MBP Timing: A Corporate View
I'm in product management, but not at Apple. However, the business equation is straightforward. Timing of new MBPs depends on four things:
MBP Revenues - unlike the iPad factor, this demands immediate action. If everyone expects an update, then MBP sales go off a cliff. There are people who's jobs depend on making MBP budget numbers. They are probably stressed. I'm guessing they missed a Feb window due to product issues, now they have to wait until mid-end April at the earliest.
Product Readiness - Does it work? Is it reliable? When moving to a new platform, these can be problems that take awhile to iron out. As above, I'm guessing they missed a Feb launch window due to performance, reliability or integration issues (like getting custom Apple components working on the new Intel motherboard). No matter what, they can't launch until all these issues are solved. But as we don't know about product issues, this tells us nothing about the launch date.
Steve Jobs - He is a unique and unpredictable part of the equation. Normally, even a CEO doesn't have freedom to delay something like an MBP launch because he wants to. The market won't let them get away with it. Unlike a mortal CEO, Steve Jobs can do or not do as he pleases, the markets don't care about an MBP refresh while they try to figure out what the iPad is going to do to the whole industry. My total speculation is that if they missed a Feb window, he said "June". And that was it. Can't wait too long, however, they have a lot of new product to get out this year.
So there's my completely speculative take from a Marketer's point of view. I'm guessing June.
- iPad introduction
- MBP revenue
- Product readiness
- Steve Jobs
MBP Revenues - unlike the iPad factor, this demands immediate action. If everyone expects an update, then MBP sales go off a cliff. There are people who's jobs depend on making MBP budget numbers. They are probably stressed. I'm guessing they missed a Feb window due to product issues, now they have to wait until mid-end April at the earliest.
Product Readiness - Does it work? Is it reliable? When moving to a new platform, these can be problems that take awhile to iron out. As above, I'm guessing they missed a Feb launch window due to performance, reliability or integration issues (like getting custom Apple components working on the new Intel motherboard). No matter what, they can't launch until all these issues are solved. But as we don't know about product issues, this tells us nothing about the launch date.
Steve Jobs - He is a unique and unpredictable part of the equation. Normally, even a CEO doesn't have freedom to delay something like an MBP launch because he wants to. The market won't let them get away with it. Unlike a mortal CEO, Steve Jobs can do or not do as he pleases, the markets don't care about an MBP refresh while they try to figure out what the iPad is going to do to the whole industry. My total speculation is that if they missed a Feb window, he said "June". And that was it. Can't wait too long, however, they have a lot of new product to get out this year.
So there's my completely speculative take from a Marketer's point of view. I'm guessing June.
Comments
So there's my completely speculative take from a Marketer's point of view. I'm guessing June.
Just like everything else, everyone has an opinion. As a marketer, I could make an equally compelling argument that the increased PR/noise/activity related to the iPad can be utilized to increase the effectiveness of the marketing across all product lines, without negatively affecting anything. A rising tide lifts all ships, etc. and therefore wouldn't affect the announcement of updated MBPs or MPs.
The rest might be true. Maybe something just gave them difficulties. After all there are some Notebooks out there from Dell(SXPS), Lenovo (TX10) and HP(Envy) that seem to not support the IGP to dedicated GPU switch properly for whatever reason. Only Optimus seems to work without a problem on Windows for now.
Cooling issues and stuff should be sorted out by now as they knew about this stuff for a long time. Still it takes too long. Waiting till June with half a year later new chips already
Not getting in the iPad's limelight seems a viable reason, but at this point Apple probably isn't selling much MBP's anymore except to very uninformed customers (which may very well be over half of their buyers...)
Laptops are a HUGE source of revenue for Apple, they won't hold them back just because they also have to launch an oversized iPod.