KidGloves

Think back to the first iPhone home screen. That was it until developers got involved. As said above, this is a novelty/developer product at the moment. On the first iPhone things like the accelerometers were a wow feature. We had to wait a while before they became properly useful. I think this is very similar to that first iPhone. We're all much harder to impress these days and this will always be more niche than the iPhone, at least for a long time. But it will gradually become more and more useful. It might take 10 years before screen and battery tech shrink it down to the size of reading glasses but by then it might actually start to replace the iPhone for some people. 

Think of how much more powerful the current iPhone is compared to the iPhone 5 or the trash can Mac Pro. The next decade will bring huge reductions in component size and power efficiency. But we can't get there in one step. I'm sure in 10 or 15 years' we'll all laugh at how limited the Vision Pro is in the same way we all look at that first iPhone with its tiny screen and lack of just about everything. But you have to start somewhere, and this looks like a fairly impressive and potentially useful beginning to me.

danox said:

hmurchison said:

The only reason why I laugh at the notion of an $2k iPad Pro is not because it's bad hardware.  I just don't feel like iPad OS and iPad software is exceptional given the constraints the iPad places on workflows.  

And yet the so-called competition can't match it to this day with software and hardware, but Apple is supposed to give it away.

Nobody is asking Apple to give it away. I would suggest they put more emphasis on making the OS work as a viable alternative to a MacBook or PC laptop. I certainly don't look at an iPad and think "Oh if only the display was better". I do however struggle to match the multitasking options of my MacBook and have lots of other complaints (not least of which is the current price when marched up with a decent keyboard). The idea that this price may rise substantially just seems to be absolutely the wrong priority. Make the OS amazing and then start tweaking things that are already really good.

Surely this can't be true. In my opinion, the iPad Pro is already far too expensive. Adding a keyboard and matching the 256GB you get with a MacBook is £1748 compared to £1149 MacBook Air. That's £600 more and that doesn't even include an Apple Pencil to take advantage of the touchscreen features. Add that and it's £1887. Nearly 2 grand! 

This is already in the crazy zone for a device that's still very limited by its software/OS. Most testers have struggled to use one as their main work machine. I would suggest Apple focuses on making iPad OS fit for purpose, rather than mincing about with the screen (which nobody seems to have much of a problem with).

Looking at tumbling Mac sales, one has to wonder if Apple really understands the current financial climate facing a very significant part of the world. They have, without doubt, developed their best-ever range of devices. Just about everything Apple offers now is best in class. But the prices are becoming insane. With the M series MacBooks they had the chance to finally get volume and move out of being an expensive niche choice. But as usual, they got greedy. The RAM and SSD pricing is crazy. I would love to see even smaller and cheaper M1 devices targeted at education to grow the installed user base. A smaller M1-based budget laptop to compete with the £500-£800 PCs. Get people onboard with Mac and they'll buy a proper one next time. This just seems so shortsighted.

Surely Apple should keep the M1 Mini as an entry-level machine? At £599/$599 it would be an excellent gateway product and an even cheaper version would be perfect for education. At £499 this would be a no-brainer for schools. 

After all, the M1 is would still be extremely competitive against similarly priced PCs. A modern-day LC/Performa type machine.

A range of slightly more expensive M2 Minis would scale seamlessly up to the Studio, which would scale up to the Pro, giving Apple something on the desktop for just about every sized pocket. When is the last time we could have said that? 

What a turnaround for the Mac. Tremendous stuff from Apple.