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Apple's Share of PC Users Drops To A Five-Year Low (infoworld.com)
Windows 10 is installed on 24.5% of devices -- but that's only half the story. "Apple's Mac share of personal computers worldwide fell to a five-year low in December," reports Computerworld, adding that Linux and Windows "both benefited, with increases of around a half percentage point during 2016."
An anonymous reader quotes their report:
According to web analytics vendor Net Applications, Apple's desktop and notebook operating system -- formerly OS X, now macOS -- powered just 6.1% of all personal computers last month, down from 7% a year ago and a peak of 9.6% as recently as April 2016... The Mac's 6.1% user share in December was the lowest mark recorded by Net Applications since August 2011, more than five years ago... In October, the company reported sales of 4.9 million Macs for the September quarter, a 14% year-over-year decline and the fourth straight quarterly downturn. Apple's sales slide during the past 12 months has been steeper than for the personal computer industry as a whole, according to industry researchers from IDC and Gartner, a 180-degree shift from the prior 30 or so quarters, when the Mac's growth rate repeatedly beat the business average.
Apple's success through 2016 was "fueled by Microsoft's stumbles with Windows 8 and a race-to-the-bottom mentality among rival OEMs," according to the article, which also notes that the user share for Linux exceeded 2% in June, and reached 2.3% by November.
Apple's success through 2016 was "fueled by Microsoft's stumbles with Windows 8 and a race-to-the-bottom mentality among rival OEMs," according to the article, which also notes that the user share for Linux exceeded 2% in June, and reached 2.3% by November.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
this is what happens. Not increasing the max amount of RAM in the MacBook for over six years is ridiculous. The 13" MacBook Pro I have that I ordered the day it came out on April 13, 2010 has 16 GB. I, like a lot of developers, have to run several virtual machines so I need more RAM. Apple just gave-up. Moore's law says the amount of RAM should have increased by more than a factor of eight.
Apple is no longer interested in my business. I use an old 15" MBP and it does everything I want, and has almost every port I need. The new MBP's simply suck in comparison. A "touch bar"??? Hey, Apple, I got something you can touch, and it isnt my money. Dongles? I use one dongle now. With the new MBP I'd need a dongle for everything. When Apple makes a MBP that is upgradable and has the ports that people need now and has noticeably better performance, I'll consider it. Windows is starting to look better and better.
A post Jobs Apple has stagnated. A big, dead, and stinky whale in the water. They stopped innovating and started going for gimmicks and shine. Removing 3.5mm jacks, sacrificing competitive battery performance for thinness not being demanded by consumers. Then you have a MacBook "Pro" that basically kicks professionals in the pants. As an owner of an iPhone 6s Plus and two 2014 MacBook pros, these will likely be my last devices when they go. I run commercial real estate during the day, but do photography on the side and it's expanding to a more primary business. stripping SD card slots and standardising to only USB-C is hardly pro, especially when a lot of us rely on older equipment from time to time in creative fields (like my Kodak film scanner).
Apple lost its way. It hasn't innovated in a long time. It's become a corporate version of click bait products. The touch bar, the "thinness"... these things would make sense if consumers were asking for them. Everywhere I turn, they aren't. So Apple is trying a forced-down innovation in their vision. Historically, this never works because even if consumers don't know exactly what it is they need, they won't take something they don't want just because you've crammed it down their throats.
Now that Microsoft has embraced opensource a bit more and Win 10 is more polished, the excuses for Apple software, which is lagging desperately behind in features, even begins to lose steam. RIP, Apple.
While they continue to pull defeat from the jaws of victory with baffling regularity(eg. needlessly atrocious touchpads for no obvious reason); it's amazing how much less-bad your average PC laptop is today, when compared to the race-to-the-bottom and "Yeah, it's a 15in low-res screen and 2 inches thick" era. Models that can go directly head-to-head with Apple's finest are rarer; but you can often save enough money, vs. the really classy Apple gear, that a few minor sins can be overlooked. Combine that with Apple's more or less total neglect of anything desktop/workstation, which is a boring segment but moves a lot of hardware; and the fair success of Chromebooks as practically-disposable cheap 'n portable options; and you have a few reasons why OSX marketshare might not be doing as well outside of the truly devoted.
Back in the day, an ibook/macbook was both good and actually one of the cheaper options if you needed something small and light; mac minis stacked up reasonably favorably against all but the most atrocious cheapy towers; and Mac Pros were pretty respectably priced workstation offerings. I remember, back when they were still doing the intel-based 'cheese grater' case Pros; we were a Dell shop but when we priced out the Pros vs. equivalent Precisions our Dell rep turned a slightly unhealthy color and had to cut us a deal to make it worth going with those rather than just bootcamping the macs. That...isn't exactly...how the world works anymore.
They abandoned productivity computing users almost entirely.
Appliance-style computers with high-end sensory specs, rather than modular ones with high-end throughput specs.
Abandonment of "professional" tier applications, integrations, and support.
Marketing and product development that targeted information consumption rather than production and manipulation.
Modifications primarily to the computing platform whenever computing and mobile needed to be brought closer.
Not so long ago Mac OS was a compelling computing platform at the hardware and at the software level for many professionals, including many computing professionals like me (who were once hardcore Linux/*nix users).
This is no longer the case. With the changes that have been made over the last few years, Mac OS and related hardware are now also-rans, but ones that come at a significant cost premium and with significant limitations.
Meanwhile, they have avoided the (often controversial) wisdom of Steve Jobs, who tended to cannibalize existing product lines and userbases with new ones in order to stay ahead of the curve. Instead, they have worked hard not to cannibalize and/or risk the iOS userbase (designing instead for its lowest common denominator, which is low indeed) by upgrading or innovating in iOS.
The result is that Mac OS is no longer a viable (much less obvious) choice for professionals even in many of its traditional constituencies, while iOS has stagnated and is now significantly behind Android in many ways.
I don't think all of this would have happened under Steve Jobs, who would have continued to be controversial, and also would have continued to make gains but in often surprising ways that would only be grudgingly conceded later on.
With Tim Cook they got a traditional bean-counter who carried Apple back into the traditional corporate cycle of aggressive rise, complacent dominance, unavoidable fall.
I'm annoyed that I'll have to switch computing platforms again—the switch from Linux was not easy after 17 years when I made it in 2010—but I suspect that I will.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
And Valve is no longer a game developer.
They are a gambling site and games retailer.
Both succeed in their attempts to gain more money =P
My first computer was an Apple IIGS. I've owned more Macs then I can remember. I was responsible for Macs being adopted by my workplace. And yet, I very much doubt my next computer will be a Mac. Poor hardware choices are really the last straw. Chances are good my next rig will be a Dell XPS running Ubuntu.
I'd argue that the "fall" has to do a lot with the web browsers and SSL increase. A lot more people are conscious of privacy these days than they were a year ago. The only thing Safari and Internet Explorer are good for is to download Firefox or Chrome; that has to be messing with the detection, especially since Firefox has third party tracking protection built in. Who doesn't use Adblock, Privacy Badger, Ghostery, or NoScript? I'm sure anyone reading this is using something like that or has heard of them. So, the default on websites would appear to be Windows due to a "when in doubt." Windows is the generic goto browser for most user-agent info. And then, you have SSL encryption (https) which protects data from man in the middle stuff that could be causing it. The MAC address info (usually standardized for brand cataloging) may not show up at all; I'm not really sure.
