6 ms·

Mac sales drop is fair small - 3% or so. The iPad saw a drop of 12% or so. Fairly significant.

by OrangeMango 7y ago

thetinguy 7y ago
No new iPad Pro in 2019
- OrangeMango 7y ago
  You are probably right. The thing is, if Apple wants to drive more iPad sales, they really need to open up what it is allowed to do. iPads from 5+ years ago are still great for almost anything but the most intense games. I have the 9.7" iPad Pro, which is something like 3 years old by now. I have no reason to upgrade. Swift Playgrounds is a great app and has a built-in compiler. It's very nearly an IDE at this point. On my iPad, it compiles slowly and really eats the battery. But I don't really care; it's just a toy app. If Apple were to allow things compiled in Swift Playgrounds to be run, say, via the Shortcuts app (in any shortcut I created), I'd be excited to start really developing code on the iPad, and I'd want to buy a new iPad to enable that.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    And this is why techno-geeks don't get Apple. Apple "opening up" the iPad by allowing people to compile code, wouldn't even move the needle.
    - IggleSniggle 7y ago
      It might. I'd argue that the original success of iPhone is very symbiotic with the developer community it grabbed. There was a latent hunger from software creators to make mobile software, but no decent platform to develop for. Making techno-geeks happy can move the needle for the whole ecosystem (it can also be a huge waste of time, depending on what you hope to achieve...Oculus is a great example of the masses not following the energy despite massive excitement and development efforts by techno-geeks).
      - scarface74 7y ago
        The only thing that the iPhone captured was a latent hunger to make more money. If companies saw the chance to make money on the Oculus they would jump aboard regardless. The iPhone had two major advantages that attracted developers - there were already iPhones on the market before the App Store opened and at the time, Apple had an easy payment system via iTunes and millions of credit cards on file. It was estimated that Apple had more credit cards on files than Amazon or it was a close second thanks to iTunes. It also had a proven customer base of people willing and able to spend money on digital goods.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
sieabahlpark 7y ago
It'd be nice if they could sell a fixed 13 mbp like the new 16 model
_bxg1 7y ago
Surprising (concerning?) that Mac sales didn't go up, given the release of the Mac Pro and the MBP 16", both of which were poised to inject new life into the line.
- zionic 7y ago
  I'm personally holding out for high end 8+ core 10nm (or 7 at this point). I'm not paying $4k for skylake refreshes refresh. I would also love if they started shipping optane in their high end models (or at least have the option).
  - swozey 7y ago
    720p camera and Wifi5 no less
- raydev 7y ago
  Mac Pro was released too late for the quarter, also it starts at $6000. The 16" MBP is also the top tier in the notebooks, and despite complaints, the previous gen TouchBars are working decently for most people. Not surprised the 16" didn't have a huge impact. Updating the 13" line would have a bigger impact. iMac/iMac Pro also haven't seen notable updates in a while.
  - whatsmyusername 7y ago
    We've been buying up a shitload of 2017/2018 refurbs. They're perfectly fine even with the keyboard.
  - _bxg1 7y ago
    > Mac Pro was released too late for the quarter That's fair > it starts at $6000 The pricing/features can be (have been) debated ad infinitum, but no matter which way you slice it, it represents a huge new direction for the Mac line and at least at the high-end, industry professionals are excited about it. It's a big deal, and it's not a flop, so it should have an impact (next quarter, it seems). > and despite complaints, the previous gen TouchBars are working decently for most people Most people probably won't be trading in their 2018 MBPs for the new 16-inch, but given the strong feelings out there about the keyboard and airflow I'd bet some people will. And more importantly there are people like me, who were holding off on a long-coming upgrade for a moment exactly like this, when Apple's solved the biggest issues with the design. It should've registered as some kind of sales bump, even if not a massive one.
zyang 7y ago
It pains me to see how much iPad is lagging. I thought we would all be coding on iPads by 2020.
- 013a 7y ago
  I'm considering a Surface Pro X for this purpose. Better aspect ratio, better first-party thin keyboard, bundled LTE, fair price relative to the iPad Pro, better developer tool support (though, its still ARM Windows so...) My dream is an ultra-thin, low/medium power device that essentially just runs the editor, plus a full local CLI environment and maybe some basic stuff like compilers/etc, move all the super hungry stuff like containers, databases, queues etc to the cloud. iPad is kind of there, though you're probably still going to be editing off of an SFTP share if you want to use one of the mediocre editors available on the App Store. Plus any web development is still a pipe dream given the lack of dev tooling in Safari mobile. Backend-facing development is more possible, but the Surface Pro X feels much closer to this dream.
  - mrfusion 7y ago
    Surface looks cool but I’d hate to start worrying about viruses on my tablet. Edit: I didn’t expect to be downvoted. Are viruses not a concern?
    - 013a 7y ago
      Viruses really aren't an issue if you're (1) keeping your software up to date, and (2) aren't an idiot while browsing the internet. Modern browsers are very secure. Modern Windows is also very secure. I'd expect that ARM-based Windows is even less of a target.
      - scarface74 7y ago
        But with iPads, I can download any random app and mostly be assured that it won’t escape the sandbox. I’m not saying iOS is perfectly secure, but Windows and Macs are for lack of a better phrase, designed to be insecure.
dangero 7y ago
cannibalization from larger phone screens possibly
3pt14159 7y ago
Latest macOS has been brutal. I've dealt with about 50 or 60 crashes since the MBP I'm currently typing on was purchased and lagging is pretty frequent. They need to focus on making the platform more stable after all the changes they made in the latest upgrade.
- threeseed 7y ago
  That many crashes is indicative of a hardware issue. If you just purchased it I would take it back for a replacement.
  - 3pt14159 7y ago
    The problem is that I can't afford to not have it for the period of time that Apple normally needs. I will say, the crashes have gotten less frequent lately, so I think they fixed many of the underlying issues.
- 72deluxe 7y ago
  Catalina on test USB disk for me has been terrible; same hardware with internal disk running High Sierra = no problems. Very bad OS release in my opinion, and poorly handled transition (eg. secret partitions, unwritable root partitions, security popups everywhere and for every activity). I am not using it because I want to work, not wrestle with the OS. IMHO they lost that feeling in Catalina.

