Apple trimming notebook orders; plans fixes for new models

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Apple has decided to cut back on its notebook production for the current holiday quarter, according to one report. Meanwhile, the company is said to be working on a software fix for at least one issue surrounding its latest offerings.



MacBook production cut



The Chinese-language Commercial Times said Monday that both Apple and Asustek have recently reduced orders for notebooks that will be manufactured this quarter by 20 to 30 percent.



Quanta, which shares MacBook assembly duties with Foxconn, will absorb the impact of the cuts, according to the paper, which did not provide figures on how many units the company had initially ordered.



Also unclear is whether Apple is seeing reduced demand across the board, or if the cuts pertain to a specific model. It was reported last month that Quanta and Foxconn were splitting orders for some 300,000-400,000 previous-genration white 13-inch MacBooks, which the Mac maker now sells for $999.



It's possible Apple may be seeing lower than expected demand for those older systems as users gravitate towards the more premium offerings of the new unibody models, which fetch $300 more.



The Cupertino-based company admitted to seeing a drop-off in notebook demand in the weeks leading up to last month's introductions but said sales took off once the new MacBook lines were introduced.



"As you know, there were rampant rumors and lots of press reports about a potential portable transition and we saw some slowing toward particularly the final weeks of September and the initial weeks of October," chief operating office Tim Cook said during a conference call. "However, once announcing last week, we saw a considerable rebound in sales and we’re very, very optimistic about those results."



Software patch coming for display issues



Meanwhile, Apple is working on another software update for its unibody MacBooks to address external video glitches, according to one customer who spoke to the company's support teams.



Specifically, the customer was experiencing issues with his new MacBook Pro connected to an external display, where the display would sporadically lose signal for a second and flick back on.



"After not finding anything the technician put me on hold to talk to the engineers and then updated me that it is now a known issue that will be addressed in a software patch sometime in the future," he told AppleInsider.



The issue is said to be similar, but not identical to those experienced by other users attempting to use their new MacBooks with external displays. There's a thread on Apple's support forum from users who say their external video feed cuts in and out when attempting to playback QuickTime support media, and another where users say iTunes movies fail to display on external displays connected to the new notebooks over a Mini DisplayPort to VGA adapter.



The new MacBook Pro's sleep functionality is also being cited as the source of two more widely reported issues. In one thread, users explain that their external displays connected via a DVI adapter routinely fail to come back on after a period of sleep unless they're physically unplugged from the notebooks and then reconnected.



Another thread is full of complaints from users who say sleep mode is malfunctioning, leaving users to find their notebook batteries drained and the systems running unusually hot when they should have been idle.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 40
    can a software update actually fix these problems, or are some of them hardware oriented? Are we, the new macbook pro owners, doomed to a life of short-in-functionality notebooks?
  • Reply 2 of 40
    sandausandau Posts: 1,230member
    welcome to R1.



    a lot of us .always. wait for R2 or get the refurbished models much later down the road.



    good luck with that.
  • Reply 3 of 40
    robb01robb01 Posts: 148member
    I always wait for the R2



    _____________

  • Reply 4 of 40
    300-400,000 does sound like way too many of the older model (mind you I'm coming from a country with 4 million pop)! Personally I find it hard to see how they keep selling even the new ones so well when the market must be nigh-saturated with perfectly capable machines ... let alone relying on selling ostensibly an older model at that level when the newer competition is so much nicer



    - it's $US300 for a much better screen and glass covering; a much nicer body with tougher materials; a lighter unit overall; way better graphics performance and the new workings on hardware acceleration (or whatever one calls the improved video via GPU); faster (potentially in the future) FSB and RAM and more RAM standard!



    It's easier to see that happening than the further $US300 for 20% clock speed, a bigger hard drive and keyboard backlighting! The only possible thing I can see in favour of the $US999 is the FireWire!
  • Reply 5 of 40
    [QUOTE=robb01;1338118]I always wait for the R2



    R2 FTW!!! But it sounds like Apple will find a fix for these issues, at an rate.
  • Reply 6 of 40
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    External video glitches? What about the shitty displays on the MacBooks?
  • Reply 7 of 40
    People need to realize that there is nothing wrong with getting a Rev. A of an Apple product... first, hardware and software problems have come up in EVERY MacBook/MacBook Pro revision - even up to the last gen. MacBook Pros. This is not something that only 1st Ge. products see. Second, without people buying the Rev. A products, a Rev. B would never be released! It can be a good idea to wait for another revision... but don't knock on people for buying a Rev. A when they're the ones reporting all the issues that get fixed in the next version!



    All that aside, I LOVE my new unibody MacBook. The trackpad issue is a little annoying, but a fix is coming... and I don't regret it one bit.
  • Reply 8 of 40
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    External video glitches? What about the shitty displays on the MacBooks?