I find it surprising that according to this statistic one third of Mac users stopped using Macs during the last 8 months. Or did the market grow a lot (don't think so)? I can see that some Mac users would switch to Windows (or occasionally to Linux), but one third in 8 months? Seems actually unlikely.
They just need to remove a few more standard ports and add more adapters!
The problem with Apple isn't their UI, Hardware or price, it's the simple fact that a tremendous number of tools, games and other applications won't run on them natively. This ranges from simple games to development tools for app developers. It's this limitation of choice that makes the price point not worth it.
iPhones are so popular because they do EVERYTHING most people want a smartphone to do. The development model is easy to understand and plan around for any game, app etc and the return is huge! However, if you are a big name publishing company macs are a pain in the ass to develop games for. There is no incentive for developers to spend the enormous resources necessary to make games and apps work on Apple Computers.
Windows 10 and MacOS do (Ubuntu not far behind). Nobody wants to be tracked or spied on much less infected by malware due to malvertising ads!
The percentage of people using Macs dropped from 9.6% to 6.1% in seven months?
In other words, nearly 40% of people using Macs switched to something else in just seven months?
There's no chance this is representative of the market as a whole.
People were waiting for a good Mac refresh in 2016. The macbook pro finally came out but to mixed reviews. The direction Apple is going with their computers is hard to say. More adapters to lug around....Some screens get improvements while others do not...things changed for the sake of change. Why upgrade your 4 yr old computer when the new one has the very same screen? There will be a bump if Apple spends more of an effort to refresh their computer lineup. I have a 4 yr old 11 inch mac air and I still see no reason to upgrade. I am definitely not in the minority.
Apple's Share of PC Users????
But A Mac Is Not A PC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1one
Apple is also losing the battle in education. There are almost 100,000 schools in the US and until about 5 years ago, many ran Apple computers in their classrooms.
Chromebooks have eaten Apple's lunch almost entirely in that space.
Cutting Tim Cook's pay is not enough - Microsoft put a tech guy in charge of the company - it's time for Apple to do the same.
Apparently I'm either a "professional" or not. I don't really know these days, because I use my computer to do fancy things with 3D graphics, video editing, music production, etc. Whenever I bring up valid complaints about Apple's latest lacklustre "professional" offerings and how they don't even remotely meet my requirements or desires, I'm usually told that I'm just doing it wrong or that I'm not the "professional" Apple is targeting today, and somehow it's my fault for wanting a computer with I/O ports and a reliable battery life.
Personally, I got tired of waiting for them to get their shit together. The yearly release cycle of OS X basically precludes the possibility of that OS ever being dependable again. New releases always break shit and change things, you're lucky to get a semi-stable OS by the time they stop releasing point updates. Inevitably there's always a few bugs left over, which get fixed in the next major release, which breaks even more things, and the cycle repeats.
Then there's the utter disasters they've ushered in over the years, like Metal (which is missing so many fundamental features it's basically impossible for any modern day 3D package to use over OpenGL), or OpenCL and the nMP with the dual GPUs (where's all the third party software for that, by the way?), etc.
After they trashed the OS X UI with 10.10 (which made me stop caring about a nice, pleasant to look at and easy to use GUI), along with all the other stuff combined... I just kinda started migrating back to a Windows 7, and that was the end of that. I need flexible tools I can depend on to make money, and Apple doesn't seem to be interested in offering that kind of tech anymore. The only thing I can do is vote with my wallet, which is exactly what I did.
I guess it seems like a lot of other people are too.
I'm a more recent convert AWAY from Windows at work in 2013 (7 is going to be my last Windows OS at home), and then they drop this turd of a new MacBook Pro on us.
I'm not interested in a fancy function keys bar or Touch ID because I don't need my MacBook Pro to be an iPhone that happens to have a keyboard. I want a fast, powerful, reliable OS on a fast, powerful, reliable laptop that just works without any extra effort.
Apple was a "just works" solution for people who didn't want to be bothered with their computer to do what they actually wanted to do. And Apple delivered that beautifully. Not to me, I never got my mind wrapped around the "Apple way" of thinking, but I could easily see it with the various people I used to admin PCs for. They quickly fell in love with the intuitive interface (beats me how this is intuitive, but they thought so) and how "naturally" everything felt (personally, I felt it was all wrong). But it wasn't for me, it was for them, and for them, it worked perfectly. There also was never an issue with odd drivers or having to upgrade them, Apple did that for you. There was also never an issue with having to buy some additional reader for whatever esoteric memory medium your digital cam used, your Apple could read it. Out of the box. Without you having to install anything. Even the most cryptic format nobody heard about, your Apple would read it and seamlessly let you work with it, it organizes your files for you, it was the perfect computer for people who just wanted to do stuff without having to learn how to do it.
Quite frankly, Apple's engineers apparently spent a lot of time employing people like my dad telling them what they want to do and they designed the software to "think" for the user. That was the key asset for Apple. And they threw that away.
No, not with the software. That probably still works the way it did. But with the hardware. Again, one of the key selling points for Apple was that their machines could read anything you could possibly throw at them. And that is simply no longer the case. They can't even read USB out of the box anymore. Instead you are supposed to buy a lot of additional crap, various cables for various reasons that confuse and overwhelm people. Which one do I need? And I don't want to buy the wrong one, they're all quite expensive.
Apple replaced total compatibility with absolute incompatibility. They saw that they can cram it down their users' throats in the phone market and tried the same stunt with their computers. And now they get to learn the MS lesson: Just 'cause you can piss on your customers in a market you dominate doesn't mean that it will work everywhere.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I am a creative professional in the online, SaaS, new media publishing era. I should easily be in the traditional Mac OS demographic.
I am using a 17" 2010 MBP. It has been maxed to 16GB RAM and dual internal large SSDs. I regularly use all of the ports that it offers. Even though the screen resolution is lower, I use the larger screen because I often have side-by-side windows open running SublimeText and/or some IDE, and doing that on 15" or less introduces eyestrain, even with the higher resolutions (which are mostly supported only in a way that adds visual actuance/sharpness, not in a way that increases available workspace). Density is cute for photos, but for reading and working in text, density < surface area.
I was an iPhone early adopter. I had been using smartphones for years (Palm at the time that iPhone was released), and iOS was a revelation early on. Absolute game-changer once apps happened.
Talk to me in 2009/2010 and I am a hardcore Apple supporter. I am running my old Linux applications in X, have a shell window open all the time, have access to pro-grade multimedia and development tools, and every part of the product line enhances the productivity of every other part seamlessly. They get it and they are enabling me to do my work like nobody else.
I recommend Apple's ecosystem to friend/family/co-workers without hesitation.
Now? The Mac is 7 years old. There is no device currently in Apple's lineup that would better serve my needs. I can't buy something from Apple, at any price, that I'd want to replace it with.
Many of the Applications that I previously used on it—Aperture, Final Cut, even iWork—have either been retired by Apple or hobbled by Apple, leading me to purchase third party alternatives, e.g. from Adobe, that are also supported on other platforms. The transitions were a pain in the ass, but now I've made them, so I'm no longer facing the resistance to switching that comes from losing all your applications and workflows.
And while iOS was once inimitable, nothing like it, enables many more things than any competitor, now I use Samsung Galaxy Tab S machines and a Panasonic CM1 Android phone. They give me shell access, expandable storage to move files around, and hardware that is better for mobile (better camera, better portability/weight, etc.) than iOS does.
In short, I'm an savvy computing professional, not someone easily swayed by marketing speak, and Apple isn't selling a single thing that I want. I've gone from an Apple house (Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Time Machine for router/backup) to a mixed house (Mac, Android phone, Android tablet, Roku, third-party NAS).
The only Apple item left is the Mac, and in a year or two it'll probably go and be replaced with a Dell/Samsung/Asus high-end machine running Linux.
There is no reason Apple had to lose me, they just didn't continue to make products that would enable me to get my work done more efficiently than the alternatives, which is what Apple used to do with shocking skill. But now?
Like I said, there's not a single thing in Apple's product line that I want to buy or that seems like a good investment from the productivity perspective. That's a complete and shocking inversion from the late '00s.
I now recommend Windows 10 or Linux and Android to everyone, and Chromebooks for those that just browse and type papers.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
It just looks like people are moving to tablets and phones over laptops and desktops in general. In addition, speed bumps for CPUs and GPUs aren't really noticable to non-gamers, I've been able to stick with the same machines for a long time now. On my MacBook Pro I'm running Linux so I wasn't affected by Apple cutting off OS support. It's still as speedy as ever.
Twinstiq, game news
Consumers aren't buying PCs anymore in volume.
Hence, Apple should aim the MacPro at the literal "PROFESSIONAL" market only.
The cost of a MacPro is less than the total cost of the software on the system. I pay more for CAD licenses in the lifetime of my MacPro than the cost of the MacPro.
Get it? Cook? Just my opinion.
https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx has Mac OS at 6.07%, so it's probably the source for the article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Desktop_and_laptop_computers has Mac OS at 11%.
What I found more shocking was:
- the bulk of the pie is Windows. really. I thought Microsoft was irrelevant!
- "not Windows" is competitive with Windows among developers, but not among normal users. However Windows is still twice as popular as Mac OS or Linux among developers. Who the fuck are these morons still using Notepad and Visual Basic?
- in spite of all the buzz about shipments, Chrome OS is still 1%.
Saying as a user of iPhone, new MacBook Pro, iPad, TimeCapsule and AppleTV, that apple is no longer a computer company. They are an iPhone company. They no longer make advances in anything else but iPhones. As my current hardware slowly dies, I'll be replacing everything listed above with better quality hardware made by other companies.
Apple Inc. does not even innovate with the Apple iPhone products. On the desktop and notebook front Apple Inc. has not refreshed their hardware in years nor have they made a compelling case as to why someone should buy their desktop and notebook computers in 2017. I recently bought a Hewlett-Packard Spectre 13 after seriously considering buying an Apple MacBook Pro or Apple MacBook Air to replace my aging Acer notebook. Apple Inc. is morphing into a streaming media, smartphone applications, and cloud storage company. I would really like to see a return to the innovative designs for personal computers that we witnessed during the 1970s and 1980s.
Saying as a user of iPhone, new MacBook Pro, iPad, TimeCapsule and AppleTV, that apple is no longer a computer company.
Go to an educational institution sometime. Out of every 100 laptops on display 99 will be MacBooks.
(I don't know why - you can also get thin/small Windows laptops if you're prepared to pay Mac prices for one).
No sig today...
Apple Inc. does not even innovate with the Apple iPhone products. On the desktop and notebook front Apple Inc. has not refreshed their hardware in years nor have they made a compelling case as to why someone should buy their desktop and notebook computers in 2017.
Obviously they don't need to change anything - people are happy as-is.
No sig today...
Like others lamenting here, between 2005 and 2010 I was essentially Apple only, having switched from Windows and Linux. In 2011 I tried Linux again, putting Ubuntu on a Sony Vaio laptop (dual booting with Windows), and then an Acer laptop. The improvements in Linux re-ignited my inner penguin, and it is what I use most often. My macs are a 2008 iMac, and a 2009 macbook. There is no point in upgrading the hardware, nothing more recent, first- or second-hand is a sensible option, and Snow Leopard is the most sensible OS for this hardware. The iMac's graphics chipset is going, so its only real role is ripping CDs in iTunes. The optical drive in the iMac has a CD stuck in which it cannot eject, and any kind of maintenance means a 1hr ordeal of taking the thing apart. If that happens, my plan is to build a new case for the parts (not pretty, but maintainable) so as to allow things like HD changes without having to do a task as fiddly as a 5x5 rubiks cube. Apple used to make hardware into an art form, now they make unmaintainability into an artform.
Jokingly, I refer to Apple as the US front of the FoxConnShinyElectricToyCompany.
They are a wonderful example of the longer-term problems of proprietary hardware/OS combinations: you cannot do anything about the fact that Apple only sells shiny toys to run OS X, and you can do nothing to prevent Apple turning macOS into an overgrown iOS. In an ideal world, companies like Apple would make high quality hardware and software that just worked.
John_Chalisque
better quality hardware made by other companies
Good luck with that. Also with finding a better OS and software and support. You can find hardware with bigger this or replaceable that or more options, but as far as actual quality goes, Apple is quite good as I'm sure you're aware. That's why they can charge a premium for their products. Seriously, you'll be shooting yourself in the foot by switching. The only real issue I see with the new MBP is the 16GB max. Other than that, what's your gripe?
If Microsoft had not dropped the ball with Windows, Apple would already be completely irrelevant as a computer company.
That's slowly changing.
The winds of change are approaching my friend. My ecosystem is Apple. My house has 4 Apple iPhones, a Mac mini, and a MBP. The hostility towards allowing users to upgrade and fix their devices is driving me away from Apple. That is why I have a 2012 non retina MBP, the last MacBook you could upgrade your parts on. My 2010 Mac mini is running along just fine for now for small things.
Since Apple doesn't want me as a customer, my next purchase won't be an Apple computer.
As for the phones, I don't care about them as much. Having a phone I can upgrade is not something that I need or want. My phones last me 3 years. I went from 4s to the 6. I skipped 3 generations of phones. My next purchase will be the iPhone 8. So paying around $700 for a phone that last 3 years is a good bargain for me.
Ask anybody on Wall Street.
Apple is now referred to as a Gadget Maker.
They're making advances in iPhones? I'd be interested to hear more about this.
Do you have ESP?
Saying as a user of iPhone, new MacBook Pro, iPad, TimeCapsule and AppleTV, that apple is no longer a computer company. They are an iPhone company. They no longer make advances in anything else but iPhones. As my current hardware slowly dies, I'll be replacing everything listed above with better quality hardware made by other companies.
This sounds so true. I went to an Apple Store in Reston, recently, to get something for my iPad, and they told me they only sell iPhone accessories, not iPad accessories (even though one can still buy iPads)
I bought an iPhone 7 recently, but only b'cos I was upgrading from a 5s: had I possessed a 6, let alone a 6s, I wouldn't have bothered. Apparently, the camera in 7 is better, but not much else
> it depends on how you count. I'd count what people use.
Isn't that exactly what they were counting and found declined?
Seriously, it would make just about everybody happy. The designs must use aluminium cases, and they must be approved by Apple before manufacture. The Apple logo will be on the cover, and the manufacturer's logo will be over the keyboard.
