Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
All iPads When was the last time you were really excited about an Apple product?
- Thread starter lcseds
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
This past April 😊 — when I got my iPad Air 5th Gen. Although I had been using iPhones for 5 or 6 years, this was my first iPad. I had no idea how strong and practical iPads are. 😍
The 14" MBP as it's the first mobile device ever that fulfills all my performance requirements with the Max and 64GiB. All the Macbooks of the previous decade had at least one major drawback or another compared to a desktop machine. And even with Zbooks and the like, they were never quite there or they ended up being so workstation-grade that you couldn't bring them with you in a backpack every day.
My 16" MBP (upgraded from a 2014 13" MBP)
My upcoming iPhone 14 Pro (possibly Max - upgrading from an XR)
My upcoming new iPad Pro (upgrading from a 9.7" iPP)
I am/was excited about these things.
haha very same. I bought it for myself as Christmas gift and saved opening it until Christmas morning ... only to find a dead pixel in the middle of the screen. So then I didn't dare use it in case I damaged it and couldn't get a replacement. Once the replacement came it was probably my favourite Apple device I've owned, though. A real sweet-spot of a tablet.
When was the last product I got truly excited about? Whenever I've bought one basically produces the most, no matter how minor that was from the previous model. Apart from a few milestone products a new product release will generally only be an updated revision of a previous one, so it's always somewhat interesting, but incremental. It's not often something really exciting comes out from anyone. But I'm not buying a new one very often.
If you're buying a new whatever every year you're frankly being an idiot. So my current 16" MacBook was super exciting - a big upgrade on the old one. Far faster, a big performance increase and could run loads more SW plugins. Clearly better screen. Loads better graphics so I can play lots of decent games. My first and only iPad was super exciting - yay I have a pencil for scribbling notes in ways I never could before and a pretty slim general purpose portable thing. My Apple Watch S5 (first and only) was exciting giving me new fitness stuff and heart rate monitor, plus being able to buy stuff with my wrist and the option not to take my phone everywhere for everything sometimes.
I'm due a new phone this year to replace my 6S. Whatever it is will have a bigger, far brighter screen, longer battery life, kick its ass for performance, have Face ID (although my iPad has that), "find my" UWB airtag support and a load of other nifty and exciting stuff. Very exciting, even if I don't by the pro and the 14 is kinda last years 13 pro jazzed around with. Very exciting as a due upgrade.
Otherwise it's not that exciting unless I'm buying it and incremental things aren't generally exciting. But if I look at say Ventura that adds Metal 3. This could lead to far more games being ported to Mac easier, so the idea of a free Ventura update that could add a load more fun stuff available to do on my already-owned Mac is definitely *exciting*. But that's not a tangible shiny product release. That's a somewhat nebulous concept of possiblility from a software update to better take advantage of my current hardware. The idea of Bootcamp for Windows for ARM is exciting (if it ever happens). Accelerated graphics running on Linux on the M1/2 is exciting but not yet there. That's more exciting than a new phone revision.
Nothing Apple release outside of a new product category (e.g. AR/VR) will be a must-buy for me and then it may still be a good few years til it's matured and ironically become somewhat less exciting. Like the iPad was interesting when announced, exciting if you will, but I didn't feel the need to buy one when they came out. Then the apple pencil came and I knew it was suddenly a device that I could use for stuff I couldn't do elsewhere to replace pen and paper. It was a new possibility of use-case. I found the apple pencil launch more exciting than the launch of the iPad itself (which was effectively just a big iPod touch). Still didn't buy one for a year or 2, but that was exciting. New M1x chips were exciting because of the performance increases. I guess this years iPhone Pro camera with action cam mode is rather exciting, but I'll only take limited advantage of it. Excited would be a bit much to describe putting animations around a camera cutout, so I'll say I'm just more interested/curious about the dynamic island. The watch Ultra is kinda exciting, but I dont have one - maybe in a few years when this one's time is past.
The most exciting thing I've seen in recent times is foldable phones from Samsung. But the first ones had issues and the current ones are super expensive (and the cameras aren't great from what I hear). It's exciting from a novelty tech perspective, but I don't actually want one. It'll just make my phone thicker and I have no need for a big phone regardless. It's a phone. If I want something that big I've got to fold out I'm probably at work or home and there's proper Macs, PCs or my iPad there for real apps and internet.
