Steve 2.0 - A Return to the 2x2 Product Matrix

[Boil]

Rumored 15" MacBook Air, further rumors it may just be called MacBook...

Rumors of the Mac Studio being a one-and-done product...

Rumors of the ASi Mac Pro only offering a Mn Ultra SoC, possible Mn Exteme in the future...

I say kill off the 13" MacBook Pro, and change the 13" MacBook Air to just the MacBook...

I say kill of both the Mac mini and the Mac Studio; replace both with a chassis that is mid-way in height (or so) between the two, and call it just the Mac...

This would give us a 2x2 product matrix:

MacBook​	MacBook Pro​
Mac​	Mac Pro​

The variants & SoC distribution:

	Mn​	Mn Pro​	Mn Max​	Mn Ultra​	Mn Extreme​
13" MacBook	*​
15" MacBook	*​	*​
14" MacBook Pro		*​	*​
16" MacBook Pro		*​	*​
Mac	*​	*​	*​
Mac Pro				*​	*​

I could also see a 2x2 product matrix for Apple displays:

24" 4.5K Studio Display​	27" 5K Studio Display​
32" 6K Pro Display​	40" 8K Pro Display​

 

[senttoschool]

I like the idea of returning the branding of the base Macbooks to just "Macbook". It's a Macbook or a Pro. It's consistent with the naming of iPhones.

However, I don't think the change is worth it from a marketing point of view because Apple just released the 13" M2 Macbook using the Air brand.

I think Apple will keep the Air brand for 15".

I will say that Apple should kill the 13" Pro when the 15" Air comes out. Then add a Macbook SE using old M1 air body.

MacBook SE using old M1 body (8/256, M3): $850
13" MacBook (8/512, M3): $1200
15" MacBook (8/512, M3): $1400
14" Macbook Pro (16/1TB, M3 Pro/Max): $2000
16" Macbook Pro (16/1TB, M3 Pro/Max): $2500

 

[dandyryan]

The MacBook "Air" is never dying no matter how much MacRumors wants it to for the sake of this Pro/non-pro dichotomy pipe dream.

 

[thenewperson]

…and the iMac? That just dies?

Anyway, I think the 2x2 matrix isn’t useful at Apple’s current size. They can manage with a bit more.

 

[Boil]

…and the iMac? That just dies?

Pair any level of Mac with any size Apple Studio or Pro display, there's your totally modular iMac... ;^p

 

[thenewperson]

Pair any level of Mac with any size Apple Studio or Pro display, there's your totally modular iMac... ;^p

Yeah that’s probably not going to work.

 

[Ethosik]

The Mac Studio better not go away. Mac mini is not enough power and Mac Pro is too expensive. I do not have high hopes for the Apple Silicon version from a price perspective. I mean come on, $6,000 for 256GB of SSD? Back in 2019 a maxed out i9 iMac was WAY more powerful than the $6,000 Mac Pro and it was still $1,000 cheaper.

I simply cannot stand All in Ones and the laptops don't quite have enough power. Mac Studio is a perfect fit.

 

[GMShadow]

Apple is not on the verge of bankruptcy.

As much as people want to act like the 2x2 matrix was some long-enduring thing, Jobs was going away from it less than 2 years after it was first revealed.

 

[thenewperson]

Apple is not on the verge of bankruptcy. As much as people want to act like the 2x2 matrix was some long-enduring thing, Jobs was going away from it less than 2 years after it was first revealed.

Seriously. Where the 2x2 grid for the iPod???

 

[dandyryan]

I like the idea of returning the branding of the base Macbooks to just "Macbook". It's a Macbook or a Pro. It's consistent with the naming of iPhones.

However, I don't think the change is worth it from a marketing point of view because Apple just released the 13" M2 Macbook using the Air brand.

I think Apple will keep the Air brand for 15".

I will say that Apple should kill the 13" Pro when the 15" Air comes out. Then add a Macbook SE using old M1 air body.