PCs are no longer Apple's core competence, and they should make moves to divest the function.
Problem solved.
K12s often liked the increased homogeneity (even when the same model isn't the same model), they tend to be more resilient, Apple used to be quite education-friendly ages ago, sheer incumbent govt inertia, etc
Less of their gear in mid/hi schools, where instead of Math With Animals you need software for beginner's coding robots CAD autoshop animation etcetera.
And much less true after 2014, when chromebooks starting getting hype. Lots of curriculum is now a cloud website, not software, and it's been a gold rush towards CBs with half the price tag of ipads (neither has great repairability) and superior MDM. The ipad is a consumer device, enterprise/education is an afterthought at best.
We had to keep reminding schools/principals that CBs are perfect for all the youtube/website/officedocs usage, but they don't replace a full-feature computer.
1983 all over again.
People's needs are more than the limitations that they impose.
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
They never were a computer company (atleast not since their "rebirth").
They're a fashion company and they failed to make enough changes to remain fashionable.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
I've read all the comments on this article and don't disagree. Since Steve, Apple has become fat and slow on its feet. Money with out visionary leadership does that to companies. I actually work professionally with OSX. It's fantastic, a really high quality BSD, which is just joyful to work in. The problem is that all that it accomplished was done under Steve's leadership. Both the hardware and the lovely software are going fallow with bureaucrats running apple. If the trend does turn around with a year or 2, the hw will be deprecated, and I'll have to switch also. I'll never be able to use MS's junk OS, cuz only nix's are real, so maybe Cannonical becomes the next home of serious users.
Apple has abandoned its PC and laptop line of products. The most recent MacBook "Pro" is an overpriced, underpowered, unrepairable, unupgradeable piece of garbage. Just like the joke of a Mac "Pro" they offered up 3 years ago and haven't updated since. Apple users didn't mind paying the Apple Tax for their hardware back when Apple was making actual computers but few will pay the Apple Tax for computer like appliances that put thinner, lighter, faster and more expensive above device usability. What works in a phone or tablet doesn't work in PC or laptop for a large segment of the population. If I'm paying for a computer it damn well better be both repairable and upgradable. I like macOS and am willing to pay more for a device that runs it but I'm not dropping $3,000 for hardware I can get for $1,000 in a form factor that offers the ability for repairs and upgrades without having to replace the whole device. If that also means I have to run Windows or Linux so be it. macOS isn't worth that much. Not even close.
Iphone 7 = Iphone 6S = Iphone 6 (there have been zero innovations between models IMHO)
I argue that most PCs are slacker game machines that drain the productivity of the most advanced nation on earth, dragging it down into the gutters of technology. Macs are the 6.1% most productive, knowledgeable, and thoughtful users on the planet.
Fat- not thin, at least 17", real function keys, long-life replaceable battery, upgradeable and configurable, with multiples of every freaking connector known to man, including every variant of USB, headphone jacks, etc.
You know -- functionality. Not "courage."
I think when Steve Jobs was still alive, he enforced a philosophy at Apple that the Mac was the "cornerstone" of the company, no matter what else it developed. It was all about that "halo effect", where the Mac was the control center for everything else, and everything had a symbiotic relationship with everything else Apple sold. (EG. You could be a Windows user and buy an iPod as your music player, and use it just fine. BUT, you'd eventually say, "Hey... Apple's iTunes software that manages this thing really runs better on the Mac than it does in Windows. Maybe I'll just go with a Mac in the future and use it with this?" Or you might be a Windows or even Linux user who bought an Apple Airport Extreme as your wi-fi router because it got high reviews. You *could* manage it with the Windows version of the management software, but you'd find it's easier to just set one up from an iPhone, where support is built right in.)
Back then, it was commonplace for Jobs to remind people that low overall percentages of Mac sales compared to Windows didn't concern him. It was about selling gourmet food vs. McDonalds. If you have a premium product, you concentrate on catering to those who appreciate that ... not worrying about maximizing sales numbers.
Today, it's very different. Apple under Tim Cook seems to believe iOS devices are the "future" as the traditional computer dies out, and MANY of the complaints Mac users have are direct results of this change in course. There are problems right now with PDFKit in OS X, where Apple suddenly rewrote the thing from the ground up in OS X Sierra without so much as informing developers. The reason? They wanted one with feature parity with the iOS version. This made Apple's own Preview software unsafe to use to edit PDF documents, because it causes embedded OCR layers to be stripped from them when you save them. Other applications like Mariner Paperless, which use Preview to display scanned documents in their database, crash as soon as you try to view a file in your collection. It's basically a trainwreck right now. I hear Apple is scrambling to fix a lot of this in the latest OS X beta, but this fiasco already caused many realtors to switch back to Windows because they rely so heavily on PDF as part of their daily workflow,
If rumors I've heard can be believed, Apple doesn't even have much of a Mac OS X development team left anymore. The updates to it are supposedly being done by a team that's expected to spend part of their time doing iOS related work.
I've been a big Mac proponent since the 2001 time-frame, but I'm finally reaching the point where my next computer won't be a Mac, unless there's a major change of course in the near future. As others have said, Apple has nothing for sale that I'd really want to buy. The new Macbook Pro 15" looks desirable at first glance. The touch-bar is a nice addition and it looks attractive in space gray color and all that. But in reality, it's the most expensive laptop Apple has ever sold (in a high spec configuration at least), while demanding more compromises to use it than have ever been expected of "Pro" users before. The lack of all ports except USB-C would be more acceptable if the USB-C standard was more prevalent. But putting it there today is doing it just to prove you're "cutting edge", while hampering real-world usage. And at that price? Why isn't a set of the dongle adapters included with it?? The Mag-Safe charging was a mistake to eliminate too. That's been a signature feature that made Mac laptops a step ahead of everyone else. Couldn't they at least do a USB-C variant of Mag-Safe?
They also had a $200 router that lacked that functionality of $100 routers (like bandwidth management, QoS rules, and such).
If your product is the best and expensive, that's okay, but when cheaper products are far more capable, that's a problem.
As a MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, iPhone 6, iPad, iPod owner, and IT Professional I am not surprised. First they took out the optional drives (yes people still need them), then removed ports, 3.5mm audio jacks from phones, and finally the Magsafe connector. It won't take much to keep improving a Macintosh computer at all. Any engineer worth their salt would suggest keeping ports and option for a Pro line. The regular consumer line (hint non-PRo line) that is geared to less tech demanding users with a reduced entry price. However, professionals need power and expandability in a Pro-Fessional line of computers. Video editing and rendering for an example. Give these users new Mac's with state of the art hardware, serviceable parts (memory, hard drive, GPU's) that can be expandable. If it allows for a more performance driven product people would prefer expandability and serviceability over thinness. Here is some free advice for Apple: Add a touch screen that can be flipped over like a Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga to use in tablet mode with iOS running on it. Come on Apple get with the program. I am afraid my Mac's will start being replaced by PC's in the future. Which I would hate... The heart of Apple was the Woz not the sleazy salesman Jobs!
I don't want to put together a list of applications and conflicts because that will obscure the forest for the trees. But your case is emblematic of what I now deal with in Mac OS, too—and many other pros, besides.
I was 17 years on Linux and Solaris before that. I wrote a pile of books about *nix, founded a software company in *nix space, and so on. It was no small thing for me to switch to Apple.
