PCMag: Apple Is Ready to Ditch the Mac

Megalith

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John Dvorak of PCMag believes that the Mac will be phased out and the whole line will be replaced by iPads. Part of his thinking is based on the latest Apple commercial for the iPad Pro, which highlights Apple's attitude towards computers: a little girl rejects the notion of a computer itself and thus separates an iOS device from everything you think of as a PC.

What does this say about the Macintosh? I'm seeing the parallel with the Apple II and "Apple II Forever" extravaganza. It's the end of the line. Apple mentions the Mac less and less at its big events. The company knows that the machine is a drain on resources that detracts from its new core business, iOS and its mobile devices.
 
I could see Apple getting rid of it. You hardly hear any thing about the Mac (except articles about how little is being said/done with the Mac). And if I remember correctly, the last MBP wasn't much of an improvement over the previous version. If they do discontinue it they're going to be pissing off a lot of Mac lovers.
 
Sure, ditch laptops (which are actually selling well), at a time when the tablet market is stagnant and dying. Makes sense if you're a moron I guess. I'm surprised tech journalists are still pushing the post-PC narrative with how badly tablets are doing. This article seems like something that could have been written five years ago.
 
I reject the notion that an iPad can do everything. Trying to actually be productive and generating a final product is impossible on one. Getting an idea down or other basic tasks are nice but can be done equally on a phone.
 
I doubt that the Mac line will just disappear without us seeing it coming. I think the more likely scenario is that both operating systems, iOS and MacOS, will both develop to a point where the differences between each are minimal. At this stage, people will start to wonder why there are two product lines instead of just one. And I seriously doubt this will happen within the next few years. Merging the iOS and MacOS ecosystems, if that is the plan, would be a very long-term goal.
 
Every iPad owner I know, the thing was a gimmick that got used for like a week, and then was tossed into some dusty corner because it couldn't replace their laptop or desktop, and wasn't really portable like a smartphone. I don't even really see anyone using tablets in public any longer. Everyone is either on a smartphone, or if they have serious work to get done, a laptop.
 
I've owned 3 iPads of varying generations with the latest being an iPad Pro 9.7 w/ keyboard. All were a good idea at the time but ended up selling them at a loss for non-use. Not sure I would do it again.
 
First: Dvorak is still alive?
and Second: In the future all work will be done on your smartphone and all games will run at a locked 30 frames per second.
 
What's a computer? So Apple's marketing team thinks it's cool to be a young ignorant hipster. Weird message I'm getting out of this commercial.
Yeah, I thought Microsoft was supposed to have the cringe worthy commercials, what's going on here?
 
What's a computer? So Apple's marketing team thinks it's cool to be a young ignorant hipster. Weird message I'm getting out of this commercial.
That's what I got from it too..

First bunch of edge cases with a "rich kid" and in most cases kids would just use their phone, plus nitpicking her helmet isn't strapped in properly and has a high risk of falling off... Then end the whole thing with showing how ignorant their "average user" supposed to be? Are you trying to become Microsoft?

And whilst you can use the ipads for a lot, and many do, it still won't replace a desktop or laptop for typing to many compromises...
 
Except for the fact that you cannot write Apps for iOS without a Mac somewhere in your development workflow.

I am not a Mac user, but every time I see some story about the Mac being killed off I wonder how they manage to skip that minor detail.
 
I would be so happy to see Mac OS and all the apple devices just go away. I hate supporting the stupid things in a Windows environment...hell even in an Apple environment they don't work well.
 
It's a kid asking what's a computer in the commercial, not an adult.
To me, it's simply saying when the new generation rises 20 years from now, laptops and desktops will be a thing of the past, and the new iPad and iOS will lead that change.

But right now, laptops and desktops are still popular.
 
Every iPad owner I know, the thing was a gimmick that got used for like a week, and then was tossed into some dusty corner because it couldn't replace their laptop or desktop, and wasn't really portable like a smartphone. I don't even really see anyone using tablets in public any longer. Everyone is either on a smartphone, or if they have serious work to get done, a laptop.

I use the new iPad to show multimedia projects to clients. Everyone comes with their laptops to the meeting and I have an iPad with a keyboard.
It immediately becomes a topic of conversation and some consider to do the same. To interact with media via touch really increases the value of my work, because that's how most people interact with rich media these days.

iPads are instant on, with LTE and virtually not slowdown.

I don't like to take laptops with me in the field because clients think I can just do work in their office.
Work only happens back at the office on my Mac Pro.
 
/me thinks back to Apple circa 1985 - 1995 and grins...

"Do it!"
 
I se the new iPad to show multimedia projects to clients. Everyone comes with their laptops and I have an iPad with a keyboard.
It immediately becomes a topic of conversation and some consider to do the same. To interact with media via touch really increases the value of my work, because that's how most people interact with rich media these days.

Many laptops have touch screens as well, along with superior keyboards.
 
Every iPad owner I know, the thing was a gimmick that got used for like a week, and then was tossed into some dusty corner because it couldn't replace their laptop or desktop, and wasn't really portable like a smartphone. I don't even really see anyone using tablets in public any longer. Everyone is either on a smartphone, or if they have serious work to get done, a laptop.

