
Ask HN: Is Apple about to kill the Macbooks? - rreyes1979
With no announcements in sight for new MBPs and Apple pushing iPads as replacement for full laptops, are MacOS and Macbooks going to be discontinued in the near future? Will we end up programming on an iPad if we want to program for their products?
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bdwalter
As a vi/vim addict, I'm more concerned about the future of the esc key...

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pixel_fcker
If you haven't remapped it to caps lock already you're doing it wrong :)

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f_allwein
Would be a cruel irony if the Esc key dies while caps lock lives...

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f_allwein
No. Source: Tim Cook [http://www.macrumors.com/2016/09/09/tim-cook-very-
committed-...](http://www.macrumors.com/2016/09/09/tim-cook-very-committed-
mac-email/)

~~~
rz2k
About 1000 days ago Phil Schiller said, "Can't innovate any more, my ass!"
with the release of the Mac Pro. Regardless of whether it was innovative or
not, that was pretty much the last time desktops were ever updated.

Apple could have released many upgrades to the MBP, especially considering
what competitors with far less cash and fewer employees have accomplished in
upgrade cycles every few months.

I don't think they are going to discontinue the MBP, but I do wonder what the
plan is that they're executing. Do long cycles increase confidence among
consumers that the machines will last a long time? Can they have low profit
margins at the release date without worrying markets that they won't increase?

~~~
stephenr
> that was pretty much the last time desktops were ever updated.

They've released 4K and 5k iMacs since then. Most people would consider that a
reasonable desktop update.

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taylodl
There are certainly plenty of rumors around an imminent Macbook announcement
and some of the expected features: [http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-
macbook-pro-2016-rumors...](http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-macbook-
pro-2016-rumors-roundup-2016-8/#there-will-be-two-main-models-with-different-
screen-sizes-1)

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ggggtez
No. Source: common sense.

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AznHisoka
Agreed. Just asking this question is crazy.

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rarepostinlurkr
Just because they are pushing iPad Pro as replacements for full laptops
doesn't mean people can realistically replace their daily workflows with iPads
right now.

There is "Productivity" (Generic Office Productivity) and there there is
Productivity (Making Industries Turn). No doubt they could have iPad Pro's do
both, but by the time you've made the iPad Pro able to do Maya, Premiere Pro,
Da Vinci Resolve etc, you've turned it into a desktop again.

They may very well try to do that, arguing the iPad Pro is a better platform
that embodies the vision of how they'd like desktop computing to be, but that
platform is years and years away.

Also worth realizing that Developers aren't the bulk of people using computers
for "Productivity", our use case isn't the primary one. Not that I'd be happy
if Apple decided to ignore it. That'd be really sad.

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tylerpachal
I don't follow the Apple's product news too much, but I was really hoping for
the announcement of a new Thunderbolt display now that they have discontinued
the current generation (which had been around since 2011).

~~~
Corrado
I, too, worried about a new display. However, I recently purchased a Dell
P2715Q[0] and I LOVE it. I think I like it even more than my Apple Cinema
Display. The only thing it doesn't have (that I miss) is the integrated Apple
MagSafe2 power supply and Thunderbolt bus. I guess that's 2 things. :/

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Monitor-P2715Q-27-Inch-LED-
Lit/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Monitor-P2715Q-27-Inch-LED-
Lit/dp/B00PC9HFO8)

~~~
bdcravens
Have the same display. I got an open box at MicroCenter for a crazy cheap
price, like $360 I think.

Nice thing about Thunderbolt is that you could hook 2 up at 60hz. I know if I
run 2 at 4k, one will be 30hz; haven't seen a good answer if I run at a lower
res. 4k is too small anyways (when I had it paired with a TB, I was able to
run both at 60)

I do miss the webcam, but am happy with USB 3 instead of 2. As for the
integrated power, I miss that, but this monitor + an extra power adapter is
still $300 or so cheaper than the TB. :-)

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cabbeer
How would people make ipad apps?

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emidln
With a bluetooth keyboard and a port of XCode. Possibly paired with a CI/build
service from apple for testing.

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0x0
Not a chance. They'd lose 99% of the serious developers. I couldn't imagine
doing app development without 5 terminals, photoshop, xcode, and a web browser
open at the same time; running git, grep and a series of shell scripts
invoking all kinds of unix tools and imagemagick and ffmpeg and so on. If iOS
can ever deliver that then we've gone full circle back to macOS.

To be productive you need big monitors and overlapping windows and terminals
and drag&drop, and beyond a physical keyboard you need a pointing device that
doesn't require you to cover the things you are looking at with your fingers.
And nobody wants to sit for 8 hours a day stretching their arms out to touch a
monitor or crouch over a tablet on a table.

~~~
rarepostinlurkr
The way you imagine productivity works like that. The past is funny, because
it seems like that way worked for us and so it should be good enough for
anyone.

As I watch my kids using iPads regularly, I realize they don't really know
anything at all about a 'desktop' or why its so complicated. We can argue well
they need to learn how a computer works, its important etc etc. Maybe they
don't for the most part and could just build on top of our knowledge base to
get to the next place. We are the old people telling kids to get off our lawn.

