Apple takes a three-day week for its Mac launches
Take the rest of the week off -- as Apple is. The promised week of announcements turned out to be three days, as Apple confirms there are no more products to reveal.
John Ternus with the small Mac mini, which wasn't the only thing shorter than expected
It was Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, who told us to "Mac" our calendars for "an exciting week of announcements." True, it would have been less of a snappy line if he'd also wedged in the words, "on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday."
But he could have just said that there were to be exciting Mac announcements "next week." Instead, the suggestion was a week of announcements, and the reality was three.
Those three began with the iMac, which externally is identical to the last version. It ended with the MacBook Pro, which is close to identical externally to its predecessor.
In the middle was the big news of the "week," the redesigned Mac mini. Dramatically that should have been the last reveal, but the MacBook Pro is the firm's big seller, so it got the finale. On Wednesday.
If you're thinking that there could still be two more announcements, two that are somehow Mac-related without being new Macs, you're right. There's even the fact that we now know that Final Cut Pro is about to be updated with AI features, if not necessarily Apple Intelligence ones.
Except Final Cut Pro is surely a product. And we dp now specifically know that the product launches are over for the week.
"I'm glad you could join us for the last day of exciting product announcements for the Mac," John Ternus, senior vice president hardware engineering, says at the start of the MacBook Pro launch video.
Apple doesn't only make products, of course, as it ever increasingly making services. It's hard to think of any Apple Services that are specific to the Mac, however.
There is definitely one Mac service. But Apple is going to get some funny looks if it tries continuing the "exciting week" with an update to AppleCare.
Unless, of course, Apple is going to announce something new like a Mac Upgrade Program.
That would still leave one more day to fill. Doesn't look like it, though.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
As for Friday, who know? Maybe they will reduce trade-in value on several products or increase the subscription price of Apple Music. Lol
Friday is the best day to announce unpopular news.
I’m not disappointed having purchased Studio M2 Max on launch day, but it does not seem hard to refresh Studio to M4 and compete with Apple Silicon in latest Macs released this week.
It is crystal clear that Apple engineering (both software and hardware) does not have the bandwidth to launch all four SoC variants simultaneously.
Everything seems easy when you’re not aware of the challenges and constraints. Don’t give into the dunning kruger effect man
Remember that >85% of Macs sold are notebook models. This is been the case for 15+ years.
My guess is that the 32" iMac hasn't been on Apple's Mac product roadmap for several years. And Apple almost never brings back products that they killed off.
They get more bang for their buck by running their own events at their own timetable and hand selecting their own guest list. Those journalists are only there to watch Apple, to write about Apple, to publish/post about Apple.
The way they staggered the iMac (M4), Mac mini (M4 and M4 Pro), and MacBook Pro (M4, M4 Pro, M4 Max) gave them an article above the fold for three consecutive days. They switched to canned video footage for the product launch announcements and in the past year or two they've had small in-person hands-on demo sessions on campus, but the days of live launches in front of a studio audience are also over. They no longer have to worry about someone's wireless lav mike not picking up the speaker's voice, etc. No cantankerous demo systems, no awkward pauses, none of that. No silent demo jockeys behind a black curtain running a system with two backups just in case the primary demo unit crashes.
We have been over this time and time again. Those shows force exhibitors to time announcements with a tradeshow calendar. Sometimes it's inconvenience due to holiday (Christmas-New Years precedes CES). There are also supply chain challenges (the Lunar New Year and the corresponding slowdown in factory output during the customary two-week vacation).
By running their own events, Apple has maximum flexibility not just with date but also location. They can also control the venue for any live component which is why they have switched to the Jobs Theater on the Apple Campus. No more renting out Yerba Buena, Moscone Center, Flint Center.
If they wanted to make announcements at CES, NAB or any of those shows, they've had 15+ years to do it. Guess what? THEY HAVEN'T. Apple knows what a tradeshow is. They probably send a handful of employees to these shows, not as exhibitors but as attendees. But there is almost no advantage for Apple to make announcements at them, just disadvantages. Journalists love tradeshows because they can see/meet with lots of companies in one trip. Apple doesn't want journalists to do that. They want all eyes and ears on Apple.
I don't know how many times we need to explain this.
Friday: We’re buying Pixelmator!