What product will Apple kill next?

Sad Professor

Apple seems to be in the middle of a Jobsian-like slashing of its product line.

External displays? No more.

Airport routers? Nope.

Sal Soghoian who headed up the Mac's automation tools was recently giving his walking papers as well, so this slashing extends to software as well.

What's next for the chopping block?

The Mac Pro seems likely, though it may be re-imaginaed as an iMac Pro.

The Mac Mini? I've been predicting its demise for years, so I'm not so sure. If it survives the current purge then it's probably good for the foreseeable future.

It's hard to believe but Apple still sell iPod Nanos, Touches and Shuffles, some of which haven't been updated since 2013. Fair to say they aren't long for this world. As an aside, I hate them all. The sixth gen iPod Classic was a beautiful device. Apple should have kept it and killed the rest.

ZENER

They've been doing it on the sly for a while now. Either killing or crippling apps.

The first to go was the ability to send SMS via Contacts. That was such a useful feature !!

Then iDVD went - iLife gone and now Aperture - Photos just doesn't cut it. I've had to change to Adobe Lightroom now and I don't like it.

I like the idea of an iMac Pro though ! That's something I'd be interested in.

Ken

Colonel Panic

What would an iMac Pro be? An overpriced, under specced Mac? So the existing Mac Pro but worse in an iMac enclosure?

Creamy Goodness

ZENER wrote: »

The first to go was the ability to send SMS via Contacts. That was such a useful feature !!

That's there, unless i'm missing something (contacts, pick a person, message button circular appears under contacts profile photo) running iOS 10.1.

Colonel Panic wrote: »

What would an iMac Pro be? An overpriced, under specced Mac? So the existing Mac Pro but worse in an iMac enclosure?

If it exists it'll be pro components like ECC ram and Xeon chips inside an all-in-one iMac like case.


I think the next to go will be the IPad Mini. I'd say the margins on them are the slimmest out of all the range.

I think Apple won't kill the Mac Pro line, They tried to get away with skipping an intel generation and it didn't work out for them badly. Flip side though if we don't see an update by June I'll officially say it's dead.

ZENER

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

That's there, unless i'm missing something (contacts, pick a person, message button circular appears under contacts profile photo) running iOS 10.1.

Wow ! It definitely vanished a few years ago ! Thanks for that.

Ken

evlgmaojr27ypu

Colonel Panic wrote: »

What would an iMac Pro be? An overpriced, under specced Mac? So the existing Mac Pro but worse in an iMac enclosure?

Don't forget that it will be limited to just 16GB as well

Sad Professor

ZENER wrote: »

Wow ! It definitely vanished a few years ago ! Thanks for that.

Ken

Pretty sure that's been there since Messages for Mac was launched. I assumed you were talking about the old send SMS via Bluetooth functionality, which I don't think even worked with iPhones. That's been gone since 10.6 at least.

Sad Professor

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

I think Apple won't kill the Mac Pro line, They tried to get away with skipping an intel generation and it didn't work out for them badly. Flip side though if we don't see an update by June I'll officially say it's dead.

No Apple display means they already have one foot out the door. Might as well put the Pro out of its misery. Their heart isn't in it.

Creamy Goodness

Just to add, the iPod range specifically the Touch is a super intro device to the iOS world it's a kid's (5-12) best present. The iPod nano/shuffle etc must still sell well enough I'd say the shuffle is down to about €5 to make and the nano maybe €10.

Sad Professor wrote: »

No Apple display means they already have one foot out the door. Might as well put the Pro out of its misery. Their heart isn't in it.

Hmm I doubt they would have partnered with LG if that's the case. I think they just want to get back to the quadrant of consumer/pro desktop/notebook. they are failing in the pro desktop though.

I think a lot of this steams from Jony Ive being bored, and the teams below him are just not arsed like he is. He's off designing christmas experiences in stores for crying out loud :pac:

Sad Professor

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

Hmm I doubt they would have partnered with LG if that's the case. I think they just want to get back to the quadrant of consumer/pro desktop/notebook. they are failing in the pro desktop though.

I think a lot of this steams from Jony Ive being bored, and the teams below him are just not arsed like he is. He's off designing christmas experiences in stores for crying out loud :pac:

The LG thing is different. It's an add-on for Apple notebooks, which most users won't need. But not having an Apple-branded display to go with your headless Apple-branded Pro computer suggests they aren't interested in any part of that market anymore. They are hardly going to have the LG sitting next to the Mac Pro in Apple Stores when they could have had an Apple display instead. It's an easy sale for that market.

