Kuo: Demand for new MacBook Pro models tepid due to high prices, disappointing specs

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 211
    Re the complaints about 8 or 16Gb RAM, I think folks are missing the speed specs on the SSD drives.   These drives (and I'm sure the software optimization) will provide extremely fast buffering, negating the need for  additional RAM.  I'm waiting for some real world benchmarks before I take the plunge, but one thing I know about Apple is that they deliver on the overall user experience.  So rather than focus on this or that spec, it is the  increase in overall  work efficiency that will sway my decision to purchase.
    andrewj5790BraddsUKnetmagepscooter63patchythepiratejibberjbrucemckududoozydozen
  • Reply 22 of 211
    knowitallknowitall Posts: 1,648member
    Or you could buy this for $29, much more fun: https://www.pine64.org/
    It currently has only 2GB of RAM, but I expect 32GB configurations next year for about $100.
  • Reply 23 of 211
    kpomkpom Posts: 660member
    JayB said:
    I wonder how many commenters are paid by Apple about these things. Along with how many commenters are only getting this new computer cause they work at a tech site.

    Apple is a joke without Steve Jobs. Their new business strategy is change everything just slightly enough to get gullible tech geeks that still think Apple is high end to buy their product. 

    Let's just change all the ports so people t
    Have to buy out our new cords. Lets claim everything not sold directly from us is a fake.
    Let's over price our computer that is using technology from 4 years ago. 

    Funny how all you claim so many people are buying Apple. All my Mac friends have switched to PC in the last few years. So I guess the claim goes both ways.


    You are right. Steve Jobs would never have released a Mac that dropped every legacy port Apple had ever used in the past. /S. 
    tmaysailorpaulandrewj5790irelandBraddsUKwilliamlondonalphafoxrazorpitnetmageurahara
  • Reply 24 of 211
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    kpom said:
    JayB said:
    I wonder how many commenters are paid by Apple about these things. Along with how many commenters are only getting this new computer cause they work at a tech site.

    Apple is a joke without Steve Jobs. Their new business strategy is change everything just slightly enough to get gullible tech geeks that still think Apple is high end to buy their product. 

    Let's just change all the ports so people t
    Have to buy out our new cords. Lets claim everything not sold directly from us is a fake.
    Let's over price our computer that is using technology from 4 years ago. 

    Funny how all you claim so many people are buying Apple. All my Mac friends have switched to PC in the last few years. So I guess the claim goes both ways.


    You are right. Steve Jobs would never have released a Mac that dropped every legacy port Apple had ever used in the past. /S. 
    ROFL! That has made my morning. Nicely done. :-D
    andrewj5790williamlondonentropysdoozydozenadonissmu
  • Reply 25 of 211
    adamcadamc Posts: 583member
    The funny thing is all of those who commented about issues with the new MacBook pros have not try or tested the laptops yet and they spoke as if they are the authority, damn sad.

    As someone commented software optimization has a part that make the pros better than they look on paper.

