
Tim Cook assures employees that Apple is committed to the Mac - tambourine_man
https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/19/apples-tim-cook-assures-employees-that-it-is-committed-to-the-mac-and-that-great-desktops-are-coming/
======
enjo
The latest rev pushed me to a PC for the first time in like 15 years. It's
partly because I didn't love the new Macbook Pro, but also cause hey..change
is fun sometimes.

I'm very happy with my new Surface Book. I never thought I'd like the
touchscreen as much as I do. I LOVE being able to go to tablet mode for calls
and stuff where I sort of want to just wander around. The pen has completely
changed how I do flow-charting and wire-framing.

The new Linux subsystem thing is a god-send. It was completely seamless for me
to transition from the Mac to Windows pretty much solely because there wasn't
really a transition. All our provisioning and development scripts just worked.

It's been fun to do a bit of gaming on it too :)

The touchpad is really the only thing that I think compares poorly. Apple
really nails that whole experience. After a few weeks I'm getting better with
it, but it's still painful compared to the precision and certainty I had on my
Macbook Pro.

I'm sure I'll be back on a Macbook someday (cause hey, change is fun) but no
regrets right now.

~~~
lobster_johnson
I'm also considering a switch, but Windows drives me up the wall whenever I
touch it. macOS has been getting uglier and more awkward to use the last few
years, but Windows is still the king of ugly.

So I've been considering Linux as my first option. I fired up a few VMs and
dipped my toes in various Linux desktop environments: Elementary, Fedora 25,
and Ubuntu (Unity) so far. These are all GNOME 3 variants. And... oh boy.
Linux land really needs some kind of unifying revolution to happen, because
this is a mess. Things have gotten a little smoother in the decade or so since
I was last exploring Linux desktops, but it's like they're still figuring out
what it's supposed to even _be_. GNOME feels like it's stuck between trying to
be Windows and OS X, with some super weird details (like the launcher thing)
that makes it feel like they had plans to build a touch screen OS for tablets
or something. Meanwhile, there's little consistency between apps (and
Elementary tries to remove menu bars as a concept, what's up with that?), and
everything feels put together randomly by people with widely divergent ideas
of what a kind of desktop environment to aspire to. It also struck me how much
competition there is -- there are at least three GNOME forks (two of 3.x, one
of 2.x), for example -- a situation which seems to exist partly due to
infighting.

Maybe with out tweaking and plugins and customization you can beat it into
some shape that lets you work efficiently, but the experience put me off, to
be honest. I don't like being that negative, but I was a bit shocked about how
bad it was. Mint was next on my list, but I'm not sure I will continue since
it's another GNOME 3 fork.

~~~
wineisfine
Had the same thing. Turns out, I'm more of a design snob then I thought I was.
Trying to move away from macOS and trying out Windows and a few Linux
distro's, my god it's all ugly.

I don't care much about Apple hardware specifically, but they got my hooked
because of the OS.

Pretty lame.

~~~
nextos
Try something without any design at all, like Linux with a tiling window
manager and some minimal applications.

~~~
setq
This is what I use Windows for. It's an SSH terminal that has a web browser
and plays music (via groove which is actually quite good)

~~~
somecallitblues
Is Putty still a thing on Win or does it have something native?

~~~
dagw
Putty (or Kitty or MobaTerm) is still a thing, but there are other options.
The Linux subsystem will give you a *nix shell and ssh that works exactly like
you expect it to. There is also msys which will give you an ssh client you can
run directly from cmd.exe or power shell. Microsoft have been working on a
proper native port of OpenSSH, but while it apparently works pretty well, it's
still not feature complete or ready to be shipped as a standard part of
Windows (hopefully early next year).

------
lisper
What I really want is for my _state_ (SSD, RAM, maybe the CPU, but probably
not the GPU) to be easily detachable from my human interface devices
(keyboard, mouse, display). I want to be able to use a desktop in one place,
then unplug a small unit which contains the aforementioned state (i.e. the
equivalent of a sleeping laptop but with no keyboard or display), carry that
someplace else, plug it in to a different set of HID devices, and pick up
exactly where I left off. And, of course, one possible set of HID devices
would be something like a present-day laptop so that I can continue working
while en-route. But there is no reason why the business end of a computer
needs to be in the same enclosure as the HID, and a lot of reasons why it
should not be.

I can do much of this now with a USB3 SSD, but the problem is that there is no
way to "sleep" such a configuration. To change locations I need to shut down
in one place and reboot in another.

~~~
yakult
I would go a bit further: I want my state to be inside a seamless hardware
agnostic VM, that I can access anywhere through public terminals that I only
partially trust. I would have the option of either having my storage with me
that I plug in, or in the cloud and I just provide 2fa. My device would have a
cpu/gpu/etc befitting a mobile device, and the most barebones / untrusted
terminals would just be screen/inputs/charger, but in better environments the
terminal can optionally provide extra oomph if permitted.

~~~
bane
Turns out these are kind of available today

[https://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/](https://aws.amazon.com/workspaces/)

[https://liquidsky.tv/](https://liquidsky.tv/)

[http://www.nvidia.com/object/cloud-
gaming.html](http://www.nvidia.com/object/cloud-gaming.html)

etc.

~~~
yakult
It's all niche ptoducts with no reach, though. I'd like something mass-
consumer-oriented and ubiquous, so I can actually get (roughly) the same
experience everywhere from bus stops and coffee shops to my office. The
current situation is like pre-ipod mp3 players: the tech is all there, the ux
and marketing effort is not.

