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The M2 MBP makes absolutely no sense
- Thread starter rm5
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I think its for companies who have a fleet of 13.6 MBP's and want to maintain consistency instead of having to test first and make sure it works with their existing tools. Someone ordered a maxed out 14 inch and its been taking a while to show up.
If you would re-read the entire thread you'd see why you fail to grasp the reason behind Apple keeping it. However, clearly you didn't.
Apple obviously has good reasons. I'm not saying they're totally infallible, but some clever spod will have worked out that this machine makes financial sense for some reason or other, whether it's using up existing components, providing a Pro machine at a time when supply chains are still tight on the higher-end computers, having another product at a point between the entry-level and top end, or a combination of all of the above. I don't think you need to worry about it.
Probably getting rid of inventory- with all the China issues they may want to concentrate on a tried-and-true design. Agree it makes no sense- should replace it with 15" MBA. Also, did anyone notice that in the keynote Ternus called it a "laptop"? Apple usually avoids that term in place of "notebook". I wonder what happened.
I think this is probably the end of the road for the 13" MacBook Pro. Other than a minor bump in sustained performance over the MacBook Air, there's not much reason to buy it over the less expensive M1/M2 Air.
And the people who love the touch bar... only want their MacBooks with the base M2, two ports, no MagSafe, etc?
But people who want M2s with two ports and MagSafe don't want the touch bar? And people who want M1 Pros and M1 Maxes and HDMI ports and SD card readers also don't want the touch bar?
I agree that there are touch bar fans out there, I'm just finding it difficult to believe that a low-end 13" actively-cooled M2-powered two-port MagSafe-less machine is what they all want.
I fully agree, it seems a weird machine in the line-up. But I guess the spreadsheet guys in sales suggested management to keep that thing for sale…
I'll say once again. The 13" MBP is touted by Apple as their second best selling Mac. Clearly there is a market out there even if MR readers wish to ignore such fact.
It's not about getting rid of inventory or problems with other Macs, they just sell so well.
Lastly, when Apple decides to swap designs, they slowly start reducing manufacturing of components and we start getting extended lead times on current generations in order to minimize inventory. That is Apple's tell-tale sign an update is coming on Macs.
I can understand them selling so well. But I don't think the touch bar is a contributor to that - my guess would be that they sell well because of the price and because people presume, somewhat inaccurately in the world of Apple Silicon, that the "Pro" model is significantly more capable than the Air.
In reality, the "more capable" Pro has really always been the four-port Intel model which has been replaced with the 14" M1 Pro model, but...
In the case of the "Pro", it is more capable than an MBA just because of the fan and because performance on the MBA throttles down. In other words, the MBA is thermally limited.
Devil’s advocate, but I would probably go with the base 14” Pro vs a comparably equipped 13” Pro if I was concerned about sustained performance. That envelope where the 13” Pro excels above the Air is probably only by a 5-10% margin?
It's simply guys - this is the only Mac that you can get _with_ active cooling (which many enterprise IT teams require) AND more than 16 GB of RAM, for under 2k.
I suspect that the enterprise IT crowd (maybe via feedback from their partners such as IBM) is the reason we still have this machine - it's per their request. Pure strategy from Apple's end, and like others have said it seems to sell well based on what they said in the keynote.
I suspect that the enterprise IT crowd (maybe via feedback from their partners such as IBM) is the reason we still have this machine - it's per their request. Pure strategy from Apple's end, and like others have said it seems to sell well based on what they said in the keynote.
Cost starts at 2k, which is 700 more than this machine, before BTO selections. 700 is ... kind of a lot for more cores or a slightly bigger screen that may not even be relevant to your workload.
It needs to get replaced with a 15” MacBook with 1 fan for sustained workloads. 13.6 inch MacBook Air, 15 inch MacBook, 14 and 16” MBP. And then, the 12 inch Air can make its triumphant return as well.
This would serve people who need a fan but don’t need M1/2 Pro or greater. I.e. me.
This would serve people who need a fan but don’t need M1/2 Pro or greater. I.e. me.
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I believe that they are purely selling extra aluminum casings and some extra stuff that are designed more than 5 years in the past
But they haven’t lowered the price
Now the MBA have a more advanced(redesigned) hardware and include better technology(webcam,display) and cost less than a MBP because of a fan, larger battery, and somewhat better mics
So I believe that I’m replacing my ↙️MBA2019 with the new M2 Air
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The envelope is around thermals. You can push the 13"MBP even further thanks to that envelop, the MBA is capped automatically. I don't recall the margins.
Apple seems to have decided long ago that if you needed a big screen, you were going to get upsold to a machine with higher-end internals. (In the Intel days, 15" usually meant discrete graphics, a base 16GB of RAM since the mid-2014, etc) And that may be working out for them - they sold me an M1 Max 16" when, realistically, I would have been happier with a 24 gig M2 15" of the sort you describe for... probably half the money of my M1 Max.
(That being said, all the rumours of a large-screen MBA makes one hope that they've rethought this policy.)
There is merit in this. I know personally of a few teachers that had Intel Airs when the pandemic hit, and their machines were struggling to host Zoom calls for classes. I have heard them say: “I never want an Air again.” It wouldn’t matter if someone explained that the M1 changed everything, their minds are already made up. A lot of people shop/buy with their gut feeling and no research.
I suspect the issue had less to do with Air vs non-Air and more to do with RAM or other things, but I take your point - if people see disappointing performance on an Air, they'll think they need the Pro. So if Apple can use some old enclosures and touch bars and give those people something to feel good about... why not, I guess?
In many ways this is a replacement for the MD101LL/A, the $1099 13" MBP with a SuperDrive they sold for years past its expiration date.
But they keep updating the guts of this one, so it's a much better value for $1299 than the old '101 ever was.
But they keep updating the guts of this one, so it's a much better value for $1299 than the old '101 ever was.
The 13 MBP is the last MacBook which had a proper designer such as Jony Ive, redesigned ones doesn't even have any designer, thats why they so ugly and that notch... And these new ones probably will be redesigned again in a few years, notch obviously removed, while anything by Ive lasted decades. It's like fast fashion H&M's vs Louis Vuitton, Saint Lauren... The former goes to trash bin in months, the latter is preserved for decades...
The other advantages are touch bar (might be subjective, but i think it's superior, just learn to take advantage of it), better battery, active cooling. If I didn't have M1 aleady I'd get M2 13" instead of that "redesigned" MBA.
The other advantages are touch bar (might be subjective, but i think it's superior, just learn to take advantage of it), better battery, active cooling. If I didn't have M1 aleady I'd get M2 13" instead of that "redesigned" MBA.
"If I don't want it, there's no way anyone is buying it"