Ok well I'll break that narrative for you. I resisted the iPad for a very long time. I'm pretty much die hard android and PC. However my last job required and provided iPads for work. I own 4 Android tablets, Phones and about 8 PC's and laptops. I grudgingly took the iPad because I had no other choice. In the 3 years I've used it, the experience has been absolutely positive the entire time. There are quite a few things it just flat out does better than any of my android tablets. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still never buying an iPhone and it certainly isn't replacing my laptops ever..but frankly right now the next tablet purchase for me is going to be an iPad unless something changes. I've used every tablet on the market and the iPad is right now the best overall one. At the end of the day brand is less important than functionality to me. I've stuck exclusively to android because up until the Ipad 3 I felt android was superior. That is no longer the case.
 
Yeah, choices suck when brand loyalty prevents you from having any.
I don't think it's brand loyalty, it's what works for them to produce the work desired. If most Apple users are mindless brand loyalist, then most PC users aren't knowledgeable because the majority buy pre-built systems and seek GeekSquad like help to fix simple issues.

If a middle schooler's education is so lacking to have never heard about the concept of a computer before, maybe they shouldn't be carrying around a $650 easily broken device with them everywhere.

Meh, everyone doesn't need a Thinkpad. Put it in a protective case and move on.
Kids will destroy anything in the right situation, but at least Apple Care is a much more efficient system than any PC warranty.

I remember ASUS sending back my defective motherboard after a month with nothing done.
I had to ship it back to them again for them to finally fix it. Two months without my main motherboard, which I had to purchase a backup from Amazon and sell it at a loss.
 
I reject the notion that an iPad can do everything. Trying to actually be productive and generating a final product is impossible on one. Getting an idea down or other basic tasks are nice but can be done equally on a phone.

From a hardware perspective it's possible. The big issue is that iOS is fundamentally built from the ground up as a consumption OS - Not a production/office OS. This is why if you want a tablet for /production/ you'd want to stick with the Surface or something similar. This is why the iPad Pro is such a joke to me.
 
Windows devices, just like they've forever. Apple lost their performance leads over Pc's when they stopped using PowerPC
Really? There ones I know would never switch over their dead body. I never met a designer that embraced PC. Mac is "better" even if it's inferior
 
Really? There ones I know would never switch over their dead body. I never met a designer that embraced PC. Mac is "better" even if it's inferior

Maybe in your perspective. The objective truth is that ever since the move to x86 and the lack of focus on MacOS/Prosumer from Apple designers have been moving over to the PC in droves.
 
I've been saying this for a while.

Computers represent 3-4% of their gross revenue based on the shareholder report my brother and I read over on Thanksgiving break.

I would expect that the basic college student 13" MacBook is a Lion's share of that.

The hardware and ongoing macos development is probably similarly expensive to mobile hardware and iOS development, with far less revenue/profit potential.

I think they will drop the Mac pro and the Mac mini. Then they will scale back to limited iMac options and combine the MacBook, MacBook air, and 13" pro into a single laptop, and drop the 15" as they did the 17".

Then a few years in go to app development on the iPad and drop the computers.
 
Dvorak doesn't know anything, just his speculation. It would make no sense.
 
What's a computer? So Apple's marketing team thinks it's cool to be a young ignorant hipster. Weird message I'm getting out of this commercial.
That's the part that irks me every single time.

An iPad is a computer. It's not a powerful computer by most standards (especially here at [H]), but by very definition it is a computer.

"noun: an electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program."

Yes, lets dumb things down even further Apple. Give the rest of the world justification to continue judging your user base as a bunch of self absorbed simpletons who can't figure out how to use the machines that 99% of the rest of the planet uses. Good Job.

good-job.jpg
 
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Young Girl: What's a computer?
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Little Boy: Can it run Crysis?
emotional-kid-is-playing-computer-game-stock-images_csp3191115.jpg

Young Girl: ???
Screen-Shot-2017-11-16-at-4.18.17-PM-780x457.jpg

Little boy: How many terrabytes does it have?
emotional-kid-is-playing-computer-game-stock-images_csp3191115.jpg

Young Girl: ........
trashcan.jpg
 
Looks like a MS copy to me. But apple is known not to make their own original stuff anyway.
 
Looks like a MS copy to me. But apple is known not to make their own original stuff anyway.

From what I remember, their ad for the Macintosh based around George Orwell's 1984 was pretty original.

It's just a shame they didn't follow through with the concept it was trying to portray.
 
lol this thread: "Look how much I hate Apple stuff! Let me make up wildly fake stories to prove how dumb stuff is that I don't like!"

Anyways this article is fairly dumb, its basing its assumption on a successful Apple commercial where Apple used a line to delineate an iPad from a PC.
 
Wall Street would certainly love Apple to dump the Mac line.

What Wall Street wants...

Oh and my parents would have gone crazy seeing me laying on the grass in winter (as it looks in those pics). Shows how bright she is.
 
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