I did it because it saved me bucketloads of time. All those annoyances of the sort that you describe weren't there in Mac OS in the late '00s, by and large. I gave it a try based on someone's suggestion and after that each time I hit a conflict or a hiccup and needed a workaround in Linux, I would find that I could do the same thing in Mac OS without having to fuck with it. I started using my "test" Mac OS system more and more because I wanted something done in the next 10 minutes, not in some unknown number of irritating hours.
Eventually I realized that I was spending >50% of my time performing tasks in Mac OS and that led me to purchase a shiny new Macbook Pro and decommission my Linux systems. There was a learning curve, but for a good 3-5 years, I was more productive on Mac OS than I'd ever been before.
And then the current epoch began. There's no obvious threshold moment at which "it all started," but at the start of 2017 I can say that there is an awful lot of "workaround crap" and booting now into a Windows virtual machine so that I can just get things done quickly. And the 17" Macbook Pro is starting to be flaky (the dreaded graphics chip problem in the 2010 unibody series) yet I can't see myself investing in another Apple computer given the current state of things.
So—to my shock after decades spent as a Linux evangelist—it may be time to go to Windows. Under new leadership, Windows seems to be headed in better directions, while Mac OS looks to be descending into the swamp.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
had to be limited to what could go on a plane, I'd be out of business.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
I'm worried that in personal computing today, and I'm including professional PCs in this, everything seems to be a shadow of its former self.
Windows has been getting worse since 7. Windows 10 offers only modest benefits for most users over what we had back in 2010, and at a heavy price.
Apple seems to have gone full-fashion-gadget, with ever less flexibility and longevity across just about its entire product range.
Linux has the kinds of problems you mentioned, and much of the Linux world is still as focused as ever on the OS itself and not on what you can (or can't) do with it.
I'm starting to think the era around 2010 was the golden age of personal computing, and since then the greed of hardware companies, software companies and (especially) online services is just making almost everything worse for users.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
when they were at their almost-10-percent-high, they made an effort and had unique, high-quality and competitively priced machines. now half of their lineup is slowly dying. if you buy a new mac, you can't be sure that there'll be a follow-up model in that line. macpros and mac-mini sales are probably pretty flat, because of that and because of old hardware that was on the cusp of being overpriced when it was released three years ago. new releases value aesthetical design over function and are no good value for the money. no wonder even the most hardcore mac fan nowadays lives in a mixture of sorrow and fear of what they will (not) release next. apple is slowly eroding the fundament and fallback under it's iphone - business, but they fon't seem to care because they are still sitting on a mountain of cash, that only looks like it's getting smaller when you look at it from a distance. the sad thing is, that there's still no competition for mac/macOS in a few areas - but as soon as a new player emerges (not counting on microsoft and linux, rhey blew it for decades, but inevitably some day somebody else will have the money and the focus) there'll be hell to pay,
Guess I'll be the lone voice of sanity here. The Touch Bar is really, really useful - to the extent I am homing Apple makes an external keyboard that includes it so I can use one when docked...
As for staying at the high end, that is how Apple survives. Scrounging for tidbits even the rats wouldn't eat is a losing proposition but that is 90% of the PC market. Apple may lose marketshare because there are a flood of supper-crappy cheap laptops, but what does that percentage really matter in the long run? Not much, as tablets and phones continue to eat into the sheer number of computers purchased.
The only high-end area Apple is not really targeting is games, and who could say it would be a good idea fro them to do so? Let other companies make $8k laptops with three screens, Apple will continue to sit at the high end for professional hardware...
Long-Long term, I think you'll see Apple's work on chip design really pay off as Intel continues its slow decline. If you want to understand why there is no new Mac Pro, I don't think you have to look any further than Intel...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Isn't that exactly what they were counting and found declined?
They are claiming that Mac use fell from 9.6% in April 2016 to 6.1% in December. Do you actually believe that 36% of Mac users abandoned the platform in 8 months? I don't know what methodology they used to come up with these numbers, but they are total baloney.
They never were a computer company (atleast not since their "rebirth").
They're a fashion company and they failed to make enough changes to remain fashionable.
Do you really believe that, or are you just regurgitating hater credo? Woz and Jobs fucking CREATED the individual computer movement. Microsoft created Word for Mac, not for DOS. Jesus, learn your history.
Really? So the Commodore Pet (1977) doesn't count as a personal computer? Also, there was this thing called Wordperfect (1980) that came before Word (1983)... The only reason why Microsoft developed for the Mac first is that they saw a market where WordPerfect didn't have a foothold (i.e. ease of entry).
If you think that Woz and Jobs created the personal computer then you are seriously misinformed. There were a large number of other computer designs being developed and the Apple was no where near the most popular or most advanced.
I think that you need to read a few more history books yourself.
Then there is lots of hardware out there you could argue is better than Apple (expandability, performance, etc). But.... OS X is still in my humble opinion better than Windows (even 10). Anybody who says they are dumping the Mac for a Windows system solely because of hardware evidently does not give much weight to OS X.
No, they claimed the *market share* of the *OS* declined, not the *use* of the *HW platform*.
While I'm guessing their overall use of the HW platform may have declined - anecdotally a LOT of people I know switched to Macbook Pros over the past ~5 years (myself included), but who feel the latest MBP was utterly underwhelming (myself included) - the study measured OS market share. Market share can go down even when overall usage goes *up*, of course.
I use OSX/MacOS, Windows 10, and Linux on my MBP. Honestly I mostly use MacOS because it's the native OS on the hardware - for work I mostly use Linux, with some Windows 10. And with the latest Windows 10 and the excellent Parallels integration, I've found myself using it more and more on my MBP as well.
There isn't a lot tying me (or as I said, anecdotally a dozen friends or coworkers I have discussed the latest MBP with) to Apple laptops other than their hardware kicked ass over competitors in the last 5 years... since that's not really true any more, I wouldn't be surprised if power/tech users start switching to Windows laptops...
Bullshit. Read some history that wasnt approved by jobs and educate yourself.
Try replacing the disc drive with an SSD. And max the memory on your Mac mini. Application Bloat has increased the memory needs. Just guessing of course. But 16GB of memory is cheap enough and SSD prices are pretty good too. My I7 2.7GH Mac mini with 16GB and an SSD boots in 10 seconds, and loads seven tabs in safari in under five seconds, with Adblock running. Depends on web sites and connection speed more than the Mac. One issue with the articles drop in Mac market share is iOS devices from Apple are gaining more and more. I'm typing this on an iPad...
Omitting the fucking ESC key for one. Requiring expensive adaptors to connect pretty much anything is another. Or how about the fact that after 4 years it's barely faster in many benchmarks, or that they utterly rape you if you want to opt to increase the non-upgradable-flash-SSD-storage. Or that their touted battery life increases have not only not been borne out in practice, but people are having issues with the battery lasting 1/2 as long as before. Or that after all of that lack of innovation, they haven't even made it cheaper.
I have a 2012 MBP, and there wasn't any serious competition to it back then (even as a Windows laptop using Parallels). But after 4 years this is all they could do, and not even drop the price? It's a joke!
How's the relentless pursuit of socio-political agendas working out for 'ya?
Oh, and one more thing...appeasing minority groups is identical to dancing with the devil; you're gonna get burned.