So a lot of the most exciting tech I'm not likely to actually buy. And some exciting things like Metal 3 are kinda very vague. I mean we're all geeks here if we're geeking out on rumours of upcoming products, so we're kinda all somewhere between somewhat curious and excited for everything, but nothing here can or will get me super-pumped without some groundbreaking tech jump or new product category. I don't expect regular product updates to get me *properly* excited. If I want real *excitement* that's gonna come from riding a gnarly downhill trail on a mountain bike, going to a great gig or watching a horror movie. The excitement of tech for me comes from the possibilities of how I can use a tool, not from the tool itself, and it's not very often something game changing happens from any company. Apple is no different, but on average have had their fair share. Notably:
Since everything is largely incremental but still garners some excitement, I guess the next Apple product I'm excited about (but not gonna buy) is the Mac Pro. Should be a beast. But it's largely an iteration of the old Mac pro and the current M1/M2 chips. I'm definitely not excited about the new M2 Pro/Max 14/16": that's just gonna be incremental and make my current lovely MacBook less exciting by no longer being the best. Then AR/VR is due, which I'm currently living quite happily without, but is c;ear;y an exciting concept and may actually be exciting enough I'll buy it in a few years. Maybe. But that's because it's an entirely new product line that will do something different. So in summary, I don't expect much above base-level excitement as a rule and I'm unlikely to get more than that very often.
If you're buying a new whatever every year you're frankly being an idiot. So my current 16" MacBook was super exciting - a big upgrade on the old one. Far faster, a big performance increase and could run loads more SW plugins. Clearly better screen. Loads better graphics so I can play lots of decent games. My first and only iPad was super exciting - yay I have a pencil for scribbling notes in ways I never could before and a pretty slim general purpose portable thing. My Apple Watch S5 (first and only) was exciting giving me new fitness stuff and heart rate monitor, plus being able to buy stuff with my wrist and the option not to take my phone everywhere for everything sometimes.
I'm due a new phone this year to replace my 6S. Whatever it is will have a bigger, far brighter screen, longer battery life, kick its ass for performance, have Face ID (although my iPad has that), "find my" UWB airtag support and a load of other nifty and exciting stuff. Very exciting, even if I don't by the pro and the 14 is kinda last years 13 pro jazzed around with. Very exciting as a due upgrade.
Otherwise it's not that exciting unless I'm buying it and incremental things aren't generally exciting. But if I look at say Ventura that adds Metal 3. This could lead to far more games being ported to Mac easier, so the idea of a free Ventura update that could add a load more fun stuff available to do on my already-owned Mac is definitely *exciting*. But that's not a tangible shiny product release. That's a somewhat nebulous concept of possiblility from a software update to better take advantage of my current hardware. The idea of Bootcamp for Windows for ARM is exciting (if it ever happens). Accelerated graphics running on Linux on the M1/2 is exciting but not yet there. That's more exciting than a new phone revision.
Nothing Apple release outside of a new product category (e.g. AR/VR) will be a must-buy for me and then it may still be a good few years til it's matured and ironically become somewhat less exciting. Like the iPad was interesting when announced, exciting if you will, but I didn't feel the need to buy one when they came out. Then the apple pencil came and I knew it was suddenly a device that I could use for stuff I couldn't do elsewhere to replace pen and paper. It was a new possibility of use-case. I found the apple pencil launch more exciting than the launch of the iPad itself (which was effectively just a big iPod touch). Still didn't buy one for a year or 2, but that was exciting. New M1x chips were exciting because of the performance increases. I guess this years iPhone Pro camera with action cam mode is rather exciting, but I'll only take limited advantage of it. Excited would be a bit much to describe putting animations around a camera cutout, so I'll say I'm just more interested/curious about the dynamic island. The watch Ultra is kinda exciting, but I dont have one - maybe in a few years when this one's time is past.
The most exciting thing I've seen in recent times is foldable phones from Samsung. But the first ones had issues and the current ones are super expensive (and the cameras aren't great from what I hear). It's exciting from a novelty tech perspective, but I don't actually want one. It'll just make my phone thicker and I have no need for a big phone regardless. It's a phone. If I want something that big I've got to fold out I'm probably at work or home and there's proper Macs, PCs or my iPad there for real apps and internet.
So a lot of the most exciting tech I'm not likely to actually buy. And some exciting things like Metal 3 are kinda very vague. I mean we're all geeks here if we're geeking out on rumours of upcoming products, so we're kinda all somewhere between somewhat curious and excited for everything, but nothing here can or will get me super-pumped without some groundbreaking tech jump or new product category. I don't expect regular product updates to get me *properly* excited. If I want real *excitement* that's gonna come from riding a gnarly downhill trail on a mountain bike, going to a great gig or watching a horror movie. The excitement of tech for me comes from the possibilities of how I can use a tool, not from the tool itself, and it's not very often something game changing happens from any company. Apple is no different, but on average have had their fair share. Notably:
- The iPhone (absolutely changed the game)
- TouchID including ApplePay for mobile payments
- FaceID
- The App Store - I mean before this no-one had any Facebook, social media, decent games or fitness/cycling apps like Strava/Komoot, etc. But is kinda not very exciting at all on some levels, we put software on computers for years already.
