noraa1138

viclauyyc said:

Really want to know if apple change the thermal exchange structure for the Vega with i9. Given all the criticism about the heating problem with i9

Dear Mr. Cook,
I have been a loyal (and happy) Mac user since I was old enough to use computers.  I stuck with Apple through it’s struggles in the 90’s and was thrilled when Steve Jobs returned to Apple and revitalized the company.  I have owned Mac’s ranging from the Performa 638 in the early 90’s (which had a built-in tv tuner which was just awesome at the time - especially for a kid in middle school), to a Power Computing clone, to the first iBook, a PowerMac, a PowerBook, a MacBook Pro, and currently a 27” iMac.  The bottom line is I love Apple, I love their products (I also own an iPhone 7 and the 2nd generation iPad Mini).  The macOS operating system is 2nd to none, and while iOS has it’s fair share of short-comings, it’s a solid OS that has evolved considerably over the years.

However, over the past couple of years, I have become more and more frustrated by some of Apple’s hardware decisions, and all of that came to a head with the recent MacBook Pro announcements.  There has been a lot of vocal criticisms of these computers floating around the internet, some of it justifiable criticisms and some of it the typical Apple doom and gloom.

In this e-mail I am going to try and breakthrough the noise, and hopefully explain just why some people are worried and frustrated with Apple.

The biggest frustrations are coming from the “pro” users.  While such users are becoming more and more of a niche community, they are nonetheless the most loyal of Apple users.  A lot of these users, like myself, have been using Apple products for well over a decade.  Unfortunately this segment of users is seeing Apple less and less committed to the pro market.  This started a few years ago with the neglect of the Mac Pro, and the eventual replacement of it with the 2013 Mac Pro - an undeniably gorgeous and well engineered machine, but with so many compromises as to make it un-attractive to most users.  Even worse is the fact that this Mac Pro has not been updated since it was released 3 years ago.

This brings me to the latest MacBook Pros.  Again, these computers are undeniably well built and well engineered.  The frustrations that most people feel around these computers however is that they don’t feel like “pro” machines, with too many compromises for the sake of thinness.  In addition, and for myself this a big one, they are drastically overpriced.  The main complaints are a lack of ports, the inability to upgrade the RAM beyond 16GB, and the lack of any replaceable parts
Let’s go through these complaints one by one.  The all-in approach with Thunderbolt 3/USB-C is going to be a frustrating transition for many, however I think it is a worth while goal; and as Apple has proven in the past, an all-in approach, while painful at first, pays dividends in the future by ushering in a new era.  What many people are feeling, however, is that some very, very hand ports are being removed for no good reason.  The biggest of these ports is the SD-card slot.  Phil Schiller mention that such a port is cumbersome, as the SD card sticks out of the computer.  However, I fail to see how forcing photographers to use an external SD card reader is any less cumbersome.  While many new digital cameras, both consumer level and professional level, offer wireless transferring, such transfers are incredibly slow and far more cumbersome than being able to pop out the SD card and plug it in to the computer.  In addition, the removal of the MagSafe port, arguably one of these cleverest innovations by Apple, seems like a really odd decisions.  While Thunderbolt 3 is extremely versatile, and having the ability to charge the computer from any of 4 ports is nice, I truly don’t feel that the tradeoff is worth it.  At a bare minimum Apple should have provided a new charger, with a built in MagSafe Thunderbolt connection, similar to this 3rd-party product being offered by Griffin (https://griffintechnology.com/intl/breaksafe-magnetic-usb-c-power-cable).  While the design is far from perfect, as removing the magnet part that plugs directly in the USB-C port is cumbersome to do, I would think Apple could come up with a better design.  Instead, the MagSafe port was completely abandoned.

The decision to limit the MacBook Pro to 16GB of RAM is a very frustrating compromise for pro users.  I understand Phil Schiller’s argument, that supporting DDR4 to allow for up to 32GB of RAM would adversely effect battery life, I think that should be a choice for the user to make.  Many pro users would be more than happy to sacrifice a couple of hours of battery life to go up to 32GB of RAM.

Finally, this brings us to the lack of any user replaceable parts.  It’s been frustrating enough the RAM on the previous generation Retina MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs have been soldered directly to the logic board, but at least the SSDs (even with their proprietary connector) were user upgradeable and replaceable post-purchase.  However, even that option is now gone as the SSD is also soldered directly to the logic board on the new MacBook Pros with the TouchBar (though the non-TouchBar MacBook Pro still offers a replaceable SSD.  That seems like a very odd choice, allowing the SSD to be replaced on a lesser machine, and not on the top of the line machines).  While I’m sure a minority of users actually upgrade their machines post purchase, the ability to do so has been a staple of the pro machines since the beginning.  Case in point, my father currently is using a 2008 15” MacBook Pro that I have upgraded to 8GBs of RAM and a SATA SSD.  The computer is still going strong at 8 years old.  With these new MacBook Pros, there is an unfortunate planned obsolescence, which is a slap in the face to many pro users.
As you can see, there are number of legitimate frustrations with these new MacBook Pros, and it is a troubling sign for many pro users.

While Apple appears to have noble intentions with these machine, creating a lighter and thinner computer, the compromises for such a design on a Pro machine seem hardly worth it.  That is to say, if these computers were marketed for the average user, like the now discontinued MacBook Airs, and priced as such, they would be truly great machines.  However, with the compromises made, these simply are not pro machines.

According to Phil Schiller, the initial orders of these MacBook Pros is quite high, however I am also aware of a number of canceled orders after the the realization of the various unnecessary compromises made to them.

The concern about Apple’s commitment to the Mac goes beyond the Pro segment as well, as it extends to the entire Mac line.  As stated above, the Mac Pro has not been updated in 3 years, which is just criminal.  The iMac hasn’t been updated in over a year, and the Mac Mini in nearly a year and a half.  A lack of any mention of these computers at the “Hello Again” event is very troubling for many Mac users.  In addition, the killing of the MacBook Air is extremely sad.  They were great machines, and the compromises made to them for the sake of thinner and lighter was a great fit for a consumer machine.  It appears that the non-TouchBar MacBook Pro is designed as a replacement for the MacBook Air, but it is priced $500 more than a similarly specced MacBook Air.  The lack of including the extension cord for the power adapter of the new MacBook Pros seems like nothing more than a cash grab on Apple’s part; and while reducing the prices on the various adapters now required for the MacBook Pros is a nice gesture by Apple, I can’t help but feel somewhat insulted by it.  Reducing the price of an adapter by 10 or so dollars after purchasing an already overpriced machine doesn’t feel good.

Finally, Apple’s response to these criticisms feels like nothing less than arrogance on Apple’s part.  Phil Schiller claiming to be surprised by the criticisms, his argument surrounding the SD card, and a justification of the much higher price seemingly shows that Apple is somewhat out of touch by their Mac user base.

At the moment there is a lot of uncertainty in the air surrounding the Mac line; and for the loyal Mac user base the actions by Apple feel at the least troubling, and a most there is outright anger around said actions.  I truly hope I am wrong, and that next year Apple will release some killer new Macs across the board, as well as recognizing some of the compromises surrounding your pro machines were ill-designed.

Finally, the frustrations, and at times anger towards Apple is simply because your users love Apple, and want to see Apple perform the best that it can.  Right now, myself and countless others don’t feel that that is the case.

Thank you for taking the time to read this e-mail.  While I don’t expect a response, I hope that you can take these criticisms to heart and realize that your user base simply loves Apple enough to be so vocal in their frustrations.