GP didn't say that Woz and Jobs "created the personal computer". He said that "Woz and Jobs fucking CREATED the individual computer movement."
Incidentally, the Apple II was released in June of 1976 -- a few months before the Commodore PET.
Beware of the Leopard.
At my university I see mostly dell, sony, and lenovo.
Maybe it depends on the field.
Windows has always...*always* benefitted from these kinds of stats due to the fact that most desktops in the US government run Windows.
It's our taxpayer dollars at work!
Apple's products are better than ever...*except* for the ridiculous port nonsense.
Windows is still garbage spy/ad-ware...it's worse than ever.
Neither are right, but Apple's products are still way better for the end user of any level.
Thank you Dave Raggett
"...I have a Mac Mini here with a nice what should be a snappy i5 - 2.5 GHZ. With Sierra on it, I constantly see the spinning beach ball of death - it took almost a minute for the "About This Mac" to pop up."
.
You are doing it wrong. When this Air booted up for the first time, it took 14 seconds to get to the Desktop. Three years later, with all the added carefully chosen cruft, it takes 19 seconds, and _never_ a Beachball. This has been my experience with Apple for many years. Even my creaky 2006 PowerBook takes way less than a minute to boot, and never a Beachball on it either.
"And add in some developers just write bloat..."
.
Ah, that may be your problem. Well, it is a problem for all of us. The current generation of "Developers" couldn't develop their way out of a wet paper bag without a Gigabyte of Bloat bursting the seams.
Here is what you need to do: Backup. Nuke. Pave. Start with a fresh Apple Install, including Applications. Run those for a while to get a feel for start times. You should get _no_ Beachballs. If you do, you have a Hardware problem, probably RAM. If you don't, start adding in your favorite Cruft one at the time until problems crop up. Check the Console. Voila!
Note that this applies to _all_ misbehaving Gear, whether running OSX/MacOS, Windows, or Linuxes. Basic Troubleshooting 101. This is not like the days of MODCOMPs or Apollos, where judicious application of a Rolling Pin on a Memory Plane cured all sorts of ills.
But I'm getting tired of these perpetual "discussions" on Slashdot concerning Apple. Very few of us who actually have Gorm bother hanging around any longer, because Stupid Abides. I happen to think, unlike the prevailing sentiment expressed here, that the new MacBook Pro is Brilliant, in much the same way that the original Mac, and then the iMac, were Brilliant, and for much the same reasons. There just comes a time to throw away The Old, and start fresh.
I'll probably get one, once the price drops and the little bugs are worked out.
Captcha: automata
This is actually not only applicable, but funny.
Partially true.
Apple is the victim of their own design hubris...the port removals are the perfect example.
They think paper thin phones are "a few years away" and are pushing wireless everything, and it's horseshit.
Apple just needs to come back to reality and put usable ports on their devices...that's all...
Windows is still spyware/adware garbage, and even with Apple's port nonsense, Apple products are still miles better than Windows.
Mac's are Unix-like systems...basically they are Linux with a candy-coated shell. People do the most technical software development on Macs all the time and it works flawlessly.
Windows is...it's just garbage...Apple just needs to put the fucking ports back and all will be well.
Thank you Dave Raggett
Yes, I don't know if it's Tim Cock, Phil Schiller or Johny Ive to blame, but due to recent years total ignorance towards the mac, I finally switched from Mac to PC (Linux) for the first time since 1993.
The design aspect has gone totally to their head, the macbook pro used to be not only good looking, but on of the best portables on the market, the recent incarnation is a overpriced joke.
The mac desktops used to be good albeit quite expensive, it's just crap today. Either you got the mac pro which is outdated and non expandable or you have their "laptops in a desktop casing" offers like the imac or macmini.
It's really a shame as Mac OS X sorry, macOS is still a good system, but the lack of good hardware to run it on makes the decision easy.
Perhaps the Apple board wakes up an realizes they have people inside that is ruining Apples computer business before it's too late, the cellphone business may be blooming right now but personally I lost interest in the "latest" and "greatest" smartphone several years ago, smart watches never caught my attention and while tables have their uses they won't replace the desktop regardless what Apple thinks considering the iPad Pro, Microsoft been trying the same thing for years with the surface- but their offer at least can be used as a computer, the ipad is just an exaggerated iphone and once you run out of options on App store it's a paperweight.
Obviously they don't need to change anything - people are happy as-is.
First - the early 2016 MBPs were darn good, as good or better than anything else out there. I'd buy one today. The TouchBar MBP? I think I'll wait a model or three and see if something better comes along, either with Apple or the competition. Linux will run on a laptop now, and for what I do most of the time, it will be fine. A VM can offer whatever minor things I might need that it doesn't support. The last mini worth buying was the updated 2012 model, a Core i7 quad. The mac pro is the one sticking point. To have a meaningful increase in performance, you'll be easily quadrupling your CPU cost. That's $10K for just the CPU to get a maximum 50% increase over the mac pro's current CPU. I would like to see the Mac Pro pricing come down, and a new GPU option or two show up.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
The PET shipped a few hundred units by the end of '77 after launching in October. The Apple II shipped in June, and had sold twice as many by the end of the year, and by the early 80's had destroyed the PET's market share and basically matched the TRS-80 (of course at a much higher cost and profit margin for Apple).
The PET's only claim is that they announced and demo'ed it a couple months before the Apple II. But as anyone in the tech industry knows, demos are a dime a dozen, shipping (and shipping big) is what matters. And regardless of sales or launch date, the OP said "created the individual computer *movement*" - and I think few would argue Apple hasn't been master marketers (even when their hardware has been seriously lacking and poor selling) from the start.
And as far as killer productivity apps, who cares about Wordperfect or Word - Visicalc for the Apple II was basically what won the 1st gen PC war for Apple...
Sounds like you need to put an ssd in the mini. the standard 5400rpm drives are a joke. Even on ancient macs with an ssd there is NEVER beachballs in sierra. That is not to say i am totally in love with sierra, i am not. But there are no beachballs.
I only wish Vale would finish Half life 2 (the forever waiting Ep 3). I don't care if they never make another game after that. Steam is an excellent game store/launcher and I feel disappointed if a game I want is not steamworks....as competing services are noticeably worse.
Premise one: People lose/break headphones at a rate of 1 set every two years.
Premise two: they see how expensive replacements or a a dongle is and go "fuck that shit".
More likely than the Chilean Navy spotting an alien vessel.
The market has changed. It's not nearly as lucrative out there any longer to sell your team that develops and deploys bespoke solutions in mid-sized environments where people used to deploy and develop. This stuff is now typically done out-of-house through cloud/SaaS providers, often with a mix of turnkey and in-house tweaks. Since I'm not that interested in being anyone's staff monkey, and I'm not that interested in app development for mobile, nor in starting my own SaaS solution (though I've thought about it a couple of times), I've moved on to other things. I'm at an age in life where I want to earn based on what I enjoy working on in environments that I enjoy the work. Happily I have the CV to do that.
But it might well mean that I no longer get to play inside Mac OS in the future.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
I have 2TB SSD storage inside my MBP 17" and am fighting the temptation to back one of them to a spinner go to 3TB—mainly because I don't want to invest in installing more parts in a seven-year-old machine and can't stand the slowness of spinning hard drives.