~~~
bluejekyll
I think the network bandwidth isn't there yet either. Latency will always be a
constant that we'll have to deal with as well.

VMs are great, but clientside rending/editing, etc, will probably always be
best, where it's only IO for storange/persistence that goes to the cloud.

------
bane
I kind of feel like, once you're talking publicly about things like if you are
committed or not, you probably aren't and are trying to keep people from
fleeing while you figure out what to do or while some long-term strategy kicks
in.

~~~
pdimitar
Agreed, I have the exact same feeling for this case as well.

"We have so many amazing things in store that I am so excited about" <\--
recycled and beaten to death CEO lingo. I mean, he might be telling the truth
(I am not gonna argue what I don't know!) but the wording is just awful and
comes off as corny and forced by your PR department.

Actions speak louder than words. The new MBPs are the most meh Apple laptops
ever. The iPhone 7/Plus are the laziest iPhones ever made, too. Rehashes
losing legacy ports and trying to impose new ones (although USB Type-C is the
best decision they've made in the last several years; I think they should've
went with the same port for the iPhone as well). And losing battery life.
Damn.

I was never an active Apple user. I bought my first iPhone and Macbook at
March 2016 (the 12" Macbook and the 6S Plus; I sold the iPhone only 4 months
later but that's a separate topic). But I did consider Apple because part of
the Windows ecosystem -- and the entire Android ecosystem -- are disappointing
me a lot lately. I was really curious what will Apple bring with the iPhone
7/Plus and the new MBPs.

Severe disappointment followed. I'll give them until the next iPhone release.
If they can't excite me, oh well, guess it's time to sift again through the
trash yard that Android has become lately.

~~~
WWLink
Only answering this because of the ecosystem comment.

I wish manufacturers would make products that work well with anything. Like
Apple watches with Android phones and vice versa, Apple TV running Amazon's
Prime TV app, Amazon's Prime TV box running Apple's TV app, etc.

All of these ecosystem-exclusive things are annoying and in some ways I
believe holding technology back a little.

~~~
MagnumOpus
We all wish that and they are not just holding back things "a little" but by
massive amounts. But alas companies are usually not in it to advance
technology, but to make shedloads of money. Lock-in, incompatible ports, moats
are all by design to reduce customer attrition from inferior products by some
margin.

Peter Thiel's "From 0 to 1" opened my mind to this. SV VCs also don't care
about your tech too much - but they are insanely focused on what your "moat"
is. I.e. lock-in, patents, network effects etc.

~~~
dkonofalski
While lock-in might be a motivating factor and benefit, it's also just that
it's really hard to make something that works with a competitor's something-
else without your competitor sharing all their details. It's much easier for a
company to guarantee the experience of the end-user when they only have to
worry about things they have control over. You can't just make that kind of
simplification as if it's proven fact.

------
marcoperaza
Personally, luxury laptop lines don't make sense for me at this point. There
was a time when it was the only way to get decent hardware, but those days are
long gone.

Four years ago I spilled water on my 2009 17" MBP (RIP) and Apple wanted $1200
for the repair. Instead, I spent ~$1300, including three-year accident-
protection insurance where they show up at your house THE NEXT DAY, on a
Thinkpad T530 and I couldn't be happier with it. Quad-core i7, discrete Nvidia
GPU, 15" 1080p display, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports, ethernet,
displayport, firewire, DVD drive, 300GB HDD. I've since upgraded to a 500GB
SSD (and put the old HDD where the DVD drive was) and to 16GB of RAM. Due to
the internal metal frame, I'm sure I could drop the thing repeatedly without
consequence.

Yeah, it's not thin and weighs 1.5 pounds more than a 15" MBP. The extra-
capacity battery I ordered it with is losing some capacity, but good thing I
can just pop it out for a new one with the flick of a switch. This computer
will still be kicking ass in four _more_ years.

EDIT: I dug up the invoice:
[http://imgur.com/a/cT55A](http://imgur.com/a/cT55A) . $1380 including the
three-year warranty/accident-insurance. Apparently I can put a mobile
broadband card in this thing, cool!

Further edit: Perhaps I overstated in my first sentence. I really don't mean
to put down Macs. I loved my 17" MBP and the 13" company-issued MBP I used at
an internship in 2013. Their screens, even pre-retina, are beautiful. The OS
and hardware worked perfectly together, e.g. smooth touchpad actions like
scrolling and zooming. Though I haven't used the new machines everyone is
complaining about, my experiences with Apple hardware have only been great.
But what _I_ value in a computer just doesn't align with the value that
premium ultra-thin laptops provide.

~~~
deanCommie
I used to think every one of my friends with a MBP was a fisher price-loving
brainless slave to Steve Jobs.

Then I actually had to use one for work.

I'll never go back.

It's the little things that are not so little: 1) The wake speed 2) The
battery life 3) The overall comfort and feel of the keys and the trackpad
compared to ANYTHING I've ever used before from Lenovo or Dell.

I can live in Mac mode and build almost anything targeted to a *nix platform
natively.

And if I need to do anything for Windows, I just use Boot Camp.

