Apple has officially become a mean spirited company

[AdriftAtlas]

Apple is a corporation. Projecting human attributes onto a corporation is somewhat meaningless; it has no conscience. Corporations will harm people if it's profitable to do so and many do.

That being said they are going out on a limb by alienating both their mainstream and pro users. Their reasoning for their controversial actions of late is both arbitrary and capricious. They are the 800lb gorilla of the mobile world and are simply pounding their chest. Just like RIM/Blackberry before them, Apple is becoming complacent and out of touch. Their day of reckoning will come soon enough.

 

[tubeexperience]

15" rMBP is 100$ more expensive than last year model (you need to compare 15" / Pro 450 / 512 GB with 15" / 370X / 512 GB directly). You can't just compare base models and ignore the specs. The new 15" rMBP only comes with dGPU!

You mean $300?

$2499 before. $2799 after.

 

[Pugly]

I think Apple want's people in the market for a $1000-$1300 machine to really take a hard look at an iPad. PCs are to become the premium, specialized trucks, the aspirational halo item atop the Apple ecosystem. Something shiny to look at while you casually go buy your iPhone.

It'll be interesting to see the direction Apple takes the other computers into. I wonder if the iMac refresh will sill a similar price jump... or if the Mac Mini will be abandoned.

I don't see it as mean-spirited, but they are slowly transitioning their Mac computers into a different market without really saying that they are.

 

[maratus]

You mean $300?

$2499 before. $2799 after.

$2499 before, $2599 after

 

[talkybear]

Please, get your facts straight.
It's not 100$ for just Pro name on iPad. It's 100$ for the best digitizer in any tablet and actually decent speakers.
And it's not 400$ for touchbar alone when you consider 256GB base vs. 128GB base for the previous gen.

Yeah right. The best digitizer that you need another $100 pencil to use. And $100 max for that extra SSD.

 

[Admiral]

I've never seen Apple be like this.

Greedy, selfish and immoral.

It definitely puts some context around claims that Steve was some kind of *******.

 

[SDAVE]

It definitely puts some context around claims that Steve was some kind of *******.

He might have been internally, but it didn't come off that way during his keynotes. He knew his products inside and out.

 

[Savor]

Companies are all crooks. Like picking between Hillary or Donald. Be a fan of the specific product. No need to worship the brands behind it.

Political party - Independent
Religion - Agnostic

Not wishy-washy. I just don't want to waste time picking sides and arguing with dense fanboys from it. As evil as Apple has become, others don't have halos over their heads either. There were times I hated Sony and Nintendo when I worshipped them both. The universal language to all these corporations is $$$$. The genuflecting to these companies and their brainwashing is they already have you in their pockets. It is like athletes. An athlete staying in ONE team for the rest of their career? An illusion from false idols. Apple is like that too. False idols that project illusions.

I get whatever product suits my needs. I like Apple computers, Samsung TVs, Sony video game consoles, LG appliances, and Motorola or Nokia phones. They each have their forte. I don't pick it based on the brands behind them but the actual quality of the product.

 

[Admiral]

He might have been internally, but it didn't come off that way during his keynotes. He knew his products inside and out.

I think what we're finding out is that Steve drove everybody at Apple so hard because Steve cared most about the product, which means he cared about the customer. Under Tim Cook, Apple seems to have become more friendly to its employees, and definitely more tolerant of non-productivity and failure by said employees, as well as advancing certain social causes preferred by management and Apple employees — but has deprecated the importance of the product and the customer.

Steve wasn't the ****** at Apple; he was the force that restrained the ****** instincts of the others.

 

[SDAVE]

I think what we're finding out is that Steve drove everybody at Apple so hard because Steve cared most about the product, which means he cared about the customer. Under Tim Cook, Apple seems to have become more friendly to its employees, and definitely more tolerant of non-productivity and failure by said employees, as well as advancing certain social causes preferred by management and Apple employees — but has deprecated the importance of the product and the customer.

Steve wasn't the ****** at Apple; he was the force that restrained the ****** instincts of the others.

Yes this is it. I prefer what Jobs did.

 

[Ghost31]

I think what we're finding out is that Steve drove everybody at Apple so hard because Steve cared most about the product, which means he cared about the customer. Under Tim Cook, Apple seems to have become more friendly to its employees, and definitely more tolerant of non-productivity and failure by said employees, as well as advancing certain social causes preferred by management and Apple employees — but has deprecated the importance of the product and the customer.

Steve wasn't the ****** at Apple; he was the force that restrained the ****** instincts of the others.