When I'm in my home office, I am regularly plugged in to all three USB ports (and one of them leads straight to an 18-port USB hub that has about half the ports full at any time).
You can't even carry 3TB with you on a current MBP, under any circumstances, not to mention that you are severely overcharged for the storage that you do buy. And while I realize that it's still possible to use the USB peripherals, the thought of *more* cord spaghetti in adapter form is not appealing to me, and neither is the much more fragile set of smaller connectors anchoring so many devices. I am very suspicious that I would see the effects of the tiny-connector robustness in my uptimes or data integrity.
And I already use one external monitor in addition to my 17" screen, and I'm equally hesitant to investigate solutions that would push me to sit a second external monitor on my desktop and try to drive it, etc. but at my at 13" and 15" are just too small for comfort, to use all those pixels for what I need to use them for.
Maybe I'm an edge case. Maybe I'm "picky" as some people hint. But the fact is that "Pro" designations aren't just about specs, they're about flexibility and the long tail of different kinds of productivity that "professionals" engage in. Pro gear isn't sleek and elegant. Pro gear is powerful and above all flexible with high longevity so that investments can be amortized.
So the fact is that even if Apple added the USB ports back in, if that's all they did, I wouldn't be all that excited. It's just a different mindset and strategy at Apple than it used to be, big picture.
However, if they released tomorrow a 17" or 19" clamshell that had multiple internal SATA bays, RAM to 32 or 64GB, multiple full-sized USB ports along with an SAS port, and a renewed their commitment to some of their "professional" application lines, I'd pay $5-$10k for it happily.
They won't sell me one. That's their business decision to make, but then they're stuck worrying when a lot of people like me (and I'm far from the only one, in my circles there are a lot of people asking everyone to share what they buy next) go where they can get the work tools that they prefer, whether you call that a want or a need.
I just don't have the time or the inclination to fuck around with the current MBP products. I see a million roadblocks and stumbling points that I just don't want to deal with. I have other things to do.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
- Only device you can get a touchscreen/active stylus with is an overpriced boutique internet appliance.
- Only hardware innovation in years is a goofy touch bar.
- Only major changes in hardware is to make things slightly thinner and remove any aspect of user upgrade/serviceability. Can't even swap SSD or upgrade RAM in PRO models.
- OSX is becoming increasingly locked down. Even installing something like TotalTerminal has become a pain in the ass.
- Increasing efforts to force everyone through a silly app store on desktop systems.
If Apple truly gave a shit about the OSX ecosystem they would either license it to other PC manufacturers or open source it. The mac division is slowly committing suicide. I would love something like an MS Surface with a better keyboard and OSX. They also need to bring back a mid-range tower with slots. The iMac is just not the end-all be-all of desktop machines and is far from affordable. The Mac Pro has even been left to rot.
There is just nothing appealing for the creatives/power users/engineers that evangelized for and made the platform great. It's just overpriced locked down Wintel trash that is disposable these days. I'm not paying $1,500+ for a disposable computer.
Premise one: People lose/break headphones at a rate of 1 set every two years.
Premise two: they see how expensive replacements or a a dongle is and go "fuck that shit".
The audio jack was removed from the iPhone, which doesn't run MacOS.
The only way Apple is going to get an increase in Mac OS X mindshare is to release it for generic PC hardware. At this point, pushing out old hardware as a new product just isn't cutting it.
Apple! Give Schiller a chance. "Can't innovate anymore my ass!"
Here is the simple reason. I had a Mac Pro (the garbage can) and it was pretty kick ass. But it had a few issues. One is that I couldn't really upgrade it, another is that it had ATI video cards (I now need CUDA), and three was that if anything broke in it the whole thing was going to be a financial nightmare to fix.
So I spent 2.5k on a Windows desktop where no one part is terribly expensive, I get a 1TB SSD plus massive HD, I get a crazy nVidia card, I get a damn good processor, and most importantly I get Visual Studio which is hands down the best C++ IDE out there and getting better by the day.
Everything isn't smelling of roses. The machine is Ugly, installing development bits such as Qt is just that little bit harder than in a BSD based system, and I have to put up with some stupid windows/microsoft shit. (WTF was candy crush doing on a Windows Pro default installation?)
But nearly every issue that Windows had a decade ago has been dealt with; things such as speed and reliability are pretty well on par with Apple's OS. But then there are the little things that make me so much happier with my new machine. When I first got my MP 2013 I could hook up 3 HDMI monitors with no issue. Then an OS upgrade came along and limited this to 2 monitors. So I got a USB hdmi thing which got my 3rd monitor back but that little bastard uses 17% CPU much of the time and is a little weird. With my new Windows machine, I can have 4 HDMI monitors no problem and maybe 6. Plus I could always tuck in a special video card or two and get this up to 16 or more monitors if I so needed. But 3 is enough for now and thus is better than my MP 2013 with its 2.
Now I could have gone up to 6 monitors on the apple if I were able to get thunderbolt monitors but one look at the sticker price puts that idea away.
So I am not crapping on Apple and saying that Windows is the best, but for my purposes of developing apps on iOS, android, windows desktop, and Linux servers; windows completely rocks and just doesn't get in my way. Apple was getting in my way more and more. XCode is OK, but I was fighting with it more and more to get things to work such as certain libraries and whatnot. It wasn't that I couldn't get things done but that I was wasting a whole lot of time on non-productive configuration.
Once in a while I will look at someone's macbook pro with envy, but there is a good chance I will never go back to apple again. They will really need to step up their game for developers if they want me back. Telling me to choose the Swift language is not one of them.
Just did a count. 87 surface, 24 Mac's and 12 iPads.
Based on their latest offerings, I'd say they're now a dongle company.
never drink kool-aid from a big vat
iPhone, check.
MBP, check.
iPad, check.
iPod Touch, check.
Time Capsule, check.
The Time Capsule's functionality hasn't really been added to. Yes, Apple does update the firmware every so often, but fundamentally, the device hasn't seen any fundamental improvements. Even an el cheapo 1 drive NAS like a Synology DS115 gets significant new stuff every so often. The "old" Apple would have had a Time Capsule automatically copy data to a cloud provider (be it iCloud or another), and if a Mac needed a restore, it would first try to hit the TC, then would redirect to where the cloud data is stored. Apple could make some money in selling multi-drive Time Capsules with built in RAID and the ability to back themselves up to the cloud (client-side encrypted, with a Secure Enclave built into the NAS) for peace of mind. People would pay a premium for a dual-drive TC with RAID 1, a good filesystem, encryption, backups to iCloud, and the ability to install a new Mac from the LAN. However, Apple seems uninterested in this market segment.
The MBP? A Dell XPS 13 is a better MBP than a 2016 13" MBP on the hardware front. The software front, it is obvious that macOS has the hind teat when it comes to improvements. Windows is winding up ahead of macOS just because Apple hasn't done anything to keep it going. While Apple might offer one or two new doodads, Microsoft adds functionality almost anywhere. The WSL is a nice thing, for example. Plus, Microsoft keeps upping its game on security. The Edge browser is supposedly going to be placed in its own Hyper-V VM, completely separating it from the OS. On the virtualization front, W10 comes with Hyper-V, while Apple has absolutely nada for this. The most significant thing in macOS is APFS... but that is mainly so iOS has better encryption, as opposed to be something designed for Macs only.
