
Mac sales declined nearly 10% last year as Lenovo, Dell and others gained ground - artsandsci
https://9to5mac.com/2017/01/23/mac-sales-declined-nearly-10-last-year-as-lenovo-dell-and-others-gained-ground/
======
jclardy
Makes sense with Apple's current terrible product line setup. Both the retina
MacBook and 2016 MacBook Pro are much more niche than their last generation.
Also much more confusing as the MacBook Air successor is $500 more than the
13" Air was (The non-touchbar MacBook Pro is the spiritual successor to the
air.) The true 13" Pro for 2016 is also $500 more than the last gen.

The 12" MacBook is there...but it is a super niche product compared to the old
Air or even the old Pro. It's performance is probably enough for most people,
but at that point you could just buy a cheaper windows ultrabook and get
similar or better performance for a much lower price.

A huge market for Apple used to be college students. Now in 2017 what Apple
laptop do they buy? an underpowered MacBook, or an overpriced pro? The best
solution for most is buying an older model, but part of the appeal of buying a
Mac is having the "latest" thing.

Then you get to desktops...and there isn't much to say there. Apple just
doesn't do them anymore.

This is coming from someone that has used a Mac for the past 10 years and is
typing on a 2016 pro. It is nice, but connectivity wise it is too far ahead of
its time. In 1-2 years it will be fine, but right now it is just in early
adopter territory.

~~~
feross
"If you want to write fast software, use a slow computer" \- Dominic Tarr

The 12" Macbook is the best computer I've ever owned. Switched to it from a
2014 Macbook Pro, and found it very easy to adjust. The only time it struggles
a little bit is when I run Windows in VMware, on occasion.

The biggest benefit of the Macbook 12" is that if software runs well on your
computer, you _know_ it's guaranteed to run extra buttery-smooth on other
computers, which all have beefier CPUs and GPUs.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
It's a good quote, but I feel it reflects a time when I didn't also need to
run a stack of Redis, RabbitMQ, Postgres and webserver apps on my development
box.

~~~
icebraining
We run Gitlab (Rails + Unicorn + Sidekiq + Nginx + Postgres + Redis) on a 3GB
single-core VPS and it runs fine, without needing the swap. Is the stack
really the problem?

~~~
swozey
How many users on your Gitlab? I've had to add 2GB of ram every 3-6 months to
my Gitlab server. We're at about 17 users and 300 projects right now. I think
it's on a 4vcpu box right now.

~~~
icebraining
8 users, 850 projects, 6GB+ of Git data.

------
CoolGuySteve
Back when I worked at Apple the dirty secret was that the cheapest models,
despite all the marketing of the MacBook Pro, made up the majority of sales.

Back then it was the white plastic MacBook but now it's the 11" MacBook Air
that occupies that slot.

That model and its crappy TN screen is vastly inferior and more expensive than
similarly-sized ultrabooks. The only redeeming feature it has is MacOS.

Instead of replacing the Air, Apple introduced the MacBook at a premium price
point. It seems like a marketing failure to me that a lower spec MacBook
(1080p, slower SSD) wasn't released and the Air discontinued.

~~~
freehunter
Quite a few years ago I saw someone at college using a white plastic laptop
and man I thought that looked sharp. I glanced at the top of it and saw it was
a Mac. At the time I didn't own a Mac and I didn't follow their product lines,
but that was a hell of a good looking laptop, I thought. That was actually the
first time I'd ever seen a Macbook, I don't come from a very well-off or tech-
forward area. Everyone at the time owned a Dell Inspiron 150x. When I looked
it up I was really disappointed to see that it had been discontinued.

I have an aluminum Macbook and sure it's nice... but when I think about
Macbooks, I think about that white plastic machine. Shiny, almost see-through.
It really stood out to me in a world of dull metal and chunky black plastic
and laser-etched designs on laptops. My 2015 looks nice, I guess, but in my
mind it doesn't look _nearly_ as nice as that shiny, translucent white Macbook
I saw years ago.

Now, I never used one and I'm sure a lot of people here have, and I'm sure
there are a lot of negative stories about them cracking or discoloring or
being squeaky or something. But I still remember the first time I saw one, and
it stuck with me. That was the same when I saw an aluminum Macbook, it was
nice. They don't look all that special these days, the design is getting
stale. Everyone has a Macbook-looking laptop, from a distance I can't tell the
difference between a Samsung Chromebook and an 11" Macbook Air.

I hope they can wow us with a new design again in the future.

