When will you be getting a new Macbook (Pro)?

I've noticed that many of my Mac owning friends tend to replace their laptops much more quickly than owners of say, Dells or Toshibas do, and I'm wondering if there's some sort of trend here, so I have 3 questions:

1) When did you get your Mac?
2) What did it replace?
3) When will you be replacing it?

 

1) When did you get your Mac?
- August\September 2008

2) What did it replace?
- A Macbook Pro from August 2007

3) When will you be replacing it?
- When Quad Core processors are put into the Macbook Pro lineup

 

1) September 2007
2) A desktop PC I built.
3) In a couple weeks.

 

I've gone through this quite a few times and here's what I did and I've never lost money. I did it because I've always appreciated new(er) designs and what new stuff Apple put in their new models.

Buy as soon as new models are announced; either buy the new model or the just-became-refreshed model discounted (sometimes heavily). The only time Apple themselves give resellers heavy discounts is to clear stocks when new models are announced; make use of this.

Sell just before the anticipated refresh announcement occurs. This can be tough to pin point but if you keep up on rumours and trends you'll get pretty close.

And one piece of advice; always buy AppleCare (not from Apple directly) as this makes selling your MBP infinitely easier and faster.

 

June 2009

MBP 2.5 Alubook

Once they release a Quad core & better GPU for gaming

I replace my laptop every 1-2 yrs.

 

So there is a trend

That being said, what makes Mac users upgrade so much more often than a PC user? Most PC users tend to keep a laptop for 3-4 years, while Mac users can rarely stand using the same laptop for more than 2 years. Is it the way Apple makes incremental improvements irresistible? Or do Mac users typically expect a lot more out of their hardware than PC users do?

Also, I noticed that some posters mentioned quad-core processors as a reason to upgrade... Given how it's pretty much a certainty that hell will freeze over before Steve Jobs allows the current high-TDP Clarksfield processors to go inside a Macbook Pro, would you guys consider hyperthreaded dual-core Arrandale processors to be "quad-core enough" for an upgrade?

 

I am a PC user and I upgrade about once a year. I mostly know PC users and they don't even keep their laptops a year so I completely disagree with your statement.

The two Mac owner friends of mine have had their Apple stuff over 2 years already.

So to me it seems PC users upgrade more often.

 

It would depend on how similar the benchmarks were with the current Mac Pro's quad processors and the cutting point if the next refresh did not have quad cores would be the GPU they will be adding to it. I'd sacrifice CPU shortcomings if they maximized what GPU they used. Although for the next refresh I'm not really counting on either.... but I'll see

 

Oh and secondly I have been thinking about going back to a Macbook Air, the first Rev A was crap and my wife currently uses the one I had purchased. The reason I despise that model was due to the core shutdowns but I've heard the later Revisions do NOT have that problem and if it is true I may want to go back to using that machine especially since prices are a lot better then when I bought my original.

But till I truly decide that it's between MBA no core problems \ Quad Core MBP's.... I know they are on opposite sides in terms of what either can do but I have uses for both.

 

Whether buying Mac or Windows based PC, I always upgrade when there is something I want to use my laptop for that requires hardware I currently don't have. Of course, the MBP was an anomaly to that theory...what drew me in there was the stellar design of the unibody aluminum. If that option would have been available in a Windows based PC, I probably wouldn't have tried the MBP. I still haven't seen a Windows based laptop design that competes with the unibody design...

 

I think Apple users can afford to upgrade more often. Not because they make more money than other people, but because Apples have ridiculous resale values, so that getting a new notebook isn't too big of an investment.

 

Exactly. I was just going to post the same thing. It's actually cheaper if you're a frequent upgrader (is that a word?) with a Mac than doing it with PCs. I used to lose quite a bit every time I sold an HP or a Dell but, like I said in my earlier post, never lost any money selling my MBPs. There's a very strong secondhand market for macs, especially those that still carry an AppleCare, that I've never seen anything like it with anything else.

But I think going forward the more people know about Apple's refurbs, which are superb, the more it might hurt individual sellers' bottom line; essentially that's what we're competing with even though Apple's refurb section is quite limited at times. Thankfully that hasn't happened yet.

 

I just briefly browsed the refurbished section. Macbook Airs seem to have huge discounts, but Macbooks and Macbook Pros aren't a lot cheaper than what I can get a new Mac for with the student discount. The typical discount on a (white) Macbook was about $150 whereas a Macbook Pro was about $200-$250 off.

And if we include the ebay value of the free back-to-school season iPod Touch, getting a new Mac would be much cheaper than getting a refurb...

 

The HP Envy is literally a carbon copy of the unibody MBP... When I first saw the pictures, I thought they were fakes made in Photoshop

 

You should have seen the packaging.

The Envys are very expensive too, way over priced IMO (I tried customizing a couple earlier today - WOW) but I'm guessing once the shine rubs off HP will be heavily dropping the price on them, probably in the next two months, otherwise the Envy will be another Adamo. And the trackpad is getting hammered in early reviews. But you gotta give HP props for trying so hard.

 

I am on my third laptop in 7 years.

The first was a Toshiba laptop when I was 14.
Next was a compaq when I was almost 18.
Next was my current MBP 13" a few months ago.

I decided when I bought it I would eventually buy applecare (got a year to do it in), and sell the laptop in the spring/summer of 2011 before a refresh and get a new laptop then (if apple is still doing the ipod deals and a decent priced 13").

