Apple 2011 - Coasting...

Looking at the information on the newly released MBPs and rumors of the iPad 2 being more like a 1.5 incremental update it looks like the real 'new' releases from apple won't come until 2012 when the MBPs get a new alloy case and the iPad gets its retna display among other things for both lines.

So on the bright side, apple has their product pipeline figured out for th next year plus which is good with Jobs Leave of Absence and all, but i wouldn't count on anything groundbreaking coming out of apple this year.

 

seems like it... the MBPs are very underwhelming.... hopefully the iPad 2 will be something, but I have my doubts... its probably the same thing with a faster processor, and camera.

 

The iPad 2 will just be more tablet friendly UI enhancments, maybe a faster processor, and cameras. I'm not surprised by the MBPs. Apple has no need to offer a new generation yet. Once Lion comes out then they will continue there trend of merging OS X and iOS and they will make the MBPs more iPad and Air like e.g. lighter, thinner, more battery life, bigger touchpad to be more finger friendly and higher-res retina display-like screens.

 

Apple is making money hand over fist with their current strategy of incremental improvements (or changes) with their current platform. If revenues falter, they can always go with more radical design changes. In seeking to maximize profits, you just bring out your best stuff when you have to.

As far as hardware platforms go, I really like the Sony Vaio Z. 13 inches, 1920x1080, Core i7, SSD soldered onto the motherboard, etc., etc. The downsides are crappy battery life but it only weighs 3 pounds with a carbon fiber case. I'd much rather have Mac OS X over Windows 7 too. If Sony can do this, then Apple could certainly make a 3 pound laptop that packs more of a performance punch than the current MacBook Air models.

 

Yep, their market share continues to climb, so they will milk it as long as they can, only releasing something truely new when things start to lag a bit.

That said though, this release is a bit of a wash for me, with my video and performance needs the MBP just doesnt give me anything, maybe at the very top end but even that can be beaten handily by the competition. Theres only so much i'll pay for macs ease of use or tolerate in design over usability because it looks cool.

Now the rumored models with angled alloy cases, dedicated os 8-16gb ssds, 1080p screens on the 15" and an nvidia 550m with optimus or 555m with optimius in the 17" with a 1920x1200 screen. I would be in line to buy.

Just as with that cool lil vaio Z these machines are not beyond apples capablities, but why do state of the art when you can milk things another year or more. I see why they do it, just nothing in it for me.

 

I know... It looks like I'll be waiting for the next MBA 13" refresh and get that. I just hope it comes out this summer, in time for Lion to be pre-installed on it.

 

So there's a chance these models(specifically 17 inch) with the above specs could still arrive?

 

nope, not a chance, next year possibly

 

not until they update the machines again. 6 months minimum before an update, possibly a year.

 

The rumors of the iPad 2 have been all over the place and Apple has been known to make some last minute changes for various reasons. I knew that a high resolution display simply wasn't going to happen as the hardware isn't there to drive it. Just look at the Tegra 2 platform (I imagine the Apple "A5" chip will be similar), it is pushing out 1280X600 and it really is incapable of providing smooth performance with the "retina display" resolution that would be required of the iPad 2.

As for the MacBook Pro updates, I didn't think they were disappointing at all. I think the problem is that people have set their expectations way too high. They want a 2938374X394578934 display for the iPad 2, a 2.8GHz Core i7 with 16GB of RAM and 256GB SSD on the 17" MacBook Pro for $1500, and they want something that will make them breakfast in the morning.

Apple is sticking with their usual path and people had hyped their upcoming updates to be life changers. Well, they aren't. The iPad 2 will offer an upgrade to match other tablets both in performance and features. The MacBook Pro lines were similarly updated. Nothing mind blowing and there wasn't any indication from Apple that their updates were going to be anything but normal.

 

no.. just want something priced decently compared to the competition. The little niceties of Apple's machines are getting more and more expensive all the time. And they need to stop releasing machines that have aspects to them that are a downgrade of the previous selling machines, which is what they've done on a 2 of the models.

 

Performance and value per dollar is what drove me to buy an alienware m17x r3. $1700 gets you better hardware than 2500. I do miss osx and am contemplating selling m17x r3 and switching back, but I would have never considered switching if apple were more competitive on specs and price.

 

Seems they put more into their designs and then carry it over for a 3 year or so.

They also churn/burn through less models overall but I tend to think of th at as a good thing.

I've gone with the latest and greatest Asus laptop the last 3x (W3J, G71G-A2, G71G-Q) and they all were sent back within the first year for progressive and then catastrophic failure.

I wanted the full refresh (like the stock SSD for the OS mmmm) but may still pick up a 2011 since I've ben wanting to buy some "Mac Only" Apogee hardware for a while.