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This. Four years +/- ago the Macbook Pro was my go to laptop for serious work. Note the "Pro" in the title (and, yes, I bang on about this a lot when provoked)

This. Four years +/- ago the Macbook Pro was my go to laptop for serious work. Note the "Pro" in the title (and, yes, I bang on about this a lot when provoked). Apple, please: I work on batteries a lot. Start putting in BIGGER batteries, along with better connectivity (yes, I would like standard USB 2 and 3 connectivity without requiring dongles for, like, most things I want to plug in; yes, I would like an HDMI port or two built in so I don't need to carry dongles; yes, I would like a wired ethernet port because it's still a lot better than WiFi and, again, doesn't need yet another dongle; yes, I do require line in audio built in to the damn box, not just line out, and don't be forcing me to use a dongle to plug in a pair of headphones or I will become militantly angry). Also, whilst I'm at it, more cores, please: 8, minimum. More memory as well. 32GB minimum, ideally 64GB. And 2 - 4TB storage. I know, it'll weigh more: I don't care, I'm not puny. Even still, you used to be able to build decently powerful machines with good battery life without building the kind of ridiculous lumps that Dell, et al., shovel out the door as "desktop replacements". Please, remember how to do this, and stop building toy computers for undernourished hipsters with chronic muscle atrophy.

zimpenfish 9y ago
The thing is - they could do all this and ... about 250 people would buy it. Maybe 1000. To break even at that level of production, they'd probably have to charge 5 times what people would want to pay. Meanwhile they have tens of millions buying their "toy computers". Where would you focus your efforts?
- mschuster91 9y ago
  > about 250 people would buy it. Maybe 1000 Lolwut, companies would INSTANTLY go back to the older MBPs if they could. Do you know how much replacing lost/misplaced/stolen/broken adapters cost?! The only thing where companies can save with the new USB-C MBP is on power bricks because once the cable inevitably fails you only have to get a new cable instead of a whole new brick.
  - dkonofalski 9y ago
    If that's the case, then who are all these people buying the new MBP's in record numbers?
    - tedunangst 9y ago
      Fake users!
    - mschuster91 9y ago
      Hipsters buying MBPs because they're cool. Or those who had to upgrade from their beloved 2012+ machines due to HW failure.
      - dkonofalski 9y ago
        Really? You can't really believe that that's true...
  - bartread 9y ago
    Indeed. I'm not sure why my comment is getting so heavily downvoted to be honest. The fact is that a new hire has specifically asked me to buy him an older Macbook Pro in preference to the new touch-bar variant primarily because of the lack of decent ports on the new model and the hassle this causes with dongles (especially when they go missing, which they invariably do).
- bartread 9y ago
  It's cool, they don't have to: they can do whatever they want obviously, but I'd argue that whilst abandoning the professional market will undoubtedly bolster profit now, in the long term... well, those chickens are going to come home to roost.
  - bartread 9y ago
    Seriously? Again with the downvoting? Can you at least add a comment as to why, please?
    - zimpenfish 9y ago
      It might be because, historically, claiming that Apple are doomed in the future because they're not servicing $SOMESMALLGROUP has been a losing strategy.
      - bartread 9y ago
        And that's a point of view with some merit. However, Apple's strategy at the moment (and it's obviously been going this way for a long time) appears to be somewhat predicated on being a fashion brand. And that's OK, but fashions change. They've been doing a pretty good job so far, but let's say they become unfashionable, whilst already having alienated a market sector that values a laptop as a tool first and an accessory second. Owning Apple has become a social signal. The problem is these things lose their power when a large number of people are sending the same signal. Don't get me wrong: I'm not above buying expensive fashion items, but it doesn't change the fact that to me a laptop is primarily a tool. The reason I switched to Apple 6 years ago is because it was a better tool for what I wanted to work with (audio), but I got suckered in by the power, stability and battery life, and found I could run Windows as much as I needed it using Parallels... so most things have moved to OSX. The thing is, 6 years is a long time and that situation is changing. Apple are no longer releasing laptops that have scaled in capability to meet the demands of my workload because of their increasing focus on, well, being a fashion item I suppose. So, anyway, in the next year or two I'll probably be looking for a high-specced Linux laptop to replace my Macbook Pro, which doesn't sound like a heck of a lot of fun to me.

zimpenfish 9y ago

The thing is - they could do all this and ... about 250 people would buy it. Maybe 1000. To break even at that level of production, they'd probably have to charge 5 times what people would want to pay. Meanwhile they have tens of millions buying their "toy computers". Where would you focus your efforts?

mschuster91 9y ago
> about 250 people would buy it. Maybe 1000 Lolwut, companies would INSTANTLY go back to the older MBPs if they could. Do you know how much replacing lost/misplaced/stolen/broken adapters cost?! The only thing where companies can save with the new USB-C MBP is on power bricks because once the cable inevitably fails you only have to get a new cable instead of a whole new brick.
- dkonofalski 9y ago
  If that's the case, then who are all these people buying the new MBP's in record numbers?
  - tedunangst 9y ago
    Fake users!
  - mschuster91 9y ago
    Hipsters buying MBPs because they're cool. Or those who had to upgrade from their beloved 2012+ machines due to HW failure.
    - dkonofalski 9y ago
      Really? You can't really believe that that's true...
- bartread 9y ago
  Indeed. I'm not sure why my comment is getting so heavily downvoted to be honest. The fact is that a new hire has specifically asked me to buy him an older Macbook Pro in preference to the new touch-bar variant primarily because of the lack of decent ports on the new model and the hassle this causes with dongles (especially when they go missing, which they invariably do).
bartread 9y ago
It's cool, they don't have to: they can do whatever they want obviously, but I'd argue that whilst abandoning the professional market will undoubtedly bolster profit now, in the long term... well, those chickens are going to come home to roost.
- bartread 9y ago
  Seriously? Again with the downvoting? Can you at least add a comment as to why, please?
  - zimpenfish 9y ago
    It might be because, historically, claiming that Apple are doomed in the future because they're not servicing $SOMESMALLGROUP has been a losing strategy.
    - bartread 9y ago
      And that's a point of view with some merit. However, Apple's strategy at the moment (and it's obviously been going this way for a long time) appears to be somewhat predicated on being a fashion brand. And that's OK, but fashions change. They've been doing a pretty good job so far, but let's say they become unfashionable, whilst already having alienated a market sector that values a laptop as a tool first and an accessory second. Owning Apple has become a social signal. The problem is these things lose their power when a large number of people are sending the same signal. Don't get me wrong: I'm not above buying expensive fashion items, but it doesn't change the fact that to me a laptop is primarily a tool. The reason I switched to Apple 6 years ago is because it was a better tool for what I wanted to work with (audio), but I got suckered in by the power, stability and battery life, and found I could run Windows as much as I needed it using Parallels... so most things have moved to OSX. The thing is, 6 years is a long time and that situation is changing. Apple are no longer releasing laptops that have scaled in capability to meet the demands of my workload because of their increasing focus on, well, being a fashion item I suppose. So, anyway, in the next year or two I'll probably be looking for a high-specced Linux laptop to replace my Macbook Pro, which doesn't sound like a heck of a lot of fun to me.