I can’t see why they can’t focus on multiple groups of users - this is apple we’re talking about, not a small fund-less company. It’ll come back to bite them anyway. Consumers are fickle. last time they nearly died, it was the pro users who dragged them through - at this rate, they won’t be there for next time.
Exactly and there’s no telling even if you spec it out with 16GB of RAM its going to be enough. Heaven knows even Firefox itself is likely just to chew 8GB of RAM if you leave it running for long enough.
Trying to future proof your machine is just not doable in so many situations, and paying obscene amounts of money as upgrades have to be done at purchase, meaning you’re looked into apple’s over pricing, makes things unachievable. It is for this reason that I sold the Retina Pro Apple gave me last year, and went for another non Retina pro.
Apple loves it though - Its better for business if Macs become devices that need to be upgraded more and more regularly.
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Exactly, I mean its not a gripe with the software I finally moved to OS X Sierra, in that sense OS X is as good as its ever been. The gripe is always and only ever about not being able to upgrade and being forced to pay more on shorter released cycles, which is what they want, you’re right. I’m tech savy enough just to jump ship though…
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I’m feeling pretty much the same. I’d like to get another macbook Pro but I cant afford it and thats that. I thought I wanted a retina MBP but when it became apparent that I would not be able to do upgrades, myself, I decided against. And I still have my mac mini. My white macbook (2010) and Mini (2012) will have to do me for a very long time, or, if they can’t cope with future needs, jumping ship to Linux is not beyond the bounds of possibility for me, either.
I guess it all depends on what Apple comes up with. I have been buying macs since the eighties, but this year bought a HP Spectre Pro for my IT interested son. It is a beautiful machine, win10 has its pros and cons but it is mostly let down by its trackpad which is vastly inferior to his sisters’ now very old design MBAs. You can upgrade the Spectre RAM and SSD after purchase. My work computer these days is also a HP, an elitebook 820 which, apart from the very good array of connectivity options (which in the case of the sim tray is actually more flaky than it should be) is frankly crap compared to the Spectre or any Mac except maybe the rMB. Even there the rMB is much better engineered. So grass could be greener, but not really.
I think, particularly if it is a tax deductible work machine, the solution is to not spec out whatever it is you buy, buy lower range stuff and be prepared to upgrade more frequently. I say this because at this time I think there may be change afoot, things have been stagnant for a while and we may be entering a new period of rapid development.
For home use, when you upgrade less frequently, it is definitely a dilemma. I just chose to give my 2011 iMac a boot SSD and that will do for a while yet.
This seems a bit sensationalist. I use a mid-2013 MacBook Pro Retina, and there’s absolutely no need to upgrade it to be to be honest. 8GB/250GB. Plenty fast enough. Apple have been shipping decent RAM for a few years now. The early MacBook Airs didn’t have enough, but I think they worked out after a few years that they couldn’t skimp on the RAM if it’s soldered.
While every 1.5 years is a bit over the top, RAM usage does go up and needs change. 4GB was enough back in 2012/2013 for me, 8GB became a necessity in 2014/2015, now I really need 16GB. If my ram was soldered 4GB, I’d be i trouble.
Apple is still skimping on RAM - the latest Macbook Air 11 inch has 4GB of soldered ram, and the 13 inch only just got 8GB.
A I think the 11 inch is about to be withdrawn from sale. Pity, it is great little machine. I don’t think the 4Gb of RAM is its biggest out off date feature though, it’s the screen. My youngest has the latest version of the 11 inch MBA, and i haven’t noticed any RAM starving problems, probably because of the low res screen. It has a pretty good SSD set up which helps. But you really notice the screen.
Her older sister has the latest 13 inch one. It also has 4GB of RAM and has not suffered performance issues, which I was worried about at purchase time, but has a much better screen. I think upping to no more than HD resolution is fine on a 13 inch in ultrabook form, a decent trade off for long battery life and more flexibility for RAM requirements.
If you are wondering I went bottom of the range because the models were old and I thought they would get out of date soon anyway. That was nearly a year ago…
I’ve got no doubt for you it might be, but try working in Photoshop with 10+16megapixel images when you’re doing stacking or panoramas and your Retina MacBook Pro would choke also. I’m now in the process of deliberating over 16gb of RAM in 2016 simply because that’s the way my DSLM habits have evolved working with Micro Four Thirds when you’re competing with people with 5DSRs.
It may be enough for the average person but for me 8GB is fairly borderline as it is, and I’m looking at swapping in a 1TB disk for scratch space also. None of this would be possible with a Retina MacBok Pro.
It’s really the lowest common denominator of computer bastardisation. It’s what used to happen when you owned something like an IBM Think Station, in one of their proprietary cases. It’s not what you would expect at all from a premium manufacturer like Apple.
My wife has a 2011 MBA (and my old one is still kicking around too). They came with 4GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. I’ve upgraded the wifes one to a 512GB SSD as she needed more space but both are still kicking along pretty well. She’s still very happy and doesn’t want an upgrade.
Planning to buy a new car next month, take a 2 month overseas holiday next year and buy a new house within 18 months, how am I supposed to squeeze an underwhelming rMBP into the budget? Hmmmm.
Looking forward to buying a new 15" rMBP for my on-location machine.
Donglebook Pro. Bring it on.
You only need one kidney…
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If you look at history, it’s actually exactly what I expect from Apple. I agree it’s sad that there is no expandable range, but I don’t find it surprising at all.
Does there really need to be an event for the release of just 3 new Macbooks?
Why not just update the website and upload a couple promo videos?
Sighhhh. I’m getting to be super-cynical also. Its a shame.
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If this is all that is revealed, then “Hello Again” has been seriously devalued, and should be described as "Hello. . . . Yawn. . . . "
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I thought the B stood for something else.
signed Entropy GOBS.
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