an a steep price tag no doubt
On Jun 14, 2018, at 1:22 PM, Sarah Alawami <marrie12@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Oh it will come out, but the hardware will be the same. Sad to think that a
machine that used to be so good is going down hill.
On Jun 14, 2018, at 11:01 AM, Maria Reyes <mreyes7121@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:mreyes7121@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Interesting. I wonder when the new Mac Pro will come out. I know it’s coming
next year, but when?
On Jun 14, 2018, at 1:43 PM, Sarah Alawami <marrie12@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:marrie12@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2018/06/14/on-the-sad-state-of-macintosh-hardware/
<https://weblog.rogueamoeba.com/2018/06/14/on-the-sad-state-of-macintosh-hardware/>
On The Sad State of Macintosh Hardware
Posted By Quentin Carnicelli on June 14th, 2018
With Apple recently releasing their first developer beta of MacOS 10.14
(Mojave), we’ve been installing it on various test machines to test our
apps. The inevitable march of technology means Mojave won’t install on all
of our older hardware. There’s no shock there, but the situation is rather
distressing when it comes to spending money to purchase new equipment. Here
is the situation, as reported by the wonderful MacRumor’s Buyers Guide
<https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac>:
At the time of the writing, with the exception of the $5,000 iMac Pro, no
Macintosh has been updated at all in the past year. Here are the last
updates to the entire line of Macs:
iMac Pro: 182 days ago
iMac: 374 days ago
MacBook: 374 days ago
MacBook Air: 374 days ago
MacBook Pro: 374 days ago
Mac Pro: 436 days ago
Mac Mini: 1337 days ago
Worse, most of these counts are misleading, with the machines not seeing a
true update in quite a bit longer. The Mac Mini hasn’t seen an update of
any kind in almost 4 years (nor, for that matter, a price drop). The
once-solid Mac Pro was replaced by the dead-end cylindrical version all the
way back in 2012, which was then left to stagnate. I don’t even want to get
started on the MacBook Pro’s questionable keyboard, or the MacBook’s sole
port (USB-C which must also be used to provide power).
It’s very difficult to recommend much from the current crop of Macs to
customers, and that’s deeply worrisome to us, as a Mac-based software
company. For our own internal needs, we’ve wound up purchasing used
hardware for testing, rather than opting to compromise heavily on a new
machine. That isn’t good for Apple, nor is it what we want.
Rather than attempting to wow the world with “innovative” new designs like
the failed Mac Pro, Apple could and should simply provide updates and speed
bumps to the entire lineup on a much more frequent basis. The much smaller
Apple of the mid-2000s managed this with ease. Their current failure to
keep the Mac lineup fresh, even as they approach a trillion dollar market
cap, is both baffling and frightening to anyone who depends on the platform
for their livelihood.
Given the incredibly sad state of the Mac lineup, it’s difficult to
understand how WWDC could have come and gone with no hardware releases.
Apple’s transparency in 2017 regarding their miscalculation with the Mac
Pro seemed encouraging, but over a year later, the company has utterly
failed to produce anything tangible. Instead, customers are still forced to
choose between purchasing new computers that are actually years old or
holding out in the faint hope that hardware updates are still to come.
Every day, the situation becomes more dire.
Apple needs to publicly show their commitment to the full Macintosh
hardware line, and they need to do it now. As a long (long) time Mac OS
developer, one hesitates to bite the hand that feeds. At a certain point,
however, it seems there won’t even be anything left worth biting.