    As for those who wish to jump ship go ahead.
    tmayandrewj5790irelandwilliamlondonbrucemcbigration aldoozydozen
  • Reply 26 of 211
    Looks like my MBP 17" late 2011 is going to get it's dual SSD upgrades after all. There is nothing professional in the new MBPs at all, except maybe for the professional business executives. But not for the designer, the photographer, the "real" musician, and anyone that needs a serious computer to do serious work and that is going to be worthy of the serious investment to buy one; that includes upgradability both in storage and memory. And I'm tired of carrying all these dongles. Apple needs to come out with a special carrying case just for them. The dongles are not cheap either. And MagSafe; I don't know how many times my Mac was saved from a huge disaster from my kids running over my power cord. Oh, and my APPL just tanked thank-you very much; it was just starting to improve again. It is supposed to be part of my downpayment for my house. It's cool and all, but I really do think there is a need for a touch screen… not a touch strip. I mean, if you were going to do that, and give a mushy keyboard, why didn't they just replace the keyboard entirely with a touch pad with hepatic feedback. That would have been awesome, to have the ability to switch keyboard layout types on the fly; they wouldn't need to come out with all these language localized models with different keyboards; and I'd be able to buy the computer anywhere in the world. Just think how Chinese users would love being able to draw their characters and see what they are doing below their fingers. Then, coupled with the Apple Pencil, the input area could be used to draw, and so much more. Heck, if the whole lower area was a touch area, it could incorporate the trackpad. And, depending on what I'm doing, I could even "move" the trackpad to a different location by just dragging it. Yup, Apple's really killing the professionals that really need something to create on.
    duervo
  • Reply 27 of 211
    Soli said:
    I don't foresee tepid demand here, there is a large volume of upgrade customers waiting for this model and Apple rarely decrease the price of their products significantly - the introduction of new technology is instead used to validate keeping the same price: The touch bar with touch ID is both a good reason to upgrade and excellent way to legitimise the unchanged cost.
    I know 8 people that have preordered a new MBP, and dozen more that are going to order shortly. Over half of them are what I describe as effectively techtarded. They wouldn't have a clue what an HDD, SSD, or RAM is but they are Mac users that have been waiting patiently for a new Mac and pre-ordered the day they were available.
    The analysts love all this gloom and doom stuff when it comes to Apple. You should read them over at CNET and now Kuo. Nothing surprising. Microsoft is the new Apple some of them are cooing. We shall wait and see how sales pan out. Just doesn't get old for these losers. 
    andrewj5790irelandration aldoozydozen
  • Reply 28 of 211
    canukstormcanukstorm Posts: 2,695member
    So Cannon Lake, which is the successor to Kaby Lake, will support 32GB LPDDR4 RAM across its mobile lineup. But Coffee Lake, which is the successor to Cannon Lake, won't support it? How does that make sense?
  • Reply 29 of 211
    darkvaderdarkvader Posts: 1,146member
    The thin fetish is killing Apple's pro product line.

    The 2012 non-retina MBP is thin enough.  There is NO reason to go any thinner for a pro machine.

    On the other hand, there are LOTS of reasons not to.  RAM could be socketed.  Drive space could be expandable (yes, SSDs are great.  But why can't I have a 2TB SSD AND a 2TB spinny platter hard drive?  There's plenty of room for that in the 2012 form factor, along with room for more battery (and easily replaceable, non-glued battery) if you leave out the optical drive.  You could put in a magsafe connector, 4 TB3 connectors, AND an Expresscard slot.

    These laptops are at best prosumer toys, at a professional high-end price.  They're great machines for the sales guys, but they suck for the onsite video editor.

    And don't get me started on the retarded trash can Mac "pro" silliness.
    duervofearlessentropys80s_Apple_Guyxzuwaverboydysamoria
  • Reply 30 of 211
    All Apple needed to do was offer a MacBook Pro with 32 GB of RAM. 

    THATS IT. 

    And theyd fly fly off the preorder shelves. 

    But instead we we get a stupid choice forced upon us with no option to choose one over the other. 

    A quiet update ASAP with 32 GB BTO option or as a standard option would fix this.

    The sooner the better. Next month would be great. 
    edited November 2016 duervoentropysdysamoriadoozydozen
  • Reply 31 of 211
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,311member
    So Cannon Lake, which is the successor to Kaby Lake, will support 32GB LPDDR4 RAM across its mobile lineup. But Coffee Lake, which is the successor to Cannon Lake, won't support it? How does that make sense?
    Coffeelake is a followup to Kabylake, and at 14nm, is architecturally similar to Cannolake at 10 nm, but Coffeelake will not support LPDDR4 so that would still put you at 16GB max RAM. Apple will have to wait for Cannonlake for a refresh.

    Some unhappy people will have to buy now anyway, wait for Cannonlake, or move to a Windows laptop with a desktop class processor; i.e., thick and heavy. 

    On the other hand, for those people that can live with 16GB, which is the majority of potential buyers, these new MBP's should sell well.
    williamlondonnetmageration aldoozydozen
  • Reply 32 of 211
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    adamc said:
    The funny thing is all of those who commented about issues with the new MacBook pros have not try or tested the laptops yet and they spoke as if they are the authority, damn sad.

    As someone commented software optimization has a part that make the pros better than they look on paper.

    As for those who wish to jump ship go ahead.
    And please do it soon, instead of clogging the internet with your first-world-problem type wailing. 
    andrewj5790williamlondonration al
  • Reply 33 of 211
    tmay said:
    So Cannon Lake, which is the successor to Kaby Lake, will support 32GB LPDDR4 RAM across its mobile lineup. But Coffee Lake, which is the successor to Cannon Lake, won't support it? How does that make sense?
    Coffeelake is a followup to Kabylake, and at 14nm, is architecturally similar to Cannolake at 10 nm, but Coffeelake will not support LPDDR4 so that would still put you at 16GB max RAM. Apple will have to wait for Cannonlake for a refresh.