~~~
jotjotzzz
I still have my old white Macbook. It has never discolored for me and it's
still running pretty fast.

~~~
niels_olson
I donated white 2007 to the local Lego robotics team and it's still winning.

------
Zelphyr
Everyone is complaining about the confusing direction of Apple with regards to
the Mac but when I look around, I often wonder if they're just not reacting to
what is really happening. For example; my wife's 10 year old MacBook died last
year and for the most part, she hasn't missed it. She uses her phone for
everything. And for the things that she can't/doesn't want to do on her phone,
she uses her iPad.

I just bought the family an iMac for Christmas and my kids use it often, but
they also spend at least as much time on their iPods.

I think what Apple is seeing, and reacting to, is that the younger generation
of non-developers are increasingly using their mobile devices for everything.

We as power users hate it because we want to continue to have a solid laptop
and/or desktop on which to do our work. But I'm guessing that despite our
complaining, we're on the whole willing to pony up the money.

Not to mention, these machines last a really long time. I'm writing this on a
mid-2012 MBP that even with a battery that is going bad will still outlast my
friends Window's laptops. So yeah, $2400 is a lot for a laptop by comparison.
But its not so bad when you consider that you can reasonably expect to have
that machine for a much longer time than a Dell or Lenovo.

~~~
Al-Khwarizmi
I have an IBM ThinkPad from 2004 and Lenovo ThinkPads from (more or less) 2010
and 2015, they all work fine. The 2004 one is slow with current software and
the battery lasts like 1 minute, but otherwise it does what it should
according to its (now weak) specs.

If you think Lenovos don't last, it's probably because you have seen low-end
Lenovos (which indeed often break after 3-5 years). But a MBP is a high-end
laptop, it should be compared to high-end laptops from other brands.

~~~
soperj
You can also buy a new battery for that 2004 thinkpad and replace it in 2
seconds.

------
guelo
Both Dell and Lenovo's websites are awful. They try so hard to segment the
market that they make it almost impossible to shop their products. I want to
buy but I can't figure out what they are selling.

~~~
edblarney
"They try so hard to segment the market that they make it almost impossible to
shop their products. I want to buy but I can't figure out what they are
selling."

Bravo!

This is it.

So many manufacturers of so many things screw this up so bad.

I call it 'Sony-itis'.

They have massive segmentation, within that, so many variations, it's crazy.

I think it's an issue of culture: unless the change comes from the top, it
will never happen.

All the MBA's in the world could not convince them to change, operationally.

I worked for a 'major' handset manufacturer that just made new products willy
nilly. There was hardly any rhyme or reason.

They don't exist anymore, or rather, barely do.

~~~
bhauer
Yes. The whole "Are you looking for a business computer or a consumer
computer" initial decision point is one of the most offensive aspects of the
Dell site.

------
Kevin_S
Just wanted to add an opinion you don't see as much here, as a non-developer.
It's not just developers who are pretty upset about the new Macbook, myself
and my fiance were both in the market, and my fiance used a MBP through
college. She pretty much fought me on the new MBP until she tried it in store,
and promptly was against it. She's going with a Surfacebook and I'll probably
go with the new Dell XPS 15 with the 4k screen.

It's not just developers that are a bit... confused by the new direction.

~~~
potatosoup
What was she actually against in the new MBP? (New MBP user myself, don't like
the touch bar, but otherwise a fine machine.)

~~~
bootload
_" What was she actually against in the new MBP?"_

Newish MBP user chiming in. Peripheral access and costs.

\- no DVD/CD player

\- no Ethernet

\- no SD card slot

\- no RCA out

What I see is good new machines with the above peripheral access removed. The
advantages are no mechanical moving parts, technically better KB, access to
faster SDD, software upgradable for quite a while. The hidden advantage is the
new Macs are less polluting and fewer moving parts. Is this worth the added
cost, lower power supply and loss of peripheral and access though? Out of the
box, I had/have zero problems in my current work use/flow as a ^glorified^
VT-100 terminal.

~~~
xvaier
However, two out of four things mentioned have been removed from new models
since the first retina came out in mid 2012 (DVD/RJ45) simply because they are
nearly as thick as the entire device.