- Aluminium unibody laptops
- retina displays
- airtags incl. UWB searching
- Apple pencil
- going to intel (although only exciting to Mac users, but adding Windows support)
- going ARM (great for performance, but for compatibility Rosetta 2 is a massive star here)
- Watches to easily interface with the phone so you can leave it in your pocket or leave it behind
- spatial audio (although I don't have any airpods myself)
Since everything is largely incremental but still garners some excitement, I guess the next Apple product I'm excited about (but not gonna buy) is the Mac Pro. Should be a beast. But it's largely an iteration of the old Mac pro and the current M1/M2 chips. I'm definitely not excited about the new M2 Pro/Max 14/16": that's just gonna be incremental and make my current lovely MacBook less exciting by no longer being the best. Then AR/VR is due, which I'm currently living quite happily without, but is c;ear;y an exciting concept and may actually be exciting enough I'll buy it in a few years. Maybe. But that's because it's an entirely new product line that will do something different. So in summary, I don't expect much above base-level excitement as a rule and I'm unlikely to get more than that very often.
I was pretty psyched about Apple Silicon, and I really had a hard time waiting until it got to the Macs that I wanted. Then I got the 14" MBP—and I almost got whiplash.
I'm not a frequent upgrader, so the last phone that excited me was the 12 Pro, which is what I'm using now.
I'll certainly say that the MacBook Airs that I've had have been pretty enthusiastically embraced, even though they were slightly on the underpowered side for my needs. That seems to be less and less true of the Apple Silicon ones, though, so I'm watching that space intently for the next Mac upgrade a couple of years in the future.
I'm not a frequent upgrader, so the last phone that excited me was the 12 Pro, which is what I'm using now.
I'll certainly say that the MacBook Airs that I've had have been pretty enthusiastically embraced, even though they were slightly on the underpowered side for my needs. That seems to be less and less true of the Apple Silicon ones, though, so I'm watching that space intently for the next Mac upgrade a couple of years in the future.
My M1 iMac I bought in February this year. And last year the iPad Pro M1
This year’s updates have not been exciting for me which in a way makes sense as I just renewed everything.
I have a feeling 2023 will be a year where I won’t be replacing any apple products
This year’s updates have not been exciting for me which in a way makes sense as I just renewed everything.
I have a feeling 2023 will be a year where I won’t be replacing any apple products
People are excited when they upgrade after longer period than 2 years. If you upgrade every year you lost excitement because you have almost the same device like previous year.
As for me I was excited when I was waiting 2 years to upgrade Macbook Pro 2018 and did not rush to jump for Air.
But after time I lost excitement because I wanted 16” M1Max, which I returned for 16” M1Pro and later returned for 14” Macbook Pro with great deal from local Apple store.
The excitement was gone due to the very surprisingly high prices of M1MacbookPros and the fact that the price policy was so bad for customer that when you want more SSD or RAM, you had to spend cash like buying another laptop.
Right now I have for 1 year 14” Macbook Pro, which is great but still I was going and I am looking for 16” which I miss but price bump has no sense for my usecase scenarios.
As for me I was excited when I was waiting 2 years to upgrade Macbook Pro 2018 and did not rush to jump for Air.
But after time I lost excitement because I wanted 16” M1Max, which I returned for 16” M1Pro and later returned for 14” Macbook Pro with great deal from local Apple store.
The excitement was gone due to the very surprisingly high prices of M1MacbookPros and the fact that the price policy was so bad for customer that when you want more SSD or RAM, you had to spend cash like buying another laptop.
Right now I have for 1 year 14” Macbook Pro, which is great but still I was going and I am looking for 16” which I miss but price bump has no sense for my usecase scenarios.
lol - this made me laugh, because I totally agree with you
A brief flicker of excitement there in between..
Lol, yeah, high prices can a bummer. I’ve been looking forward to 1TB iPads for a long time (since I got my first iPad in 2011) but when the 2018 iPP was released, the $1899 price tag was a deal killer.
My iPhone 13 Pro last year: beautiful screen, excellent cameras, super fast, amazing battery life. I wish I’d gotten more internal storage and the Max, but still such an excellent device that I plan to keep for 4 years or so.