I would hate to have a desktop Mac. The Mac Mini hasn't been touched in years, and the last refresh was a four core to two core downgrade. The Mac Pro, Apple's flagship machine? Will it be five years before it sees a refresh? For a flagship machine, Apple should rebrand the canister Mac Pro as a high end desktop box, and make a true E-7 Xeon Mac Pro in the traditional tower case with closed loop water cooling.
The iPod Touch gets some items, every so often. Because of that, it does work well as an emergency authentication device, because apps work on it, although the platform is definitely not as popular as it used to be. However, with some work, it isn't dead yet. Apple could pitch it as a method of recovering access to websites and such should one lose their phone, especially with 2FA protected by a Secure Enclave chip.
The iPhone and the iPad are the only two items that are "blessed" by Apple, and it is pretty obvious that they have this status. They are the only devices that get significant new functionality every year, and have a constant refresh cycle.
They think pro users need less ports and/or proprietary ports, shallower keyboards, and MagSafe is for clowns.
Overall they've turned to shit since jobs died.
Sent from my iPhone 6
Focus on the Mac Pro. Make a deal with intel, AMD or Nvidia.
Roll out a new version every year with a bump in cpu, gpu. Even if a few get sold, the software will be ready for 5K, 8K.
That mind share, market share, developer glow will attract creative people who want to show how trendy and arty they are.
That will build a base up from iMac and mini users who are aspirational.
The blogs, social media filled with hype about the last Mac Pro and the new Mac Pro is what makes a brand have value.
Get a better Mac Mini out to offer a nice entry level to pull new users in. The iMac is fine. Push the new Mac Pros as pure branding.
For that to work a new generation of Mac Pro has to be expensive and offer great software results equal to any video or photo editing task on the desktop Windows/Linux side.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Fuck your stupid walstreet and dumbfucks that refer to it a fucking authority on everything.
If Tim Cock bases her business decisions on purely walstreet reaction - fire that stupid fagget, and make sure no other fagget ever gets to run the company.
Your appeal to consciousness of faggets that run Apple is futile. Give it up.
Commodore went on to create the Vic and the Amiga, the latter arriving at about the same time as the Mac.
Macs, Apple IIs, etc., were relatively expensive in the UK, so the first computer I saw was a PET, and after Sinclair I had an Amiga. The BBC was fairly ubiquitous, and that company is still with us in a way. And then there were all those IBM PC clones.
The history of personal computing is fairly complex.
They dont sell pcs because they dont have a competitive price on pcs. If they could make an imac at 500 or 600 they would sell much more than the other crappy windows manufacturers because their OS is still superior. But in a few years, who knows?
If his Mac Mini was made after 2012, it's not upgradable. Everything is soldered to the board.
How many of those installations of "Windows 10" are running on Macs, like mine?
Are those counted?
The below is the smartest thing I've heard here. Apple care more about their shareholders than their users. The MBP release is s disaster;, way over due, reduculous prices and just a crappy piece of shit. I want my escape key back. Just for their stupidity and arrogance and bull shit talk, I'm going windows pc!
""Fuck your stupid walstreet and dumbfucks that refer to it a fucking authority on everything.
If Tim Cock bases her business decisions on purely walstreet reaction - fire that stupid fagget, and make sure no other fagget ever gets to run the company."""
If you have the cash, buy an Apple.
If you are poor, buy something else. /s
It's style factor is mind blowing, there is no comparison. That is reality. Was on a Windows machine the other day, the UI is terrible, come on. Are you on Mars?
Apple, LOWER the price. And Tim, maybe time to retire?
Hey, Timmykins, remember that buzzword from ten years ago? It's a double edged sword.
If someone whose in the Apple ecosystem starts buying desktops and laptops from another company because Apple's products suck donkey balls compared to the competition, they'll have to move all of their photos, movies, songs, documents, etc. over to that that new ecosystem. Which means there is no reason to keep paying a premium for new iPhones -- the "stickiness" will be gone. There will be nothing holding them back from buying cheaper Android phones that have more useful (i.e. non-courageous) functionality.
And, for those people who don't use desktops or laptops anymore, well those people were never "stickied" to the Apple ecosystem to begin with. They can easily move back and forth. So, as soon as the iPhone phad ends (which looks like it will be fairly soon), Apple will become just another commodity phone manufacturer -- remind me again what the margins are on commodity smart phones?
I give you ten years before you go full RIM.
> You are doing it wrong.
It's a Mac. How can he be doing it wrong?
That's an even lamer response for a Mac than it is Windows. Truly sad...
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Considering how they have been gimping their machines lately, it wouldn't be that surprising. There have been "are you ready to flee the Mac" kinds of articles in the mainstream press lately.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
If you want to buy a support contract, Apple is really nowhere. Apple hardware is designed to be completely unmaintainable. It's worse than the later Ataris and Amigas. The lack of tightly packed novelty form factors means it's PC gear that's more reliable. It's also supported longer.
The worst PC brand I've ever dealt with is Apple.
Microsoft remains the weak spot with PCs but the hardware is solid.
There is nothing special about what Apple shoves into it's PCs. Sometimes it's close enough that you can use an off the shelf Dell as a Hackintosh.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
I don't disagree that Apple makes good hardware; my point was that (presumably because they care more about iDevices on the low end; and just don't care on the high end; and because, if only because MS and Intel have been cluebatting them as hard as they can for several years, PC OEMs have stepped up their game a little bit) Apple's offerings have gotten comparatively less exciting
I think Apple still cares a lot about the high end. But they are hampered by Intel and others simply not coming through with very large enhancements...
Where they can, Apple has done a fantastic job improving some system components of the laptop - lie way faster internal SSD's, extremely good port throughput, highly reliable battery and other components (the recent consumer reports thing was I am pretty sure a reported error with he GPU going into some kind spin cycle after being disconnected from the external thunderbolt display; a software fix).
But they are limited literally by the core, but the Intel chip that has to power the device. Progress on that has slowed a lot, to the point where even over a few years you are not getting much of a jump in real-world performance ... that's obviously not wholly Intels fault as much as it is a wall physics, but still Intel seems like they could be improving in some other way at a faster pace.
That's really why I think the desktops are still waiting on updates, because Apple didn't feel like the core speed improvements were really worth an update when the existing systems were almost as performant as a new replacement would be. Sure it goes against the traditional PC upgrade cycle but I'm still not sure it's a bad approach apart from the poor press that strategy generates. The only thing I would have done differently were I think is make sure that every other year at least a replacement for the Mac Pro GPU was available (since it can be removed, it's just a bit custom so nothing else that I know of can replace it).
I agree that other laptop makers are improving laptops but to me they are still hampered by Windows, and to be honest where I work it seems like newer Windows laptops are having a lot of glitches or outright deaths that I still do not hear about with nearly the frequency for Mac laptops.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I did the same thing after Maverick...Apple free here now....I miss some parts of it, but on the whole very happy with the performance/capacity to dollar ratio.
They recently tripled the size of the Apple store in my city, but they only seem to carry half of the accessories they used to. My one year old iPad Pro no longer has the same shells and keyboards available. Now it's double the price for a crappier keyboard design.
Needed a new cover for my kid's iPad Air (2 years old), but they no longer sell any covers for it at all. The blue-shirt pointed me down to the back of the mall where I found a small store full of ugly covers for phones and pads.