This really was a computer built for pros
The last Mac I got was in 2010. I picked it out myself, a wonderful MacBook Pro. Everything I’d need to start my new career in software engineering. Over the last 8 years, it has served me well. I’ve upgrade it, adding memory and solid state storage, which has kept it relevant. Since Apple hasn’t made the MacBook Pro any more desirable to me, the Mac Pro is outdated, the Mac Mini is a joke, and the iMac Pro gives me something I don’t need: a big screen, I haven’t “upgraded.” I’m not alone.
Problematic and unimpressive MacBook Pros, outdated hardware, and a late release on the latest MacBook Pro lead to Apple’s lowest Mac sales since 2010. In fact, sales have been on a downward trend. Is it because people don’t want Macs anymore, or because Apple isn’t delivering what people want?
As a person who desperately needs a new computer—especially since I won’t be able to install Mojave on my MacBook Pro—but can’t stand the idea of spending money on any of Apple’s sad Mac offerings, I’d say the latter.
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Apple’s Mac Sales Figures
Outdated, Unimpressive, Problematic
It feels like I write this article once a week. The MacBook Pro is too thin and the CPU is being throttled, the keyboard is faulty, they’re impossible to repair and bad for the environment. There are Macs in the lineup that haven’t been updated in 4 years. The 2013 Mac Pro received one modest spec bump, but no one wants to touch it because professionals value the fastest hardware that’s easy to repair and upgradable, everything the Mac Pro isn’t.
A glance through tech blogs and forums reveals the same thing: Mac users are unimpressed. Many were utterly disappointed with Apple’s USB-C approach, adopting a format that even now, three generations of the MacBook Pro later, we still can’t easily make use of without dongles. Hell, the iPhone X requires a dongle or separately purchased cable to attach to the new MacBook Pro. With low power, gimmicky touch bars that make development more difficult (as a Vim user, give me my escape key back!), no usable ports, no more upgradability or serviceability, and outdated hardware, what’s there to be excited about?
Hope?
Concept via Pascal Eggert
The good news is that Apple may have finally gotten the memo. It’s taking them a while to adopt new strategies, and we likely won’t see a passable MacBook Pro until next year at the earliest, but there have been signs of hope on the horizon. Apple updated the MacBook Pro with the latest Intel processors finally, including their top-of-the-line 6-core i9 processor. Sure, it’s running slower than others, but Apple included it to try to get the best performance they could.
We know that there’s a new Mac Pro on the horizon. Sometime next year, Apple will release the 2019 Mac Pro, which is supposed to be everything professionals have wanted: a modular Mac like the old Mac Pro tower, something we can upgrade and service ourselves.
Apple also worked with BlackMagic to make an eGPU for the Mac, and enabled support for them in macOS. This means you can upgrade your Mac’s graphics card with an external card with ease, something only professionals and gamers would really care about. Apple’s catching on, they’ve been ignoring their professionals, and we’ve been leaving. I myself recently suggested a new PC build machine for my company over a Mac. This might be a dark time for Mac fans, but perhaps everything will be better for us by this time next year.
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