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The article's inclusion of this quote from Tim Cook comes pretty close to summing up the whole situation: “I think if you’re looking at a PC, why would you buy

by brandur 10y ago

The article's inclusion of this quote from Tim Cook comes pretty close to summing up the whole situation: “I think if you’re looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one?” – Tim Cook, talking about the iPad Pro It's time to face the fact that Apple doesn't care about professionals and never has. With the release of the original Intel MacBook Pro in 2006 they created a near perfect computer that would come to dominate the market amongst developers for the next ten years. What we don't acknowledge though is that this was purely an accident. While Apple had intended to build nice hardware and a stable OS, the Unix-y nature of the OS that that helped capture the hearts of developers was never exposed in an intentional way. What we're seeing with the new MBP is a regression back to the core Apple value that are already so prominent on the iPhone and iPad: form over function. Why have a headphone jack when you can make the bottom of the phone more symmetrical and shave 0.2 mm off the case depth? Why do you need a physical keyboard when the iPad's virtual one is just fine for writing emails? Expect more of the same on future changes to the lineup.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
bluejekyll 10y ago
<SadMac> I'll reserve judgement on the new TouchBar, since I haven't had a chance to play with one. I'll say this, though, what they've done is dipped their toe into the fully programmable keyboard space: http://www.geeknaut.com/cool-computer-keyboards-2219350.html http://www.geeknaut.com/cool-computer-keyboards-2219350.html This could be a stepping stone to a fully redrawable keyboard. Not saying I want such a thing, but it's interesting. imagine the entire keyboard surface being the TouchBar? It would suck (I think) for typing, but it would certainly differentiate itself from the iPad, and would start making for custom controls that augment the display. In some cases I could see this as a better experience than just a pure touchscreen (though it would probably be very niche). Anyway, even with all of the negatives you mentioned, it's still going to be the best Unix laptop out there. My dream is that HP or Dell find a backbone, and starts pitching supporting and building a perfect Linux (pick any distro really) laptop to devs, or maybe Google makes ChromeOS, that perfect OS. Until then...
- davesque 10y ago
  The only way I can imagine a fully-drawable keyboard working is if they perfected one of the haptic feedback technologies like ultra-sonic keys or something crazy.
  - basch 10y ago
    the fully drawable keyboard is already here. expect apple to perfect it in three years one the other OEMs rush it to market and fail. http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/9/2/12769094/lenovo-yoga-book-love-poem-ifa-2016 http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/9/2/12769094/len...
  - sudhirj 10y ago
    They already have, I think. The force touch trackpads don't move - they give the illusion of clicking using haptics. Don't see why keys would be much more difficult.
    - blowski 10y ago
      Well it would have to be much, much better than any haptic keyboard I've used so far. Those that I've used may give feedback, but it's nothing like using a keyboard.
    - rbanffy 10y ago
      I don't think the haptics are fine enough to allow for feeling the key boundaries with your fingertips.
      - uptown 10y ago
        I'd bet they will be one-day, or perhaps they are in a lab, but they can't achieve it at-scale, or at an acceptable cost. It's likely why they're trending the existing keyboards towards a flatter profile -- in preparation for the sensation they know they'll be able to pull-off in 3 or 5 or however many years it'll take to deliver a haptic implementation on their products.
    - 10y ago
godzillabrennus 10y ago
Doesn't anyone else remember that these early intel units had overheating problems? Later versions had GPU failures en masse and had a recall. Not to mention that pre unibody the cases were fragile and able to be bent unintentionally. The optical drives basically all failed from poor design on these units as well. These were not as well designed as we like to remember. I still have an early one I keep on hand to tinker with from time to time and love what they represent but let's not kid ourselves. The MacBook Pro had come a long way since then. That said how they decided not to offer a 32GB ram offering on a MacBook Pro in 2016 is beyond me.
- slantyyz 10y ago
  >> That said how they decided not to offer a 32GB ram offering on a MacBook Pro in 2016 is beyond me. I'm the first to join you in this critique (I jumped off the Mac bandwagon a year or so ago), but in fairness, macOS does do memory compression where I don't think the other major OSes do. 16GB goes a little further (in theory) on macOS than it does on Windows.
  - op00to 10y ago
    Also, maybe paging to a super fast SSD is good enough to justify not having more memory.
- rbanffy 10y ago
  I assume they designed the board to accommodate 32GB but couldn't get adequate supplies at the low volumes expected. 16GB is still more than most people need (me included). Also, adding more memory will shorten battery life.
