Good Article on the Current State of Mac Hardware

[niteFlight]

I know this very eloquently represents my views, and probably a lot of othert folks here:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/4/12373776/2012-macbook-pro-still-alive-not-dead-why

There are a couple of different theories as to why Apple is allowing the current state of affairs, the two prevailing ones are a) Apple truly doesn't care about its PC products right now (and Macs have gone through similar dark ages in the past) or b) they are allowing the current Mac lineup to go stale because they are about to take Mac in a dramatically new direction (i.e., ARM-based Macs).

Personally I don't think ARM-based Macs are in the cards right now, because they simply don't make sense financially, not for Apple or the companies who develop software for the Mac. On the contrary, its starting to become apparent that MacIntel was a huge strategic mistake if all of the purported advantages of transitioning Macs to an ARM-based architecture are more than just hype.

As I see it, the most logical choice for Apple now is to actually double down on their decision to make Mac an x86-based product and drop the iMac and consolidate desktop Macs into two products: the Mini and the Pro, with the former being the smallest and least expensive with minimal or no expandability and the latter still being as small and cheap as possible but with a slot or two so that power users could add PCI storage and the GPU of their choice.

As for laptops, its much easier to differentiate yourself as a brand in that arena, but even still, Apple has to make sure that their laptops are just as great running Windows or Linux as they are running OS X.

The decision to turn the Mac into a commodity product was made a long time ago, yet it is way too soon to try to reverse it without sacrificing some huge sunk costs. Why not just capitalize on it?

 

[trs96]

It is the latest trend to see Apple putting all their emphasis on phones, "pro" tablets and now even watches. The laptop and desktop models fade into obsolescence and are upgraded at a snails pace. If they would only realize that people still need a desktop to get real work done rather than just chat, text and consume content on an iPhone or iPad. I could never be happy with a tablet and a detachable keyboard for my main system. That's the way Apple seems to want to go these days. Thank goodness we have the opportunity to choose our own hardware to run OS X, now macOS. It seems that choosing mac in all lower case letters in macOS signifies that the Mac lineup is now just second fiddle to iOS, phones and tablets. Really a shame.

As I see it, the most logical choice for Apple now is to actually double down on their decision to make Mac an x86-based product and drop the iMac and consolidate desktop Macs into two products: the Mini and the Pro

I don't really see this happening. The Mac Mini and Mac Pro are the two products that Apple makes with the lowest profit margins. The Macbook line of laptops have much higher profit margins and are not likely to be phased out. iMac is not likely to be dropped either as they no longer sell the thunderbolt display and the 5K retina iMac is a really unique product that no one else is doing. I would estimate that the Mac Pro will be dropped and they will include better discrete graphics options in the next batch of iMacs.

 

[niteFlight]

It is the latest trend to see Apple putting all their emphasis on phones, "pro" tablets and now even watches. The laptop and desktop models fade into obsolescence and are upgraded at a snails pace. If they would only realize that people still need a desktop to get real work done rather than just chat, text and consume content on an iPhone or iPad. I could never be happy with a tablet and a detachable keyboard for my main system. That's the way Apple seems to want to go these days. Thank goodness we have the opportunity to choose our own hardware to run OS X, now macOS. It seems that choosing mac in all lower case letters in macOS signifies that the Mac lineup is now just second fiddle to iOS, phones and tablets. Really a shame.

Agreed. Mind you, the fact that attempting to switch Macs to ARM right now would be a mistake doesn't mean that Apple won't try to mash the square peg into that round hole...but I predict that the move will cost them much of the market share that all of the careful engineering and focus that went into the Mac products after the switch to Intel CPUs gained them. We will see Macs go from being a player in the market (if a minor one) to being an obscure niche product once again.