    My display is gorgeous... it all depends on what manufacturer you got to make the display in your MacBook. The displays by LG/Samsung/etc are great, but the unlucky ones that got that Chinese crap should send it back and try again. Apple needs to get the message and cut out this display supplier.
  • Reply 9 of 40
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TimUSCA View Post


    My display is gorgeous... it all depends on what manufacturer you got to make the display in your MacBook. The displays by LG/Samsung/etc are great, but the unlucky ones that got that Chinese crap should send it back and try again. Apple needs to get the message and cut out this display supplier.



    My unibody MB display is nice too. How can you tell who made the display?
  • Reply 10 of 40
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TimUSCA View Post


    My display is gorgeous... it all depends on what manufacturer you got to make the display in your MacBook. The displays by LG/Samsung/etc are great, but the unlucky ones that got that Chinese crap should send it back and try again. Apple needs to get the message and cut out this display supplier.



    Apple has generally had four suppliers for MacBook displays ... LG/Philips, Samsung, Au Optronics, and Chi Mei. I've had direct experience with three of these -- the LG/Philips, the Samsung, and the Au Optronics.



    The LG/Philips was superb in terms of colour reproduction (low amount of dithering).

    The Samsung was horrible to the point that I'm surprised Apple even ships MacBooks with these displays (very rough, distracting dithering everywhere, even under menus, and it was dimmer).

    The Au Optronics was as good or better than the LG/Philips for colour reproduction, and a touch brighter. Reports I've heard say that the Chi Mei is about the same.



    So ... the "Chinese crap" actually is a decent display. In my experience, it was the Samsung that was unusable. I wrote [email protected] and they replaced my display in a hurry away from the Samsung.
  • Reply 11 of 40
    for a moment only I was hoping that it meant they would now include firewire in the 13" version..
  • Reply 12 of 40
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by solipsism View Post


    My unibody MB display is nice too. How can you tell who made the display?



    Here's an example of some last-gen MacBooks on how to find out the manufacturer. Everyone else agrees that the Chi Mei is the worst of the bunch... you'll have to do some more research to find out the info on the newest MacBooks, but the method to find the manufacturer is the same. I just don't know the numbers for the new machines and don't have time to find them.



    http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=467198
  • Reply 13 of 40
    parkyparky Posts: 383member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by robb01 View Post


    I always wait for the R2



    _____________





    And if we all waited for R2 Apple would go out of business!
  • Reply 14 of 40
    mj webmj web Posts: 918member
    Early adopters bare the brunt of glitches and pay an introductory price. Specs rise, prices fall, and bugs eventually get squashed. That's the reality.

    I assumed AAPL had old MB parts in inventory or they would've discontinued that model. Now I'm curious which models their cutting back on.
  • Reply 15 of 40
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TimUSCA View Post


    Here's an example of some last-gen MacBooks on how to find out the manufacturer. Everyone else agrees that the Chi Mei is the worst of the bunch... you'll have to do some more research to find out the info on the newest MacBooks, but the method to find the manufacturer is the same. I just don't know the numbers for the new machines and don't have time to find them.



    http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=467198



    Excellent! I never thought there would be any real difference between screens of the same notebook model. It appears that I have the better of the two reported MB screens. WOOT!.



    if I ever need it replaced, I wonder if I can get the MBA screen put in, which is clearly better than the MB screens.



    More definitive date on the new MB displays...
  • Reply 16 of 40
    robb01robb01 Posts: 148member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by parky View Post


    And if we all waited for R2 Apple would go out of business!



    that is true



    ___________

  • Reply 17 of 40
    boogabooga Posts: 1,082member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tecknojoe View Post


    can a software update actually fix these problems, or are some of them hardware oriented? Are we, the new macbook pro owners, doomed to a life of short-in-functionality notebooks?



    Depends on the cause. It's possible that some software is polling the ports looking for a disconnect signal and tiny bits of noise is triggering it... and a software fix could poll less often or be less sensitive to noise. It's also possible that some bad soldering or fluctuating power is causing problems, which probably doesn't have a software solution. It sounds like they identified the root cause, though, and are confident they can fix it in software.
  • Reply 18 of 40
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by parky View Post


    And if we all waited for R2 Apple would go out of business!



    Or they would be responsible and put out a better Rev the first time.



    I was beta with Gen 1 and 3G iPhone and I'm tired of beta testing Apple's crappy hardware/software.
  • Reply 19 of 40
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MJ Web View Post


    Early adopters bare the brunt of glitches and pay an introductory price. Specs rise, prices fall, and bugs eventually get squashed. That's the reality.



    That's what people get for baring their brunts.
  • Reply 20 of 40
    My new macbookpro dispay is fine and the case is real nice but the trackpad sucks and i went to a mouse as one out of five clicks don't register. bummer. otherwise, wonderful graphics speed.
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