- op00to 10y ago
  Easy - they ran the numbers and saw the engineering benefits for keeping a simpler chipset that only supported 16GB outweighed the value of a few people getting pissed off that there's no 32GB option. Frankly, if I need more than 16GB of RAM, I'm going to want to develop on a box in a datacenter somewhere, not my laptop.
- 10y ago
eknkc 10y ago
Given all the Apple bashing, I can not see a decent alternative being mentioned? Everybody is furious about the new Mac, where does this expectation come from? I need a new laptop, my older MBP had some unfortunate accidents. I tried to find a better one than the new MBP. I honestly could not. This new MBP seems to be the best ever laptop I can buy at this moment. I guess it would be better if it had 32gb ram option or a newer gen CPU. Still, nothing else seems to come close. If you don't agree, please help me with my decision: - Unix. Linux is fine though but I prefer macOS. - A high resolution display. - A good, large trackpad and good software support for that. - I can work with ~4-5 hours of battery life. - Something portable. Been carrying this thing all day every day. - Don't really care about graphics performance. Any suggestions?
- justinkramp 10y ago
  Completely agree. I'd love a laptop that performed as well as the 2012 MBP I lug around, with updated ports, less weight, and more RAM. I don't need a touchscreen function row. I don't want Windows, dropping Linux on an Asus or HP mid- or high-end laptop might suffice but there are enough stories about malfunctioning wifi or sound to ward me away from that.
- PretzelPirate 10y ago
  Not that I have any opinion on whether you get a MBP or not, but have you tried the Dell XPS line: https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Dell-XPS-15-9550-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.326871600 https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Dell-XP... Obvious it doesn't run OSX. I run Linux on mine and it works great.
  - eknkc 10y ago
    I gave the XPS 15" a serious consideration. Wasn't gonna wait for the Apple event and buy one a month earlier. Then I read a lot of horror stories. Couldn't be sure about reliability. Doesn't really offer too much over the MBP I guess? It was faster as month earlier but the new ones should be on par. If my main OS was Linux it could be the best choice. I wonder if my concerns about reliability is bogus. Gotta check a little more about reviews.
notatoad 10y ago
>It's time to face the fact that Apple doesn't care about professionals and never has. and yet despite this, professionals around the world use the Macbook Pro. The user base that apple doesn't care about, and never has cared about, is "power users" - the people who have strong opinions about how their tools should look and behave. There's tons of professionals out there, in many different industries, who simply want a computer that works reliably and that they don't have to think or worry about, and that has always been the segment apple has served. They've never catered to the die-hard macbook pro fans. Function over form has never been the goal. They build laptops with broad appeal that make the compromises that work for a large number of people, and they balance form against function. And yes, sometimes that means form wins out over function. Apple is just continuing to do what they've always done. They haven't lost their way, people have just been expecting stuff from them that was never realistic.
- 72deluxe 10y ago
  "compromises that work for a large number of people" I'm not sure how removing all of the ports that my existing devices plug into is a compromise that works for me, let alone my mum or anyone else I know. Carrying a bag of dongles is not my idea of the future. Is it yours? I can no longer plug my SD card in from my Sony camera. How exactly do you think this is a good compromise? It isn't a compromise at all - it's dictation or an ultimatum, really.
  - renaudg 10y ago
    This is not the future, it's the temporary present. This is a uncomfortable transition period, but it won't be too long until USB-C is ubiquitous and you're not carrying dongles anywhere.
    - 72deluxe 10y ago
      At the current situation it isn't a transition period - the available hardware now dictates that USB C should be used. So there is no transition; transition would imply that the two port sets existed side by side (unfeasible I know). Let's hope that this jump to USB C encourages the rest of the industry to move along. Given that fuzzy VGA is still on many PCs and displays, I can only imagine how long this period will be.
beamatronic 10y ago
>> It's time to face the fact that Apple doesn't care about professionals and never has. What does Johnny Ive do his work on? Does Tim Cook use an iPad Pro exclusively?
- jedberg 10y ago
  > Does Tim Cook use an iPad Pro exclusively? The answer is almost certainly yes. I've noticed this trend for a while now -- all the execs at all the big tech companies are moving to an iPad only experience, since it does email and web and that's all they need.
  - 1_2__3 10y ago
    I think you're absolutely right.
  - RaSoJo 10y ago