MacBook SE using old M1 body (8/256, M3): $850
13" MacBook (8/512, M3): $1200
15" MacBook (8/512, M3): $1400
14" Macbook Pro (16/1TB, M3 Pro/Max): $2000
16" Macbook Pro (16/1TB, M3 Pro/Max): $2500

There's already a "MacBook SE"… it's the MacBook Pro 13" with the Touch Bar. 🤣
They'll probably keep the M1 Air for a while. Maybe a M2 bump once M3 is out. That $999 price-point is too good for students.

 

[sifpilsen]

That $999 price-point is too good for students.

Never underestimate having one comparatively cheaper unit in the lineup for those volume purchases in education and large businesses. The bottom revenue line will thank you.

 

[Zest28]

The MacBook "Air" is never dying no matter how much MacRumors wants it to for the sake of this Pro/non-pro dichotomy pipe dream.

Indeed. Apple can lift of Nike "Air" for free basically. Why should Apple drop the "Air" name, that is crazy?

Apple knows what they are doing.

 

[theluggage]

Seriously. Where the 2x2 grid for the iPod???

"Rules are there to make you think before breaking them" (Terry Pratchett, I think).

Drastically culling the product line to "what they did best" and then randomly branching out into portable music players was pretty hypocritical, but kinda vindicated by what happened next...

The 2x2 grid did not save Apple - Jobs (with a lot of help from serendipity - such as returning just when Microsoft fumbled the Internet & mobile device ball) saved Apple by taking gambles and winning more often than losing. I'm sure that lots of business studies courses would love to reduce that to a series of PowerPoints which aspiring CEOs could memorise, but the best you'll get that way is mediocrity.

The sensible, safe bet business decision for Jobs at the time would have been to switch to making nicely designed Windows laptops (people loved PowerBooks, but they'd have sold more if they ran Windows) and 5-10 years down the road they could have sold the brand to Lenovo or Dell for a nice but modest return for the shareholders. Making the iPod could have been a spectacular failure...

 

[theluggage]

Apple is not on the verge of bankruptcy.

This.
Plus, Apple doesn't currently have a cumbersome and confusing range of computers with names like "Performa 5400/180(DE)" (No, Tim, we won't hold your beer).

I say kill off the 13" MacBook Pro, and change the 13" MacBook Air to just the MacBook...

I think "Air" has become too strong a brand to kill - the original Air was an iconic product.

Logically, the 13" MacBook Pro should be killed with fire, if only because it is ridiculous and confusing to have a "Pro"-branded laptop with a non-Pro-branded processor.... but I'm inclined to call Chersterton's Gate on that one because there could be a strategic reason for having a relatively cheap, pro-branded laptop for business/government/education orders.

Rumors of the Mac Studio being a one-and-done product...

With even the biggest-selling MacBook models waiting at least 18 months for a refresh, that's far too soon to call. It really depends on what the Mac Pro turns out to be. Unless the M2 Ultra SoC comes with some surprise like high-bandwidth PCIe capability with discrete GPU support, secondary RAM expansion then it can't be a like-for-like replacement for the 2019 Mac Pro.

My guess is one or two things: (a) the Mac Pro as we briefly (2019-2023) knew it gets dropped and the M2 updates of the Studio get re-named "Mac Pro" (son of Trashcan) - or (b) The M1 Studio models hang around as-is for a while to give the new "Mac Pro" an exclusive on the M2 Ultra for a while.

…and the iMac? That just dies?

The 24" iMac isn't going anywhere, with a M2 version rumored Real Soon Now. IMHO it is what makes the most sense for a general-purpose all-in-one: as such, it is more powerful and has a better screen than the old "small" iMac, and a logical successor to the original iMac.