RCA out hasn't ever been in a MacBook to my knowledge.

The only port that made absolutely no sense to remove was the SD card slot
(even if I personally never use mine).

~~~
bootload
_" RCA out hasn't ever been in a MacBook to my knowledge."_

You're right, got confused with 3.5mm jack. Removed the 3.5mm jack. What about
the current USB confusion? ...and yes mid 2012. Since when is a thiner laptop
ever really been a TOP priority for programmers? I would have though it would
be power: processor, battery life, HD, then weight, etc.

For manufacturers shaving off millimetres/grams off each machine translates to
savings. For users thiner may be lighter, a trade off with being tactile.
Wonder what Braun would tackle this?

~~~
mciancia
But 3.5mm jack is still present on all Apple computers

~~~
bootload
even on the new MBPR? (I'm only interested in MBPs here) if so wrong (again)
but the idea of lack of peripherals / power for ^me^ is a problem.

~~~
mciancia
Yes It's not that hard to check it yourself btw

------
marssaxman
I was a Macintosh user since 1985, one of the die-hard faithful who stuck
around all the way through Apple's late-'90s doldrums, but I haven't bought a
Mac in years and at this point it's hard to imagine why I'd ever feel like
paying that premium again. Not that there's anything wrong with them - Apple
still makes very nice computers. The simple fact is that computers in general
crossed my "good enough" threshold en masse, roughly six or eight years ago,
and I just don't care much about the differences anymore. Any machine will
meet my needs, as long as it has an SSD and at least 4G of RAM. In this world,
why would I pay $1800 for a Macbook Pro when any random $300 Thinkpad will do
the job?

We're riding out the top end of the S-curve here. That's okay; the market is
mature. I expect that Apple can continue to do their high-margin BMW/Mercedes
thing for years to come. I just don't happen to need (or even particularly
desire) a luxury computer.

~~~
visarga
Same happened with my digital camera. I love them but I see no need to get a
better one.

------
thesumofall
I think the good news here is that PC and Mac are back on par again. Even for
demanding users of mainstream use cases (office, development, ...) both
platforms offer great products.

Personally, I have an MacBook Air 13" at home and a Lenovo X1 Carbon at work.
Both have their unique strengths and weaknesses but they are both great
laptops. Windows has done a great leap forward as has PC hardware. If I were
in the market today I would really struggle to make up my mind which one it
should be.

~~~
srazzaque
I'd agree with this. Whilst 9-5mac and its readership will be focussed on what
Apple is doing right/wrong, this may be ignoring the fact that competitors are
offering genuinely compelling products.

------
capkutay
The jury has been out on Tim Cook's performance as Apple CEO since he took
over about 7 years ago. I think this new line of Macs is evidence that he's
just too focussed on operations to the point where it's ruining their
products.

I'm guessing the move to consolidate the ports and kill the audio jack may
make total sense internally at Apple when it comes to their 10-year
manufacturing operations plan and really maximizing their profitability, but
to the outside world it's just bad product development.

~~~
m_mueller
IMO the big mistake was to give Jony Ive that much power. Should have put
Scott Forstall there instead, the man who made their most important product
work, but they got rid of him for being too opinionated and against the grain.
Well, that's probably exactly what you need in a product developer. (S)He
doesn't need to be a good designer, just recognize good design. Ive is just
way out of touch with their customer base.

~~~
wmeredith
> Ive is just way out of touch with their customer base.

The guy who is chauffeured to work in a car that is twice as expensive than my
three bedroom house? Say it isn't so!

Ive knows exactly what people want. A $200 watch in a $10,000 gold case so the
boys down at the country club won't make fun of me from behind their Omegas
and Rolexes, amiright? Sigh... As a long time die hard fan of the Apple that
made really interesting transformative tech, watching their decline makes me
sad.

------
walrus01
I switched to OSX when it was at v10.4, the very first generation of Intel
chipset Macbook Pros came out. I switched because it was the closest thing I
could get to a proper fully integrated desktop environment with a BSD-like
command line and full Unix-ish functionality (macports, etc). The first
generation of Macbook Pro (Core Duo) had a full complement of ports that were
state of the art when it was released. Now OSX is becoming a bullshit iOS-like
walled garden of app store garbage and the hardware is marketed at people who
like shiny, non-repairable consumer throwaway junk, and nothing has a proper
complement of I/O ports. Ugh.

