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I think what parent meant was "last nail in the MacBook Pro" coffin, not the company as a whole. It could well be that building high-end laptops like the old sc

I think what parent meant was "last nail in the MacBook Pro" coffin, not the company as a whole. It could well be that building high-end laptops like the old school MacBook Pro's for power users is no longer worthwhile from a profit generating perspective.

grzm 10y ago
Okay. That's valid. What's failure look like in that case? A drop in MacBook Pro sales? By how much? A measurable reduction in the number of MacBook Pro's seen at conferences? I guess I'm just pushing back on empty doom-and-gloom statements. I'm all for people making predictions, up or down. I just like to see them made with some kind of measurable scope. Otherwise they're not really substantive, especially when they tend towards the hyperbolic. I'm always looking for ways to improve my own predictions as well, finding ways to measure the accuracy of what I'm thinking of. After all, you can only improve what you can measure, as they say. And you can only measure if you have something to measure against.
- teh_klev 10y ago
  It isn't technically a failure, it's could just be a numbers thing, though I admittedly don't have any numbers. If the upcoming new MacBook Pro doesn't set the heather on fire from a technical standpoint then I guess this is the commercially the level of hardware they're going to settle with trend-wise. I saw the same thing happen with Dell's high end Precision laptops a few years back. Once upon a time you got a full 17" 1920x1200 display and an outstanding specification that would almost match the power of their desktop Precision range. But then the displays changed to cheaper 1080p panels, the processor, memory and GPU offerings were less than stellar and that was that. They settled on new revisions that were good enough, but not the impressive flagship models they once manufactured. I think this is maybe happening to Apple and the MB Pro range.
  - grzm 10y ago
    "this is the commercially the level of hardware they're going to settle with trend-wise." Makes sense. By "level of hardware" are you thinking of specs (ports, screen, processors)? Form factor (dimensions, battery life)? Software? "the same thing happen with Dell's high end Precision laptops" Do I understand correctly that the specs of the Dell Precision line reached a peak and then decreased? Plateaued? Just didn't keep up with the cutting edge hardware available? I can see the third happening -- sadly, it could be argued that it's been happening for a while. I have a harder time imagining the first two scenarios happening. Thanks for digging into this more. This is the kind of discussion I think is useful. Cheers!
    - teh_klev 10y ago
      > By "level of hardware" are you thinking of specs (ports, screen, processors)? Yes, this. As for the Dell's they plateaued then weren't as cutting edge any more. I used to lust after Dell's top of the range Precision laptop, but not any more. Edit: That said, I just took a look at the specs of their latest offering, the Precision 7000. They seem to have stepped their game up a bit since I last looked. You can get a 4K display now.
      - grzm 10y ago
        Cool! Thanks!

grzm 10y ago

Okay. That's valid. What's failure look like in that case? A drop in MacBook Pro sales? By how much? A measurable reduction in the number of MacBook Pro's seen at conferences? I guess I'm just pushing back on empty doom-and-gloom statements. I'm all for people making predictions, up or down. I just like to see them made with some kind of measurable scope. Otherwise they're not really substantive, especially when they tend towards the hyperbolic. I'm always looking for ways to improve my own predictions as well, finding ways to measure the accuracy of what I'm thinking of. After all, you can only improve what you can measure, as they say. And you can only measure if you have something to measure against.

teh_klev 10y ago
It isn't technically a failure, it's could just be a numbers thing, though I admittedly don't have any numbers. If the upcoming new MacBook Pro doesn't set the heather on fire from a technical standpoint then I guess this is the commercially the level of hardware they're going to settle with trend-wise. I saw the same thing happen with Dell's high end Precision laptops a few years back. Once upon a time you got a full 17" 1920x1200 display and an outstanding specification that would almost match the power of their desktop Precision range. But then the displays changed to cheaper 1080p panels, the processor, memory and GPU offerings were less than stellar and that was that. They settled on new revisions that were good enough, but not the impressive flagship models they once manufactured. I think this is maybe happening to Apple and the MB Pro range.
- grzm 10y ago
  "this is the commercially the level of hardware they're going to settle with trend-wise." Makes sense. By "level of hardware" are you thinking of specs (ports, screen, processors)? Form factor (dimensions, battery life)? Software? "the same thing happen with Dell's high end Precision laptops" Do I understand correctly that the specs of the Dell Precision line reached a peak and then decreased? Plateaued? Just didn't keep up with the cutting edge hardware available? I can see the third happening -- sadly, it could be argued that it's been happening for a while. I have a harder time imagining the first two scenarios happening. Thanks for digging into this more. This is the kind of discussion I think is useful. Cheers!
  - teh_klev 10y ago
    > By "level of hardware" are you thinking of specs (ports, screen, processors)? Yes, this. As for the Dell's they plateaued then weren't as cutting edge any more. I used to lust after Dell's top of the range Precision laptop, but not any more. Edit: That said, I just took a look at the specs of their latest offering, the Precision 7000. They seem to have stepped their game up a bit since I last looked. You can get a 4K display now.
    - grzm 10y ago
      Cool! Thanks!