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Apple Should Stop Selling Four-Year-Old Computers (theverge.com)
It's been a while since Apple upgraded its MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro models. Four years, one month, and twenty-four days, to be exact, in case of the MacBook Pro. Apple is inexplicably still selling the exact same models for its Mac line that it introduced in 2012. Pretty much every Windows OEM has had an Intel Skylake-powered processor in its laptops for more than a year now, but Apple's computing lineup is still shipping with the three-to-four years old processor, and graphics card. Things have gotten so bad, that MacRumors' Buying Guide, which is considered to be an "online institution" among Apple nerds, has flagged all of Apple laptops as "Don't Buy" In a column, The Verge's Sam Byford says that Apple should stop selling the old laptops. He writes: Apple iterates quickly and consistently in mobile because the rate of technological progress is so much more dramatic in that arena. The company does amazing work to keep its iPhones and iPads ahead of competitors, performance-wise. Simple Intel processor upgrades are less important to laptops these days, however, and I'm finding this 2012 MacBook Pro fine to work from right now -- faster than my 2015 MacBook, at least, which is enough for my needs. But that doesn't mean it isn't unconscionable for Apple to continue to sell outdated products to people who may not know any better. Is the company really saving that much money by using 2012 processors and 4GB of RAM as standard? Even an update to Intel's Haswell chips from 2013 would have brought huge battery life improvements. Apple is bound by the whims of its suppliers to a certain extent, and it may not always make sense for the company to upgrade its products with every single new chip or GPU that comes out. But there's a certain point at which it just starts to look like absent-mindedness, and many Mac computers are well past that point now. [...] If Apple doesn't want to keep its products reasonably current, that's its prerogative. But if that truly is the case, maybe it shouldn't sell them at all.It's also ironic, coming from a company whose executive not long ago made fun of people who had five years old computer. Folks at Accidental Tech Podcast also discussed the same recently.
The 2012 laptop is faster than the 2015 laptop but Apple should stop selling it ... why, exactly?
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Don't buy any machine for specs--buy it because it does what you need. Buy it because the one you have now doesn't. The notion that I should buy a new computer every two years is ridiculous. My last PowerBook lasted five. It was getting a *little* long in the tooth for digital photo editing but I could have waited another ueR. It was definitely slow for video editing. The machines are likely labeled as "do not buy" as much because people are expecting new models as anything else.Apple's currently running a promo for education users which is the normal strategy for clearing inventory before replacements are sold. There's a solid argument that Apple should stop selling *computers* but the suggestion in tbe article is just inane.
Um...they do perform better. With lower specs. Android is bloated and buggy and requires more raw power to accomplish the same productivity. Yes, I'm going to give you a car analogy: In 1985, you could buy a car that produced around 160 horsepower from a 5.7-liter V8 engine. Today's V6 engines produce 260+ horsepower from small 3.5-liter V6 engines.
Yes, your car in 1985 had a larger engine and used more gasoline, but it still gets outperformed by smaller, more efficient units today.
This is a sensible strategy. Moores Law is over. Intels processor performance is only 30% better than it was 5 years ago. Computers aren't improving much year over year overall. The last jump in decent improvement was the introduction of SSD's. I am sorry to say it looks like digital computing is a dead end: we won't be seeing AI or the Singularity everyone wishes for with digital computers.
So, the 8 year old system doesn't do what I need, so I should upgrade to the 4 year old version because it will be "good enough" for now as the same price I should be paying for current hardware? Computers are much like transportation. Can you get there by walking? Sure, it might take a few days, but you can. Does that mean you shouldn't upgrade to a car that can get you there many times as fast? Them selling old outdated systems even as an option is shameful in the extreme and they are just suckering people in with brand loyalty.
Thunderbolt is kind of an bust & Intel low pci-e count does not really help. But at least with skylake they will get DMI 3.0 that moves the 2.0 X4 DMI link to 3.0 X4.
Also the big thin push hurts them more with cutting ports and only having 1 TB bus so that all ext stuff has to shear the TB link with DP data. Now if they do put some stuff like E-net and wifi on the DMI / chipset bus. Then in the laptops / mini they can switch the X16 to X8 video (if the system has an non Intel gpu) X4 TB 3.0 X4 pci-e storage or with out video X8 2 TB 3.0 buses X8 2 X4 storage.
Now the macpro is a real bust and with 1 cpu the pci-e lane count does not give them the room to do TB 3.0 without an lot of changes. Like switch the video to X8 X8 freeing up 3 X4 links for TB and 1 more X4 for the 2th pci-e storage card. or adding an 2rd cpu giving them room for 2-4 storage cards and 4-6 TB 3.0 buses + 10 GB e-net.