    During Tim's Pre CEO days, he was known to be a heavy user/lover of spreadsheets[1]. With a special affection of making the cells really small. (could not find the reference for that, but it was another Apple CXO who said it) Not sure if he still makes/checks spreadsheeets. I find it hard that a long time spreadsheet person could quit and not get his hands dirty with the numbers. And if he still gets his hands dirty with the numbers, I would expect it to be hard restricted to an iPad. [1]https://brooksreview.net/2011/01/cook-numbers/ https://brooksreview.net/2011/01/cook-numbers/
    - jedberg 10y ago
      It's actually really easy to do spreadsheets on an iPad with a keyboard case. My wife does it all the time. It's just like on the computer, but you can touch the cells you want to look at.
- JBReefer 10y ago
  Probably the phone and paper, mostly?
Bud 10y ago
First, OS X isn't "Unix-y"; it literally is Unix. Second, you actually can say with a straight face that the MBP 2006 design was "purely an accident"? No. It wasn't. It was the result of hundreds of small and correct choices, not all of which were obvious at the time. How precisely is the new MBP a regression? I think it's telling that you cited two examples to back this up—but oddly, neither of them were about the MB Pro. They were about iOS devices.
- teh_klev 10y ago
  > Second, you actually can say with a straight face that the MBP 2006 design was "purely an accident"? Ok....but then you contradict yourself... > It wasn't. It was the result of hundreds of small and correct choices, not all of which were obvious at the time. I'd call that fortuitous which is being accidentally lucky.
- CaptSpify 10y ago
  He never said the design was an accident. He said that the fact that they were able "to dominate the market amongst developers for the next ten years." was an accident
  - tkxxx7 10y ago
    No, their wording is too ambiguous to make that distinction, and your interpretation seems to be the less-likely one.
    - CaptSpify 10y ago
      I'm sorry, but I can't disagree with you more. I see no ambiguity in there. In fact, he never even uses the word "design" in the original post.
- AlexandrB 10y ago
  What initially attracted me to the MPB (around 2009) was: - great input/output hardware - solid build - little design touches like the magsafe connector, sleep light, and battery indicator - Unixy, well-designed OS with some really great 3D party software Besides the solid build, all of these are now either gone or in decline. The touchpad is still OK, but the quality of the keyboard has been crippled. The OSX App Store still doesn't support demos or upgrade pricing. Magsafe is gone - for no apparent reason. All of this is mostly in service of gimmicks - the biggest of which being "thinness" which I really don't care about. I'd be buying 17" MBPs if they were still available.
lj3 10y ago
> While Apple had intended to build nice hardware and a stable OS, the Unix-y nature of the OS that that helped capture the hearts of developers was never exposed in an intentional way. No, it was pretty intentional. Apple has a history of appealing to power users for a few years, then kicking them in the nuts. First, they did it to professional artists. Then they did it to professional video editors. Now they're doing it to software developers. It's just our turn, I guess.
- 72deluxe 10y ago
  But will they run out of people to kick?
  - rhizome 10y ago
    The Greater Fool Theory says "no."
  - lj3 10y ago
    So long as Apple has iOS devs by the short and curlies, they'll have power users to kick in the nuts.
terhechte 10y ago
It wasn't an accident. Steve cared about the Mac much more than Tim does. Steve, also, understood the value for IT professionals to have an operating system that is based on Unix and offers modern commercial software, such as Photoshop et al. It's best described by this ad: http://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/apple_unix_ad-s-jpg.576655/ http://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/apple_unix_ad-s-jpg....
nartsbtaa 10y ago
> "It's time to face the fact that Apple doesn't care about professionals and never has." I'm a professional, and the MacBook Pro continues to suit my needs extremely well. Perhaps the problem is that "professional" is too vague a term to have any useful meaning in this context. If you mean developers, fine, but I'm also a developer and the MacBook Pro continues to suit my needs extremely well. What exactly is the use case that the new MacBooks fails at, and is this a widespread problem among all professionals, all developers, or a particular segment of developers? Criticisms of the iPhone are entirely valid. I upgraded from the 6s to the 7 yesterday through the iPhone Upgrade Program. I've only noticed three differences so far: 1. No headphone jack. I only brought my new iPhone 7 headphones to work today, and I can't plug them into my laptop to watch a video. >_< 2. The Capacitive touch home button. Unlike the capacitive touch trackpads, the tactile feedback for this button is not convincing or satisfying at all. It sucks. 3. They moved the camera slightly, so my existing case doesn't work. That's it. I don't notice any improvements. It's a strict downgrade so far.
pjmlp 10y ago
I think the only ones to loose are the UNIX developers that don't breath the Apple culture, as it as already before Jobs returned to Apple. Apple developers, as it was already in the older OS versions are right at home. Speaking of which, just check the recordings of Jobs doing NeXTSTEP related presentations on YouTube, and you see how little relevance is given to UNIX.