Hit the nail right on the freaking head right there. Steve gets alot of crap for being a meanie poo poo head, but he was like that for a reason. And results came. We saw one company change the entire world. A company that was on the edge of bankruptcy.

Cook? Nice guy. Seems like someone i would love to have lunch with. Obviously not a visionary and thats probably the most common statement you see...but the most important part of it is leading apple is a top down approach. If the CEO lacks ANY type of vision and is basically just a bean counter, it filters down to everyone else. And i know people have spouted the "Apple is doomed haha" rhetoric for awhile but this past year is the first time i've actually kinda believed it. You can imagine where they are going and its not consumer friendly

 

[CreativeC]

Did Microsoft or Samsung pay you to come in here and post this nonsense?

"nonsense"

Apple fanboys are so hilarious.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

"nonsense"

Apple fanboys are so hilarious.

Yawn.

 

[SDAVE]

Not you. I'm referring to the OP. He has posted a flood of whiney threads tonight.

Somehow criticism has become "whining" in modern society.

Really nice of you to say that. Appreciate it.

 

[leman]

Somehow criticism has become "whining" in modern society.

Criticism has to be critical, which means it has to be argumented. Just saying that something is 'unacceptable' is not really criticism. Lets just take one example: you complain about using lower spec dGPU.

First of all, that GPU is a definitive upgrade from what was there before. Its faster than both the Iris Pro and the M370X. Second, you are not taking the technical limitations into account. We can't know for certain, but there is are very strong indications that AMD is simply unable to provide enough full-spec Pro 460 chips. Those chips are aggressively binned are represent the creme de la creme of the yield. In fact, even the desktop version of that chip (460 RX) is a cut down 'defective' version with two out of 16 CUs disabled. I am more then sure that Apple's weird choice of three chips is not out of malice or meanness, but simply reflects the yield distribution and therefore the chip aviability. What would the alternative be? Not use the dGPU in the lower-spec machine? Well, as its fairly obvious that Intel can't deliver enough Iris Pro 580 chips, you'd end up with the inferior HD Graphics chip, so thats even worse. Use a Nvidia chip? Within that thermal envelope, that only leaves the 940M, which again is a worse chip then the Pro 450. Etc. etc. etc.

To sum up what I am trying to say: if you want to offer argumented criticism, then you need to offer the context and the viable alternatives of what could have been done to avoided the problem. Then we can have argumented exchange.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Criticism has to be critical, which means it has to be argumented. Just saying that something is 'unacceptable' is not really criticism. Lets just take one example: you complain about using lower spec dGPU.

First of all, that GPU is a definitive upgrade from what was there before. Its faster than both the Iris Pro and the M370X. Second, you are not taking the technical limitations into account. We can't know for certain, but there is are very strong indications that AMD is simply unable to provide enough full-spec Pro 460 chips. Those chips are aggressively binned are represent the creme de la creme of the yield. In fact, even the desktop version of that chip (460 RX) is a cut down 'defective' version with two out of 16 CUs disabled. I am more then sure that Apple's weird choice of three chips is not out of malice or meanness, but simply reflects the yield distribution and therefore the chip aviability. What would the alternative be? Not use the dGPU in the lower-spec machine? Well, as its fairly obvious that Intel can't deliver enough Iris Pro 580 chips, you'd end up with the inferior HD Graphics chip, so thats even worse. Use a Nvidia chip? Within that thermal envelope, that only leaves the 940M, which again is a worse chip then the Pro 450. Etc. etc. etc.

To sum up what I am trying to say: if you want to offer argumented criticism, then you need to offer the context and the viable alternatives of what could have been done to avoided the problem. Then we can have argumented exchange.

Thank you leman. Great points explained well.

Otherwise, his constant slamming of Apple with one word or half a sentence over multiple threads wasn't offering any insights other than trying to fan the flames.

 

[SDAVE]

Criticism has to be critical, which means it has to be argumented. Just saying that something is 'unacceptable' is not really criticism. Lets just take one example: you complain about using lower spec dGPU.

First of all, that GPU is a definitive upgrade from what was there before. Its faster than both the Iris Pro and the M370X. Second, you are not taking the technical limitations into account. We can't know for certain, but there is are very strong indications that AMD is simply unable to provide enough full-spec Pro 460 chips. Those chips are aggressively binned are represent the creme de la creme of the yield. In fact, even the desktop version of that chip (460 RX) is a cut down 'defective' version with two out of 16 CUs disabled. I am more then sure that Apple's weird choice of three chips is not out of malice or meanness, but simply reflects the yield distribution and therefore the chip aviability. What would the alternative be? Not use the dGPU in the lower-spec machine? Well, as its fairly obvious that Intel can't deliver enough Iris Pro 580 chips, you'd end up with the inferior HD Graphics chip, so thats even worse. Use a Nvidia chip? Within that thermal envelope, that only leaves the 940M, which again is a worse chip then the Pro 450. Etc. etc. etc.