~~~
pwython

      > And if I need to do anything for Windows, I just use Boot Camp.
    

In my head I imagine 90% of Mac users that use Boot Camp just need it to play
PC games. :) Then again, I suppose there's still really specific obscure
software out there that is Windows only (or Win/IIS devs that prefer Mac
hardware). Which reminds me, I wonder if I'll ever see 3ds Max on MacOS.

~~~
nl
The only reasons I've considered using Boot Camp is for MS Project and Visio.

There are reasonable substitutes for Visio now, but damn a MS Project
substitute is needed (and no, that thing in LibreOffice doesn't really work).

~~~
willyt
MSProject -> Omniplan ?

------
m12k
It's actually kind of amazing to see the discourse shift against Apple and the
new MacBook Pro to the point where it seems almost self-reinforcing. Like
someone turned the reality distortion field on backwards or something.

I've been wanting a mac laptop the size and weight of a MacBook Air 13" but
with a retina display for years, and the ability to connect usb, power and
external display with just a single cable is just icing on the cake. The
TouchBar - meh, but using TouchID to unlock 1Password is handy if not
revolutionary. But the point is, by most standards the new MBPs are great
laptops for most professionals, especially software developers - solid build
quality, fast, great screens, long battery life and lightweight. Sure, there
are undoubtedly some people who really need to plug a ton of USB-A devices
every day or need more than 16gb to run a ton of VMs or something, and for
those it must be an unwelcome regression. But honestly, I have a hard time
believing that can make up more than 5-10% of the market of the previous
models.

I can't really see how that can explain the public opinion turning against
them to quite the extent that it has. I'm guessing it's a combination of
several other factors: 1) Apple hasn't made a really revolutionary product
since Jobs died. (Apple Watch was an honest try, but the product category was
as dead a fish as the nay-sayers predicted). We expect these people to produce
magic every x years, and they are long over-due with their next miracle. They
put out an evolutionary product but it gets judged against the revolution that
we were longing for. 2) Microsoft's entry into the laptop market has been with
some surprisingly solid, and even innovative products (e.g. the Surface Book).
They might not quite be revolutionary, but they are at least more so than the
new MBP is. And their willingness on taking on niche markets (e.g. a Cintiq-
killer for graphic designers) is contrasting with Apple's 'regression to the
mean' where niche audiences are increasingly being neglected in favor of the
less demanding mainstream consumer. Those 5-10% Apple just pissed off might
not make a big difference on the bottomline themselves, but they are part of
the hip trendsetters that used to be the poster child for the mac platform.

~~~
d3ckard
I do not agree. It is not about magic, it's about neglecting the user group
that made them rich in the first place.

Apple actually stopped making pro hardware. They're unpredictable when it
comes to upgrades(15 Retina ethernal Haswell, 2013 Mac Pro, even iMacs), they
do not seem to have an idea how the platform should evolve and they're
obsessed with thinness, while in the pro market performance and battery life
are vastly more important.

Last but not least, their recent idea of progress is gimmicky touch bar and
emoticons everywhere. Sorry, it just does not fit. Add to it degrading
software quality (iOS10 sucks, MacOS just got rid of battery prediction,
because they couldn't work with new processors - come on!), frozen progress on
software front in general and there is not much left.

Currently Apple is a company sitting on an extremely large pile of cash and
they have not idea what to do with it. Not sexy at all.

~~~
adamlett
It was not the pro users who made Apple rich. It was the consumers buying
iPods, and later iPhones.

Pro users are at the same time extremely demanding and extremely conservative.
Apple has never done much to cater to that market, and the fact that they have
so many pro users these days is a happy accident which has more to do with how
awful these people used to be treated when they were Windows users, and not a
lot to do with anything Apple did specifically for their sake.

Apple doesn't care about pro users, whom they rightly consider demanding and
ungrateful. Apple cares about ordinary people, the ones lots of pro users talk
about often in the most condescending of manners. Apple's mission has always
been to make computing accessible to the masses (remember the slogan: "The
computer for the rest of us"?), not to make it better for the elite few who
already know how to use one.

~~~
scholia
_> Apple's mission has always been to make computing accessible to the masses
(remember the slogan: "The computer for the rest of us"?), not to make it
better for the elite few who already know how to use one._

Except the masses buy Windows 10 laptops that cost $199 or whatever. The Mac
has never been "accessible to the masses" because they won't pay Apple's
prosumer prices...

~~~
Jgrubb
I suppose it depends on which masses you're referring to, but when I look
around at any public place in New Jersey where there are people on laptops, I
always see a very healthy representation of Mac users. Of all ages.

~~~
bshimmin
Apple have something like a 10% market share. I think what you see in coffee
shops and on expensive commuter trains is not at all representative; if you go
into a Starbucks in a trendy part of east London, you'd be forgiven for
thinking that Apple had a 95% market share, but I'm pretty sure if you go to,
say, eastern Europe you'll see very, very few Macs.