(I’m terrified iOS 16 will kill the amazing battery life, so I haven’t upgraded even though I‘d like to try out some of the features. 😕)
ETA: and before that was my wife’s (base) M1 MBA - another excellent machine.
(I’m terrified iOS 16 will kill the amazing battery life, so I haven’t upgraded even though I‘d like to try out some of the features. 😕)
ETA: and before that was my wife’s (base) M1 MBA - another excellent machine.
I was excited for the iPad mini 6, and before that the 2018 iPad Pro, and before that the original iPad mini.
I was excited for AirPods.
I was excited for the AW 7, more than I was exited for my AW 6 that preceded it.
I was — and still am — excited for the iPhone 13 mini.
I was excited for AirPods.
I was excited for the AW 7, more than I was exited for my AW 6 that preceded it.
I was — and still am — excited for the iPhone 13 mini.
The first 15' Retina MacBook in 2012, the iPhone 5, also in 2012, and the first iPad mini, in yup, 2012.
See a pattern here? haha
I purchased all these devices the moment they came out. I've never done so since.
See a pattern here? haha
I purchased all these devices the moment they came out. I've never done so since.
iPad Pro 11inch. I use it a lot (3 hours a day according to screen time). It's great for reading academic papers, which I need to do for work. It's also my primary internet device (the other being my work laptop). I'm not a massive gamer (my ps4 gathers dust), but I enjoy civ and the odd puzzle on it.
In fact it's replaced a lot of the things my home MacBook did - which is why I haven't updated that since 2016.
The laptops haven't really hit the spot for ages. I'll probably get a maxed out 16inch one from work in a year or two, it's hard to justify a home laptop that isn't quite right - although the 14inch map came very close, as did the M1 Air.
The iPhone hasn't exited me in a while. I replace it every few years when the battery dies. It used to be whenever the contract ran out, but that just seemed a waste of resources. My iPhone X has been adequate for ages, and until they upgrade to usb-c or get rid of the notch I'm not sure I'll see any reason to change.
In fact it's replaced a lot of the things my home MacBook did - which is why I haven't updated that since 2016.
The laptops haven't really hit the spot for ages. I'll probably get a maxed out 16inch one from work in a year or two, it's hard to justify a home laptop that isn't quite right - although the 14inch map came very close, as did the M1 Air.
The iPhone hasn't exited me in a while. I replace it every few years when the battery dies. It used to be whenever the contract ran out, but that just seemed a waste of resources. My iPhone X has been adequate for ages, and until they upgrade to usb-c or get rid of the notch I'm not sure I'll see any reason to change.
Probably the first time I saw color on a Mac. It was a Mac II that was on display at a local Businessland. At a time where we all thought of the Macintosh as being a 9" 512x384 monochrome device, seeing color at 640x480 blew my young little mind. I was pretty excited about the Newton too, but hindsight being what it is, I don't admit that too much.
By the time Apple products like the iPod or iPhone were released, I was too old (or perhaps too cynical) to get genuinely excited about technology. These days it's more like, "Huh. That's cool."
By the time Apple products like the iPod or iPhone were released, I was too old (or perhaps too cynical) to get genuinely excited about technology. These days it's more like, "Huh. That's cool."
M1 MacBook Air - I bought one before the credits finished rolling on the keynote.
The rule of thumb is that if you haven’t replaced an Apple product in several years then it becomes exciting because there’s a multitude of new features
However the iPhone has reached maturity more or less and the proof is how many people are using older iphones
My question is with all the patents Apple has achieved why can’t we see some serious changes. Most of the patents Apple receives never see the light of day in a product
However the iPhone has reached maturity more or less and the proof is how many people are using older iphones
My question is with all the patents Apple has achieved why can’t we see some serious changes. Most of the patents Apple receives never see the light of day in a product
Yeah agree. I didn’t feel “wow” on iPhone since 4s - except only better camera (and slightly bigger display).
The last was the 11 ProMax.
Prior to that was the 7 Plus.
Since these I have not been truly excited about any Apple product. It has become more of a replacement mentality. That replacement doesn't have to be Apple.
All too often, I'll hear about the initial description of the Apple item and think "Yes!" then once I start looking into the item, the glitz very quickly wears off.
Prior to that was the 7 Plus.
Since these I have not been truly excited about any Apple product. It has become more of a replacement mentality. That replacement doesn't have to be Apple.
All too often, I'll hear about the initial description of the Apple item and think "Yes!" then once I start looking into the item, the glitz very quickly wears off.