Just give me a state of the art Thinkpad with full I/O ports that runs OSX
please.

~~~
Ezhik
>Just give me a state of the art Thinkpad with full I/O ports that runs OSX
please.

God, this. I still have no idea what I'll replace my Hachintosh T420 with when
the time comes.

------
PaulHoule
Back in the 1970s you still had old men who fought in WWII who would refuse to
buy a Japanese car, thus, General Motors and Ford abused them because they
knew American car buyers would buy American no matter what.

It's the same with Macs today. I gave a talk at my local startup accelerator
and found that they had every kind of dongle to attach a Mac to a screen, but
no (full size) Displayport adapters.

The next day I added a full-size to mini Displayport adapter to my kit.

------
mrmondo
This seems odd to me as now more than ever I see more and more people with
MacBooks / iMacs and AppleTVs which have become 'the standard' where as in the
past you'd see people with windows laptops or whatever and that'd be the norm
it's now appearing to be quite rare (at least from what I've seen in
Australia), I don't really know anyone that still uses a windows machine bar
one friend who has a gaming rig but he only has it for the GPU and uses a
MacBook for everything else other than that it's just a few of the older aged
managers / project managers at work and everyone else really uses macOS or
Linux of some form.

------
ComputerGuru
The biggest problem that Apple is creating for itself is not one that is being
discussed directly in most of these threads: it's not about the loss in Mac
sales, which they clearly don't give a damn about. It's the exodus of
producers from their platform.

Think about it. For those of you that were Mac fans before the iPhone and
before it was cool to be so, who else do you know that used a Mac? Forget why,
just who? The answer is: content creators. Video creators. Film editors.
Photographers. Music artists. Photoshop experts. And developers.

These people create the content that the rest of the "herd" consume. The herd
doesn't follow Apple (even though it seems that way); they follow the content,
wherever that content is. People didn't switch from Windows to Mac primarily
because $x wasn't available on Mac. But soon enough, $x, $y, and $z were on
Mac and the switch became easier. Think back to when the iPhone was fighting
against BlackBerry and Motorola. It was stupid things like Plants and Zombies
and Angry Birds that drove adoption. It was the music industry's alliance with
Apple (aka content) that helped the iPhone gain an edge just as much as its
technical merit.

5 years ago, I wouldn't have been able to say goodbye to my Mac and go back to
Windows. This year, I did (just weeks before the joke of an MBP was announced,
thank God). My favorite Mac apps are on Windows. WSL (Windows Subsystem for
Linux) gives me native Linux on Windows with decent integration. I have my
posix and I have an OS I can use. MS was trash, but they listened to their
power users (thank god for Nadella and good riddance to Ballmer) and ditched
Metro everything and went back to a useable, dev-friendly desktop with Windows
10. They're embracing 3D printing, they're bringing back the content
producers, and this is going to _hurt_ Apple way more than I think they
realize right now.

Every company makes its money at the bottom, but there's a reason these
companies continue to make losing investments at the top: to keep the content
creators, the prosumers, the reviewers, the influencers happy. It's not just
computers. Look at car companies. Look at what Toyota spent on the LFA. They
were _never_ going to recoup those costs, no matter what. The goal was to
entrench themselves in the minds of auto enthusiasts, to say that Toyota has
the ability, the technical knowhow, and the spirit it takes to make a real
super car. Now buy and recommend our normal cars, please.

Apple discontinuing first its servers, then its 17" MacBooks (and I've never
owned a 17" laptop in my life), its Mac Pros (seriously!?!??), and now, the
MacBook Pro (there's a reason there used to be a MacBook and a MacBook Pro.
Now "Pro" is marketing and they're all MacBook Pros while none of them are),
is the problem. It's clear some pinhead that doesn't get the market is looking
at the numbers and thinking "hmmmm, $x, $y, and $z have a $devcost/$saleprice
ratio that is poorer than our other mainstream products, kill them," not
realizing what that means for 10 years down the line.

I'm not saying we're going to see this impact _today_, but we're going to see
it at some point. Apple's prosumer focus is what kept it alive when it was
bankrupt and desperate and allowed it an opportunity to make a comeback.
Ignoring them now isn't just shortsighted and stupid, it's also ungrateful and
traitorous. But whatever. I'm happy with my thin & lightweight Xeon ZBook with
32GB of ECC RAM and a 4K display running Windows 10 and Linux. I don't care.
But I do think it's a damn shame.

