Apple's Direction

[James Gryphon]

The release of the new MacBook Pro has led numerous columnists to question the company's competitiveness if they continue to release such products. Someone noted that its USB-C ports aren't compatible with Apple's own new phones. It lost the MagSafe port which everybody universally loved. Its touchscreen bar has been criticized as a gimmick. And, perhaps most ominously, the "new" machines have reportedly changed very little in terms of performance from the years-old models they replaced.

What do y'all think? Is the new MacBook release proof that Apple's lost its way, or is this just a hiccup en route to world domination?

[Jetthebinturong]

Apple lost its way a long time ago. Releasing new versions of things with barely any differences is just completely pointless. They're just focused on making money, rather than making a product that matters and is good.

[Groddil]

[Dannflower Reguba]

       I've always had personal issues with Apple (overpriced, excessive clutter, UI, etc.), but more recently, it's been transcending personal opinion, turning into fact that they're just bad. Best example being the new iphones not including headphone jacks (FORCING you to buy one of their other products), as well as their other various changes or exclusions of ports simply to make you buy more of their stuff.

[Søren]

*enters the fanboy*
I don't think the MacBook Pro is a hiccup at all. While "some" people have criticized the new MacBook Pro, it's been highly lauded by other sources, reputable ones such as the Verge and Wired. They point out that while the Touch Bar will take some getting used to, it's still an "exciting" feature. I have not heard anyone reference it as a "gimmick", but rather as potential.
To stick with USB C or Thunderbolt 3 could be hard for a lot of people, but personally, there's only 1 device I use that would require a USB A port (an old flash drive). I use the Mac for loading photos from a high end camera, to pairing phones, to recording the screen of an Apple TV. And I don't use it as often as you'd think.
And honestly, if you're going to drop that kind of money on a laptop, it's not like you can't afford a USB hub if you need one.
Speaking of the price of these laptops, I guess no one remembers that the previous generation "Retina MacBook Pro" initially was released with a hiked up price as well, and then lowed later as they were internally upgraded.

The removal of the headphone jack in the iPhone 7 was a big deal for a lot of people. Personally, I'm fine with it. I have an iPhone 7 Plus, and adore it. The loss of the headphone jack didn't mean much to me. They practically own the market, and where they lead others will follow, such as HTC, Lenovo's Motorola and possibly even Samsung.
And yeah, by removing the jack that locks people in based on st least one headset to either Lightning or Bluetooth. But of course they're going to do that. What color is the sky on the planet where Apple should make things easier for people who use their competitors' products? And naturally, if you buy from Apple's own wireless headphone group, the experience is much simpler, with one-tap pairing across all of your devices, including Mac and iPad.
I don't even have to mention the changes Apple's made in the past, such as ditching floppy and the disc drives. When was he last time you used any of the ports or drives they had previously rid themselves of?

Apple doesn't operate like they did under Steve Jobs because he died. It's not his Apple anymore. He chose Tim Cook to be the replacement CEO. Cool was never a design expert. He's a business man. Jobs chose him to lead what has quickly become to largest company in the world. Literally too big to fail. And that's why none of this matters, because no matter what they change, or how much anyone gripes about it, they can't make Apple change. They lead nearly every catagory they go into to change and follow them. That's how they make money, and that's what it's all about. As long as that means I can keep a device like this iPhone, I'm ok with that.

[Cornflower MM]

No headphone port would be a pretty big deal for a lot of people, Sor. They'd have to go out and get the wireless headphones, and chances are I'm not the only one majorly confused by wireless stuff/just plain don't like it.

[Wylder Treejumper]

Well, I can say that investors aren't very happy with Apple's direction. Apple is no longer an innovative company, it no longer posts large sales increases, and its business model is beginning to become questionable. The most interesting thing Apple has done recently was the iWatch- because that was a real game-changer for the world. There is good reason that Apple stock has been slipping since 2015. They've been grossly outperformed by Microsoft, which is currently both more innovative and more profitable.

So much for Tim Cook being a businessman's businessman.

[Søren]

No headphone port would be a pretty big deal for a lot of people, Sor. They'd have to go out and get the wireless headphones, and chances are I'm not the only one majorly confused by wireless stuff/just plain don't like it.