~~~
collyw
I have noticed that as well. Mac users seem to feel the need to use them in
public for some reason.

~~~
alxndr
This could be explained by Macs working better on random networks and having
better battery life than other laptops.

Anecdata: I know of several Windows laptops, but only one Mac laptop, which
are now effectively desktops.

~~~
collyw
Did those laptops start out as expensive as a Mac, or were they low end
machines?

------
yakult
What I take away from this is that they've devoted so little resource to Mac
internally that people in the know are asking inconvenient questions, hence
the need for this article. You don't hear him assuring people about the
iphone.

~~~
Clubber
I think they spend a whole lot of energy on the iWatch and it didn't pan out
the way they hoped.

~~~
toyg
That and the iPad Pro were real duds. Good concepts, underwhelming execution
("let's just slap iOS on a big-ass screen, it will do").

~~~
jacobolus
The larger size iPad Pro is an amazing drawing tablet, I’m really glad to have
one. I’d recommend one to anyone trying to take notes with a pen, make
sketches, design anything (from furniture to web apps), work as an
illustrator, etc. I find the pen and display to beat anything else available
right now, unless you need a very large display.

There’s definitely room for software to catch up for other types of uses, but
that’s more a matter of third party developers stepping up. (And the general
poor market / software ecosystem on the iPad, with relatively weak sales of
pro apps in general.)

Don’t expect it to be a laptop replacement. (I know some people who have had
success with this, but for me the uses of iPad and laptop are almost entirely
non-overlapping.)

It’s also great for watching video, and I have friends who have enjoyed
playing games on one.

~~~
toyg
_> that’s more a matter of third party developers stepping up._

I think the hardcore sandboxing iOS forces doesn't really work well with "Pro"
workflows. Say you want to edit a Word document and insert a picture - unless
both your word processor app AND image-editing app are somehow integrated with
dropbox / icloud, you can't do it; if you don't want to store your multi-gb
image on "the cloud", you can't work with it; etc etc. Are these use-cases for
laptops only? Yeah, maybe; but that's the sort of thing the iPad Pro was
supposed to do.

I was (and still am) a big supporter of laptop-replacing tablets, but Apple
didn't really manage to pull it off with this device. MS seems to have nailed
it better, and I'll probably get a Surface-like as soon as prices come down a
bit.

~~~
digi_owl
Not too sure.

Been using a Windows tablet recently, and there is a sharp line between the
Win32 programs and the metro apps.

Thus you can say that a Windows tablet is a Windows desktop computer with
Windows Mobile embedded.

As for the sandbox thing, i agree highly. Sadly the valley seems convinced
that heavy sandboxing is the only way forward, no matter how much it
infantilize the user.

Likely because the biggest proponents expect that they will always know the
magic knock to get the sandbox to go away...

~~~
toyg
_> there is a sharp line between the Win32 programs and the metro apps._

Yeah, didn't mean that the experience is flawless, just that it's overall
better (IMHO) than what you get on the iPad Pro.

------
imagetic
I personally think the iMac has been an amazing all-in-one package. It's
simplicity gives it an appeal that has made it a near-perfect tool for casual
users who want to avoid the quirkiness of Windows. The iMac also scales up to
heavy-hitting design work and I rarely see a lot of complaints until you get
to render heavy applications or try to do multi-track and high resolution
video editing and motion graphics, which it isn’t really designed to do. But
it's an amazing screen and overall it's very capable and well rounded.

The current Mac Pro has some serious flaws though. The concept was neat, but
it wasn't proven in the pro market. Video Production is becoming increasingly
demanding as camera resolutions climb. Since the release of the Mac Pro, a lot
of people started jumping ship and going to Windows.

Today, if you're buying a Mac Pro, it’s probably not because it's an amazing
machine, but because you aren't ready to leave OS X (MacOS) yet. That’s is a
hard pill to swallow after years of relying on the dependability of the Mac
desktop. Maybe they’ll give it a refresh, but I don’t see the tower with PCI
capabilities coming back.

As for the Mac Mini, the only thing that was good for was a small server or
media center, at least to me. And they abandoned that a long time ago.

~~~
tracker1
My friend really likes his, though his biggest complaint keeping him off, is
he wants a matching 5K display, so he can have dual displays off his iMac,
which isn't an option, and apple killed their display line.

For me, the highest end mini is almost enough, as I really don't want a built
in display at all... The mac pro is too overpriced (more than it was when last
refreshed) and there's no new mac pro in sight... and to be honest, I really
want a mid-range "Mac" (not pro, not mini), effectively i5-i7 iMac hardware
without a built in display, hell build it off an itx platform board in a fancy
case, then allow the pricing to rule itself out... I mean, keep the developers
happy and making apps for their iOS devices... yeah, we'll build other stuff
too, but really they need to figure out that a lot of actual software
developers (the people that make the stuff that makes their platforms
worthwhile) aren't happy with the options available.

~~~
DerekL
I agree. I don't know if Apple would do it, but it would be great if they
offered a Mac Pro with iMac style chips (i5 and integrated graphics at the low
end) with prices starting at $1000 or $1500. Using the same case as the Xeon
Mac Pros might save some money and keep things simpler.