    Some unhappy people will have to buy now anyway, wait for Cannonlake, or move to a Windows laptop with a desktop class processor; i.e., thick and heavy. 

    On the other hand, for those people that can live with 16GB, which is the majority of potential buyers, these new MBP's should sell well.
    You don't need a thick and heavy laptop for 32gb. 

    You just need to choose choose to do it. 

    Apple made a choice. It doesn't align with many customers' interests and therefore doesn't generate enthusiasm. Sure, more RAM will decrease battery life some. But give the user the option to choose that. 

    8 hours or 7 hours instead of 10 is still pretty dang good. 
    duervoalphafoxdysamoria
  • Reply 34 of 211
    irnchrizirnchriz Posts: 1,616member
    I'm not impressed by the UK pricing but it's on par with the US. Needed to upgrade my aging 2012 model so it was a no brainer. 

    One of my my clients just ordered 12 new 15" Pros along with 3rd party USB docks providing USB SD slot and Ethernet for the studio designers who work between London and New York. They are more than happy with the spec and will be ordering more in the new year. 

    I dont see this as an issue if you are a business or use Macs in business but the prices may put off domestic users, or at the very least delay purchase. 
    edited November 2016 duervoirelandwilliamlondon
  • Reply 35 of 211
    How can this analyst honestly call MacBook Pro demand tepid already? Do these people simply sit around counting Apple product pre-orders or something? It hasn't even been a full week yet and this dude seems to already know how many people decided they don't want the new MacBook Pro. Shouldn't he at least wait a month or a quarter or something more realistic. At least wait until the holiday season. How come he isn't spending his time counting Surface Pro sales or saying something discouraging about the new Surface Studio's high price to a limited number of potential users. These analysts make me sick.
    andrewj5790ration aldysamoria
  • Reply 36 of 211
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member

    All Apple needed to do was offer a MacBook Pro with 32 GB of RAM. 

    THATS IT. 

    And theyd fly fly off the preorder shelves. 

    But instead we we get a stupid choice forced upon us with no option to choose one over the other. 

    A quiet update ASAP with 32 GB BTO option or as a standard option would fix this.

    The sooner the better. Next month would be great. 

    The limitation is down to the Intel chipset which only supports 16GB

    http://appleinsider.com/articles/16/10/31/intels-chip-design-not-apples-choices-reason-behind-thunderbolt-3-ram-issues-in-new-macbook-pro

    Changing this now now would involve redesigning the laptop internals for a different chipset using desktop RAM and a larger battery. This would lead to redesign of the case to make the new setup cool properly. This, in turn, would require retooling the assembly line machinery. I'm not an expert, but this doesn't sound like something that Apple is going to fix 'next month'. 

    Perhaps, as calmer minds have already suggested, it would be better to wait for real world test results before joining in the group hysteria. 

    According to Apple, this crappy, underpowered, memory-starved, out-of-date laptop can drive two 5k monitors alongside its own Retina display. I think I'll wait to see the machine in action before writing it off. 
    andrewj5790tmayirelandemoellerBraddsUKjax44williamlondonrob55netmagerandominternetperson
  • Reply 37 of 211
    sflagelsflagel Posts: 803member
    Seems to me that Apple is leaving a massive gap in the market, as they do not seem to offer a good quality large screen workhorse for your every day office worker. Their "affordable" computers ($ 1,200) are the 12 inch MacBook and the MacBook Air with screens that are either too small or aren't retina. Plus, the MacBook is underpowered.

    So if you want 13 inches and retina, you now have to go to the new MacBook Pro, which costs $ 1,500 (without the TouchBar, trying to compare like for like here).

    As an office worker who does some amateur photo editing every once in a while, I'd still like to wait for the 13-in retina MacBook Air for $ 1,200 or $ 1,300. They can call it MacBook for all I care. Will it ever come? I hope so, because seriously, very very few people want to pay for the power of a MacBook Pro and even fewer want to spend $ 1,500 for a underpowered MacBook with a tiny screen.
    duervoentropys
  • Reply 38 of 211
    All Apple needed to do was offer a MacBook Pro with 32 GB of RAM. 

    THATS IT. 

    And theyd fly fly off the preorder shelves. 