by brandur 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

bluejekyll 10y ago

<SadMac> I'll reserve judgement on the new TouchBar, since I haven't had a chance to play with one. I'll say this, though, what they've done is dipped their toe into the fully programmable keyboard space: http://www.geeknaut.com/cool-computer-keyboards-2219350.html http://www.geeknaut.com/cool-computer-keyboards-2219350.html This could be a stepping stone to a fully redrawable keyboard. Not saying I want such a thing, but it's interesting. imagine the entire keyboard surface being the TouchBar? It would suck (I think) for typing, but it would certainly differentiate itself from the iPad, and would start making for custom controls that augment the display. In some cases I could see this as a better experience than just a pure touchscreen (though it would probably be very niche). Anyway, even with all of the negatives you mentioned, it's still going to be the best Unix laptop out there. My dream is that HP or Dell find a backbone, and starts pitching supporting and building a perfect Linux (pick any distro really) laptop to devs, or maybe Google makes ChromeOS, that perfect OS. Until then...

davesque 10y ago
The only way I can imagine a fully-drawable keyboard working is if they perfected one of the haptic feedback technologies like ultra-sonic keys or something crazy.
- basch 10y ago
  the fully drawable keyboard is already here. expect apple to perfect it in three years one the other OEMs rush it to market and fail. http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/9/2/12769094/lenovo-yoga-book-love-poem-ifa-2016 http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/9/2/12769094/len...
- sudhirj 10y ago
  They already have, I think. The force touch trackpads don't move - they give the illusion of clicking using haptics. Don't see why keys would be much more difficult.
  - blowski 10y ago
    Well it would have to be much, much better than any haptic keyboard I've used so far. Those that I've used may give feedback, but it's nothing like using a keyboard.
  - rbanffy 10y ago
    I don't think the haptics are fine enough to allow for feeling the key boundaries with your fingertips.
    - uptown 10y ago
      I'd bet they will be one-day, or perhaps they are in a lab, but they can't achieve it at-scale, or at an acceptable cost. It's likely why they're trending the existing keyboards towards a flatter profile -- in preparation for the sensation they know they'll be able to pull-off in 3 or 5 or however many years it'll take to deliver a haptic implementation on their products.
  - 10y ago

godzillabrennus 10y ago

Doesn't anyone else remember that these early intel units had overheating problems? Later versions had GPU failures en masse and had a recall. Not to mention that pre unibody the cases were fragile and able to be bent unintentionally. The optical drives basically all failed from poor design on these units as well. These were not as well designed as we like to remember. I still have an early one I keep on hand to tinker with from time to time and love what they represent but let's not kid ourselves. The MacBook Pro had come a long way since then. That said how they decided not to offer a 32GB ram offering on a MacBook Pro in 2016 is beyond me.

slantyyz 10y ago
>> That said how they decided not to offer a 32GB ram offering on a MacBook Pro in 2016 is beyond me. I'm the first to join you in this critique (I jumped off the Mac bandwagon a year or so ago), but in fairness, macOS does do memory compression where I don't think the other major OSes do. 16GB goes a little further (in theory) on macOS than it does on Windows.
- op00to 10y ago
  Also, maybe paging to a super fast SSD is good enough to justify not having more memory.
rbanffy 10y ago
I assume they designed the board to accommodate 32GB but couldn't get adequate supplies at the low volumes expected. 16GB is still more than most people need (me included). Also, adding more memory will shorten battery life.
op00to 10y ago
Easy - they ran the numbers and saw the engineering benefits for keeping a simpler chipset that only supported 16GB outweighed the value of a few people getting pissed off that there's no 32GB option. Frankly, if I need more than 16GB of RAM, I'm going to want to develop on a box in a datacenter somewhere, not my laptop.
10y ago

eknkc 10y ago

Given all the Apple bashing, I can not see a decent alternative being mentioned? Everybody is furious about the new Mac, where does this expectation come from? I need a new laptop, my older MBP had some unfortunate accidents. I tried to find a better one than the new MBP. I honestly could not. This new MBP seems to be the best ever laptop I can buy at this moment. I guess it would be better if it had 32gb ram option or a newer gen CPU. Still, nothing else seems to come close. If you don't agree, please help me with my decision: - Unix. Linux is fine though but I prefer macOS. - A high resolution display. - A good, large trackpad and good software support for that. - I can work with ~4-5 hours of battery life. - Something portable. Been carrying this thing all day every day. - Don't really care about graphics performance. Any suggestions?