Then they could make the Mac mini smaller and cheaper, like a scaled-up Apple
TV. SSD only, no hard drive, 2 or 4 USB 3 ports, Ethernet and HDMI, starting
at $399.

~~~
tracker1
Doesn't even need to be called "pro"... just the new "Mac"... It's definitely
an area I'd be interested in buying at, where the mini isn't quite there
enough for me, and the pro is way too pricey.

------
suprgeek
I think this "assurance" pretty much confirms for me that Apple has internally
begun to shift even more resources away from the Mac and the Macbook.

The very weak nature of the response which really does not provide any
specifics what-so-ever is very typical when the underlying reality matches the
rumor but the guy in charge just can't say it yet.

Tim Cook is Apple's Ballamer - An ops. guy, great for the bottom line but
fundamentally stuck in the past.

~~~
tonyjstark
I think you're are a bit unfair to Ballmer, recently he admitted that they
were late to the game but he was pushing for hardware and was not supported by
the board[1]. Not everything MS is doing is becaus Ballmer is gone but also
because Ballmer prepared Microsoft for it.

[1][https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-04/steve-
bal...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-04/steve-ballmer-says-
smartphones-broke-his-relationship-with-bill-gates)

~~~
ohitsdom
> everything MS is doing is becaus Ballmer is gone but also because Ballmer
> prepared Microsoft for it.

There is very little evidence for this. An argument can be made for laying the
ground work for Azure, but Ballmer had nothing to do with MS's recent efforts
in open source and other exciting newer initiatives in the company.

------
jbarham
I sold my MacBook Air a year ago and don't really miss it. I do my day-to-day
development work on a very small Lenovo desktop PC running Ubuntu connected to
two Dell 23" IPS screens. It's fast, silent and cheap & easy to upgrade w/
standard PC parts. And since all my servers run Ubuntu there's very little
context-switching needed between my dev & live environments.

For light photo editing work I use a Windows PC. I'm interested in doing more
serious photo editing and the best practise industry expert recommendation is
to buy a custom made PC (e.g., [https://imagescience.com.au/knowledge/build-a-
powerful-pc-fo...](https://imagescience.com.au/knowledge/build-a-powerful-pc-
for-photoshop-and-other-imaging-applications)).

I don't follow hardware that closely but recent developments around e.g. the
amazing speed of NVMe drives and AMD's Zen architecture make the PC hardware
space look pretty exciting. The new MacBook's Touch Bar seems like a gimmick
in comparison.

------
shmerl
OK, if they are so committed, where is OpenGL 4.5 and Vulkan support? Why is
Safari so behind that it's now called "the new IE"? Talk is cheap, let them
actually do something.

~~~
threeseed
Safari is far behind ? Utter nonsense.

The team simply has different priorities in particular security and battery
life which means some eg service workers take longer to implement (if at all).

That's why on my Mac unlike Chrome and Firefox, Safari isn't a memory hog that
chews through battery life like it's nobody's business.

~~~
pducks32
I love Safari. The battery life is fantastic and the experience is fantastic.

~~~
72deluxe
I find "experience" an odd word here. My browser is a tool, not a theme park
or spa day. I want it to do work for me, not delight me. Perhaps I am
misunderstanding "experience"?

An experience would be having a track day at Silverstone, not opening Safari.

~~~
usingpond
Maybe we're both misunderstanding, but I think they meant "User Experience".
Surely you agree that this is an important consideration in software
development?

~~~
72deluxe
Yes that makes much more sense. User experience is possibly the most important
thing - what else is software written for?

Thanks for clarifying.

------
protomyth
I thought the whole "crazy ones" theme was about Apple building things that
helped people change the world. Somehow that's morphed into Apple changing the
world. I think might be a problem.

~~~
chrischen
Considering 99.99% of silicom valley uses macs as their primary development
machines, they've pretty much monopolized the first goal.

~~~
zdean
Steve Jobs had a very different idea of what changing the world meant and who
was doing it:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GMQhOm-
Dqo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GMQhOm-Dqo)

~~~
sumedh
I thought I have seen pretty much every Steve Jobs video but I missed this
one. Thanks.

------
Animats
Uh oh. That's the sort of thing CEOs say just before they kill the product
line.

~~~
dijit
I was working for Nokia in Finland when Stephen Elop came along to quell fears
that he was shutting down Maemo/Meego R&D.

He was just as vague as Tim Cook is being and there is certainly an air of
nostalgia when reading this.

I don't believe this bodes well for the product line at all.

~~~
anjc
What was the internal perception of Elop as CEO at the time? And of the push
towards Windows Mobile? Did people see the writing on the wall or did everyone
see promise?

I still remember seeing the promo videos for the...920 I think it was, and
being utterly blown away. The promos were so good that whole communities
dedicated themselves to proving that they were fake.

------
JohnTHaller
The statement doesn't mention the outdated, underpowered, and overpriced Mac
Pro specifically, which would have been helpful to the Mac faithful. A few
folks I know in the video space switched to Windows because you can build a
rendering rig that's over twice as powerful for less than half the price.

~~~
draw_down
Exactly, their treatment of the Pro is a dead giveaway. It's long past time to
kill or update it.

------
kriro
I have moved from genuinely wanting to buy the new MBP pre-announcement due to
technical reasons (battery life, screen) to only needing to buy it due to iOS
development lock in. Reminds me very much of the process I went through with
Windows based PCs (except back then it was gaming).

