi or personal hotspot seems like an unnecesary hassle -- I'd like to have my Mac be always online without any manual intervention.<p>Yes, I'd probably need to get a new cable for my keyboard, but at least USB-C is a standard that everyone agrees is the future!
Regarding the ports, I think it's worth pointing out that the specific set Apple is offering is the most powerful possible. Inconvenient at present, perhaps, but consider that a USB Type-A port can't do USB 3.1 10Gbps, can't do Thunderbolt, and can't charge the machine.<p>USB-C, on the other hand, can do all of these. By having four of them, the laptop is maximally versatile (USB, Thunderbolt, DisplayPort, power input, configure as you like) and offers maximum peak I/O bandwidth.<p>Keeping one of the older ports would be more immediately convenient (no need for an adapter), but would mean a less powerful machine overall if that means sacrificing a USB-C port.<p>The lack of an SD card slot is sad, though. Losing MagSafe is maybe a shame, too, but you do gain a standardised port (so one companies other than Apple can make chargers for), a power cable detachable from the brick, and the ability to connect it to either side of the machine.<p>I guess the best way to describe the port configuration is “far-sighted”. It's extremely future-proof and capable, and will be great once USB-C is everywhere, but it's painful right now.
I agree with most of this, but the dongle thing is pretty silly and he does a bad job of covering it. As a developer I need:<p>* a thunderbolt 2 dongle for my external monitor<p>* a lightning dongle for my phone (not for backups, for dev work)<p>* a usb dongle for my mouse (the trackpad is great for casual use, but a real mouse is still far more productive -- and I hate bluetooth mice with a passion due to recharging hassles and the fact that after so many years they still haven't completely solved the interference issue)<p>* a second usb dongle for my video conferencing USB headphones<p>Keep in mind I bought one of these things the second the site opened up, but I <i>still</i> had a moment of "oh shit, yeah, I need to buy a lot of dongles!"<p>If I could have I would also have bought something that lets me use the 4 power bricks I already have with the new box. Not looking forward to having to buy a few extra of those.
People seem to forget there are a lot of smart people working at Apple on the business side who know what they are doing.<p><i>Apple has calculated how many customers will be upset, lost, indifferent and gained due to various product decisions.</i><p>Apple is not perfect or flop-proof, but they must make product decisions. These decisions, whether short term or long term, consider customers, competition and technology trends. Every decision has benefits and costs.<p>I agree Apple may have lost its way a bit and taken too far the old Steve Jobs' approach of "don't ask the customer what they want, they don't know, a company has to show them what they will want".<p>If you have decided not to upgrade to the new MBP because of the price or lack of ports. If you are going to buy a non-Apple laptop next time you do need to upgrade. Apple already knows this, you/we are statistics, and while they want customers to stay, they know a certain % of customers will not.<p>The removal of the headphone jack on the iphone went through the same calculations.<p>Still worth voicing our opinions, Apple listens as does the competition. Someone will offer what enough people want.
I just plugged my iPhone SE into my 2014 MBP to charge it while I'm also charging my MBP. Yeah, I do this frequently.<p>Offering USB-C and USB-A would have been a safe move. I think Schiller said *we don't design for price, we design for the experience". This is a bad experience.<p>Removing the chime seems like a pointless slap. Again, experience.<p>I do like having the T1 Security Enclave. We'll see about the function keys but that'll probably turn out pretty good.<p>16GB DRAM cap is really low, especially when prices got kicked up. Battery charge isn't great since they went with thin. Again, bad experience.<p>Lastly, I really don't want a thinner MBP. That is the Air which seems to have died. I want a powerful MBP because the P in MBP stands for Pro.
I think part of the problem is they capped the RAM at 16gb and many buyers of these devices expect to use them for 4-5 years. It's questionable whether 16gb will be suitable in 2021. Also - raising the price and taking away ports creates this vacuum just asking for opinions -- and since they're not shippping for a couple more weeks - there's no way to physically see how big an impact these changes will have - so it's fair to be skeptical of something that seems disruptive in a bad way.
The pricing keeps getting brought up. I understand the prices have gone up especially for some non-US buyers, but for those in the US, where are you seeing the hit? I might be insulated from this because I usually opt for the high-end 15", and from what I can remember the price on that hasn't changed. Is it the 13" models where the price has gone up?
The 16GB limit is the real issue for me personally. There are plenty of Windows/Unix laptops that can do 32GB or more so all the excuses I've been hearing are ludicrous.