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It's an interesting question. I'd be happy if Apple could just get back to more-or-less annual hardware upgrades, really. While I agreed with Rogue Amoeba in a

It's an interesting question. I'd be happy if Apple could just get back to more-or-less annual hardware upgrades, really. While I agreed with Rogue Amoeba in a previous comment, it's worth noting that nearly everything we're kvetching about -- iMacs, MacBook Pros, even the weirdo one-port MacBook -- tends to go, well, about a year between updates. It's possible that this is really kind of overblown, and people are (still) feeling salty over the current generation of the MBP. (Which, for the record, I own one of and have used two others at two different jobs, and which I really don't think is at all the trash fire it's made out to be -- which isn't to say I wouldn't have preferred one using higher-travel key switches or that I have any particular use for the Touch Bar. But that new MBP is also a pretty clear signal that Apple isn't just ignoring the Mac: there is a whole lot of new engineering work here. That it's new engineering work a lot of people apparently hate doesn't make it not new engineering work.)

slg 8y ago
I think your last point hits on another reason why we might be seeing less of those regular tech spec bumps. The amount of engineering that goes into something like the current MacBook or the trashcan MacPro seems to be growing with every redesign. The complexity of those designs makes upgrades more difficult than the old days in which they might simply swap one off the shelf component for the newer and faster version.
- pfranz 8y ago
  Apple kind of said this about the trash can Mac Pro. They designed themselves into the wrong limitations which prevented them from releasing spec upgrades (physical and thermal limitations). The annoying thing is that they have seemed to have done this on multiple fronts and the compromises were never for the things people were clamoring for. One of the disappointing things personally, and why I complain instead of switching to PC hardware, is that on the PC side the laptops just aren't as good, either.

slg 8y ago

I think your last point hits on another reason why we might be seeing less of those regular tech spec bumps. The amount of engineering that goes into something like the current MacBook or the trashcan MacPro seems to be growing with every redesign. The complexity of those designs makes upgrades more difficult than the old days in which they might simply swap one off the shelf component for the newer and faster version.

pfranz 8y ago
Apple kind of said this about the trash can Mac Pro. They designed themselves into the wrong limitations which prevented them from releasing spec upgrades (physical and thermal limitations). The annoying thing is that they have seemed to have done this on multiple fronts and the compromises were never for the things people were clamoring for. One of the disappointing things personally, and why I complain instead of switching to PC hardware, is that on the PC side the laptops just aren't as good, either.