That was my personal feeling on the headphone jack. You can use headphones with a Lighting cable, and get the same experience as you would for the headphone jack. For me, once you use wireless, it really isn't the same to go back to wired.

In either case, they've sold millions of the 7s by now. yAnd it makes the change to the 8 (rumor has it to be a major overhaul of the iPhone) much easier.

@Wylder Treejumper It's an Apple Watch
Who says Microsoft is more profitable, by the way?

Apple has a lot of wiggle room in that area. They've got a huge cash pile, over $215 billion dollars, just sitting there. (Not even in assets, it's pure money). Analysts are predicting growth in the next couple of years. They're also right up there with the 10 largest companies in the world, not something Microsoft can claim.

[Cornflower MM]

They have enough money to help feed, house, and clothe the homeless 'just sitting there' - Yeah, what a great company.

[Groddil]

Charlie, I'm bill gates, the richest man in the world. I need to know the secret of Apple. Microsoft makes cheaper junk with the exact same features people but won't buy it. You help me, and I'll give you enough Microsoft Gift Certificates to fill a thousand Zoons!


*Charlie walks into the room containing "what makes Apple special." It's empty.*

[Wylder Treejumper]

@Søren: Psh. Apple Watch, iWatch, what's the difference? After all, the "Apple Watch" was really just a screen tethered to an iPhone with a couple additional features.

Anyways, Apple is now a company like Microsoft was 8 years ago: stuck in incremental improvement mode, essentially re-releasing the same equipment over and over. The stock presents few growth prospects, and has underperformed the S&P 500 for the past 2 years. Revenue and sales hasn't even regained 4Q 2015 levels. The stock future is better than they were at the beginning of the year, due to increased overseas sales and services, but the R&D has been poor for a while. No tremendous new software or technology has been forthcoming, and the services increase mean that more people are paying for the apple connectivity rather than any apple product itself. Platforms are good, of course, but platform growth is limited without hard sales growth.

[James Gryphon]

We're not talking about USB-A, we're talking about Apple's own Lightning ports. The iPhone 7 was just released recently, and the new MacBooks already use different ports. So, if you want to plug your September 2017 iPhone into your November 2017 MacBook Pro, you need an adapter. That's not exactly "it just works". It strikes me as more an example of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing. As far as getting a USB hub goes, that seems to go directly against the whole point of getting a portable laptop.

As far as the touch bar goes... ergonomically, I think the whole concept is a disaster, encouraging people to hunt and peck and stare at the keyboard instead of using the equally flexible and much more touch-typing conducive function keys, and keeping their focus on the screen. I don't see how it's in any way 'better' to have a teeny signature image-sized bar over either function keys or a touch screen. As far as it being a gimmick goes, it reminds me of when the industry savagely panned Nintendo for their Wii U gamepads with built-in touch screens, and that feature seems infinitely more useful to me, from a gamer's perspective, than this does. If there's a problem with the function keys, it's that it isn't always clear what they do. So, Apple should have taken a cue from Optimus Maximus and made actual keys with changeable faces, not go touch-screen all the way.

Finally, there's not enough touchscreens or USB-C ports in the world to make up for not substantially improving the inside of their machines. Reissuing the same hardware in new cases for 5+ years might've been good enough for the Commodore 64, but it isn't a positive sign in 2016, and I've heard the new MacBooks fall short in this area.

"Cook was never a design expert"...well, it shows. I think it's clear from their software development over the last few years, and now their struggles in hardware, that Apple's lost that vision thing, not unlike the first time when Jobs left.

Companies that are "too big to fail" always do.

[Søren]

Good points all around.

I don't think they've lost their "Vision", but they're not Jobs' Apple anymore. They've got they're own plan.

Side note, here's a kinda satirical but very true article about the new MacBook Pro. And another more calm take on how the Touch Bar could prove to be very useful across the board soon.

@James Gryphon
About those "dynamic keyboards"...

[Rusvul]

   Disclaimer: I am not unilaterally anti-Apple. If their products suited me best, I'd use them. (They don't, so I don't.) I am, however, frustrated by their anti-consumer practices and the fact that apparently that's okay.