~~~
010a
I have to disagree. Completely.

First: Your theory isn't new. It's been discussed to death here and elsewhere.

Second: There's no evidence that content creators are actually leaving the
Mac. It's easy to look at the new machines and Apple's trends and conclude
that, but go look on Youtube at any major content creator. FCPX is still
popular. If not, Adobe on OSX is still very popular. I'm not suggesting that
no one has left, but I don't think it's significant enough to move the dial.

Third: There is little evidence that their dedication to professional machines
is wavering on a systemic level. Removing the 17"? Come _on_. That had to have
been their worst selling model; anyone who needs a screen that large would
just plug into an external monitor. Discontinuing the Mac Pro? It isn't
discontinued; they've actually promised updates to desktops soon. Yes, they
let it get old in the tooth for a while. But I will be willing to accept this
argument only if 2017 passes us with no upgrades.

The MacBook Pro has its issues. It is, absolutely, ahead of its time with its
port selection. The only port it is truly lacking that professionals should
miss is the SD card slot, and I will grant you that is unfortunate and
unlikely to be fixed. Weak processors? Go look at the Intel ARK and tell me
what mobile processors Apple could have put in this machine but didn't. This
is Intel's fault, not Apple's. Weak graphics card? Yup, I'll give it to you, a
GTX 1050/1060 would have been incredible. No 32GB ram option? Unfortunate.

But the issues I am describing are not systemic. They are going to be fixed in
the next gen model. The pains you're seeing today are just the "early adopter
pains" we get with every brand new Apple product.

Fourth: I can literally tell you why their sales dropped 10%, right here.
Ready? No MacBook Air refresh. No iMac refresh. No Mac Mini refresh. That's
it.

Apple's Mac sales are not, in _any_ way, propped up by professionals. Don't
flatter yourself and this industry with moving the needle at all on Apple's
bottom line. They are propped up by average joe consumers, and this market
segment was hurt very badly in 2016 through Apple's unwillingness to cater to
them.

Apple's lack of updates to the Mac Pro has been unfortunate, but hasn't hurt
their bottom line. Apple's lack of updates to the MBA (last update: March
2015), Mac Mini (last update: October 2014) and iMac (last update: October
2015) are literally what is causing this 10% drop. The machines are stale, and
people know it.

Apple fixes this by refreshing their desktop lineup (which they have literally
said they are going to do, and Apple _never_ tells us anything) and dropping
the price of the MB/MBP (also seems likely).

Finally: I would remind you to not confuse "Apple is giving up on creatives"
and "everyone else is getting better at servicing them." Microsoft has been
doing a stellar job lately, and Windows and its accompanying hardware is
better than it has ever been.

~~~
edblarney
"Second: There's no evidence that content creators are actually leaving the
Mac. "

I don't think this is true. It's hard to say but there is a lot of noise about
it.

Consider this: most 'creatives' are poor. Or kind of. My landlords wife is a
'photographer'. She doesn't make a lot of money. She - like many others - are
'money sensitive'. She uses a PC to do all her high-end work. I don't know
why, or if she used Mac before, but I don't see any reason why creatives, in
2016 'need' to be on Mac.

If developers and creators can do their jobs well on a machine 1/2 the cost,
that will affect outcomes.

"Apple's Mac sales are not, in _any_ way, propped up by professionals." \-
again this is false. Almost all consumer markets have 'category leaders' that
drive the rest of consumption.

98% of Lululemon attire is worn outside of the Yoga studio - but if Lulu ever
stopped making good yoga gear (and trust me, it's really good) - they'd be out
of business.

~~~
guitarbill
I'm in two minds about this, because e.g. Lululemon or the surface book aren't
cheap either - so price isn't the only factor. But at least with the surface
book you could argue that the stylus is a huge value add. And while I hate
touchscreen laptops with a passion, I can definitely see it's a form factor
many people enjoy. Especially "normal" users (non-terminal users?).