~~~
banku_brougham
exactly. the future of productivity looks like high-waisted pants and talking
to your OS. offices will still be open-plan.

~~~
informatimago
Good luck mixing vocal user interface and open-plan offices!

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guessmyname
I have been trying to buy an Apple computer for a year now. I have had
multiple issues that have blocked me from buying one, starting with the fact
that there is no official Apple retailer in my country [1].

As Apple products are super-overpriced I think _" Why not buy a computer with
maxed specs?"_ this way I can counter the fact that I will have a discontinued
computer in five years or so. Right now the rMBP 13" with maximum
specifications _(16GB RAM, 1TB Flash Drive, Core i7)_ costs around $2,700 +
taxes, this is a lot of money but those specs are the minimum nowadays and I
want to future-proof it, so I am kind of forced by my profession to buy it.
Unfortunately, all shipping companies in my country have a limit of $2,000 per
import so it is obvious that I cannot buy it online, I have to travel to the
US.

Have you read /r/mac or /r/apple ? There is at least five posts every day of
people complaining about issues with the keyboard, the display, the graphic
card, the disk _(mostly the disk utility reporting inaccurate information)_ ,
and even the hinge. Most of these issues can be solved going to a _" Genius
Bar"_ and asking for a replacement. Cool, but I cannot do that in my country
because there is no _" Genius Bar"_. If I travel to the US to buy this over-
priced computer and it comes with a defect I will have to come back to get a
replacement; to prevent this I would need to stay in the US for a couple of
weeks to check everything before going back to my country.

Another reason to buy the customized version, that way the money spent in
flight tickets, hotel room, and local transportation will be worthy. I got the
random number of $5,000 as my budget, and the devil knows I've been sitting on
this money for several months waiting for Apple to release the goddamn
redesign that they have been promising since last year.

[1] [http://www.apple.com/retail/](http://www.apple.com/retail/)

~~~
informatimago
Yep, definitely, a Mac is not for you.

There are some very nice laptops produced by other vendors, and with Linux,
you'll be able to do as much programming on it than on a Mac.

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pasbesoin
I've started wondering whether the delay is not only because 1) The current
products have been considered "good enough" in the face of intermediate
processing / power requirement changes in succeeding chip lines...

But also because 2) Apple is making the move away from Intel to their own
customized ARM processor.

The rumor's been around, before. But really, why else not bump the processor
and maybe some subsystems, if and in lieu of a more major redesign?

P.S. This is just rampant, uninformed speculation pulled from my posterior.
And I've no information and limited confidence as to whether such a move could
be made sufficiently performant. Still, why not a bump or two, in this
intervening time?

~~~
informatimago
That would be a good move, to switch to ARM on all their devices. There are
some very powerful ARM chips. If that's what they're doing, I can wait even a
year or more!

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bdcravens
> With no announcements in sight for new MBPs

Review the announcements at
[http://www.apple.com/pr/library/](http://www.apple.com/pr/library/) \- they
often announce new Macs in their fall announcement, and generally never at the
iPhone announcement.

In addition to various leaks of the new MBP chassis, there was recently a leak
of upcoming trademarks
([http://bgr.com/2016/09/07/iphone-7-iphone-7-plus-2016-macboo...](http://bgr.com/2016/09/07/iphone-7-iphone-7-plus-2016-macbook-
pro-trademarks/)) which included the MBP TouchBar.

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kentor
No. But if Apple replaces the keyboard with "butterfly" switches, like those
on the MacBook, then the new MBPs might as well be DoA.

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huac
why?

~~~
kentor
Obviously I'm exaggerating my dislike of the new keyboard. They feel like
crap. The travel is really low, so it's like typing on an ipad with bad
feedback.

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ksec
I think it is more likely Macbook moves to AMD or even ARM then killing it.
There is actually a lot of room for Mac to grow, compared to iPhone.
Percentage wise.

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33degrees
They're releasing a new version of MacOS next week, I would take that as a
sign they're not discontinuing it any time soon...

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angryasian
There is a lot of overlap with macbook, macbook air and ipad pro. I don't see
macbook pro's going anywhere.

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mmagin
They've been slow about releasing new Mac products, no doubt the much larger
cash cow has been a distraction, but I think they'd have to do a huge amount
to make the ipad something that would satisfy all their app developers.

I am not an iOS dev, but I would certainly want git, bash, and emacs. I can
see how a lot of people might be accustomed to making image content in
photoshop or whatever...

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m3kw9
Not yet but in like 5 years yeah, pretty sure IPad Pro is faster than MacBooks
just 3 years ago

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wmf
Rumors of October are in sight IMO.

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gjolund
I'll never buy another one, such a waste of money.

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plg
what do you buy instead?

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pedalpete
A lot of other manufacturers are making very nice machines these days. Dell
(though I'm not a fan) are very popular at my work. I prefer lenovo. But even
Acer, Asus, HP are making high power beautiful devices which can run windows
or linux.

On a side note, my 6 year old lenovo is beautiful, works perfectly after 6
years (I replaced the battery last year) and would probably still be
competitive on weight/size today. It was $650cdn when I bought it. Two years
later I bought a Macbook air to develop apps. It lasted less than two years,
had two power boards and a power adapter replaced. It ended up in the garbage
after spending more than $1200.

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draw_down
No