I think I'll just go back to a Linux laptop (all other boxes are so the laptop
has always been the odd-box) and will say goodbye to the iOS world. I mostly
do web anyway and can live with non-native or no Apple apps at all.

~~~
manmal
Fellow iOS dev here. I had a similar sentiment first, but this new MBP is a
very fine machine. It's blazing fast and I don't need a touchscreen (I might
even buy a touchbar-less version if they made one at 15"). The dongle thing
will resolve itself in the next 2 years, with more peripherals going wireless
or replacements with USB-C ports.

Will you really let go of Sketch and all the other great tools from 3rd party
devs just because you don't like dongles & touchbar?

------
tajen
So many questions here. I'm sure Blackberry's CEO once said "Blackberry is not
dead" – when the CEO worries about it, it means there's huge worries about it
throughout the company. Were macOS leaders leaving in mass or something?

Also, there's not a single fact in Tim Cook's statement. It's not "We're
investing in X or Y". It's not "Stay for 6 months and you'll be so stunned
with our next release". It's not "We're planning a Macbook in 1 year to shut
down criticism about last Macbook". It's "Please don't jump ship pleaaaaaase".

OTOH I'm super happy that Tim Cook noticed that there was a problem with the
new Macbook _and acknowledges it_. It makes me hopeful, maybe he's going to
take the right actions.

> the Apple Watch led to ResearchKit, which led to CareKit

That's the very wrong names to drop if Tim Cook wants to illustrate "How Apple
employees get excited with anything". I haven't heard of them, and I follow IT
news pretty thoroughly. They're rather an illustration that Apple employees
are focussed on little things, the middle-management is too free to wander off
in lower-innovation areas.

The first thing I've learnt about innovation is first you need to execute
well. People expect touchscreens, USBs/jack/Fn keys, a bug-free core system,
1-To HDDs, popular games... It's not innovation, it's just execution, which
serves as a basis before going 10 steps ahead of everyone.

I just don't see why the statement is directed to _employees_. What's wrong
with Apple's credit in the eyes if the the employees, are they getting
demotivated? Isn't it rather the fanbase who needs convincing? Was the
_communique_ leaked on purpose to reassure the market?

Next thing you know, Apple removes the Control key.

~~~
DoofusOfDeath
> Next thing you know, Apple removes the Control key.

I'm pretty sure Apple would never give up Control.

------
jaxondu
Looks like damage control by CEO. There wouldn't be so much backslash towards
latest MacBookPro if Apple were to keep all Mac models on annual refresh.

~~~
scholia
Or if Apple allowed users to upgrade their own machines....

------
bootload
_" The desktop is very strategic for us. It’s unique compared to the notebook
because you can pack a lot more performance in a desktop — the largest
screens, the most memory and storage, a greater variety of I/O, and fastest
performance."_

So desktop is high end, MBP commodity?

~~~
itazula
To certain user communities, "almost." I know I am looking forward to seeing
the new iMac. Having a good portable device is secondary to me. My 2012
MacBook Air would be fine except for the lack of memory (only 4GB). So, I will
probably purchase the new MacBook Pro without the touchbar, and then sell my
MacBook Air.

------
cududa
I'm sure they are.. the real question is will there ever be upgradeability
again, and how fast will spells between refreshes be?

~~~
nodesocket
I mean really the only component you're ever going to be able to upgrade is
RAM right? Are you suggesting it should be possible to swap out CPUs in iMacs?

~~~
protomyth
In the old PowerMac you could switch out the CPU. I seem to remember a clone
that you could put a dual processor card in also.

~~~
akoster
A relative gifted me an old PowerMac 8600/200, which originally came with a
pre-G3 PowerPC 604e CPU, but had been upgraded to a G4 by swapping out the ZIF
CPU card. It definitely gave a circa 1997 machine (original OS was either
MacOS 7.6 or 8.0) a new lease on life and the ability to run OSX 10.2 Jaguar,
(albeit slowly and after a serious RAM and HDD upgrade).

------
allworknoplay
This sycophantic gladhanding drives me up the wall.

>> ...it does result in truly impressive results from time to time, like the
recent AirPods, which are an incredible weaving together of Apple’s hardware
and software teams to produce something that works so much better than what
came before it’s laughable.

If apple focused on great hardware and software like it did through the 2000s
rather than unnecessary, un-asked-for "courage" bloat, people wouldn't be
asking these questions in the first place.

~~~
1_2__3
Yes, wireless headphones in 2016 are clearly something only the geniuses at
Apple can fathom.

------
jrnichols
the whole desktop line is in serious need of a refresh. at least some new Mac
Mini units. it's been over two years now. I bought the mid-range Mac Mini, and
it's identical to what's in the Store today. That whole line needs more RAM,
newer CPUs, and SSD across the board. :|

~~~
gurneyHaleck
But don't actually _LIKE_ the mac mini. It's not something I particularly
want.

I do kind of want the huge cinema displays. But they're expensive.

I do kind of want the cylindrical mac pro. But it's expensive.

Apple's laptops are the sweet spot. I want them. The price is right. _And_
they have performed. Tablets and touchscreens suck compared to a solid laptop.

Mac minis are borderline indistinguishable from any other mac during use. But
they've always been coasters. Lazy susans. Arm rests. Furniture.

The only time you think about it being a mac mini is when you cycle power, or
when you imagine opening it up, and adding more power because multi-tasking.

Providing the mac pro at closer to mini prices would be cool. The polished
metal cyclinder is kind of cool. But it's hard to find fetish items that
endure six months these days. The death march of cell phone upgrades has seen
to that.

Once they started soldering and epoxying internals, well... I start to feel
guilty about polluting the environment with electronics waste, and I start
googling recycling programs.