The large screen, more powerful iMac seems to divide opinion: some people seem to like all-in-ones, others were never happy with not being able to buy and upgrade their computer and display separately and only got 5k iMacs/iMac Pro because Apple didn't offer a good mid-range headless desktop. Also, short of getting a super-expensive Mx Ultra, there's no longer any huge power advantage of a desktop over a laptop, so the whole desktop Mac market is going to get a haircut and won't bear being split between headless and all-in-one models. Plus, in the next year or two there's probably going to be a choice between (affordable) IPS displays, mini-LED (quite expensive) and true HDR OLED/microLED displays (very expensive and/or prone to burn-in) - so which one do you put in an iMac?

Even today - Apple already offers a choice of displays, and some higher-end desktop Mac users are going to want the PRO XDR display - or something like it - or maybe two of them - and that doesn't necessarily correlate with wanting a Mac Pro-style PCIe tower. The 5k iMacs were only ever a good deal if the built-in display was actually what you wanted.

 

[Zest28]

The 13" MacBook Pro shouldn't be killed. It's a superior product to the Air as it has the best battery life out of the entire Mac line up.

Also the MacBook Air cannot even get the full performance out of the M2 chip due to thermal throttling.

All it needs is a redesign. And also add back 4 Thunderbolt ports like what the Intel 13" 2020 MacBook Pro had (the OG 13" MBP from 2020 had 4 TB ports, not 2 like the M1 / M2 13" MBP).

 

[GMShadow]

Logically, the 13" MacBook Pro should be killed with fire, if only because it is ridiculous and confusing to have a "Pro"-branded laptop with a non-Pro-branded processor.... but I'm inclined to call Chersterton's Gate on that one because there could be a strategic reason for having a relatively cheap, pro-branded laptop for business/government/education orders.

Remember that Apple said the 13" Pro was their second best selling laptop (behind the Air) when they updated it with the M2. Not to say that they can't kill popular products, just that there is indeed a large market for it.

The 13" MacBook Pro shouldn't be killed. It's a superior product to the Air as it has the best battery life out of the entire Mac line up.

Also the MacBook Air cannot even get the full performance out of the M2 chip due to thermal throttling.

All it needs is a redesign. And also add back 4 Thunderbolt ports like what the Intel 13" 2020 MacBook Pro had (the OG 13" MBP from 2020 had 4 TB ports, not 2 like the M1 / M2 13" MBP).

A few more ports wouldn't go amiss, no. A full redesign would likely raise the price however - right now as is, all the design and engineering cost of that model was amortized long ago. It wouldn't surprise me if Apple's margin on it was better than the M2 Air.

 

[theluggage]

All it needs is a redesign. And also add back 4 Thunderbolt ports like what the Intel 13" 2020 MacBook Pro had (the OG 13" MBP from 2020 had 4 TB ports, not 2 like the M1 / M2 13" MBP).

The regular M1/M2 chip only supports two Thunderbolt ports.

...but even before then, the entry-level Intel 13" MBP only ever had two TB3 ports. The "better" MBP with 4 ports and a more powerful Intel chip effectively got replaced by the 14" model (which people were predicting ever since the 15" was replaced by the 16").

Ever since MBPs went all-TB3 in 2016, there has been a low-end MacBook "Pro" sat in a rather narrow niche between the MacBook Air - and before that there was a non-retina entry-level 13" MacBook Pro. So there has been a low-end 13" MBP option with significantly lower specs than the "real" 13" MBP since 2012. Arguably, that model should have been called the "MacBook" all along - and that niche has now become very narrow in performance terms post Apple Silicon - just the difference in thermal throttling.

...but, as I said in an earlier post, Apple probably has a strategic reason for keeping a low-end 13" "MacBook Pro" on the books (plus some people may actually prefer it to the Air - personally I'd either get an Air or stump up for the all-round superior 14").

 

[theluggage]

A few more ports wouldn't go amiss, no. A full redesign would likely raise the price however - right now as is, all the design and engineering cost of that model was amortized long ago. It wouldn't surprise me if Apple's margin on it was better than the M2 Air.