Having said that, there's definitely a herd mentality. People buy what other
people in the group have, and what is considered "cool/chic/whatever". The
second part is really hard to track, especially with something as tool-like as
laptops ultimately are. So there is a huge risk here. The question is "are
techies still the 'category leaders'"? Microsoft seems to be betting they
aren't, and they are following through with that.

------
watertom
What is even more baffling is how they can possibly employee 80,000 people.
With that many people you think it would be possible to actually update their
products regularly, and make the updates compelling.

Apple is floating on the surface, and bloating like a dead whale. They have no
vision what so ever, and if they do, it's process engineered out of the
company. Their previously outstanding product engineering is even falling
down. Unless Mr. Cook is able to find or trust a visionary the company will
continue to downward spiral.

There is a fine line between a vision and a hallucination, and Apple is
hallucinating right now.

~~~
raincom
Majority of 80,000 come from Apple retail stores.

------
jplasmeier
I can't wait to retire my 2013 MBA and set it aside with my OEM 8800GT
(nVidia's iconic desktop GPU). Both represented the best combination of
tradeoffs with the tech that was available at the time at a price point that
led to ubiquity.

I'm not sure what my next portable computer will be, but if I want it to fit
into that criteria of iconic hardware, I doubt it will be an Apple computer.

~~~
tqkxzugoaupvwqr
If you would like to stay on macOS, buy a used MacBook (Pro). Some owners
treat their MacBook (Pro) like a jewel. Even one or two years old ones can
look like new. Performance-wise they are still great compared to the latest
siblings.

A week ago I bought a MacBook Pro 15" (Mid 2014) with 512 GB SSD and dedicated
graphics chip. I can drive two external 4K displays at 5120x2880 (looks like
2560x1440) and the internal display at 3840x2400 (looks like 1920x1200), all
at 60 Hz. That is all I needed. Couldn’t be happier. Cost me 1325€. Latest
MacBook Pro 15" with 512 GB SSD costs 2700€.

~~~
jplasmeier
That's true, but there isn't enough value in macOS for me to justify buying
old hardware, especially moving forward.

------
bostand
Given the CES announcements from Lenovo, Samsung and asus I can only assume
2017 will be even worse for Apple.

Laptop with 25 hrs battery? Give me two please!

~~~
seanmcdirmid
And yet no one but Apple can seem to make a decent track pad (even for
windows). It's a show stopper for me whenever I think of moving back to a PC.

~~~
imandride
Seems you haven't tried a non Mac mouse pad for some time. I suggest you do
so, I believe you will reconsider your comment.

~~~
seanmcdirmid
If you mean trackpad, I've had many in the last nine years from work (I worked
for Microsoft).

------
hkmurakami
Are there any models from Lenovo/Dell/HP that have a good keyboard (obviously
there is some subjectivity here)?

If Lenovo made a model with the thinkpad keyboard from 10 years ago, I'd buy
one in a heartbeat.

~~~
radicalbyte
I just bought an ASUS ZenBook with m3 and super high res screen for my wife.
The keyboard feels similar to my MBP13R. Much better than my 3k Dell.

Really nice little machine, blows the Air away and is a steal at 650 EUR (~400
USD using Apple's exchange rates).

~~~
sndean
I'm also really happy with my Asus Zenbook ux305fa. The keyboard does feel
familiar (replacing my 2011 MBP). And Ubuntu runs fine on it - no problems
with wifi or anything else so far.

~~~
rwmj
I love my Asus Zenbook, but I get the feeling that the screen resolution is
_too_ high. There's no need to have a 4K screen in an otherwise small laptop,
especially combined with rather patchy support in Linux.

------
matwood
Over the year they declined, but were up YoY in the 4q. Early year declines
show people were waiting for an update and then purchased when one came out.
We'll have to wait for 1q 2017 numbers to see if the releases keep the trend
going back up.

------
akulbe
¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ If Apple doesn't care about their Mac line, _why should their
users_?

I've been a hardcore Mac fan since '04\. That said, it's _VERY_ hard to argue
that quality in both hardware and software haven't been declining.

I spent over $4K for the 2016 MBP w/Touchbar. Problems. Problems. Problems.

I'm 2 days in to completely switching back to Windows. I bought a Dell XPS 15"
with a better CPU/GPU and more RAM than the top MBP, for a lot less money.

Dell makes a better "Macbook" in the new XPS line, than Apple's own Macbooks.
It makes me sad. These days, it's hard to think that Apple cares about
anything other than iOS devices.

------
weisser
I bought my Macbook Air for $1,629 in June of 2012. It's still my main
computer and I've spent <$300 (new battery, charger, etc) since the initial
purchase.

I'm not easy on computers. I travel a lot and this think has put up with very
poor treatment. I can't think of a better computer for me. After this one dies
I'll definitely buy another Mac (not thinking about which one because I'm
expecting this to last at least another year). I hope I'm not disappointed
because this computer exceeded my expectations for a laptop.

------
jalopy
Makes sense to me. Because Apple is discontinuing the Macbook Air - the best
combination of power, form factor and price - I'm regularly looking at all
available alternatives.

Can't really see how they're doing "what's best for the customer" anymore.
More like what's best for their bottom line.

------
velodrome
Has anyone here used the MBP touchbar on a daily basis? Does it improve
productivity or is it just a gimmick?

