MacBook sales in 2016 are worse than the (terrible) overall laptop market

Yahoo ^ | May 11, 2016 | [Justin Pot] Justin Pot

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

The MacBook Pro and Air lines are overdue for an update, and customers are noticing. New MacBook purchases are down compared to the first quarter of last year, suggesting customers don't see a reason to pay Apple's premium pricing right now.

[glorgau]

That USB hubs are small and cheap?

And one more thing to carry around?

[arl295]

I can buy the HP equivalent for less and load Linux or unix flavor os on it for less then the Mac

Don’t assume I don’t know workstation computing or enterprise servers

Whatever Apple put in that fancy toy of yours, I can buy off the shelf or from another manufacturer

There is nothing special about any of this stuff

[moehoward]

“...all the functions of the Macs, and vice versa. I have both. Same with vehicles, I have a truck, a sedan, and a couple sports cars - each is superior in some functions to the others.”

Actually no further clarification needed. I’m speaking in terms of MY families functionality needs, not the full functional ability of each device.

For most though it’s a compromise so they seek out a single multipurpose device or a crossover vehicle that can do a little of everything.

[arl295]

Oh save me that BS

The part numbers are the same!

And I have yet seem enterprise grade hard drives in any Apple device

It is all low end consumer garbage that Dell puts in $249 desktops that end up in “high end” macs for $2799

It is the same stuff, part numbers and all

[roadcat]

For most though it’s a compromise so they seek out a single multipurpose device or a crossover vehicle that can do a little of everything.

Agree - for many. When my wife and I were younger, we had a little sedan and forced it to be a multipurpose vehicle. We carried sofas, Christmas trees, one time a water heater on the roof, you name it and that car did it. But it wasn't pleasant. We're better off now and use specific vehicles to get the job done. I really love my truck, easy to haul anything! Use it daily, while the sports car gets sporadic use for the speed and top-down driving. Same with computers, much easier having multiple devices based on what you're using it for. Can't drag the heavier computer everywhere while the iPad is extremely mobile. The big computer is used for database, video/photo work.

[TalonDJ]

They are down because a MacBook update is coming soon and savvy buyers know it. So they stop buying the old model.

[arl295]

How is pointing out that Apple uses the same OEMs as everyone else?

And yes I know all the different grades of hard drives and you know what grade apple uses in their machines?

The same consumer grade crap as everyone else

Windows computers are not all made by the same manufacturer. They are made by many different manufacturers and uses all different grades of parts

A $10,000 Dell PowerEdge R730 uses a whole different class of parts that your el cheapo Macintosh uses. Not even close to comparison.

As you can see, I have done my homework, paying more for a fancy case is not for me or my customers. If it makes you feel better, good for you

[arl295]

That was not my point

My point was the hardware you are getting with a Mac is no different then the hardware you were getting with a Dell

They all use the same basic components and parts all made by the same OEMs

Apple does not make Hard Drives, Seagate, Toshiba, Western Digital, Hitachi do

Apple does not make memory, Crucial, Micron, Hynix, Epilda do

Apple does not make the CPUs, Intel, AMD, IBM, HP, Motorola do

etc

[oscar_diggs]

Windows machines are prone to failure, often because of using inferior hard drives.
*************
Apple used to intentionally corrupt hdd’s in macs if they didn’t match an internal table of what was factory installed... SLEAZY? or STUPID? you tell me... but it made repairs very expensive.

HDD’s come in all different quality and price points.. Apple hdd’s fail too... I like Fujitsu and Hitachi... or any good SSD.

[minnesota_bound]

: )

[generally]

I have both MacBooks and Windows laptops. My Windows laptops typically die in 2 years. My 2005 MacBook lasted until 2014 when the hard drive gave out and I bought a new one. (I may still try to put in a new hard drive in the old one and revive it.)

I have no plans to buy another MacBook any time soon because I am VERY happy with the current one.

I am not an Apple “fanboy” but I really do prefer their products. No, I’m not crazy about their politics, but I’m not crazy about Microsoft politics, either. I don’t hate Windows (except for Vista which was an absolute piece of crap), but having worked extensively with both OS X and Windows, my very strong preference is for Windows. I don’t advise it for everyone, though. It depends on what your needs are. I bought my Mom a Windows computer because it better meets her needs.

