
Phil Schiller Inital Response to MBP Criticism - dcgoss
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/apple-macbook-pro-new-philip-schiller-interview-phil-iphone-ios-criticism-a7393156.html
======
bcheung
It doesn't seem like there is even an understanding of the criticism based on
his response in the article.

Let me spell it out explicitly:

The criticism is that this is a Pro machine. Pro people care about performance
and features.

The decision to optimize for thinner and lighter at the expense of other
useful features is the criticism. The weight and size were fine before. I
don't care. I'd be fine with bigger and heavier too. All I care is that it
fits in a normal size backpack / travel case.

As a photographer I would need have an SD card reader now and the vast
majority don't come in USB-C. If I already had a reader I would now need a
dongle to convert it. That's more hassle and more things to lug around. I
already need to carry several bags worth of studio gear, the less I need to
carry the better.

In terms of video, there really isn't any compelling reason to upgrade until
Kaby Lake is out. The increased 4K encoding and decoding is quite significant.
It would have been nice to have the MBP come out earlier, that way another MBP
could be released shortly after the Kaby Lake release. If it takes another 1.5
years before another MBP then it would be really far behind the best possible
hardware.

In short, people who buy the MBP want a Pro laptop, not the Air.

Honestly, based on what I'm seeing right now, professional software
developers, photographers, and videographers seem to be ignored.

I switched to Mac when Apple started using Intel. Based on what I'm seeing
now, I'm exploring switching back to Windows.

If I'm not your target market anymore, so be it. I can appreciate the business
reasons to concentrate on making money. But don't delude yourself into
thinking you're serving Pro or creative users anymore.

~~~
rayiner
> The criticism is that this is a Pro machine. Pro people care about
> performance and features. > The decision to optimize for thinner and lighter
> at the expense of other useful features is the criticism. The weight and
> size were fine before. I don't care. I'd be fine with bigger and heavier
> too.

I mean, that's a bit of a weird criticism to level at Apple, isn't it? Making
things thinner and lighter has been Apple's MO even in the Pro Line for more
than a decade. I remember when the 12" PowerBook G4 came out. It was hailed as
breakthrough product for road warriors. It fit a 12" screen into a 4.6 pound
frame. Today, the 15" is even lighter than that. Do we miss stuff like the
optical drive enough to want to go back to 4.6 pound laptops that only fit a
12" screen?

Obviously, even Pro users care about size/weight. If they didn't there would
be no point making the 13" model.

> All I care is that it fits in a normal size backpack / travel case.

So you don't care about the size/weight of the laptop, but the size/weight of
the dongles is a deal-breaker? And you'd rather have everyone pay for ports
only a few people need than to pack some dongles in one of your several bags?

> In terms of video, there really isn't any compelling reason to upgrade until
> Kaby Lake is out.

People would've flipped their shit if Apple had skipped both Broadwell and
Skylake.

~~~
mc32
>So you don't care about the size/weight of the laptop, but the size/weight of
the dongles is a deal-breaker? And you'd rather have everyone pay for ports
only a few people need than to pack some dongles in one of your several bags?

I'm not the OP, and for the most part I agree with your take, but here, I get
it. Things like dongles are easily lost or broken when you most need them out
in the field. When you're busy trying to do something, you don't want to be
scrambling trying to find a dongle while you're missing shots -and then
fifteen minutes into a search for an adapter you remember you might have left
it in the car...

I mean, at the airport, I can have my ticket right in my pocket, but damnit if
I can't find which pocket it's in.

------
chrisbennet
I think Apple design has an anorexia thing going on. They are making things
thin for thinness sake.

If Apple made dedicated "pro" cameras I think they would make them so small
you couldn't hold them without your finger getting in the way of the lens and
ditch the memory card in favor of wifi "because it's the future".