~~~
ser0
I have the touchbar on my work laptop. As a developer I would say that it is a
gimmick. I leave it on control strip mode rather than mix of app controls with
control strip so that the keys do not change as I change applications.

Applications in *nix and by JetBrains still utilise function keys for
shortcuts. If default touch-bar preferences allowed for showing function keys
at all times with control strip triggered on fn, that would be my preferred
default mode.

~~~
r00fus
You could probably do it yourself using BTT:
[https://9to5mac.com/2016/12/02/hands-on-custom-touch-bar-
but...](https://9to5mac.com/2016/12/02/hands-on-custom-touch-bar-button-
bettertouchtool-video/)

------
dkroy
Am I the only one that has issues with the Macbook's WIFI and bluetooth
drivers? Granted I am sure the price versus specs differential that keeps
expanding my have something to do with. With that said, I am a creature of
habit, and stuck in my ways and keep using unix and iOS.

~~~
Larrikin
Everything worked decently well for me until I upgraded to macOS.

I can no longer broadcast a wifi network from my computer when connected
through ethernet, with no work around.

My Logitech mouse also disconnects whenever I put my computer to sleep and
sometimes while I am using it now. It isn't found unless I open up the
Bluetooth panel and wait a minute or so until it finally reconnects. It will
not reconnect without opening the Bluetooth panel. This is with zero
interaction from the mouse, by clicking the connect button, which I avoid
anyway since clicking reconnect will just create a new duplicate device right
under my mouse. But that is if I'm lucky and Bluetooth hasn't gotten into some
weird state where Bluetooth has been turned off by the system and clicking the
turn on button does nothing so I have to restart.

The Bluetooth stuff was obviously considered working if Apple products
connected and nothing else was tested. My trackpad has no issue connecting to
my laptop even when it gets into that weird state where Bluetooth is forced
"off" until a reset

------
aczerepinski
I really like developing on my 13" pro from a couple years ago. I like it
significantly more than my higher spec 15" pro from work. The light weight and
small form factor are key, and obviously I can plug it into a monitor or two
when I'm actually at my desk.

I hope Apple thinks of someone like me when deciding the specs of the next
super light Macbook. Keep the low entry point for students, and offer a
premium build for developers and others who can justify it.

If they don't nail it, I'm open to other OSs, but I do care about aesthetics
which Apple used to have a monopoly on.

------
Esau
It's not really surprising given the lack of updates.

------
nkkollaw
Not surprising.

Who wants to pay premium for old hardware?

I spilled coffee on my MacBook Air and had to replace it. I bought a used
early 2015 MacBook Pro for 1000EUR from a guy who bought in 2015, the same
that is sold today at the Apple Store for 1,500EUR.

I did think about buying the new MacBook Pro (of course without the touch
bar), but I just felt stupid spending all that money for an OK laptop.

