
Apple's Tim Cook: We really care about pro users - gerosan
https://www.cnet.com/news/apple-tim-cook-shareholder-meeting-macbook-pro-jesse-jackson-manufacturing-jobs/
======
tedivm
> "You will see us do more in the pro area. The pro area is very important to
> us. The creative area is very important to us in particular. Don't think
> that something we've done or something we're doing that isn't visible yet is
> a signal that our priorities are elsewhere. It's very, very important to
> us."

Cook has been hanging around with Trump too much, as he's actually starting to
sound like him.

~~~
jlarocco
Haha, I hate to make a comment like this, but once you pointed it out, I can't
read it without reading it in Trump's voice.

More on topic, I think Apple is already losing a lot of "pro" users just by
not doing anything exciting with their MBPs and desktops. The current lineup
is overpriced and under powered, and if I needed a new machine right now, I
wouldn't go with Apple. Maybe that will change before I need to replace my
2013 MBP, but I'm not holding my breath.

~~~
pirocks
To be fair there lineup has always been overpriced and under-powered from
specs to price perspective.

~~~
gurkendoktor
Not if you consider size, battery life etc. part of the spec.

The Mac Mini was competitive in 2011/2012, especially if you let an authorised
repair shop install a second drive on the cheap.

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vile
Any man who must say "I am the King", is no true King at all.

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mcphage
To quote the old storytelling maxim, "Show, don't tell".

~~~
halostatue
Which is what Apple does: they are having to _tell_ something because their
practice is to only show when they are ready. They are getting enough pressure
from impatient people that simply showing when ready is insufficient. Apple
doesn’t do vapourware launches (for the most part).

~~~
brokenmachine
This story is about Apple telling, not showing.

~~~
halostatue
Which is what I said. Apple is having to _tell_ because there are people,
including investors, who are impatient enough to force Apple’s hand, which
would be to _show_ later this year.

~~~
brokenmachine
...So they are _not_ following the old storytelling maxim of "Show, don't
tell". They are telling with no showing (yet).

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megablast
Why is it so easy for everyone else to see an issue, and not any decision
makers inside Apple.

Is it just too huge of a task to keep these machines updated, and Apple are
deploying staff in other areas they see as more important?

~~~
TillE
I really can't think of a single good reason why they don't do a simple
hardware refresh of the Mac Pro every year. It's the easiest thing in the
world, and would fix about 80% of the frustration.

Apple just seems completely allergic to doing an upgrade without some major
new design and a flashy rollout.

~~~
ethbro
Because the concept of hardware specs is alien to most designers?

Why would people buy a new thing that performed better if it still looked the
same?

~~~
bfred_it
What are you talking about? Apple has been doing exactly that since the iPhone
3GS pretty successfully.

~~~
ethbro
The iPhone is the last Apple product I'd use to prove that point, given that
they've tinkered with the exterior design every generation (and sometimes even
within generations)?

[http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/9/6125849/iphone-history-
pict...](http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/9/6125849/iphone-history-pictures)

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GreaterFool
There's nothing Pro about new Macbook Pro, but I like it. I only write code so
all I need is browser and terminal. I don't mind sacrificing some built-in
battery life for an option to use external battery via USB-C. Overall I think
it's pretty good for programming. That said, I don't care about the touch bar.
It hasn't made my life substantially worse but I find it quite useless. I wish
there was a 15" model without the touch bar.

But yeah, there's nothing Pro about Apple anymore.

~~~
brokenmachine
Yes, no escape key and no function keys clearly demonstrates that the Macbook
Pro is not a Pro laptop.

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meesterdude
I'll believe it when I see it, but it's been trending for the last few years
away from the pro users; I won't hold my breath.

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baobrain
If they really cared about pro users, then the mac pro would not have been
sitting for years without a refresh.

Edit: accuracy

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yeskia
They missed April 1st by a month.

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mastazi
I know it is a wild dream but if they just made a lineup of motherboards it
would be so awesome for people in the Workstation/HPC[1] space. Imagine being
able to mount your 4X Teslas onto your shiny new Apple dual-Xeon motherboard.
Oh, and RGB fans ;-)

[1](HPC = high performance computing)

~~~
dragonshed
I sincerely applaud your dream here, but 'wild' just isn't adequate. Having
looked at setting up Hackintoshes, I can tell you Apple is nowhere near where
it would need to be to enable/support an enthusiast market.

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GiorgioG
Too late. I'm back to a PC for my day-to-day dev and I don't plan on looking
back.

~~~
digitalsushi
I went back to a PC this past December after a 16 year, 4 apple laptop stint.
But in another four years, I will check back in and maybe try it again. I'm
not gonna disown them cause they didn't make the fenders flare out enough this
year.

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nice_byte
Lies. If they did, OS X window management wouldn't be in the shape it is in
today.