And speaking of things with their foot out door, I doubt Ive will have an active role in the company for much longer. He doesn't want the CEO job. The gold watch thing was a failure. The car isn't happening. I don't think there's much left for him to do.

ZENER

Sad Professor wrote: »

Pretty sure that's been there since Messages for Mac was launched. I assumed you were talking about the old send SMS via Bluetooth functionality, which I don't think even worked with iPhones. That's been gone since 10.6 at least.

That's exactly what I was talking about but as I now have an iPhone I'm happy enough with this system. They've progressively crippled BlueTooth as the years passed. Before the iPhone arrived I could attach my old SonyErricson T610 to my machine and send coherent texts.

Those were the days

Ken

whippet

From my personal dealings with Apple at a corporate level it is crystal clear that Apple’s strategy from the top down is all about iOS, the iPhone and iPad … MacOS and it’s hardware are just a secondary thought.

All strategy and focus is on the mobile devices, borne out in the lack of innovation across the MacOS.

The MacPro has the same part number and spec from its release in early 2014 .. which is almost 3 years without a single update. The MacBook Pro range got a token update with a touch bar .. hardly innovative. The iMacs have just gotten skinnier with better screens over the last number of years, the MacBook Air is threading water and the MacBook 12” is just an expensive luxury.

Microsoft announcing the Surface Studio on the same day that Apple’s big announcement was a ‘touch bar’ on the MacBook Pro shows how little focus is going on the MacOS.

On the iOS stuff .. hardware innovation is minimal, the iPad Pro with a Pencil is a direct copy of the Surface Pro with the limitation of having a mobile OS rather than an proper OS for more or less the same price.

It’s depressing … and as a big apple fan over the years I have lost a lot of love for the range. I did flutter with the Surface Pro 4 and moved back to a 15” MacBook Pro .. mainly because I am invested in other parts of the Apple ecosystem and ultimately I don’t pay for my IT equipment. It was a close call between the SurfaceBook and the MacBook Pro and it was probably nostalgia which swayed the decision.

I don’t use a tablet anymore since getting the iPhone 6 .. no need for an ‘inbetween’ device .. so I really don’t care what they do with the iPad range.

Sad Professor

whippet wrote: »

All strategy and focus is on the mobile devices, borne out in the lack of innovation across the MacOS.

The MacPro has the same part number and spec from its release in early 2014 .. which is almost 3 years without a single update. The MacBook Pro range got a token update with a touch bar .. hardly innovative. The iMacs have just gotten skinnier with better screens over the last number of years, the MacBook Air is threading water and the MacBook 12” is just an expensive luxury.

Microsoft announcing the Surface Studio on the same day that Apple’s big announcement was a ‘touch bar’ on the MacBook Pro shows how little focus is going on the MacOS.

You mightn't like it, I'm not sure I do, but the MacBook Pro with Touch Bar is anything but a token update. A lot of work went into making the software work with it. The MacBook Pro was also redesigned and is considerably thinner and lighter than the previous model. You can't just hand wave all that and say Apple don't care about the Mac. If they didn't care about the Mac they would have slapped a faster processor in the old MBP model 6 months ago and called it a day. They didn't.

Apple not caring about the Pro market and Apple not caring about the Mac are two different things.

Creamy Goodness

Also Apple had pen input devices before Microsoft did in its newton range, first time Microsoft had support for pen was windows XP (after the newton) and the first time they actually shipped a product was 10 years later with the surface pen.

There's rarely any true innovation these days imo, even that surface drawing board, it's just two/three technologies that already existed brought together. Nothing is re-thought which is what Apple do best and can be showcased best in the original iPhone. When everyone was thinking about touch screen buttons, Apple thought of the whole screen as a button. As soon as that was released everyone was doing it, that's innovation.

It's more refinement now a days until the next truly innovative thing comes along, people think VR and Voice are that I'm yet to be convinced.

whippet

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

then everyone was thinking about touch screen buttons, Apple thought of the whole screen as a button. As soon as that was released everyone was doing it, that's innovation.

that was 10 years ago.

The reality is nothing ground breaking has really come out of Apple in years- and I am coming from this as a bit of a fanboy.

The only reason I went for a MacBook Pro over a Surface Book in the last couple of weeks was due to being tied to the ecosystem and nostalgia.

Creamy Goodness

can people really expect ground breaking stuff every year, 2 years, 5 years? That's unfeasible imo for any company, even Apple.

whippet

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

can people really expect ground breaking stuff every year, 2 years, 5 years? That's unfeasible imo for any company, even Apple.

I don't .. however, i'd expect it every decade or so .. especially from a leading technology company.

