macplusplus

GeorgeBMac said:

hmlongco said:

tux kapono said:

Why is it that an iPhone XS is $999 and an iPhone XS Max is $1099, yet a 13” MacBook Pro is $1300 and a 16” MacBook Pro is $3200.

I have never understood why Apple needs a bigger screen to have a $1100 to $1900 premium on a laptop (85% to 146% markup), while it only needs to be a 10% markup on a phone. It’s like saying a Toyota Yaris starts at $13,000 and the next size up Corolla starts at $24,000 to $32,000. Since when is a slightly bigger version only for the most privileged? Maybe when you start giving dividends to the most privileged, who knows. 

That $1,300 13" MacBook Pro has a smaller screen, a 4-core i5, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Intel Iris Plus Graphics, and 2 TB Ports.

At a $1,000 difference, a $2,300 15" MacBook Pro has a larger screen, AND a 6-core i7, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Radeon Pro 555X Graphics, and 4 TB Ports. 

Seems to me you're getting just a little bit more than a larger screen for your "markup".

That's true.   It's also kind of a shame because some people want the screen without all the other stuff.   All they want to do is work on their spreadsheet.

seanismorris said:

Predictions. Predictions...

I see the T2 as the single largest bit of evidence that Apple is moving away from Intel processors.  The T2 exists because Intel CPUs doesn't have the features Apple wanted.  The T2 is part of the transition.  Eventually the T2 will be integrated into Apple’s A series chips for MacBooks Air’s and possible iMacs.  The Pro models will still be T2 + Intel for a long while.  Businesses will still need the duel boot capability for Windows...

We’ll probably see the T2 + A Series + wireless... integrated in one chip a decade from now.  It’s cheaper and more efficient that way...

jdiamond said:

ApplePoor said:

Hey guys and gals, the $3,000 price point has been the top Apple laptop price for many years before the over $5k 15".  The 17" was around that price in 2011, so bring that price point forward and the 16" starting price is not that unreasonable. It will  probably be closer to $6k or $7k when fleshed out with max memory and SSD.  I upgraded the 17" to more memory than Apple offered at the time and it now has two SSDs inside that are 1TB or larger. Still a viable machine for work but not so much fun to carry in a shoulder bag.

Up until around 2017, $3,000 could always buy the top of the line maxed out Macbook Pro (ENDING PRICE), and that's what I always did, every single generation.  Now, in the era where a maxed out Macbook Pro costs $7,000 (which happened in a single year, up from $4,000 the year before, and $3,000 the year before that), for the first time ever, instead of just saying "give me the best one you can make", I have to go over every option and say "what's the lowest level I could live with?" - all trying to keep my end price under $4,000.  Even if you only need a 2TB hard drive, it's still hard to get it under $5K these days.   Since this price jump happened WAAAYYYY faster than inflation, I think it's fair game to gripe about it.  Remember how Tim Cook is no longer revealing unit sales, just revenue?  I'm afraid he's doing the economist thing, like "we get the most profit when we sell 1/4 the units at 5x the price".  The pitfall here is that the Mac platform is more valuable the more people use it.  Look at Adobe - it took 5 years, but they are finally starting to feel some serious business impacts from the "maximize revenue" route.

crowley said:

macplusplus said:

MplsP said:

macplusplus said:

MplsP said:

macplusplus said:

entropys said:

It is a dilemma. I would want to buy MBPs for my daughters, but I am sure the younger one would probably want the gold MBA. Maybe the money and weight saved would go to a USB hub so when inevitably one of her friends want to give her something on a USB stick she can actually use it.


on the touchbar issue: I think adoption would be easier if Apple actually went all in. Where is the magic keyboard with a Touch Bar? Will the Mac Pro, iMac pro and the iMac end up with the touchbar? because i suspect one reason there is still grief about it (apart from raising the cost of the notebook) is it isn’t universal enough for a critical mass of developers to bother taking advantage of it.

Not USB hub, just a USB-A adapter, not bigger than a lipstick or an eye mascara. The hub may be purchased afterwards and be left at home for occasional use.

And how many times have you reached in your pocket for that chapstick and found it gone, or in your other pair of pants, or on the bathroom counter... That's exactly giving 4 USB C ports and no USB A ports is such a moronic idea. It's not the cost. It's not the fact that you can't have a USB C-A adaptor with you, it's the fact that virtually no one needs 4 USB C ports, while the entire world is still using USB A.

Anything else?... When Steve Jobs first introduced USB with the bondi iMac the entire world was not using it. And God forbid, man! he’d even ditched the floppy drive, OMG, OMF...

*rolleyes*
They also sold a USB 3.5 which the majority of people bought because they needed it. The difference is that was a desktop, so having a drive plugged into your desktop computer wasn't a big deal. The entire point of a laptop is convenience and portability. lugging extra equipment around isn't in that equation. 

If you notice, I never said "get rid of USB C," Nor did I say "USB C is useless." What I said was virtually the entire world still uses USB A and while you can make USB C work, it makes convenient and there is no good reason not to include a single USB A port.

It's interesting - whenever I suggest including a single USB A port on a MBP, people jump to the "USB C is the future! You're just a luddite and against progress" argument. Essentially, from what I can tell, they don't have a counter argument, so they try to change the initial argument to one the can better counter. If you can counter my argument without changing it, go ahead. Otherwise think about why you can't.

...At that time the entire world was using RS232 and PS/2 ports. None of them was included in the bondi iMac. In Apple platforms such an argument as the entire world uses <insert something> is not recognized, so... do not roll your eyes.

The iPod was originally FireWire, then moved to USB because the rest of the world was not using FireWire. Despite the myth, Apple are sensitive to reality.