sirozha

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sirozha
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  • New 13" MacBook Pro w/o Touch Bar keeps pace with higher clocked 2015 Retina model

    To address the "ridiculous price" claim that some are making, I think it may be wise to also consider what is the "value added" to a device like this when Apple introduces an entirely new input technology - the Touch Bar.  The jury is out on this because we won't really know until more and more people start using this as a 3rd method of input  alongside the best-in-class, multi-touch trackpad and the classic keyboard. If, however, use of this new input method enhances productivity by better enabling human-machine interaction in an ergonomic manner, then the extra several hundreds will be money well-spent when you consider the multi-year lifetime of a solidly designed product like this. Do not underestimate the engineers at Apple and the care and thought that has likely gone on for several years in order to bring a possible game-changer technology to market. 
    I agree that the Touch Bar puts these MacBook Pros in the completely new category, and that there's nothing out there to compare them to from Apple's competitors. However, my beef is with the fact that there are no reasonably priced MacBook Pros released this time. Even the only hardware version of the Late 2016 MacBook Pro without the Touch Bar and Touch ID sensor is priced too high. When equipped with higher capacity SSD, higher amount of RAM, and higher speed CPU, its price goes well above $2000. Keep in mind it's a 13" laptop with a dual core CPU, which requires a bunch of dongles (costing another couple hundred dollars collectively) to connect any non-USB-C device to it.

    i don't see Apple luring any new users with these prices. As for the existing users, it seems a significant percentage will sit out this cycle of MacBooks by continuing to use their older Macs or buying the previous generation Macs. Some long-term Apple users are so mad that they are saying their next laptop will be a Windows one. Is it worth it to cause such a commotion in the user base by trying to please Wall Street and raise profit margins? Apple thinks so. I disagree. 
    mainyehc
  • New 13" MacBook Pro w/o Touch Bar keeps pace with higher clocked 2015 Retina model

    sirozha said:
    sflocal said:
    sirozha said:
    As it stands now, not a single MacBook Pro released today is priced within reason for the majority of Apple customers...

    I'll take a moment to assume that you're simply not trying to pass off complete bullshit as fact and simply ask how you came to the conclusion that this new laptops are priced too high more the majority of Apple customers.  Did you interview customers?  Focus groups?

    Waiting....
    That was my opinion. I also saw the reaction on many forums (respectable ones) by folks who have been Apple customers for decades. I don't need to do a poll to have an opinion. 

    Money is no object for me personally. I think these prices are insulting - the same way that a $600 link bracelet for Apple Watch is insulting. When Apple prices some of their products like that while still having reasonably priced choices, I shake my head and chalk it up to a small number of crazy people who are willing to pay this sort of prices. In this case, however, there are no reasonably priced options. Apple probably doesn't really care about maintaining the Mac market share. All they care about now is maintaining or increasing the profit margins. For the first time in over a decade, I have no desire to watch the event. I think this was a really bad decision - from both the design and the pricing perspective. I'm not speaking as a consumer here as much as I'm speaking as a shareholder. 
    "All they care about now is maintaining or increasing the profit margins."

    In light of what is going in the PC / Mac industry, you're probably right


    And by the way, profit margins do not directly translate to profit. Apple may lose a significant chunk in profits by shrinking the Mac market share due to these ridiculous prices, but they may boost their profit margins, and Wall Street may reward them for it. Profit margins seem to be more important to Wall Street than profits. 
    mainyehc
  • New 13" MacBook Pro w/o Touch Bar keeps pace with higher clocked 2015 Retina model

    sflocal said:
    sirozha said:
    As it stands now, not a single MacBook Pro released today is priced within reason for the majority of Apple customers...

    I'll take a moment to assume that you're simply not trying to pass off complete bullshit as fact and simply ask how you came to the conclusion that this new laptops are priced too high more the majority of Apple customers.  Did you interview customers?  Focus groups?

    Waiting....
    That was my opinion. I also saw the reaction on many forums (respectable ones) by folks who have been Apple customers for decades. I don't need to do a poll to have an opinion, but if you want to see a poll, go to 9to5mac and see for yourself. You can even cast your own vote there. 

    Money is no object for me personally. I think these prices are insulting - the same way that a $600 link bracelet for Apple Watch is insulting. When Apple prices some of their products like that while still having reasonably priced choices, I shake my head and chalk it up to a small number of crazy people who are willing to pay this sort of prices. In this case, however, there are no reasonably priced options. Apple probably doesn't really care about maintaining the Mac market share. All they care about now is maintaining or increasing the profit margins. For the first time in over a decade, I have no desire to watch the event. I think this was a really bad decision - from both the design and the pricing perspective. I'm not speaking as a consumer here as much as I'm speaking as a shareholder. 
    mainyehcalphafox
  • New 13" MacBook Pro w/o Touch Bar keeps pace with higher clocked 2015 Retina model

    sirozha said:
    As it stands now, not a single MacBook Pro released today is priced within reason for the majority of Apple customers.
    How do you know that?
    Because I have been one for many years. I can easily afford any of the new MacBook Pro, but I'm in the upper 5% of earners in the US. Even though none of the newly released MacBook Pros would make a noticeable dent in my budget, I will not be buying any model released today if they stay at the current price points. Apple has insulted their consumer base with these prices and the asinine design decisions that prevent the newly released iPhone 7 from being able to connect to the newly released MacBook Pro without an additional dongle, which Apple was too cheap to include with the MacBook pros.

    I'm extremely upset about what Apple did today as a shareholder with a very sizeable AAPL portfolio (very sizable indeed). They will lose the notebook market share by a large percentage because of the bad decisions that they made with this MacBook Pro release. 
    aylkalphafox
  • New 13" MacBook Pro w/o Touch Bar keeps pace with higher clocked 2015 Retina model

    It makes no sense that the Magicless 13" MacBook Pro released today - when upgraded to the 2.4 GHz CPU - costs the same as the Magicful 13" MacBook Pro, which comes with the 2.9 GHz CPU, Touch Bar, and Touch ID sensor. It looks as though Apple had made a mistake and priced the Magicless 13" MacBook Pro a few hundred dollars too high. 

    Because the Magicless 13" MacBook Pro comes with a much slower CPU than the Magicful 13" MacBook Pro, and the Magicless MacBook Pro lacks the Touch bar as well as the Touch ID sensor, it should have been priced at $1099 (or $1199 at the most). This could have been the machine that - when upgraded to a higher CPU speed, to 512 GB of SSD and to 16 GB of RAM - could still be had for under $1899. This would still be very expensive for a dual-core laptop but somewhat manageable. As it stands now, not a single MacBook Pro released today is priced within reason for the majority of Apple customers. Perhaps, the Apple executives make way too much money that they have lost all remaining sense of reality at this point. 
    jahaja1983irelandalphafoxperkedel