justinkramp 10y ago
Completely agree. I'd love a laptop that performed as well as the 2012 MBP I lug around, with updated ports, less weight, and more RAM. I don't need a touchscreen function row. I don't want Windows, dropping Linux on an Asus or HP mid- or high-end laptop might suffice but there are enough stories about malfunctioning wifi or sound to ward me away from that.
PretzelPirate 10y ago
Not that I have any opinion on whether you get a MBP or not, but have you tried the Dell XPS line: https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Dell-XPS-15-9550-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.326871600 https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Dell-XP... Obvious it doesn't run OSX. I run Linux on mine and it works great.
- eknkc 10y ago
  I gave the XPS 15" a serious consideration. Wasn't gonna wait for the Apple event and buy one a month earlier. Then I read a lot of horror stories. Couldn't be sure about reliability. Doesn't really offer too much over the MBP I guess? It was faster as month earlier but the new ones should be on par. If my main OS was Linux it could be the best choice. I wonder if my concerns about reliability is bogus. Gotta check a little more about reviews.

notatoad 10y ago

>It's time to face the fact that Apple doesn't care about professionals and never has. and yet despite this, professionals around the world use the Macbook Pro. The user base that apple doesn't care about, and never has cared about, is "power users" - the people who have strong opinions about how their tools should look and behave. There's tons of professionals out there, in many different industries, who simply want a computer that works reliably and that they don't have to think or worry about, and that has always been the segment apple has served. They've never catered to the die-hard macbook pro fans. Function over form has never been the goal. They build laptops with broad appeal that make the compromises that work for a large number of people, and they balance form against function. And yes, sometimes that means form wins out over function. Apple is just continuing to do what they've always done. They haven't lost their way, people have just been expecting stuff from them that was never realistic.

72deluxe 10y ago
"compromises that work for a large number of people" I'm not sure how removing all of the ports that my existing devices plug into is a compromise that works for me, let alone my mum or anyone else I know. Carrying a bag of dongles is not my idea of the future. Is it yours? I can no longer plug my SD card in from my Sony camera. How exactly do you think this is a good compromise? It isn't a compromise at all - it's dictation or an ultimatum, really.
- renaudg 10y ago
  This is not the future, it's the temporary present. This is a uncomfortable transition period, but it won't be too long until USB-C is ubiquitous and you're not carrying dongles anywhere.
  - 72deluxe 10y ago
    At the current situation it isn't a transition period - the available hardware now dictates that USB C should be used. So there is no transition; transition would imply that the two port sets existed side by side (unfeasible I know). Let's hope that this jump to USB C encourages the rest of the industry to move along. Given that fuzzy VGA is still on many PCs and displays, I can only imagine how long this period will be.

beamatronic 10y ago

>> It's time to face the fact that Apple doesn't care about professionals and never has. What does Johnny Ive do his work on? Does Tim Cook use an iPad Pro exclusively?

jedberg 10y ago
> Does Tim Cook use an iPad Pro exclusively? The answer is almost certainly yes. I've noticed this trend for a while now -- all the execs at all the big tech companies are moving to an iPad only experience, since it does email and web and that's all they need.
- 1_2__3 10y ago
  I think you're absolutely right.
- RaSoJo 10y ago
  During Tim's Pre CEO days, he was known to be a heavy user/lover of spreadsheets[1]. With a special affection of making the cells really small. (could not find the reference for that, but it was another Apple CXO who said it) Not sure if he still makes/checks spreadsheeets. I find it hard that a long time spreadsheet person could quit and not get his hands dirty with the numbers. And if he still gets his hands dirty with the numbers, I would expect it to be hard restricted to an iPad. [1]https://brooksreview.net/2011/01/cook-numbers/ https://brooksreview.net/2011/01/cook-numbers/
  - jedberg 10y ago
    It's actually really easy to do spreadsheets on an iPad with a keyboard case. My wife does it all the time. It's just like on the computer, but you can touch the cells you want to look at.
JBReefer 10y ago
Probably the phone and paper, mostly?