(Please resist the urge to point out that pro photographers sometimes use
iPhones cameras.)

~~~
PhantomGremlin
_Apple design has an anorexia thing going on_

SNL nailed this a decade ago. Presenting the iPod Invisa:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plx69SIvgWI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plx69SIvgWI)

------
dovdov
"Is it inconsistent to keep the 3.5mm headphone jack as it’s no longer on the
latest iPhone?

Not at all. These are pro machines.

The new Pros have no SD card slot for a camera memory card. Why not?

you can use a physical adaptor if you want"

I mean most audio pros were using external soundcards since like forever,
however imaging pros are now f'd in the a with their SD cards and USB-A
cables. Sure this can be addressed with adaptors easily, but they are the ones
who travel the most, and need the least number of dongles.

Schiller's (Apple's) argument is super weak.

They have made the best "pretend-a-pro at Starbucks" machine.

Now with emoji bar!

------
SkyMarshal
_" It’s part of our thinking about where to take the notebook next. Others are
trying to turn the notebook into the tablet. The new MacBook Pro is a product
that celebrates that it is a notebook, this shape that has been with us for
the last 25 years is probably going to be with us for another 25 years because
there’s something eternal about the basic notebook form factor."_

This is interesting. I would hope that sometime before 25yrs from now we have
reliable enough voice recognition to get rid of the physical keyboard, good
enough VR/AR to make a 3D UI (along with a popup VR keyboard for the
occasional word that needs to be manually typed out or for when working in
libraries). House it all in a pair of AR glasses attached to a
battery/CPU/RAM/SDD in a backpack (replacing the laptop in the backpack of
today). Seems something like that should be the holy grail of personal
computing, achievable within 10-20yrs, and really Apple's wheelhouse more than
any other.

------
grzm
Duplicate:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12855252](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12855252)

Actual title: Apple’s Philip Schiller talks computers, touchscreens and voice
on the new MacBook Pro

(shortened to "Phil Schiller Discusses the new MacBook Pro" in first post)

------
crcastle
"But many users have setups with studio monitors, amps, and other pro audio
gear that do not have wireless solutions and need the 3.5mm jack."

Any user with "studio monitors, amps, and other pro audio gear" is not using
the 3.5mm jack. I dabble in music production (i.e. I'm very much a beginner)
and I use an USB audio interface. The built-in DAC, while better than most
PC's, is not very good.

How does Schiller even pretend that this is a valid justification for the
3.5mm audio jack on the Mac but not on the iPhone?

------
maxxxxx
I thought thinner and lighter is for the MacBook Air. I would much prefer a
slightly thicker device with more power. The 16 GB restriction makes no sense
either.

~~~
melling
That has already been explained so it does make sense:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/59yrxg/the_true_reas...](https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/59yrxg/the_true_reason_the_mbp_doesnt_come_with_ddr4_or/)

Since I'd like 32GB in my next mbp, I'll be waiting for the next rev

~~~
SyneRyder
It makes "sense", until I see that a company like Lenovo sells a laptop with
up to 64GB RAM [1]. The difference is that Lenovo uses Intel Xeon chips in the
higher end models. Apple could make a laptop with that much RAM (and all the
ports everyone wants, and a proper keyboard), they're just choosing not to.
Presumably because then they couldn't say it was thinner & lighter.

[1] [http://www3.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p-
ser...](http://www3.lenovo.com/au/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p-
series/P50/p/22TP2WPWP50#tab-tech_specs)

------
wodenokoto
I made a note of the minijack thing.

Are there any wireless music protocols that allows for delay-less playing of
audio? My bluetooth speaker has about half a second, maybe one second delay.
Airplay has a delay as well. I don't know about the new airpots though.

I think Apple might see their notebooks and iPads as devices people will watch
movies on somewhat seriously, and therefore will need a delay-less way of
listening.

------
mohsinr
Quote from the article:

And we are proud to tell you that so far our online store has had more orders
for the new MacBook Pro than any other pro notebook before.

~~~
CalChris
Could it be that it was 527 days since the previous update which is, by a wide
margin, the longest delay between MBP updates ever?

[http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac](http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac)

~~~
camflan
I think it's even more likely due to the fact that 4 out of 5 laptops they
sell are labeled "MacBook Pro" \- including the MacBook Air replacement.

If Chevy named the majority of their cars Malibu (1/2 ton truck), Malibu (3/4
ton truck), Malibu (2 door sports car), Malibu (4 door electric sedan), Malibu
(4 door full-size sedan) then they would have the largest amount of Malibu's
sold ever too.

~~~
contingencies
Well spotted. No doubt in some secret Gattaca-esque white room at infinite
loop there are a bunch of carefully dressed project executives in damage
control mode.

