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I get the sense that there is a movement inside Apple right now to abandon the professional market. Everything they've released lately for pros has been half-he

I get the sense that there is a movement inside Apple right now to abandon the professional market. Everything they've released lately for pros has been half-hearted at best. I'm getting increasingly concerned that one day soon they will drop Mac OS products altogether and just leave us to the wolves

jjawssd 10y ago
The writing is on the walls
tedmiston 10y ago
I hope not. I know more professional developers in startups using Apple laptops over anything else on the market. They have to recognize the size of that market. Edit: Added "in startups"
- rwhitman 10y ago
  Geographically once you get outside of major tech hubs, the Mac's market share as a developer workstation is quite tiny. I remember one time I was sent out on site to a big corp in an office park in New Jersey and everyone in the cubicles around me came up and cracked jokes about my MacBook, tried to challenge me because I wasn't a "real developer" since I used a Mac etc. Honestly I'd guess the main people keeping the Mac line afloat at Apple are probably their own engineering staff. Imagine having to develop Apple products on another OS, how frustrating that would be
  - gm-conspiracy 10y ago
    Imagine having to develop Apple products on another OS, how frustrating that would be That future seems to almost be here. Or the ecosystem will be abandoned.
hellofunk 10y ago
But then they would have nothing to write iOS apps, so I don't think that will happen.
- gm-conspiracy 10y ago
  Too bad you are not a VP at Apple. They could use that sort of thinking.
- golergka 10y ago
  Hackintosh.
- tonyedgecombe 10y ago
  It would be quite sad if you end up having to develop iOS apps on Windows/Linux.
artursapek 10y ago
I think the macs are going to remain a necessity for development to be done on their precious mobile line. I don't think they will ever be killed off completely but they are certainly being de-emphisized
- gm-conspiracy 10y ago
  I am assuming the decision-makers do not realize the importance of the developers to their success in mobile at all.
sumitgt 10y ago
The fact that we did not get a new Mac Mini or Mac Pro should be a good hint at which direction things are headed.
- threatofrain 10y ago
  Which is so sad because I feel that the Mac Mini is an excellent addition in homes and classrooms!
  - sumitgt 10y ago
    Yes, I was planning on abandoning my MacBook Air. Moving to a SurfaceBook + Mac Mini (for iOS builds) setup. Not happening I guess :|
oatmealsnap 10y ago
It just seems like their definition of "pro" has changed. It used to be video professionals and graphic designers. Now it's developers and web designers. Developers don't need SD slots or a screaming GPU (although you can never go wrong with a better GPU). I worked off of a 2012 MBA with an external display for years, and it still fits the bill! Light enough to carry around between work, home, and coffee shops, powerful enough to run a local web server and all the apps I used for development and 2-3 screens, and enough battery life to get a day's worth of work done. Apple will never drop MacOS or their Pro level computers because their Pro line is what makes their iOS App Store revenue. Their definition of "pro" is just going to be less video-centric, and more developer-centric.
- bobwaycott 10y ago
  > Their definition of "pro" is just going to be less video-centric, and more developer-centric. Their recent slate of choices makes me wonder how they are being developer-centric. Or if they understand developers at all. They sure don't make a point of showing off developer-centric features, innovations, and upgrades.
  - JimDabell 10y ago
    > They sure don't make a point of showing of developer-centric features, innovations, and upgrades. They spend a week doing that every year at WWDC with thousands of people in attendance. Even today, at a consumer-focused event, they made a point of telling people that developers could hook into the Touch Bar for their own applications.
    - bobwaycott 10y ago
      Apparently we have very different ideas of showing off products meant for developers. That's not the same thing as making things developers can use for consumer-focused applications. When is the last time WWDC featured developer-focused hardware, meant to improve developer productivity—or even something as subjective as happiness?

jjawssd 10y ago

The writing is on the walls

tedmiston 10y ago

I hope not. I know more professional developers in startups using Apple laptops over anything else on the market. They have to recognize the size of that market. Edit: Added "in startups"

rwhitman 10y ago
Geographically once you get outside of major tech hubs, the Mac's market share as a developer workstation is quite tiny. I remember one time I was sent out on site to a big corp in an office park in New Jersey and everyone in the cubicles around me came up and cracked jokes about my MacBook, tried to challenge me because I wasn't a "real developer" since I used a Mac etc. Honestly I'd guess the main people keeping the Mac line afloat at Apple are probably their own engineering staff. Imagine having to develop Apple products on another OS, how frustrating that would be
- gm-conspiracy 10y ago
  Imagine having to develop Apple products on another OS, how frustrating that would be That future seems to almost be here. Or the ecosystem will be abandoned.

hellofunk 10y ago

But then they would have nothing to write iOS apps, so I don't think that will happen.

gm-conspiracy 10y ago
Too bad you are not a VP at Apple. They could use that sort of thinking.
golergka 10y ago
Hackintosh.
tonyedgecombe 10y ago
It would be quite sad if you end up having to develop iOS apps on Windows/Linux.

artursapek 10y ago

I think the macs are going to remain a necessity for development to be done on their precious mobile line. I don't think they will ever be killed off completely but they are certainly being de-emphisized

gm-conspiracy 10y ago
I am assuming the decision-makers do not realize the importance of the developers to their success in mobile at all.

sumitgt 10y ago

The fact that we did not get a new Mac Mini or Mac Pro should be a good hint at which direction things are headed.

threatofrain 10y ago
Which is so sad because I feel that the Mac Mini is an excellent addition in homes and classrooms!
- sumitgt 10y ago
  Yes, I was planning on abandoning my MacBook Air. Moving to a SurfaceBook + Mac Mini (for iOS builds) setup. Not happening I guess :|

oatmealsnap 10y ago

It just seems like their definition of "pro" has changed. It used to be video professionals and graphic designers. Now it's developers and web designers. Developers don't need SD slots or a screaming GPU (although you can never go wrong with a better GPU). I worked off of a 2012 MBA with an external display for years, and it still fits the bill! Light enough to carry around between work, home, and coffee shops, powerful enough to run a local web server and all the apps I used for development and 2-3 screens, and enough battery life to get a day's worth of work done. Apple will never drop MacOS or their Pro level computers because their Pro line is what makes their iOS App Store revenue. Their definition of "pro" is just going to be less video-centric, and more developer-centric.

bobwaycott 10y ago
> Their definition of "pro" is just going to be less video-centric, and more developer-centric. Their recent slate of choices makes me wonder how they are being developer-centric. Or if they understand developers at all. They sure don't make a point of showing off developer-centric features, innovations, and upgrades.
- JimDabell 10y ago
  > They sure don't make a point of showing of developer-centric features, innovations, and upgrades. They spend a week doing that every year at WWDC with thousands of people in attendance. Even today, at a consumer-focused event, they made a point of telling people that developers could hook into the Touch Bar for their own applications.
  - bobwaycott 10y ago
    Apparently we have very different ideas of showing off products meant for developers. That's not the same thing as making things developers can use for consumer-focused applications. When is the last time WWDC featured developer-focused hardware, meant to improve developer productivity—or even something as subjective as happiness?