All of my old pc laptops still work fine, it was just a matter of being able to afford a new laptop (since macs keep a resale value, it should help speed it up for me).

My desktop has been on a two year CPU/mobo/RAM life cycle for 8 years now, 1 year GPU life cycle. I want to get the laptop in sorta sync with that.

 

Just ordered a new 15" and 13" an hour ago.... I refresh and replace often but needed a couple spares for work. Should be here in a couple days

When did I get my mac ... First one May or June of 86
What did it replace, ... An old Olivetti AT

 

When purchased: Feb 2008
What replaced: Compaq Presario r3000z, purchased in 2004
When will I replace it: hard to tell - it's a wonderful machine that I can see using for the next five years. Of course if there's a compelling reason like Nehalem Quad-Core + Larrabee + USB 3.0 Wireless, I could be easily persuaded to drop $3K on a new machine.

 

But does the MBP have a quad core i7,6GB DDr3 ram,a dedicated gfx card with 1080P screen,500GB hdd,and a removable battery with a add on one for a 9 hour run time,or even a right clicker out of the box?
Not slamming the macbooks,you just cant say a Envy isnt overpriced because they dont have enough to sell yet,its new,parts in it are expensive.

 

Will Intel's Larabee really be that good compared to other moblie graphics?

 

but they have a really nice gpu in the 15 inch

 

> Will Intel's Larabee really be that good compared to other moblie graphics?

I'm a developer. I want to play with the platform.

 

In all fairness, maybe overpriced wasn't the right word. There's no doubt the Envy is still pretty expensive. Some of the components in the Envy (specifically the i7) have just become available. Apple's last refresh of the MBP was 4 months ago, when the i7 desktop version was barely available mainstream, let alone the mobile version.

There'll always be times in the year where product cycles from different manufacturers fall in such a way as to give an edge to some over others, namely timing. I guarantee you at the next MBP refresh, things will be different. I hope HP does well with the Envy but I fear they've priced themselves out of many people's budgets.

 

Is the thinking it will be Q1 2010?

 

Who knows. Apple's thrown a wrench into just about every speculation. They tend to keep things pretty tight. If I was to guess, it could be as early as December.

 

Ah crap....I want to finally go Apple but I typically buy early or mid life cycle.

 

Midlife cycle is just about now or even a month ago (depending on who's prediction you're reading).

 

I don't know why I typed that....if I really think about when I buy it is when I can afford it.

 

You must have affluent friends

Most of the PC users I know, including the technically-adept ones, use their computers for minimum 2-3 years before replacing their machine (many still use Core Duo machines, some are using Santa Rosa machines and are planning to stick with them for quite some time, as are the more recent Montevina laptop users). I do know one PC user who went on a netbook buying spree though...

In contrast, the few Mac users I know have upgraded their Macs nearly every refresh - most are using either the new later-2008 or 2009 MBPs or the white Macbooks, with only one still using a non-unibody MBP.

I think the trend is quite valid, as supported by this recent study. Apple users tend to have more computers than PC users.

 

Interesting article.

I still stand by my statement that I disagree with his statement since what I experience is different.

Introduce me to your friends and it will throw my numbers askew!

 

Just to add... although it's only me in terms of an additional 1 count to your surveyed group but:

In early 07 I bought a White Macbook
Mid 07 (summer) I bought a MBP
Early 08 I bought Rev A MBA
Mid 08 I bought another MBP
Early 09 bought a XPS M1330
Late 09 I think I will be buying shortly the MBA Rev C....

Now to be honest my Early 08 MBA purchase was going to be my last for at least two years as it was exactly what I was looking for unfortunately due to the terrible processor issues (one core shutting down) I kept having to shop "around".

So I hope when I buy the new MBA shortly that I'll have it at least a year and a half without further upgrades

 

kreidel: Statistically, you'd be the outlier, which is why I didn't respond to your initial post.

Durious: What exactly was wrong with the first-gen Macbook Airs anyway? Everyone I know (PC and Mac users alike) has ridiculed them nonstop since day 1, but they've never gone into much detail beyond "only dumb people get Macbook Airs."

 

I listed the issue in my previous post, the issue on the Rev A was that under medium usage one of the cores on the MBA would shutdown making the machine virtually unusable till it came back online. The easiest method to make it occur would be to watch video's both HD and non-hd alike. Non-HD would take a bit longer but could also produce the effect. The newer Rev of the MBA fixed this issue so that is why I want to get one of those as I really liked the form-factor of the product.

 

1) November 2008
2) Dell vostro 1700
3) February 2010 with a thinkpad t510 YAY!!!

 

i hate the hp envy because i hate the way that hp copied apple...even the keyboard design is almost the same as the mac though i should mention hats off to hp with the innovative battery slice.

 

When did i buy the mac?
July 09

what did it replace ?
Dell Inspiron 6400

When will i buy another one?
When i have enough money.

 

I bought my first mac 15" August 2009
It is now on ebay for sale.

Will buy a 13" right after it sells! =D

 

what happened? didn't you like it?

 

1.june 09
2. dell studio xps 16
3. uni or when it stops working.

i just dont believe in apple care, my laptops never break. i always just get 1 yr.
i have the option to get it for £50 but i dont really want to lol.

 

50 pounds???where???can you tell me please?