Bud 10y ago

First, OS X isn't "Unix-y"; it literally is Unix. Second, you actually can say with a straight face that the MBP 2006 design was "purely an accident"? No. It wasn't. It was the result of hundreds of small and correct choices, not all of which were obvious at the time. How precisely is the new MBP a regression? I think it's telling that you cited two examples to back this up—but oddly, neither of them were about the MB Pro. They were about iOS devices.

teh_klev 10y ago
> Second, you actually can say with a straight face that the MBP 2006 design was "purely an accident"? Ok....but then you contradict yourself... > It wasn't. It was the result of hundreds of small and correct choices, not all of which were obvious at the time. I'd call that fortuitous which is being accidentally lucky.
CaptSpify 10y ago
He never said the design was an accident. He said that the fact that they were able "to dominate the market amongst developers for the next ten years." was an accident
- tkxxx7 10y ago
  No, their wording is too ambiguous to make that distinction, and your interpretation seems to be the less-likely one.
  - CaptSpify 10y ago
    I'm sorry, but I can't disagree with you more. I see no ambiguity in there. In fact, he never even uses the word "design" in the original post.
AlexandrB 10y ago
What initially attracted me to the MPB (around 2009) was: - great input/output hardware - solid build - little design touches like the magsafe connector, sleep light, and battery indicator - Unixy, well-designed OS with some really great 3D party software Besides the solid build, all of these are now either gone or in decline. The touchpad is still OK, but the quality of the keyboard has been crippled. The OSX App Store still doesn't support demos or upgrade pricing. Magsafe is gone - for no apparent reason. All of this is mostly in service of gimmicks - the biggest of which being "thinness" which I really don't care about. I'd be buying 17" MBPs if they were still available.

lj3 10y ago

> While Apple had intended to build nice hardware and a stable OS, the Unix-y nature of the OS that that helped capture the hearts of developers was never exposed in an intentional way. No, it was pretty intentional. Apple has a history of appealing to power users for a few years, then kicking them in the nuts. First, they did it to professional artists. Then they did it to professional video editors. Now they're doing it to software developers. It's just our turn, I guess.

72deluxe 10y ago
But will they run out of people to kick?
- rhizome 10y ago
  The Greater Fool Theory says "no."
- lj3 10y ago
  So long as Apple has iOS devs by the short and curlies, they'll have power users to kick in the nuts.

terhechte 10y ago

It wasn't an accident. Steve cared about the Mac much more than Tim does. Steve, also, understood the value for IT professionals to have an operating system that is based on Unix and offers modern commercial software, such as Photoshop et al. It's best described by this ad: http://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/apple_unix_ad-s-jpg.576655/ http://forums.macrumors.com/attachments/apple_unix_ad-s-jpg....

nartsbtaa 10y ago

> "It's time to face the fact that Apple doesn't care about professionals and never has." I'm a professional, and the MacBook Pro continues to suit my needs extremely well. Perhaps the problem is that "professional" is too vague a term to have any useful meaning in this context. If you mean developers, fine, but I'm also a developer and the MacBook Pro continues to suit my needs extremely well. What exactly is the use case that the new MacBooks fails at, and is this a widespread problem among all professionals, all developers, or a particular segment of developers? Criticisms of the iPhone are entirely valid. I upgraded from the 6s to the 7 yesterday through the iPhone Upgrade Program. I've only noticed three differences so far: 1. No headphone jack. I only brought my new iPhone 7 headphones to work today, and I can't plug them into my laptop to watch a video. >_< 2. The Capacitive touch home button. Unlike the capacitive touch trackpads, the tactile feedback for this button is not convincing or satisfying at all. It sucks. 3. They moved the camera slightly, so my existing case doesn't work. That's it. I don't notice any improvements. It's a strict downgrade so far.

pjmlp 10y ago

I think the only ones to loose are the UNIX developers that don't breath the Apple culture, as it as already before Jobs returned to Apple. Apple developers, as it was already in the older OS versions are right at home. Speaking of which, just check the recordings of Jobs doing NeXTSTEP related presentations on YouTube, and you see how little relevance is given to UNIX.