henrybay

jdw said:

GeorgeBMac said:

As I have said previously, the MacBook line is surviving based mostly on the superior MacOS and Apple's ecosystem.  As I asked:   "Would you buy a MacBook if it only ran Windows?"  For many/most, the answer would be "No!"  The MacBook hardware team needs a kick in the pants.  They're goal should be to take the user to new levels rather than tell them to "survive".

GeorgeBMac, you and I are kindred spirits.  Your thinking parallels mine so closely is just shocking!  Kudos on voicing the concerns of The Rest of Us so eloquently!

It doesn't matter to me if some hipsters are satisfied with current MacBooks.  I know what I need and what I want, and the current notebook lineup doesn't satisfy.  For now, I am content with my mid-2015 15" MBP and will use it until either it falls apart or until my needs suddenly change, or until the day Apple shocks everyone by giving us more ports, slots and a better keyboard for our money.

Ditto for me jdw and GeorgeBMac.

Removing things users want and need solely in the name of a design philosophy and without the intent to improve the user experience is poor design.  I think the minimalist iPhone design philosophy has been transported over to the Mac lines where it is inappropriate and unnecessarily restrictive.

Agreed. In terms of design, form is supposed to follow function. But Apple now has it the wrong way around with the new MacBooks. That is, they have conceived their version of an idealised form factor and tried to squeeze some functionality into it.

This has resulted in terrible compromises, such as the ridiculously shallow butterfly keyboards.

Users are reluctant to switch to another brand because they are locked into Apple’s software ecosystem. This is the main reason users continue to buy MacBooks today - not for the hardware but the software. It also explains why so many reviewers describe the butterfly keyboard as being just ‘tolerable’ - because they have to tolerate it in order to access the Apple software. 

I doubt Steve Jobs would have allowed the current crop of MacBooks because despite his heightened sense of aesthetics, he was ultimately a ‘form follows function guy’. 

After a a few minutes tapping away on the new butterfly keyboard he would have yelled ‘What have you done? Where is the feedback? The tactile response? Go back to the drawing board design a keyboard that is enjoyable to type on!’

GeorgeBMac said:

The weird thing about the keyboard issue is:  While there are a ton that hate it, very few prefer it.  I really wonder why Apple has stuck by it and even doubled and tripled down on it.   I sadly have to wonder if it's an internal political issue -- where somebody with power is backing it.

Yes, I wonder about this too. This week I watched 23 YouTube reviews of the new MacBook Air (yes, twenty three!). They were mostly positive, except on one issue - the keyboard. Only three of these reviews actually praised the keyboard, while the rest were negative or lukewarm about it. Typical comments were, 'once you get used to the butterfly keyboard, it's tolerable', and 'It's not going to be everyone's taste', and 'If you like the old MacBook keyboards you may not warm to this one', and 'tactility is not this keyboard's strong point' and so on. In other words, the keyboards were damned with faint praise.

My hunch is that Apple believes the future of laptops is all about flat screens with haptic feedback - and that these ultra flat keyboards are designed to condition us to accept this future. The trouble is that this vision conflicts with our human need to physically touch and feel things, and manipulate them through time and space in 3 dimensions. 

I am not suggesting that Apple goes all Steampunk - but they need to recognise people's love of physicality, and our innate desire to touch, push, slide, twist and squeeze things - and not just swipe and tap. 

A decade ago, the consensus was that e-Book readers (virtual screens) would decimate the physical book industry. How wrong they were. During 2017-18 sales of e-books have plateaued while sales of physical books are at record highs. Why? Because people prefer turning a page to tapping on a screen. Funny about that.

People also prefer a good quality physical keyboard - that is, one where the keys actually move up and down a reasonable distance when you press them. 

GeorgeBMac asked the KEY question here, which is "Would you buy a MacBook if it was running Windows 10 instead of MacOS and part of Apple's ecosystem?"

The answer for most people is probably NO. This is why we should be circumspect about the relatively buoyant sales figures for MacBooks, which are boosted by the fact people are locked into the Apple ecosystem.

In fact, this ecosystem advantage has enabled Apple to get away with some terrible design decision (including the atrocious ultra shallow butterfly keyboards). 

Worst of all, the successful ecosystem has blinded Apple executives to weaknesses of their hardware. They assume, ‘Wow, look at the sales - people must love our hardware!’ When the reality is that software innovation has been driving Apple for years now. 

Yes, Apple does offer more choices of MacBook now. But the trouble is, they all have the same horrible keyboard with hardly any travel.