To sum up what I am trying to say: if you want to offer argumented criticism, then you need to offer the context and the viable alternatives of what could have been done to avoided the problem. Then we can have argumented exchange.

I've had plenty of "arguments" over why what Apple is doing to the professional market in the past and I'd like to keep it simple because I don't want to be involved in a thread that's 200 pages long and everyone just repeats the same thing over and over again.

Apple is a profit-only business now which focuses on gimmicky features. It used to be that, even if the profit wasn't high in areas like selling Displays, Apple would still "innovate".

I can tell you right now that anyone who uses the MacBook Pro "professionaly" does not give a poo about a Touch Bar. Or anyone who uses a TrashPro cares about Touch Sensitive Power Buttons™

These devices are used as daily drivers for work, not something to salivate over. macOS is a huge factor to many pros, and this is why Apple still has a userbase of pros that will continue buying it. If it wasn't for macOS, they'd jump ship in a heartbeat.

Also your "arguments" are really lazy, please try something better.

I've actually made another thread about the pricing, which I think is fair because they are including a dGPU even on the base model, which wasn't the case before on the 15" model.

 

[pauliet]

Hit the nail right on the freaking head right there. Steve gets alot of crap for being a meanie poo poo head, but he was like that for a reason. And results came. We saw one company change the entire world. A company that was on the edge of bankruptcy.

Cook? Nice guy. Seems like someone i would love to have lunch with. Obviously not a visionary and thats probably the most common statement you see...but the most important part of it is leading apple is a top down approach. If the CEO lacks ANY type of vision and is basically just a bean counter, it filters down to everyone else. And i know people have spouted the "Apple is doomed haha" rhetoric for awhile but this past year is the first time i've actually kinda believed it. You can imagine where they are going and its not consumer friendly

Think this may have already been used but... it's Jobs on the future Apple!!!,

 

[Ghost31]

Think this may have already been used but... it's Jobs on the future Apple!!!,

I don't know how people can deny how much of a visionary he is. I think people find him off putting because he's so blunt so they take that at face value and dismiss everything else about him. Hes mean so I don't like him!

Well...one man changed the entire world. And hell...predicted the future for Apple! He had such well articulated opinions. He may have been hard to work with, but it's actually really important to have someone in the company that calls BS on things that don't make sense. I can imagine him freaking out over things like this last keynote. If you haven't seen the d11 interview where Walt mossberg got to talk to him for a couple hours, I highly recommend it.

 

[Abazigal]

If Apple puts such high standards on themselves, then we have the right to vote with our wallets.

You have always had that right since day 1.

 

[wchristian6]

I could care less about them jacking the prices up, they have every right to do what they want with the prices as they want.

The only thing that I've really disliked Apple for is how the workers in China are treated in the factories they contract and how they do nothing about it. I mean those workers are sorta like slaves if you look in to how they live it's screwed up and karmically negative to support that

 

[Admiral]

The only thing that I've really disliked Apple for is how the workers in China are treated in the factories they contract and how they do nothing about it. I mean those workers are sorta like slaves if you look in to how they live it's screwed up and karmically negative to support that

It becomes easier to support once you have visited China and come to understand how workers are treated in the other factories. And yes, you might then say, Well, in that case I don't support producing anything in China! But then you really need to understand what it's like to live in China without a source of income, or as a farm laborer.

Although it may be counterintuitive, but when you buy an iPhone assembled in a FoxConn factory, or a soccer ball stitched together by a Bangladeshi child, you are doing God's work for those people. Now, you may ask yourself whether your money is better spent buying a product made by an American, but don't believe for a minute that Chinese laborers are working for FoxConn while they have better choices. It's one of the best employers in China for those people; hell, one of the best employers in China, period. And one of the reasons FoxConn is better than other Chinese employers is because Apple demands them to be better.

 

[Ender17]

They are definitely getting greedier. Removing AC adapter extension cable? C'mon

 

[KALLT]

They are definitely getting greedier. Removing AC adapter extension cable? C'mon

You’re seeing that wrong. They are becoming more environmentally responsible.

 

[Wando64]

EDITED.
I just realised I posted a reply to a 3 years old thread and in the process I found out I can't ever delete posts I make on this forum.
Never mind...