------
jknoepfler
I have no regrets about my Dell XPS13.

~~~
parr0t
Same. My Dell XPS15 is fantastic.

------
eecc
Apple's pro laptop design peak was the first Unibody. Just imagine what can
get done with the volume: RAM, CPU and GPU wise.

I'm a professional developer, I'm comfortable with my web routines but damn
I'd love to have a handy tool to work on the edge of that zone.

------
im_down_w_otp
I just want a MacBook Air 11" that's been upgraded to have 16GB of RAM and a
slightly larger 12.5" screen put in it.

I've been waiting for that for years. Through 3 other MacBook Air purchases;
always hoping the next time around they'll make what I want.

------
james_niro
People forget that Apple makes some of the best products in TJ for world. The
problem with Apple is that their product last for several years and a lot of
us hold on to it. just remember Apple is a cult and it is tons of followers
around the world

------
brightball
Replaced my 2010 17" MacBookPro with an awesomr hulking 17" beast that is the
Dell Precision 7710 and now happily running Fedora 25.

Zero regrets.

Biggest gotchas were learning that Apple mini display to DVI adapters were
passive so I had to buy new active ones.

------
ndesaulniers
Sold my 2011 MBA, bought a late 2016 RBS (Razer Blade Stealth).

------
srazzaque
The only links provided in the article are to other 9to5mac articles. There
are no links provided to the actual Gartner/IDC analysis that they've derived
the content from - perhaps due to content restrictions. I managed to find some
related links [1] and [2] through some searching. But [1] was unlikely to be a
source due to the release date (and the fact that it doesn't include Apple
data for some reason), and [2] is a little old.

But my thinking is that if the sources of data are based purely on "units
shipped" as per [2], then this relates to both consumer and commercial use. We
know that HP, Lenovo and Dell basically dominate commercial sales - thus a
drop in consumer PC sales alone could be highly correlated with a drop in
Apple sales.

A drop in consumer sales could be due to negative shift in design and
direction as many have suggested. But it could also be due to many macro-
economic factors that simply do not affect the people here, and are thus hard
for us to appreciate - Brexit, no. of mobile devices owned, <insert more
speculation here>. As developers or designers, we're not exactly price-
sensitive when it comes to buying PCs - so it's likely to be about value
proposition and getting exactly what we need. But this cannot be said for
everyone.

Speaking for myself, I had the opportunity to buy a Macbook Pro last year, but
I chose not to due to value proposition, even though I'm willing to spend the
cash. I considered the Lenovo X260, Macbook Pro 13", and Dell XPS13. I will
admit a bias towards Thinkpads, and I'm indifferent towards Mac OS X (my only
OS preference is "not Windows"). I went with the X260 not because of said
biases, but purely because at the same price for the Macbook plus one or two
upgrades, I got a maxed out X260 with an incredible battery life, plus left-
over $ to buy an SSD for Linux (I've never booted the stock hard drive).
Screen resolution was the only compromise. My wife then inherited my 5-year-
old X220 and its docking station - still running strong.

BTW - it always gives me a smug smile inside when Apple or Dell markets a 12
hour battery life as though it's miraculous. I had that on my X220 which is
now nearing 5 years old (oh - and I could buy a new battery for it as recently
as November 2016). Close to 20 hours with the battery slice.

[1]
[http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prEMEA42255917](http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prEMEA42255917)
[2]
[http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3474218](http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3474218)

~~~
stekern
Did you get the X260 model with FHD screen? Which distro are you running, and
have you experienced any issues yet? My old Macbook Pro is due for an upgrade,
and I'm strongly considering getting the FHD version of the X260, upgrading it
with 16GB RAM, a 500GB SSD and 72Wh battery, and installing Ubuntu or Fedora.

------
xiaoma
The way to fix this is to raise prices and push out fewer updates to the line.

------
api
They need to get the iOS people away from the Mac and start actually listening
to their customers.

------
jackhack
Corrected title: "Mac sales declined nearly 10% as the company failed to
release any hardware improvements for several years running, combined with
yawn-inducing changes to MacOS 10.whatever, focusing instead on a watch and
phones."

Fixed it.

------
megablast
This comment section is dire. From people who think it is a dirty little
secret that the cheapest items sell more. To people who think apple are now
just starting to charge a premium. To some guy who only buys iconic hardware.

Most of these comments could be transported back 4 years with little
difference.

------
innocentoldguy
I agree that Apple is dropping the ball, but I still buy their laptops and
phones because I'm an macOS whore. I hate Windows and Android, and BSD and
Linux, and their myriad applications, don't sync with my phone. Also, there
isn't anything equivalent to Apple's trackpads on PC laptops. At least not
yet. If it weren't for macOS and Apple's superior trackpads, I would probably
switch to something else though, since the hardware lineup leaves a lot to be
desired nowadays.