I'm guessing that they sell a lot at discounted prices to business/government/education - and the classic "unibody" Mac design isn't broke and doesn't need fixing.

More ports would require upgrading the M2 to a M2 Pro which would significantly raise the cost and wouldn't really make sense when the 14" MBP is available.

What they could do is put back Magsafe (as on the 14/16") so charging didn't "waste" a TB/USB/Display connection.

 

[GMShadow]

I'm guessing that they sell a lot at discounted prices to business/government/education - and the classic "unibody" Mac design isn't broke and doesn't need fixing.

More ports would require upgrading the M2 to a M2 Pro which would significantly raise the cost and wouldn't really make sense when the 14" MBP is available.

What they could do is put back Magsafe (as on the 14/16") so charging didn't "waste" a TB/USB/Display connection.

They don't necessarily need to be Thunderbolt ports - the M1 iMac has two TB3 and two USB-C ports on the upper tiers. It would take a little reworking of the internals though - the opposite side just has a headphone jack, and the fan sits where the ports would expect to go.

 

[thenewperson]

They don't necessarily need to be Thunderbolt ports - the M1 iMac has two TB3 and two USB-C ports on the upper tiers. It would take a little reworking of the internals though - the opposite side just has a headphone jack, and the fan sits where the ports would expect to go.

Also the Mac mini has 2 TB, 2 USBA, TB, HDMI 2.1 and Ethernet. I think they can make 2 TB + 2 USBC + HDMI (maybe even an SD card slot?) work on the 13” tbh

 

[theluggage]

They don't necessarily need to be Thunderbolt ports - the M1 iMac has two TB3 and two USB-C ports on the upper tiers.

Also the Mac mini has 2 TB, 2 USBA, TB, HDMI 2.1 and Ethernet. I think they can make 2 TB + 2 USBC + HDMI (maybe even an SD card slot?) work on the 13” tbh

The M1 iMac doesn't have a built-in keyboard, built-in trackpad, battery monitoring gear, or (since we're talking about the 13" MBP) a touch bar. In the MBP, all of those need to be fed by some sort of I/O - probably USB or PCIe from the processor. For instance (but not a hill I'd like to die on) the touch bar could be running off the PCIe lane that the iMac uses for Ethernet.

The Mini doesn't have an internal display, webcam or mic - I assume that the M1/2 chips have an 'extra' non-TB DP1.2 output for the laptop display and that is where the Mini gets the HDMI from. I'm guessing that the 14/16" MBPs take one of the Mx Pro/Max's 4 TB4/DP1.4 ports to properly run the HDR/ProMotion display and use what was the 'internal' display connector for HDMI.

...admittedly that's all guesswork, but Apple don't share the detailed schematics of how the various ports and internals of Macs are driven.

Its not that I like/approve of the lack of ports - but the base M1/M2 chips were designed for MacBook Air-type applications, and Apple had already decided that 2 ports was an adequate sufficiency for those models, so I doubt they have I/O to spare.

Even if I'm off the mark, adding extra chips and connectors adds dollars to the cost and the 13" MBP is sitting in a very narrow price niche between the Air and the 14" MBP (plus, I'm sure it often gets discounted for bulk orders).

 

[TSE]

Even Steve strayed away from the 2x2 product matrix with the iBooks coming in 12" and 14" sizes, the PowerBooks and later MacBook Pros coming in sometimes as many as three variants with differences in capabilities... The prosumer G4 Cube...

The 2x2 Matrix was the right choice because the situation called for it. The current situation does not call for it.

 

[sdwaltz]

Yeah, it's gotten real convoluted. I think it's not *AS* big of a deal as it was in the 90s though, due to a much better understanding of tech products by the general population. I think the 2x2 product matrix was great then but probably wouldn't offer enough choice for enough people in 2023.