As it happens, I am writing this on a 4-year old MacBook Pro. It is fast and reliable and I have yet to find any Mac software I want that I cannot run. If I lost this one, I would definitely want to buy a replacement, but I don't feel a need to upgrade just because. Now, I know that having the latest-greatest CPU is cool, but what exactly would that buy me if I bought it?
Speaking of cars, Apple is the exact opposite of Tesla. They sell outdated tech and make a huge profit. Tesla sells near-science-fiction tech and loses $15,000 per car.
Maybe that's what happens when you get big and greedy and realize that people still wait in line for hours to buy a "new" device that is for the most part identical to the last 3 or 4 models. Let's hope Tesla never transitions to that business strategy.
lucm, indeed.
the 4 year old model referenced is the base model, that indeed does use the same parts
Yeah, and it's still the SAME PRICE! There's no excuse for that.
This entire suggestion is stupid unless consumers enjoy paying for obscenely priced factory memory and non-removable hard drives, which these components being replaceable are two great features that still exist in this "dinosaur" model they're still selling.
And yes, I'm still considering biting the bullet to buy one for those specific reasons, since Apple has gone the asinine route and forces you to buy their memory and hard drive upgrades at time of purchase for every other model they sell. I already own a late-2012 i7 Mac Mini (which is almost identical hardware to this model) that absolutely SCREAMS with 16GB RAM and SSD upgrade, so I'm already familiar with how this "ancient" laptop would likely perform with some minor replaceable components.
Once this model disappears, you will be forced to purchase damn near every hardware upgrade you might ever need up-front and all from Apple. Dunno about anyone else, but I won't be enjoying that stupidity at all.
I don't own any Macs, but my next computer will be a Mac. It's more than a fashion statement.
Linux still doesn't "just work." If it does "just work," it's probably because you have old hardware. Linux will probably never be ready for the desktop unless hardware stops changing.
Microsoft? They've completely crossed the line with Windows 10. They're trying to make it like a big phone with invasion of privacy and telemetry. Microsoft has abandoned power users. I suppose gamers still need to use it, but they're giving up a lot.
Chromebooks aren't made for power users and are glorified web browsers.
What's left? Macs. They have good support, a desktop that works, and are based on BSD. Since it's not really a gaming platform, having the latest and greatest specs aren't that important, but generally they have solid specs. Expensive? They retain their resale value. I wish I could get rid of my 2014 Asus Zenbook even though it's really fast. Windows 10 is horrible and the drivers are constantly breaking when there are updates. I doubt I'd get a fair value on eBay or Craigslist, and I don't want to expose myself to fraud and/or idiots.
If it's still selling it doesn't need an excuse.
The morons that buy it on the other hand...
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
I'd hardly call Retina Display merely a cosmetic difference.
I think that's actually the definition of a cosmetic difference. Same thing, but looks better.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
Ahh, now we are getting somewhere, that's atleast a CPU right? But you still failed because Broadwell is from 2014. It's 2016 and everyone else is shipping skylake.
So... it's a two year-old computer, not a four year-old computer. An every-other-year update cycle seems pretty reasonable, given the pace at which processor performance is changing these days (slower than it used to). As for GPUs, meh, these aren't gaming rigs.
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I would touch skylake only with a 2 meter pole. That skylake that takes pictures all the time and sends them to Microsoft. I stop at Broadwell, in 8 years I'll switch to AMD or whoever is playing on the market. Or go back to pen and paper. Skylake is a pest, and since I'll stick with Windows 8.1 until it is supported and Windows server 2012 R2, and never go to 10, no skylake.. As for the Mac OS.. they fucked up the memory management in 10.7 and later, though at least on UI side 10.9 is the last usable one. Yosemite is leaking memory like crazy, El Capitan can't work with 24h time... Who the hell removes the zero hour and replaces it with 24th.. According to the new apple, the day starts at 1 after midnight and continues till 1 after midnight on the next day.. Not to mention the UI is completely fucked up. It almost seems like Apple and MS held meeting together on how to fuck up their OSes to a level of something Chrome OS like, so they can also push everything else to the cloud. The current versions of those GUIs are so fucked up, that I feel better on TTYs on the console or terminals running in Window Maker, and that also helps me keep away for the shite browsers have all become with HTML5 and javascript.
There is almost no meaningful improvement in performance between Ivy Bridge and Haswell/Broadwell/Skylake parts. You may be getting slightly better performance for a somewhat lower TDP, but it is not like you are getting even 30% increase especially on the mobile processors. Real world performance on stuff like x264 tends to greatly disagree with synthetic benchmarks that show 2x, 3x performance increase. In reality if you get 10%-15% you are lucky. And for 10%-15% it is hardly worth it to throw out good systems and buy new ones.