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schuke
Maybe it's just me. But this sounds like Trump.

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mdotk
Well he's hardly going to say they don't.

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awalton
...then act like it? Update your desktop Macs, e.g.

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jonjenk
This is a joke. The latest MacBook Pro redesign is an affront to pro users.

At our hardware/software startup the new MacBooks are unusable due to the
limitations of the USB-C ports. Our engineers refuse to engage in the dongle
shenanigans necessary to get these computers to work with the displays and the
other peripherals necessary to do their jobs.

We just purchased several of the old MacBook Pros to make sure we have enough
for new hires and interns arriving this summer.

Apple cares about Pros? Heh.

~~~
zimzam
Your engineers are unwilling to use a dongle to connect to a monitor?
Something that is so trivial to set up once and never deal with again sounds
more like an attitude problem than a technical one.

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strict9
"set up once and never deal with again ..."

maybe you bought a laptop that stays in the exact same position and location
for the foreseeable future.

for those who use it in more than one place, it's more than a minor annoyance.

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scentedmeat
The monitor doesn't go anywhere. Just leave the dongle.

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robert_foss
Yes, get a dongle for every possible monitor you'll ever connect to.

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dpark
Why not? You bought a cable for every monitor you'd ever connect to. The hdmi
cable your monitor came with definitely didn't plug into your MBP from 2015.

~~~
jolux
They did used to have HDMI actually.

~~~
csydas
While true it's beside the point that was made earlier on. The Parent
complains about "dongles", but really it's not much different than having to
plug a portable computer into all of the accessories that are there already,
there's just something extra tacked on. It's not like other vendors and set
ups are immune to this; my previous work place had a Dell contract and their
desktops came with some stupid video card where there was only one out-put and
the only way to get dual monitors was a Y splitter from Dell.

In custom setups, if your card isn't Dual [connection], you use an adapter for
DVI or HDMI, and so on.

Apple does have a lot to answer for, and their idea of "dongle for everything"
does get tiresome and Apple should be above that. But it's not like it's
unique to Apple or even new in the computing world. This has been standard for
a long time.

~~~
droithomme
You know what? I don't want to have to buy or deal with dongles.

We have a number of standard interfaces that work well. I require those in my
pro level machines.

And you know what? I get those in my pro level machines.

The reality is Apple doesn't make pro level machines. That's OK. Neither does
Nintendo, Kraft, or Parker Brothers.

~~~
jolux
It's funny because there isn't a single non-standard interface on the new MBPs
and the old ones had magsafe (apple only) and thunderbolt (might as well be
apple only)

~~~
droithomme
Cool, so you say it has USB 2/3, HDMI video, audio in/out, and Ethernet
compatible with standard equipment, and without the need for dongles, that's
awesome! I'll buy one tomorrow at the Apple store right after I confirm that
you are telling the truth.

~~~
jolux
>Cool, so you say it has USB 2/3, HDMI video, audio in/out, and Ethernet
compatible with standard equipment, and without the need for dongles, that's
awesome!

What's this condescending bullshit for? Fuck's sake man, I never said it had
it HDMI or ethernet (the audio situation hasn't changed) and if you had read
this thread higher up you would see I was refuting someone who suggested they
never had HDMI. They did, and now they don't. They haven't had ethernet since
2012 and for what it's worth they still do support USB 2 and 3, they just
don't support those protocols over a type A connector, they support it over
type C. Those dongles are standard (you don't have to buy Apple's) and can be
had for $10 for a two pack:
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AUKU1OO/?tag=thewire06-20&linkC...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AUKU1OO/?tag=thewire06-20&linkCode=xm2&ascsubtag=WC95831)
Adapters were much harder to find for the Thunderbolt 2 ports on the older
MacBook Pro, you basically had to go with Apple for most things. Now you can
buy the cheapest one Amazon will sell you and it should work.

But you know they don't have those ports, so I don't know what your deal is. I
said all the I/O is now standard including the power connector. You can't say
that of the older MacBook Pros much less any other PC laptop.

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eyko
And like anyone who's lying, he finished his sentence with an unconvincing
"Trust me."

Cook should know that pro users don't care about talk, we care about action.
This comes across like a Trump speech ("nobody cares more about pro users than
us, believe me")

~~~
johnsmith21006
Totally agree on the comparison to Trump. Thought this for a while and never
said it. Interesting see the same. Listen to an earnings call.

But the biggest was when TC went on CNBC Cramer and insisted China was going
great to find out China was a disaster.

The other was during quiet time he ended up taking a tour of the trading floor
right next to were CNBC was broadcasting live. They were like Tim why are
here? He said he was talking a tour with his nephew.

Tim went on and on how the AirPods are the biggest product Apple has ever had.

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einarvollset
Bigly

