Is Apple going downhill......

[marc55]

I'm still trying to decide if I should get an new PC or make the switch over to a rMBP.

As an iPhone, iPad, and Mini iPad owner I see the quality, and OS simplicity, and those are a couple of the factors driving me to change.

However, in reading these forums the past week, I am not sure where Apple is headed. When I read the reports of lagging, yellow screens, etc. on a computer running $2,600+, it has me wondering.

The new rMBPs are not like the older MBPs, and I'm not sure if they are even upgradeable; repairs will be costly to say the least.

Additionally, coupled with the complaints on Pages and Numbers it has me wondering if Apple isn't headed in the wrong direction. Why would they take two popular programs and remove functionality when they should be striving to increase functionality.

Apple has a loyal following, to include my wife and I, but I'm not sure if there is really any advantage in switching from a PC to a rMBP.

Please don't take this as dissing Apple, It just has me concerned as to what's happening to Apple lately.

 

[ElderBrE]

Uh...

Okay. Run a statistic of the amount of rMBPs sold and those who posted here.

The people who don't have problems, don't post about not having problems. It's those with issues that ask for help or post about their troubles. You should consider this before entering any forum, it is not a good way to make statistics for anything.

 

[Gav2k]

Your over reacting and reading to much forum chatter.

 

[maflynn]

You realize that most people come to a forum to report something is not working rather then coming here just to say its 100%. True we do have some members that do that but they're in the clear minority. What you see here is not necessarily representative of the actual usage.

My rMBP is perfect.

As for iWork and iOffice, its a strategic decision to make the products more cross platform compatible yet I think it was a mistake to remove features. It makes it less useful for me.

I don't think this means apple is going downhill however. The rMBP, iPad, iPhone iMac, MBA are all great products that are selling very well, are designed superbly and work extremely well for consumers.

 

[marc55]

You guys are correct in that most people come to a forum to complain; you got me on that one.

And I do get the cross platform thing with Pages & Numbers; but I simply don't get removing functionality VS enhancing functionality.

 

[felt.]

You are totally correct in your assessment that in the past week apples hardware quality has plummeted, do yourself a favor and get a thinkpad.

 

[GoCubsGo]

If you're using this forum to determine the strength of a company and their products then you're being seriously mislead.

 

[marc55]

If you're using this forum to determine the strength of a company and their products then you're being seriously mislead.

Yes, if I were taking an economics or marketing class, or buying stock, I'd agree with your response.

And no, I'm not using the posts on these forums as Gospel; I'm only using them as a source of information.

Please share how you would research such a purchase?

 

[sonicrobby]

People are posting of problems, but that doesn't mean there aren't solutions. Every now and then you get problems with anything you buy. Apple gives you a year warranty with the purchase of their products, and people make sure they take full advantage of that. They also feel the same way you do, "Im paying a lot of money for this, it shouldn't have problems." So many people take it to Apple for the slightest issue, be it a yellow tint or a creaking noise. Under the warranty, they will fix the issue at no cost to you.

As far as the pages and number thing goes, I personally was never fond of these as they've always lacked crucial features for my use. You don't HAVE to get these programs, you can always buy MS Office 2011 for mac. They are much better IMO.

Because of the thin form of the new rMBPs, custom SSDs are used and RAM is soldered into the motherboard. So upgrades are essentially not possible. (SSDs are possible but there is no real market yet). As far as repairs, as long as you're under warranty, Apple will take care of you.

My personal story: years ago, I couldn't stand apple or any of their products. After owning an iPod and iPad, I still hated apple, but could admire the quality of their iOS devices. My iPhone got me to say, Apple is not all that bad. After my first Mac purchase, I could never go back to a windows computer again... The quality and software is just amazing. All other laptops just seem like a Frankenstein computer compared the the rMBP. Im sure you'd enjoy a macbook if you got one

 

[aristobrat]

And I do get the cross platform thing with Pages & Numbers; but I simply don't get removing functionality VS enhancing functionality.

This isn't the first time that Apple has done this. Remember iMovie '08 and Final Cut X? iMovie '08 had so much functionality removed that Apple had to put iMovie '06 up as a free download for anyone that wanted it.

In both cases, it seems like Apple decided that rewriting the application from scratch was the best method, and they shipped both re-written applications before they had completely added all of the functionality back. Subsequent releases of both apps added functionality back in (although IIRC Final Cut X still has awhile to go).

As for hardware quality, ... when's the last time you read an Apple review from a major media outlet that went like this?

Quality-Control Issues

We can't check the vital signs of every computer Apple ships. We can, however, report on the quality of the PowerBooks we've received, and that report is not encouraging. Of six 15-inch PowerBooks Macworld ordered from a non-Apple retailer, three had to be returned. One repeatedly locked up and experienced kernel panics after being unplugged from an external monitor, another's fan ran constantly, and another displayed only the magenta video channel when plugged into an external display. So if you absolutely must have this PowerBook now, be prepared for potential problems.

The screen on the 1.25GHz 15-inch PowerBook used for this review exhibited a white blotch about the size of a dime when we put a white background (such as a blank Microsoft Word document) on the desktop. And the latch on this PowerBook locked inconsistently -- the lid occasionally popped up after it had been closed for a couple of seconds. Reports of such latch problems are widespread on the Discussions area of Apple's Web site and on other Mac-related sites.

We understand that the first version of a computer is likely to have a few problems, but if our small sampling is any indication of how other 15-inch PowerBooks are leaving the factory, Apple might benefit from cocking a sterner eye toward quality control.