Mac sales drop is fair small - 3% or so. The iPad saw a drop of 12% or so. Fairly significant.

thetinguy 7y ago

No new iPad Pro in 2019

OrangeMango 7y ago
You are probably right. The thing is, if Apple wants to drive more iPad sales, they really need to open up what it is allowed to do. iPads from 5+ years ago are still great for almost anything but the most intense games. I have the 9.7" iPad Pro, which is something like 3 years old by now. I have no reason to upgrade. Swift Playgrounds is a great app and has a built-in compiler. It's very nearly an IDE at this point. On my iPad, it compiles slowly and really eats the battery. But I don't really care; it's just a toy app. If Apple were to allow things compiled in Swift Playgrounds to be run, say, via the Shortcuts app (in any shortcut I created), I'd be excited to start really developing code on the iPad, and I'd want to buy a new iPad to enable that.
- scarface74 7y ago
  And this is why techno-geeks don't get Apple. Apple "opening up" the iPad by allowing people to compile code, wouldn't even move the needle.
  - IggleSniggle 7y ago
    It might. I'd argue that the original success of iPhone is very symbiotic with the developer community it grabbed. There was a latent hunger from software creators to make mobile software, but no decent platform to develop for. Making techno-geeks happy can move the needle for the whole ecosystem (it can also be a huge waste of time, depending on what you hope to achieve...Oculus is a great example of the masses not following the energy despite massive excitement and development efforts by techno-geeks).
    - scarface74 7y ago
      The only thing that the iPhone captured was a latent hunger to make more money. If companies saw the chance to make money on the Oculus they would jump aboard regardless. The iPhone had two major advantages that attracted developers - there were already iPhones on the market before the App Store opened and at the time, Apple had an easy payment system via iTunes and millions of credit cards on file. It was estimated that Apple had more credit cards on files than Amazon or it was a close second thanks to iTunes. It also had a proven customer base of people willing and able to spend money on digital goods.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]

sieabahlpark 7y ago

It'd be nice if they could sell a fixed 13 mbp like the new 16 model

_bxg1 7y ago

Surprising (concerning?) that Mac sales didn't go up, given the release of the Mac Pro and the MBP 16", both of which were poised to inject new life into the line.

