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Is funny. I dont know why people are crying over it. This is really like iMac 4K all over again. 
There is no Kaby Lake with Quad Core, you could argue Apple could have launch this earlier, but as many stated it is likely delayed by Touch Bar.
Kabylake Dual Core has issues with HDMI 2.0 and HDCP2.2 which will be fixed into later batch, along side with Quad core Kaby Lake.

There are people pointing out that a similar spec system on System78 with Ubuntu cost only $1800, compared to $2400 of Macbook Pro 15"!

These, exactly these, are the people who dont understand Apple in the first place. And likely be the people who will switch over to other Android. They just DONT care about the details!.

The $1800 doesn't come with Retina, or HiRes Display. And this is not ordinary HiRes, it is calibrated, DCI-P3, IGZO Display with 500nit brightness. You will properly have to add additional $150 to get this. 

The SSD is way faster, Apple have the fastest SSD in any laptop, Read 3.1GB/s and Write 2.2/GBs compared to Read: 2.2GB/S Write 1.1GB/S , not to mention the quality selection of NAND. You will properly have to add additional $100 to get this.

The 4 Port Thunderbolt 3. Four !! This is 2 Alpine Ridge Chip. They aren't cheap. At least a $50 dollar option.

This is total of $2100 already. You also get a much better trackpad, touch bar and touch ID. MUCH lighter and thinner design. And along with MacOSX.

Apple has never had a cheap machine. You are always expected to pay a premium even if it only had a Apple logo on it. But if you do factor in everything. It is just the usual Apple. 

Is it expensive? Heck of coz it is,  Will you get 32GB Ram if Apple had Kaby Lake? Sorry no. Apple decided thinness, and compact, battery life is more important then the possible extra 16GB of Ram which only less then 5% of buyers cares about. 

Apple will move to LPDDR4 later when they update to 10nm Intel Cannonlake. Which will allow 32GB Ram at same energy usage. Which is in late 2017. You *may* likely get TSMC 10nm GPU from AMD. So again I think Apple's design is very forward thinking.

I dont think Apple's 30% cut on subscription content is ever going to work. It worked on the App economy because it basically invented that economy, (Yes before you shout Apple didn't invent App and App Store, you cant argue it was Apple that put the whole ecosystem together along with money within it.)

For Subscription there just isn't a 30% margin. Apple could only get through this by introducing their own Music / TV Subscription, which pass those 30% cut back to themselves. Their competitor will never be able to win.

I have been thinking if Apple should provide the streaming bandwidth for any video subscription on its platform . It doesn't mean they should have their own network infrastructure, they could rent from others, but this way Apple gets to ensure the quality of these services. And Apple will win with the scale they are buying those bandwidth. It makes that 30% cut easier to bite.

I hope I am wrong. But next year seems to be a Big Jump of tech for every apple product. APFS will likely officially ship in next year macOS update. Which means next year not only we will get 10nm Cannonlake for Notebook, but also likely full lineup using SSD ( Finally! ) It baffles me why Computer shipping in late 2016 would still have HDD as bootdrive.

A new iPhone design, new Apple Watch design, likely new iPad Pro in early 2017.

I wanted to buy a new Mac, but the "value" proposition for Mac is getting lower everyday, especially in the notebook segment. ( The Retina iMac offers surprising good value if you are into 4K / 5K screen )

rogifan_new said:

Of course he loves Eddy Cue. Eddy got Tim to overpay for a crappy headphone company with a streaming music service that had hardly any subscribers. I hated Iovine when he was on American Idol and I still hate him now.

Partly true. And Below is going to be My massive Rant.

I DONT LIKE Iovine. He may be good within the Music Industry, he may be good music producer, he may have his Music industry connection or what ever. BUT THAT IS IT. I try to like him. I tried, every single interview, i have to reread, relisten everything. And All he did was RANT about how crap quality of Apple's earphone ( Which is properly some of the best earphone that comes with a smartphone for FREE), how Beats headphone is great ( It is ABSOLUTE CRAP ), and how important it is about "the next song".

If the Apple Music version 1 was utter ( Failure ) Beta / Alpha quality I point my finger at him. Why? Because I feel the whole UI was purposely made for "Next Song".  For discovery of New Music, of discovery what "that next song" should be. In Reality most music listeners dont. The UI is simply not made for these people. I argue KKBOX in Asia and Spotify has much better UI. iOS 10 Apple Music was basically an admission to defeat.

So how did Iovine got to Apple. Well every Interview with him he ALWAYS bring up his Steve Jobs card, BUT i dont think Steve EVER give a shit about his ideas, at least his idea about the Next Songs. That is why Iovine got no where in Steve's era.