    But instead we we get a stupid choice forced upon us with no option to choose one over the other. 

    A quiet update ASAP with 32 GB BTO option or as a standard option would fix this.

    The sooner the better. Next month would be great. 
    Yep. And all they needed was Final Cut Pro 8 and a Mac Pro tower with TB and USB 3 and we'd have 6 of them by now. How many trashcans did we buy to replace our 3,1 and 4,1 towers? 0. What do we cut and finish on? Avid and Resolve. Occasionally Premiere, and Final Cut 7, still.
    doozydozen
  • Reply 39 of 211
    jdwjdw Posts: 1,324member
    The cause of the hysteria among us is the fact the MBP hasn't been updated in a long time, and those of us who were hoping for something better are now deciding what to do.  Apple will update to Kaby Lake or higher, but the question is when?  Will it really be in June of 2017?  If Apple's track record is considered, they probably won't put anything major in the machine in June.  It will probably be a minor speed bump, keeping Skylake.  They love holding the big updates for October for some reason.  Maybe a lackluster sales quarter or two would make them change their tune, but it's unlikely.  As such, we may not get 32GB and a better CPU until next October.  That's another 12 months and is a long time for those of us who have been waiting a long time to update already.

    But even if Kaby Lake brings us 32GB RAM, that change alone is still not enough to win over people who traditionally have loved the MBP, in my opinion.  I am one of those people who can live without the glowing logo, live without the power on chime, live without all the ports, and live without a good keyboard (although I will be complaining the whole time I use that silly new keyboard tech).  I could even live without the silly headphone jack.  But I draw the line at the SD card slot.  At least when you kill the old ports with "a new port that can be any port" you have replaced one thing for another.  But killing the SD card slot is replacing something useful with nothing at all.  Even if you need a dongle for an old USB cable to attach to the new USBC, the fact is you were planning to plugin something anyway, so that dongle won't matter.  But in the case of an SD card, you were planning to put the card inside your computer to read it.  Now you need a dongle reader, and you may not always have that reader with you.  But you may have your camera with you.  And what of those people who like to add storage by using an always-in SD?  Those people too are out of luck.  And even if I wait another year, am I to expect that "minimalist" Apple will restore the SD card slot, at any price?  I would hope that plenteous feedback and lackluster sales would punish Apple into changing its mind, but they can be very stubborn about such things, especially with Johnny Ive wielding so much power at Apple.

    And that is why so many people are in mourning now.  If a lot of functionality had been retained, I doubt there would be as much complaining about the price increases.  But when key functionality is removed AND prices go up, then people will naturally eyeball that large price in shock and dismay.

    By the way, I have found that more people in the AppleInsider forums tend to defend Apple's choices, regardless of bad those choices are, but people in the MacRumors forum tend to be more open about expressing their criticism.  I wonder if it is because we have a DISLIKE button here at AppleInsider whereas there is only a LIKE button at MacRumors.  Regardless, I find that more people are discussing this issue in the MacRumors forum.  The pool of feedback is larger there, and I am seeing most comments are strongly negative.  In fact, pretty much wherever I go online I am seeing the negatives, even in YouTube reviews.  It's only when I come here or watch the Apple event that I see something more upbeat.  But anyone objectively viewing this must admit there's a rather dark cloud over this MBP update.  And the only thing to remove that cloud is a change of heart by Apple.  It's not like our cameras will suddenly sprout WIFI and our peripherals will spontaneously convert to USBC connections.  Apple may want to advance us in their direction, but it appears they've crossed the line with this update.  I'm deeply saddened by that.
    duervoxzubigwiggindysamoria
  • Reply 40 of 211
    He says demand "seems tepid". LOL. So his data point is internet noise from a vocal minority? Apple has never offered 32GB in a notebook before. Most notebooks on the market today don't. Yet this means Apple doesn't care about the Mac and the vocal minority is losing their minds about it? Mind you not because they've actually used these machines but because of numbers on a spec sheet. I'm sorry but I have a hard time caring about premature freakouts and whining. At least wait for some g-ddamned reviews before condemning these to the trash bin. A few posters on MacRumors who have the 13"non-touch bar model say it's the best laptop Apple has ever made. Of course they're basing that off of actually having used the machine, not going off a spec sheet or parroting the noisy minority on the internet.
    edited November 2016 tmaymatrix077uraharapatchythepiratejibberjration albig
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