zionic 7y ago
I'm personally holding out for high end 8+ core 10nm (or 7 at this point). I'm not paying $4k for skylake refreshes refresh. I would also love if they started shipping optane in their high end models (or at least have the option).
- swozey 7y ago
  720p camera and Wifi5 no less
raydev 7y ago
Mac Pro was released too late for the quarter, also it starts at $6000. The 16" MBP is also the top tier in the notebooks, and despite complaints, the previous gen TouchBars are working decently for most people. Not surprised the 16" didn't have a huge impact. Updating the 13" line would have a bigger impact. iMac/iMac Pro also haven't seen notable updates in a while.
- whatsmyusername 7y ago
  We've been buying up a shitload of 2017/2018 refurbs. They're perfectly fine even with the keyboard.
- _bxg1 7y ago
  > Mac Pro was released too late for the quarter That's fair > it starts at $6000 The pricing/features can be (have been) debated ad infinitum, but no matter which way you slice it, it represents a huge new direction for the Mac line and at least at the high-end, industry professionals are excited about it. It's a big deal, and it's not a flop, so it should have an impact (next quarter, it seems). > and despite complaints, the previous gen TouchBars are working decently for most people Most people probably won't be trading in their 2018 MBPs for the new 16-inch, but given the strong feelings out there about the keyboard and airflow I'd bet some people will. And more importantly there are people like me, who were holding off on a long-coming upgrade for a moment exactly like this, when Apple's solved the biggest issues with the design. It should've registered as some kind of sales bump, even if not a massive one.

zyang 7y ago

It pains me to see how much iPad is lagging. I thought we would all be coding on iPads by 2020.

013a 7y ago
I'm considering a Surface Pro X for this purpose. Better aspect ratio, better first-party thin keyboard, bundled LTE, fair price relative to the iPad Pro, better developer tool support (though, its still ARM Windows so...) My dream is an ultra-thin, low/medium power device that essentially just runs the editor, plus a full local CLI environment and maybe some basic stuff like compilers/etc, move all the super hungry stuff like containers, databases, queues etc to the cloud. iPad is kind of there, though you're probably still going to be editing off of an SFTP share if you want to use one of the mediocre editors available on the App Store. Plus any web development is still a pipe dream given the lack of dev tooling in Safari mobile. Backend-facing development is more possible, but the Surface Pro X feels much closer to this dream.
- mrfusion 7y ago
  Surface looks cool but I’d hate to start worrying about viruses on my tablet. Edit: I didn’t expect to be downvoted. Are viruses not a concern?
  - 013a 7y ago
    Viruses really aren't an issue if you're (1) keeping your software up to date, and (2) aren't an idiot while browsing the internet. Modern browsers are very secure. Modern Windows is also very secure. I'd expect that ARM-based Windows is even less of a target.
    - scarface74 7y ago
      But with iPads, I can download any random app and mostly be assured that it won’t escape the sandbox. I’m not saying iOS is perfectly secure, but Windows and Macs are for lack of a better phrase, designed to be insecure.

dangero 7y ago

cannibalization from larger phone screens possibly

3pt14159 7y ago

Latest macOS has been brutal. I've dealt with about 50 or 60 crashes since the MBP I'm currently typing on was purchased and lagging is pretty frequent. They need to focus on making the platform more stable after all the changes they made in the latest upgrade.

threeseed 7y ago
That many crashes is indicative of a hardware issue. If you just purchased it I would take it back for a replacement.
- 3pt14159 7y ago
  The problem is that I can't afford to not have it for the period of time that Apple normally needs. I will say, the crashes have gotten less frequent lately, so I think they fixed many of the underlying issues.
72deluxe 7y ago
Catalina on test USB disk for me has been terrible; same hardware with internal disk running High Sierra = no problems. Very bad OS release in my opinion, and poorly handled transition (eg. secret partitions, unwritable root partitions, security popups everywhere and for every activity). I am not using it because I want to work, not wrestle with the OS. IMHO they lost that feeling in Catalina.