That's from a 2003 review done by MacWorld of the G4 PowerBooks.

Point being, you don't have to search very had to see that Apple has really (IMO) never had a perfect record of hardware quality. What you're seeing posted on the forums about rMBP is par for the course, going back over a decade.

I'm not trying to make any excuse for Apple, just saying that I don't see anything new or different with what Apple's doing. If your point is that "they're going downhill because of what they did with iWork and quality issues with the rMBP", my point would be "they started that downhill decent over a decade ago, and have flattened it out, and been maintaining it ever since".

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Apple isn't going anywhere, but you're right they aren't what they once were. I've been looking at the rMBP, but I'm also looking at a Razer Blade laptop. The days of Apple's 2nd to none design are done, I think.

 

[roadbloc]

Additionally, coupled with the complaints on Pages and Numbers it has me wondering if Apple isn't headed in the wrong direction. Why would they take two popular programs and remove functionality when they should be striving to increase functionality.

This is probably the only thing Apple has done to annoy me recently. I like the iOS 7 redesign (except the calendar and music apps) and they've even been really good at supporting older hardware with Mavericks. But I doubt I'll be using Pages to write my stuff in again, which is a shame when I really hoped Apple would make iWork a serious Office competitor.

Personally, for me, Apple were much better in the PowerPC days, before iOS and Intel. But times change and their current strategy and product line-up is undoubtedly working for them.

 

[snberk103]

....
Please share how you would research such a purchase?

Does Apple currently provide a product and/or tools that meets your needs? Then go to one of the sites that measures how satisfied (or not) Apple customers are to get a sense of whether Apple stands behind their products. Then compare the entire Apple package (HW and SW) to a comparable Windows (or Linux) system to see which package gives you the most value (to you) for the price.

But coming to a Mac-centric forum for the early research is not usually recommended. The vast majority of posters are firmly in one of two camps: "Macs are the best..." is the first ... that's why we own Macs, and we usually forget to add "... for us." The other camp are the ones who are having the rare problems. Problems that are rare over the entire product line, but are concentrated here in a forum of this type.

Getting good, unbiased, advice from these two groups is not easy - generally ...

 

[BenTrovato]

If you've never used a mac before then I would switch just to spread your wings and get out of the PC comfort zone. I still have a windows pc for gaming but as my main laptop I prefer the mac. It's just nicer and prettier than a windows laptop. The user experience is better. Ultimately the products are the same. They both have screens, keyboards and run software. It's just a little nicer on a mac. It won't always be this way, but that's where things are right now.

 

[aristobrat]

Additionally, coupled with the complaints on Pages and Numbers it has me wondering if Apple isn't headed in the wrong direction. Why would they take two popular programs and remove functionality when they should be striving to increase functionality.

FWIW, Apple officially responded to that today.

The new iWork applications—Pages, Numbers, and Keynote—were released for Mac on October 22nd. These applications were rewritten from the ground up to be fully 64-bit and to support a unified file format between OS X and iOS 7 versions, as well as iWork for iCloud beta.

These apps feature an all-new design with an intelligent format panel and many new features such as easy ways to share documents, Apple-designed styles for objects, interactive charts, new templates, and new animations in Keynote.

In rewriting these applications, some features from iWork ’09 were not available for the initial release. We plan to reintroduce some of these features in the next few releases and will continue to add brand new features on an ongoing basis.

http://9to5mac.com/2013/11/06/apple...s-several-features-returning-within-6-months/

 

[Tom Rose]

Apple does not care about me any more

Well ... they probably never did ... it just seemed that way.

Having finally run out of patience after losing too many weekends to Windows BSD I switched to Apple and have used MacOS X since 2000.

From my perspective every "upgrade" since Snow Leopard has made OS X less useful as a system for software developers, even if it is more attractive to people that just like playing with their iPads and iPhones.

So after fighting with Lion and Mountain Lion for a while I just re-installed from TimeMachine my 10.6.8 system with all its tools. When the world around it has changed so much that Mac OS 10.6.8 is no longer usable I'll be leaving the Apple fold and going over to Linux exclusively.

My other beef with Apple is why do the developers spend so much of their time faffing around with the appearance of applications and adding pointless features instead of fixing the real bugs and annoyances in important programs like Mail and iTunes?

 

[Good User]

Yes

YES, Apple is going downhill, But this weak Lion is still King of Jungle.

 

[andersmj]

Well ... they probably never did ... it just seemed that way.

Having finally run out of patience after losing too many weekends to Windows BSD I switched to Apple and have used MacOS X since 2000.

From my perspective every "upgrade" since Snow Leopard has made OS X less useful as a system for software developers, even if it is more attractive to people that just like playing with their iPads and iPhones.

So after fighting with Lion and Mountain Lion for a while I just re-installed from TimeMachine my 10.6.8 system with all its tools. When the world around it has changed so much that Mac OS 10.6.8 is no longer usable I'll be leaving the Apple fold and going over to Linux exclusively.

My other beef with Apple is why do the developers spend so much of their time faffing around with the appearance of applications and adding pointless features instead of fixing the real bugs and annoyances in important programs like Mail and iTunes?

I actually agree with that a whole lot of the way. IMO Snow Leopard was the best system, unfortunately I haven't been able to downgrade to that, even though my MBP came with it from the factory.

Can't say I'm a fan of the iOS-ish look the system is getting right now. Apple really should focus on features and user experience and not so much looks. Perhaps they could learn something from Minecraft?

This has nothing to do with rejecting change I think. It's just Apple who is pimping their car, but underneath the hood, it's still the same.