~~~
novembermike
I don't think anyone really wants the mac mini. What I want is a stackable,
modular mac desktop. On top goes the core unit, with the CPU, Ram and
integrated graphics. Below that, you can attach a graphics module if you want
graphics, Storage modules, expansions etc. It's very possible with today's
connectors and it feels like a very Apple thing to do. They don't seem to have
an interest in really pushing desktops though.

~~~
Doctor_Fegg
I absolutely want a Mac mini. I want a Mac to develop software, run Adobe
Illustrator, and do all the day-to-day stuff like email. I have monitors
already so don't need an iMac, and the Mac Pro is more power than I need. The
Mac mini is spot on.

------
cwyers
> “Some folks in the media have raised the question about whether we’re
> committed to desktops,” Cook wrote. “If there’s any doubt about that with
> our teams, let me be very clear: we have great desktops in our roadmap.
> Nobody should worry about that.”

Having them in the roadmap only does so much, though; people need to buy
computers now, and having some unspecified (but "great") computers that will
come out at some unspecified later date isn't the same as having up-to-date
computers now, and it doesn't show that when those computers in the roadmap do
materialize, that they won't be left fallow for years as these were.

------
jlgaddis
Too late.

I just spent ~$4,000 over the weekend on components to build myself a shiny
new desktop. It'll be running Linux, just like my primary laptop does, and so
I imagine I'll probably sell my one-year-old MacBook Pro before long as well.

It was nice knowing you, Apple.

------
sliken
I'm sure 6 months ago apple would have said they are working on "great"
laptops. But we ended up with half ish the battery life promised, 16GB ram
max, and needing dongles to connect to monitors, mouse, cameras, or external
disks.

~~~
lethargic_meat
The ram limitation, similar to the limitations on processor are Intel's fault,
not Apple. Mac's latest version uses LPDDR3E which tops at 16G. For 32G you
would need LPDDR4 or LPDDR4E and a processor compatible.
[http://fixmibug.com/if-the-macbook-pro-32-gb-of-ram-the-
desi...](http://fixmibug.com/if-the-macbook-pro-32-gb-of-ram-the-design-would-
be-committed-because-the-battery-according-to-schiller.html)
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_DDR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_DDR)
[https://ark.intel.com/products/88972/Intel-Core-i7-6920HQ-
Pr...](https://ark.intel.com/products/88972/Intel-Core-i7-6920HQ-
Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3_80-GHz)

~~~
untog
...so why didn't Apple use them?

~~~
ps
Because it would require the change of design as Phil supposedly stated.
However attaching lightning proboscis and "revolutionising" keyboard by
removing key(s) obviously is a piece of cake and a way to go.

Seriously. They do not care about RAM as Pro users clearly do and we feel
betrayed. I wonder if and when will anti-touch display stubbornness vanish as
it kind of did when they introduced stylus (sorry, Pencil).

------
dba7dba
I wish Apple never had their success with iTunes and iPhone.

It was like winning lottery for them. And you know what happens when someone
wins lottery.

They forget about their roots and in the end, only ruin remains.

~~~
mtrpcic
I don't think "only ruin remains" is a fair statement to say about Apple, when
the causes you're lamenting are the saving grace that got them to be a $300B+
company from effectively the brink of death.

~~~
dpcx
"In the end." They're still riding high from iTunes and iPhone. I'm personally
a fan of Apple, but who knows where this ship ends up.

~~~
joesb
A: This fortuneteller I knew is so amazing, he predicted that my dad would die
and my dad is dead now!

B: When did he predict that?

A: May be like 30 years ago, but the point is "in the end" my dad died. Who
would have thought that the end will come to him someday?

Your "in the end" prediction will always be true, unless Apple exists until
the end of the universe.

------
hkarthik
This comes at no surprise. I predicted that at some point desktop computers
used by designers and software engineers would start approaching workstation
class pricing (around 4K USD or more) as laptops took over. This will reflect
the depressed demand as more people are able to get what they need done via a
laptop.

Apple might be one of the few manufacturers able to sell desktops at a loss,
and justify it since the Makers are the ones using them to generate demand for
other, higher margin products like phones, tablets, and laptops.

The PC market also exhibits this trend, but at a slower pace because PC gamers
keep prices a little more depressed. However now that high end GPUs are
approaching $1000 each, it's probably happening there too.