*enters the fanboy*
I don't think the MacBook Pro is a hiccup at all. While "some" people have criticized the new MacBook Pro, it's been highly lauded by other sources, reputable ones such as the Verge and Wired. They point out that while the Touch Bar will take some getting used to, it's still an "exciting" feature. I have not heard anyone reference it as a "gimmick", but rather as potential.
To stick with USB C or Thunderbolt 3 could be hard for a lot of people, but personally, there's only 1 device I use that would require a USB A port (an old flash drive). I use the Mac for loading photos from a high end camera, to pairing phones, to recording the screen of an Apple TV. And I don't use it as often as you'd think.
And honestly, if you're going to drop that kind of money on a laptop, it's not like you can't afford a USB hub if you need one.
Speaking of the price of these laptops, I guess no one remembers that the previous generation "Retina MacBook Pro" initially was released with a hiked up price as well, and then lowed later as they were internally upgraded.

The removal of the headphone jack in the iPhone 7 was a big deal for a lot of people. Personally, I'm fine with it. I have an iPhone 7 Plus, and adore it. The loss of the headphone jack didn't mean much to me. They practically own the market, and where they lead others will follow, such as HTC, Lenovo's Motorola and possibly even Samsung.
And yeah, by removing the jack that locks people in based on st least one headset to either Lightning or Bluetooth. But of course they're going to do that. What color is the sky on the planet where Apple should make things easier for people who use their competitors' products? And naturally, if you buy from Apple's own wireless headphone group, the experience is much simpler, with one-tap pairing across all of your devices, including Mac and iPad.
I don't even have to mention the changes Apple's made in the past, such as ditching floppy and the disc drives. When was he last time you used any of the ports or drives they had previously rid themselves of?

Apple doesn't operate like they did under Steve Jobs because he died. It's not his Apple anymore. He chose Tim Cook to be the replacement CEO. Cool was never a design expert. He's a business man. Jobs chose him to lead what has quickly become to largest company in the world. Literally too big to fail. And that's why none of this matters, because no matter what they change, or how much anyone gripes about it, they can't make Apple change. They lead nearly every catagory they go into to change and follow them. That's how they make money, and that's what it's all about. As long as that means I can keep a device like this iPhone, I'm ok with that.

First bolded segment: Blue, sometimes pink or orange at sunrise or sunset. Everyone else has agreed upon a few formats- primarily, HDMI for video, auxiliary for audio, and USB/micro USB for the other stuff. As time goes on, the standards have changed and will continue to- HDMI superseded VGA, and USB iterations march ever on, but the point is, numerous tech companies more or less use the same formats. Apple doesn't. That's anti-consumer- in their rebellion, they're actively making life more difficult for anyone who doesn't completely buy in. I'm not okay with that.

Second bolded segment: Arguable falsity aside, this is a bad thing. Lack of competition in an industry is never a good thing for consumers.
   Consider AMD and Nvidia- they both make graphics cards, with AMD tending towards lower-end and Nvidia tending towards higher end. They're competitors. If Nvidia drops the ball completely one year, then AMD will leap ahead and make more money. Nvidia doesn't want that, so they'll try their hardest to make every GPU good (or at least good enough.)
   Now consider Comcast and Time Warner. They're both ISPs, but they don't compete. They stay out of each other's territory so that they each can maintain their respective monopolies. Time Warner and Comcast are among the most hated companies in the US. Speaking from personal experience, Comcast's customer service is abysmal, they're always later than they say they will be, and their internet is always slower than advertised. From what I've heard, much the same is true of Time Warner.
   Anecdotal as they are, I think these examples illustrate my point well. Companies doing whatever they want because they can get away with it is a bad thing for everyone except the company.

@the Apple Factory video: The box isn't empty- that must be an illusion or something. It's filled with brilliant, brilliant marketers who can convince consumers that it's worth it to pay more in order to get less.

[Hickory]

As far as the tech goes, I don't care for their most recent releases, but my 5s serves me well (typing from it now).

The problem is, the OS (I think the current one for Macbook Pro is El Capitan) doesn't really support the sorts of games I like to play. For example, I can't download the expansion for my Star Wars game cause the App Store doesn't support it, and cause I don't have a bank account to use Steam with. Furthermore, I can't download mods for the game, base game or otherwise, simply because vanilla Mac doesn't allow it. This is why I hate the standard OS for Apple so much. Grrrr.