The reality is MacBook Pro has just evolved over the last 10 years from the original Intel based MBPs and Unibody models .. the touch bar has been the biggest innovation really .. and in my option isn't a great leap.

The MacBook Air is celebrating 8 years of the very same form factor and very little changes - actually just a doubling of standard RAM this year.

The MacPro is 3 year without any change what so ever

5rtytry56

My personal two cents: iPod Touch

iPod Shuffle & iPod Nano are still cool, but if you want a camera then at least be respectful enough to Apple so that you'll must buy an iPhone.

Creamy Goodness

whippet wrote: »

I don't .. however, i'd expect it every decade or so .. especially from a leading technology company.

The reality is MacBook Pro has just evolved over the last 10 years from the original Intel based MBPs and Unibody models .. the touch bar has been the biggest innovation really .. and in my option isn't a great leap.

The MacBook Air is celebrating 8 years of the very same form factor and very little changes - actually just a doubling of standard RAM this year.

The MacPro is 3 year without any change what so ever

I'd love a change from the unibody on the macbook pro, i think they look dated now.

The air, is still great, I'm using my 6 year air constantly and it still fills my needs.

The Mac Pro they done themselves no favours, bold new design, can't innovate anymore my ass and then no spec bumps for its entire lifetime.

problem is with all of the above it's all iteration not innovation

Sad Professor

For as long as I've been using Macs, evolution not revolution has been the name of the game. The iPhone was revolutionary, I suppose, and before that the first Macintosh. Nothing else, really. Evolutionary improvements is what Apple excel at IMO. Many of their attempts at revolutionary new products have fallen flat or taken a lot of work over many years to get to the point that they should have been at the start.

whippet

Sad Professor wrote: »

For as long as I've been using Macs, evolution not revolution has been the name of the game. The iPhone was revolutionary, I suppose, and before that the first Macintosh. Nothing else, really. Evolutionary improvements is what Apple excel at IMO. Many of their attempts at revolutionary new products have fallen flat or taken a lot of work over many years to get to the point that they should have been at the start.

evolution is fine over the medium term .. however when it comes to technology moments of exceptional innovation are also required.

To be fair, the likes of HP and Dell haven't done a whole pile of innovation around endpoints .. but Apple being a premium brand there should be a bit more to it,

I genuinely can't understand the lack of a touch screen notebook or iMac ... it is a relatively simple innovation but one that suits a lot of users .. personally i'd love it .. much easier way to review and consume what is on the screen. Just about all other vendors have it as standard or as an option. Imagine a touch screen iMac ..

I stand over my original point that Apple is all about iOS these days .. and that isn't just an opinion as a consumer; I have been engaged with Apple on a corporate level for the best part of two decades

Sad Professor

whippet wrote: »

evolution is fine over the medium term .. however when it comes to technology moments of exceptional innovation are also required.

To be fair, the likes of HP and Dell haven't done a whole pile of innovation around endpoints .. but Apple being a premium brand there should be a bit more to it,

I genuinely can't understand the lack of a touch screen notebook or iMac ... it is a relatively simple innovation but one that suits a lot of users .. personally i'd love it .. much easier way to review and consume what is on the screen. Just about all other vendors have it as standard or as an option. Imagine a touch screen iMac ..

Apple say they've tried touch screen Macs and it doesn't work. And looking at it from their perspective, I can understand why. Apple is still mainly a hardware company, so they want to differentiate the Mac from their touch-based devices rather than turn the Mac into a touch device. Given how gung-ho Jobs was about cannibalising existing products, I don't believe they are doing this out of sentimentality or desperation for a shrinking market, but because they think the Mac has a future. Nevertheless this future involves re-positioning the Mac away from Pro users who want power and upgradability and more towards consumers and prosumers who value things like design.

MS's approach makes sense from their POV as well. Their mobile business has failed but Windows is still going strong, so they naturally want to shoehorn Windows into touch devices. We'll see how that works out for them, but I think they are going to hit a brick wall eventually while Apple's slower approach to evolving the iPad into a PC alternative while simultaneously streamlining their Mac hardware will pay off.

Colonel Panic

I just wish Apple competed when it game to system specs again. I'm happy to pay the Apple premium for a computer that's more powerful while still being portable. And if it has a touch bar thing as well, so be it.

5rtytry56

iPod Nano: iPod Shuffle is the real "mini" apple device.

Why do you need a screen? Tbh not much of a screen anyway on the nano.

McGrath5

Well Apple has officially discontinued the AirPort router lineup, so thats another one to tick of the list.