~~~
analog31
I wonder if a problem is maintaining a commitment to the Mac when the computer
market is no longer committed to desktop / laptop computers in general. It
seems that the world has kinda topped out on what they (we?) need, which is
some kind of modestly functioning computer with a keyboard for "work," and a
phone for everything else.

~~~
pdimitar
The "death of the desktop computers" is greatly exaggerated.

It's simply that a well-built future-proof PC can easily last you 5 years. I
have the 2nd generation i7 and after 5 years of usage, I only added 16GB RAM
and a better GPU (since I play demanding games). Might add 2x 512GB SSDs but I
guess I'll just switch the motherboard and CPU in order to be able to use the
NVMe models.

Anyway. The market might have platooed on the profit margins several years ago
but that doesn't mean that the PC and gaming laptop branches aren't VERY much
alive and kicking, and even gathering steam lately.

~~~
pvdebbe
Good ol' i5-2500k Sandy Bridge keeps going on strong. I expect it to last yet
another 5 years. "Thanks" to intel monopoly the desktop has been in a good
place (if a tad expensive) for a long time now.

~~~
lostboys67
Depends how good the new ARM chips are

------
raverbashing
Actions speak louder than words

There wouldn't be a need to explain themselves if they were putting out
competing products

------
dbg31415
If Apple was really committed to the Mac, they'd be committed to the Mac.

* iPhone, iPad, Mac Buyer's Guide: Know When to Buy || [http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac](http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac)

iMac - 2nd longest stretch since update (434 days as of today)

Mac Mini - longest stretch since update (796)

Mac Pro - longest stretch since update (1,097)

The Mac Pro is especially out of date... with $1,500 home-build PCs running
circles around it.

------
jannotti
I was just struck at how Trumpian this sounds: "If there’s any doubt about
that with our teams, let me be very clear: we have great desktops in our
roadmap. Nobody should worry about that."

Though I also notice the Obamian "let me be very clear". Tim Cook for
President?!

------
bitwize
It's one thing to be committed to the Mac. But do they see the Mac as a Mac,
or do they see it as an iPad Super?

If they're going to commit to the iPad Super at the expense of the Mac that
professionals have come to rely on, they are going to have a seriously
disgruntled user base.

------
welly
I think my next Mac will be a desktop because the current lineup of Macbooks
do absolutely nothing for me and my current Macbook will be going to the great
Apple Store in the sky sooner rather than later. And perhaps an Android tablet
for being on the move.

------
antaviana
My main issue with macOS is that it is terribly slow with HDD. For example, if
you launch Office or any other heavy application on a HDD macOS, the app start
time is the range of tens of seconds (unacceptable), but if you do so on a SSD
macOS the app start time is the range of seconds (acceptable).

IMHO, there are two solutions to this issue:

a) Change the macOS filesystem so that it is at par with ntfs in terms of I/O
performance.

b) Keep the current macOS filesystem with its performance issues, but make HDD
effectively obsolete by releasing a lineup of SSD-only Macs at an attractive
price point so that users are compelled to change their old HDD systems.

------
chmaynard
Seems ironic. When I worked there, all Apple employees had a Mac on their desk
and probably used it on a daily basis. Yet the CEO thinks he needs to assure
the employees that Apple is still committed to improving them.

------
binthere
Windows usually __feels __ugly if you have a bad monitor (which is pretty much
99.9% of the monitors available in the market today).

I've recently bought an Asus Rog Swift monitor and I couldn't be happier with
Windows.

[https://www.amazon.com/27-inch-Monitor-PG278Q-Response-
Displ...](https://www.amazon.com/27-inch-Monitor-PG278Q-Response-
Display/dp/B01C83BE6U?th=1)

UI itself is just a matter of preference and I don't mind Windows 10 UI, you
can hide most of the things you find ugly.

------
oceanswave
Holding out for the MacBook Pro Plus

~~~
tonyjstark
MacBook Pro S

------
legodt
"Cook cites the far better performance of desktop computers, including screen
sizes, memory, storage and more variety in I/O"

A bold statement considering that the only I/O on the current iMac is 4x USB,
2x thunderbolt, Ethernet, SD card, and a 1/8 jack- a collection of ports
bested by all but the most anemic computers

Edit: fixed port thanks to HillaryBriss. I was actually too generous in my
original listing of ports

~~~
HillaryBriss
not sure about the USBC

i'm seeing Thunderbolt 2 on the back of the iMac

[http://www.apple.com/imac/specs/](http://www.apple.com/imac/specs/)

------
aschwabe
Well then how 'bout an ARM version with a touch screen, battery that lasts
three days and the ability run IOS apps in a container...

~~~
tqkxzugoaupvwqr
Apple is opposed to touchscreen laptops. iOS is optimized for touch gestures.
You won’t see iOS apps intended for actual use on ARM MacBooks.

------
gigatexal
Yeah I'll believe it when I see it. First the Mac Pro languishes and then the
lackluster upgrade to the MacBook Pro ... I dunno.

------
greedo
Committed to the Mac sounds great, but it's not just hardware updates that are
lagging. macOS software applications aren't updated/maintained as much as they
should be.

------
russelluresti
In other news, CEO lies to employees. Oh wait, that's not other news at all.

------
emodendroket
When you have to make these assurances it kind of makes me think the opposite.

------
GreaterFool
Of course they are committed to Mac! Just have a look at the numerous updates
to their flagship product: Mac Pro.

Oh wait...

------
overgard
This is just a press release pretending to be an internal memo. Clever. Glad
they're still committed to making desktops though.

------
draw_down
Then they should act like it.

