21yr_mac_user

macxpress said:

Now that most (if not all) carriers have dropped 2yr plans I think a lot more people down the road could upgrade whenever they want versus before they could only upgrade every 2yrs unless they wanted to pay for the full price of the phone which some did. Thats being said, perhaps Apple could benefit from this in the future. 

I think this is a key point at least for US sales - however I think it will have the reverse effect - e.g. I used to upgrade every 2 years on AT&T because to wait an extra year would be silly because you are paying for the phone anyways. Now that I'm on T-mobile and have to pay for my phone - I will wait as long as possible to upgrade - and the 6 and 6s+ that my family has are fast enough, and there are no must have features coming down the pike. In fact losing the headphone jack is a downgrade and my 6s+ I really don't like force touch - so I won't upgrade until I really have to. I suspect many others in the US are in the same boat - my prediction is 7/7+ sales numbers from here on out - no more "super cycles" - big phones were a one time thing.

One related thing that has bugged me ever since I got an iPhone is the inability to lock in landscape orientation. Whenever I'm lying down the damn thing is always rotating and on many apps I want to be in landscape. Is there a workaround I'm missing or has Apple just been clueless all these years on basic functionalilty?

ChrisMarshall3D said:

With no meaningful upgrade to the desktop or workstation Mac lineup, this news is hardly a surprise. As a Motion Graphic company looking to reinvest in new kit that traditionally would've been Macs without even thinking about it, we're now looking at Windows. Apple clearly are targeting the consumer market now, not the professional. I really can't run my high-end applications from a laptop, I need good workstations with a guarantee of future commitment from Apple.

Amen, I still use my aging 8 core mac pro (with many upgrades like graphics card, usb 3, 1 TB PCI SSD, new bluetooth chipset), but instead of the planned mac upgrade, I bought a top of the line CPU $1400 PC workstation - that is latest 1TB SSD NVMe 3.5 GB/s read 1.9 GB/s write - boots win10 in a second. Believe me I would have spent $2k for an equivalent mac but they don't exist. A worse aging new mac pro is closer to 5-7k, and who knows how long it will be supported (or if will even exist in 3 years!) and it's not upgradable. Apple is not just loosing the pro market, they are doing everything in their power to make it flee! After 30 years of fighting for every scrap of the desktop market just to give it up? I don't understand what the bean counters in Cupertino are thinking!

jido said:

In which country was WebOS hailed as a sure success? Did not see that at all. Now I should not say that DanielEran is rewriting history in this forum. 

People sure have a bad memory. WebOS was awesome and a great iOS competition that Palm bet the farm on. What Palm didn't know is that Google would steal and give away a good enough OS that completely undercut it. Palm went under quickly and had to sell. If Google hadn't been so immoral, I have no doubt it would be iOS and Palm in the phone market today.

MacPro said:

21yr_mac_user said:

How about mentioning that baseline apple software of late seems buggier then ever. Do they even test the non standard modes at apple at all? Disabling cache is not that uncommon, I think some blame at apple's software quality control is in order - pony up 500 million and hire more testers, it's a rounding error in a stock buyback for them. 

You seem to be pretty negative in your posts, why is that?  By the way, as a 33yr mac user I've long since learned underscores are not needed in a Mac OS for long names, are you using Windows XP by any chance?  

Umm This account name is old and all user names don't have spaces with the old comment system (don't know about this current comment system).


As for negativity - I have had Macs forever because they were heads and tails better then the PCs (Win 95-XP), and the associated crappy hardware. I want apple to stay ahead and lead, and some constructive criticism at this point I think is required to keep them honest through the Cook era (however long it lasts - hopefully short!).

It's just a fact - compare Apple's 2008 product line price/performance vs PCs to 2017 product line price/performance vs PCs and other phone vendors.

In 2008 I bought a 8 core mac pro for $2689. I also bought a MacBook (subsequently renamed MacBook Pro) maxed out 2.4 Ghz for $1692
Not to mention the first iPad on the first day 4/3/2010 for $499

Fast forward to now: 
If I want a top of the line 8 core Skylake or Kaby Lake processor for a Mac Pro - it doesn't exist. If I get the 3 year old version 8 core it is $5499 for an non upgradable 256 GB SSD. So I really have to get a 1TB SSD, which is $6099 !!!! Thats an extra $3410 not to mention I need an extra thunderbolt 2 storage - at $1599 - so now It's $7698 to get the same thing! $5k more! Computers are cheaper now then 9 years ago. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see something is WAY WAY wrong with the apple of 2017 vs 2008. The real cost for a skylake one should be $2000 tops since you have to buy half the computer as add ones, for 3 year old technology should be $1300.

The Macbook is similar but again a maxed out 13" MacBook pro is now $1999 vs $1692 in 2008, it should be cheaper - PCs are cheaper now vs 2008. The real cost should be no more then $1300 in 2017 for this MacBook Pro.

The Second Gen Macbook Airs were reasonably priced at $799/$999 and sold like hot cakes. They had lots of ports were small and were great computers. I have the replacement - the new Macbook - great (but slower) computer but at $1299/$1599 ? And only one port? I now have a laptop bag of dongles I am always misplacing and need the USB dongle almost every time I use it. And I like most I really don't like the new keyboard - but live with it.

If we the Apple faithful don't keep Apple honest - who is? I am just comparing Apple to Apple and it is not the same company. We have the right to call a spade a spade and not get belittled for it.

As a post mortum, my VMware was running too slowly  on my 8 core mac pro so instead of buying a new Mac I bought a Dell small form factor desktop - precision T3420, i7 skylake 16GB RAM latest Nvidia graphics card for - wait for it - $680. I put in the fasted SSD available 1TB Samsung SM961 NVMe for $600. It boots win10 in 1 second - no joke. I still use my mac as my daily driver, but if Apple doesn't come to it's senses I will not replace this loaded mac pro. Money does not grow on trees and I would rather have a nice family trip to Hawaii ($5k) then make Tim Cook more cash he can waste with buybacks (Steve would never waste cash on buy backs!)

Apple faithful aren't blind sheep - we supported apple because they have a better products and overall value. Our future support must be earned not taken for granted.