I love your minimalism. No heavy designs, just what’s needed, and you Apple know what people need. Your creation of demands — iPod, iPhone, iPad — is unmatched in the consumer world. Yet there are two minimalisms you provide, and the latter one is disturbing. Love your clean, minimalist designs and UI without frills. But in terms of minimalist hardware upgrades, today everything is about the iPhone. Your computers on offer are outdated and almost outrageous. Don’t you fear customers could one day take revenge?
Yes, happy birthday Apple. It was 40 years ago, on April 1, 1976, that Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer Company. First there was a handicraft computer and then the first commercially successful computer with a graphical user interface. A history of ups, downs and near collapse followed.
In 2007, when you Apple were really successful again, the company redeemed the component “cromputer” from its own name. It was the year of the iPhone introduction, after your successes with the iPod MP3 player.
And today, 40 years after your founding, you threaten to insult your most loyal customers: Mac users. After all, I have a hard time if I want to buy a Mac today. Sure I have a 5-year old MacBook Air at home still running smoothly, it might even be faster than when I bought it. But your current models, dear Apple, are across the board equipped with obsolete Intel processors, and Mac users wait for updates of multiple models — so far in vain.
The latest Mac computer was released in October 2015 when Apple launched a new iMac. But if I’d like to buy a MacBook Pro with Retina display, well since May 2015 we’re waiting for an update of this series. Since then, you Apple have not even reduced the price of the computer, even though the components used therein have become cheaper. Sure, we don’t always need the latest and greatest, and good for you Apple to enjoy even higher profit margins.
Some Mac models haven’t been updated since 2013. Are you, Apple, becoming a phone company? And with Tim Cook trying to pitch the iPad Pro as the better computer, we get iPads in all forms and shapes, yet on the computer front, the MacBook Pro is not even the most extreme case.
The small MacBook was introduce in April 2015 and since then never updated or reduced in price. Customers wait since March 2015 for an updated MacBook Air, and the stand-alone Mac Mini was last updated in October 2014 while computer components become faster, cheaper, better. Look how on the Windows front companies are churning out ever better models.
Yet most absurd, dear Apple, is the situation with your professional Mac Pro, your most powerful and expandable computer ever. The Mac Pro was introduced in December 2013. And has since sold unchanged. And are you, Apple, still selling old stocked MacBook Pros without Retina screen? A model from June 2012 is still unchanged and available. At least in June 2014 you offered a slight price reduction on the discontinued model.
Whatever you say, Apple.
Just don’t say MacRumors is not a Mac force to reckon with. MacRumors advises to currently not buy six out of seven Mac computers. At least the iMac is rated as “neutral.”
Because who cares. You Apple are still making good money and defy the general negative trend in PC sales while you build yourself a magnificent palace. Despite your update fatigue, you sold 5.3 million Macs in the first quarter of this year — almost as many as a year earlier. Year-on-year revenue fell by only 2% to 6.7 billion dollars.
In the preceding quarter you even announced new Mac record sales. Must be because your hardware and software are so superior. or is it a marketing thing? Again, even my old Apple hardware works just fine. In benchmark tests, your aging models sure still beat the hell out of Windoze? But maybe, due to ever-new record sales figures for the iPhone, Macs are not that important anymore. In the recent quarter you sold iPhones for more than 32 billion dollars. That makes Macs relatively unimportant, and now that you push for the transition from computers to iPads, Macs become even less important?
Could it be, though, that some professional users are turning away from you, Apple? Your iPod, iPhone and iPad successes helped Mac sales, you still dominate the market for computers over $1,000 almost alone.
Yet computer professionals are a different breed. For them, your computers become increasingly unattractive while Windows is beginning to make inroads.
Apple’s video editing software Final Cut Pro X, which appeared in 2011, doesn’t support the color correction system Color and other functions any longer, Aperture R.I.P., and other OS X applications, such as iWork Suite, have been lightened in functionality, thus making them more similar to iOS versions.
Mac users still can enjoy rock-solid platforms, and it’s unlikely that no new models are introduced at WWDC developer conference this summer. If, however, again no new Macs are announced, then Apple you seriously threaten to squander the loyalty of professional users.
Or are you betting people won’t be using computers anymore, everything is going mobile?
Nevertheless, Macs are avaialble on Amazon, eBay, B&H Photo and Adorama.
BTW, for the latest on THEME, why don’t you subscribe to our email, RSS, Facebook or Twitter info channels. Thank you!