[sockhead]

I agree with durability and longevity of Mac. Daughter dropped her Macbook Pro off the deck. It slammed shut on the grass and didn’t sustain any damage.

Her Toshiba laptop, same age, case cracked just opening and closing it. Lots of dead pixels.

[Drew68]

Like I've been telling these Apple fanbois. Sitting on your hands for years has consequences.

I'm just waiting for my '09 MacBook to either break or fail to load the latest operating system before I buy a new one. No such luck so far.

Not my fault Apple built these things like tanks.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

I loved my 2011. By Mid 2012 Jobs was out and Captain Cook took over and you couldn’t upgrade the ram anymore, El Capitan wouldn’t work with aftermarket SSD’s and bricked computers during the upgrade and all the OSX/software woes began. Apple changed, going the planned obsolescence route for short term profits. It was a sea of change.

[PreciousLiberty]

“Like I’ve been telling these Apple fanbois. Sitting on your hands for years has consequences.”

Nothing worse than those who use terms like “fanboi”, really...

At any rate, the Macbook Pros are overdue for a refresh, which is expected in June (WWDC). I expect that’s why sales are slow. Mac sales growth has been far outpacing the glacial PC market overall over the last couple years.

I wonder how sales are doing for NVIDIA graphics cards now that they’ve announced the new ones...

[MoochPooch]

I just recovered data for a neighbor who has a Windows 10 desktop. Totally corrupted hard drive and failed OS.

Same thing happened to me. I have to rely on a Chrome browser to access the Internet.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

As much as I hate silly little terms like that too, there are some zealot trolls on this forum who engage in personal attacks and post mountains of data copied from Apple’s PR department when you post anything critical to Apple. I guess we can call them Cookie-Trolls or Cook-Monsters. That would be a good subject for a light hearted Friday thread, naming the Apple trolls(all in good fun of course).

The only reason I use that term is to tweak them some. I’d be willing to bet they are getting some sort of compensation, as they never post on political matters, only post news items for Apple. Nothing you can’t get anywhere else if you keep up on tech.

[roadcat]

HDD’s come in all different quality and price points.. Apple hdd’s fail too... I like Fujitsu and Hitachi... or any good SSD.

Apple HD's don't fail to the same extent as Windows machines, one reason is that there are a lot of Windows machines built cheap using cheap components. Apple has a higher standard, and demands that of its suppliers or it won't go in an Apple computer. I was an NT and Windows admin for many years. Of course hard drives going in critical servers were higher quality than those put in desktops. But I found that many desktop machines with Windows were using inferior drives, in order to cut costs. You get what you pay for, and a lot of cheap machines have cheap components. I have had failures on Windows machines, Dell, HP, and other brands, where the hard drives crap out. Rare if ever on an Apple machine. It does happen, but rarely.

There was an instance a few years ago where Seagate drives were causing problems, and Apple did a replacement program allowing users to have the drive swapped long after warranty expired, not because a drive failed but to make sure it didn't. I did that with my son-in-law's MacBook Pro after warranty was up, free. (Those problem Seagate drives caused problems for the entire computer industry, one reason why I generally avoid Seagate.)

[roadcat]

A $10,000 Dell PowerEdge R730 uses a whole different class of parts that your el cheapo Macintosh uses.

You're lying again. Who compared a $10,000 Dell to a MacBook? I certainly didn't. You and others are comparing "el cheapo" (in your words) Windows machines to mid-range MacBook computers, and saying they use the same components when they absolutely do not. The MacBook computers use higher quality hard drives, and that is a fact. If you did your homework, you failed at it.

[roadcat]

Same thing happened to me. I have to rely on a Chrome browser to access the Internet.

My poor neighbor. He has come to me on many occasions to rescue his computers. But he likes Windows, so be it. Some of it is his fault. This latest episode last week where I recovered data for him, his wife had all their critical family photos on it including photos of her dad who recently died. Also had all their financial data, a database of her clients and work in progress for her clients. None of it backed up. Needless to say, they were ecstatic that I recovered the data when others could not. I gave them tips on backups, but I don't know if they'll follow up. Personally, I've had hard drives fail on my Windows machines far too often. So I've learned to swap them out for better hard drives. No problems on my Macs. Then again, I have a RAID array hooked up to my Macs for backups so they know not to fail, ha-ha.