That being said, the product line be benefitted with a simplification. If I were on Apple's product team RIGHT NOW:

Mac:
Macbook 13" and 15" w/M2 - nix the "Air" name
Macbook Pro 14" and 16" w/M2 Pro/Max - nix the 13"
Mac Mini w/M2/M2 Pro/M2 Max/M2 Ultra - nix the Mac Studio and make the Ultra Mac Mini's a little bigger
iMac 24" w/M2
iMac 27" w/M2 Pro/M2 Max/M2 Ultra - new product
iMac 32" w/M2 Pro/M2 Max/M2 Ultra - new product
Let the Mac Pro die with Intel - the advantages of the Mac Pro are essentially gone with Apple Silicon architecture unless Apple has something incredibly creative up its sleeve.

iPhone:
iPhone SE with A15 in the iPhone 11 Pro/Pro Max Chassis (offer 2 sizes for say, $500)
6.1" and 6.7" iPhone w/A16 in iPhone 14/14 Pro Max Chassis (newest numbered iPhone gets all features of current Pro) - nix the "base" iPhone, and give us a ton of color options

iPad:
iPad Pro 11" and 12.9" w/M2
iPad Air w/M2, and A15 for entry-level education
Redesigned iPad Mini w/Face ID and A15

My .02

 

[JouniS]

The large screen, more powerful iMac seems to divide opinion: some people seem to like all-in-ones, others were never happy with not being able to buy and upgrade their computer and display separately and only got 5k iMacs/iMac Pro because Apple didn't offer a good mid-range headless desktop.

I think the entire premise of the bigger iMac was offering a better affordable consumer display. You originally got a 27" 1440p display in a price category where a reasonable person would have expected 24" 1080p or 1200p. And a few years later, Apple upgraded the resolution to something utterly ridiculous.

Today Apple does not have anything comparable available. The monitors Apple sells have low refresh rates and are not particularly large. The quality is high, but the prices are far beyond the market segment the large iMac originally targeted. Maybe Apple thinks that consumer displays are already good enough, and there is nothing they can reasonably contribute to the sub-$1000 displays most Mac users buy.

 

[gpat]

I'd just like to point out that the Steve 2x2 product matrix was the product strategy of Apple roughly from 1999 to 2000, being formed from iBook, iMac, Powerbook, PowerMac.
In 2000 the G4 Cube was introduced as deliberately a third category of product (see here) and even flopped hard because neither consumers nor professionals could see its value over the iMac or PowerMac relatively to their needs. (Maybe Steve failed to follow his own advice?)

If you pretend the G4 Cube never happened (like Steve did in 2001), you still had to deal with 3 sizes of Powerbook, 2 sizes of iBook, the eMac, the iMac G3 coexisting with G4, and the Mac Mini.

Fast forward to 2011 under Stevedom and you have the choice between 13" plastic Macbook, 11" Macbook Air, 13" Macbook Air and 13" Macbook Pro as consumer laptops. Even more convoluted than today's lineup.

I wouldn't be so attached with the 2x2 matrix as it was introduced as a model for Apple to follow when it was on the verge of bankruptcy and had to focus its few resources to find a clear direction.

Today's Apple lineup is actually okay if you just drop the 13" Pro and reduce the price of the Studio Display.
Laptop lineup could be streamlined to 13" and 15" Air and 14" and 16" Pro and it would totally be the best Apple has ever offered.
Or even simplify it further and offer choice between
-13" M3
-15" M3/M3Pro
-17" M3Pro/M3Max
Would be even better in my opinion.

Desktop lineup is more complicated but you could do with
- Mini M3 / M3 Pro
- Studio M3 Max / M3 Ultra
- Pro M3 Ultra multiple compute units
- iMac with M3 / Pro / Max steps and only one 27" chassis, with multiple panels (miniLED as option).
24" only with M1 only has been a good joke but we've all stopped laughing for quite a while now.