sumergo

avon b7 said:

adonissmu said:

sumergo said:

zoetmb said:

slurpy said:

Awesome move by Apple. This SHOULD shut up most of the complaints, but of course it won't. 

It's not like Apple is selling $500 laptops.   There's two ways to look at this:  

Apple has lost it's way regarding usability - criticism is warranted.

Ive may or may not be a good industrial designer but he clearly doesn't know much about the main concepts of usability - the "look, feel & flow" of a hardware/software product.  We get the "look": but the "feel & flow"? - any sense of how it actually feels to use the product effectively day by day is missing from the designs.  As zoetmb notes, Apple doesn't appear to use the devices they produce any more.  We certainly don't see any pix of MBPs with cascades of dongles cluttering the user's desk.

It's not just my view - here are comments from a couple of the world's top UI/UX/Interaction designers who worked with Apple to create it's original world-class usability experience.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-design-a-bad-name

Apple isn't losing anything accept for a sale or two initially. Apple has done this move before....and repeatedly. Apple is willing to stand on principle and moving the tech world forward over the hollering and griping of their users. They are doing standard Apple stuff. 

It took Fireman Phil just six days to organize an interview just send out a message to the users. Now they are cutting dongle prices (temporarily). The internet is ignoring most of the good in these macs because the bad outshines it. There are no end of parody videos popping up everywhere. What is strange is that a huge part of the criticism is coming from Apple's own users. Design changes and decisions aside, the biggest problem is that MANY users feel these macs are enormously overpriced or simply out of reach.

Apple will try to ride the storm but this time I think they won't be able to stand on principle.  With only the iPhone 7 and the new MBPs here in time for Christmas and the rest of the line without a refresh but also overpriced and out of date, earnings could be impacted. Stormy weather might be just around the corner.

flaneur said:

zoetmb said:

slurpy said:

Awesome move by Apple. This SHOULD shut up most of the complaints, but of course it won't. 

It's not like Apple is selling $500 laptops.   There's two ways to look at this:  

The first is that if someone is buying a laptop that starts at $2400, they should't be complaining about having to buy some adapters, even if they're overpriced and that if you're a pro, technology advances and the investment is the price of doing business.  

The other way to look at it is that if someone is spending between $2400 and $4300 (for the MBP with all options except for application software and AppleCare), Apple shouldn't have cheaped out and they should have provided 2 to 4 adapters in the box of the customer's choosing.   The price of four adapters/cables is as much as a cheap PC.   

And then my cost of ownership goes up because I can't replace the battery, expand memory or replace the SSD myself.   Or, if I Iive with a 256GB SSD, I've got to get a ton of external storage for pro-level photos and video and live with the hassle of not having every file with me when I'm out of the home/office.  

This is another example of Apple labeling something "pro" and then not understanding the workflow of their pro customers.   They did that with FinalCutPro and they did it when they moved away from the tower configuration of the MacPro.  

Every time Apple switches ports, they tell the market how their new choices are the greatest and how they want both manufacturers and consumers to commit to that port.  Then after a few years, they change their minds and they move on to something else.   Did they really need to drop Mag-safe?  What about all the people who bought extra power supplies to keep at home/office, etc.?   HDMI is ubiquitous on TVs and receivers and the cables have become inexpensive, but now I've got to buy an adapter that costs ten times what the cable cost?

What was Apple's rationale for going solely to USB-C?   Was it because they truly think this port is the future and that the accessory market will fully move to that port and that it provides technological advantages?   Or was it really because of Ive's anal-obsessiveness over thinness and not wanting to look at different sized/shaped ports on the side of the machine?   What drives me crazy is that Apple wants the machine to have this superior industrial design so that it looks great in photos and in ads, but they have no problem with users having to stick a bunch of dongles and adapters on the thing.   It's the same with the iPhone and the obsession with thinness, but then we have to put it in a case because it can't survive a fall.   So few are really seeing and feeling the thinness anyway.  Sometimes I think people at Apple don't actually use the products they produce in the real world. 

So, IMO, criticism is warranted.   If Apple wants my money, they're going to have to do a bit better.   I hate using PCs at work, but I'm not spending $4K to $5K on my next computer and I don't want to feel like I have less than what I have today.  So as much as I hate Windows, my next laptop might actually be a Windows machine.  And I've been an Apple customer for 35 years. 

Actually I think it's you and other dongle-phobes who are the anal-obsessives. 

There is so much pure, sculpted techno eroticism in the new form factor that you'd have to be a puritanical ass-wipe to give a second's thought to how it looks with an adapter or two plugged into it.

I can't believe the pettiness of you people. The new MBP is the culmination of five years of foresighted development, if you include —as you must — the investments they were jumping on in IGZO development going that far back to Japan, no less, where the tech was developed. 

Same with the keyboard. If Swiss watchmakers made keyboard switches, they would maybe be like this. Probably another five years in the making. And the aluminum machining — try to find a wonky tenth of a millimeter of misfit. How long have they been developing that? And the asymmetric fans, and so on.

Go get yourself a Windows machine. You may not deserve to handle one of these unless you come around. Meanwhile, millions are going to get limitless pleasure out of picking theirs up to pack it at the end of the day as they gladly take care to pack its adapters in the case with it. 

Edit: you know why there's no USB A? It's too big, that's why. It's as obsolete as the headphone jack is on the iPhone. If you want them to make the base thicker just to accommodate that port, you're disqualified as an Apple observer.

zoetmb said:

slurpy said:

Awesome move by Apple. This SHOULD shut up most of the complaints, but of course it won't. 

It's not like Apple is selling $500 laptops.   There's two ways to look at this: