One can argue that Apple Inc. is the iPhone company because the iconic device makes up more than 60-percent of the company’s revenue and profits. So be it. But all of Apple’s major products make a lot of money and cause envy among competitors, regardless of the industry segment. Macs comprise about half the PC industry’s profits. iPads, too. Ditto Watch. Who makes more money selling music than Apple?
The future seems to be a heady froth of thinner, lighter, faster, and Apple has a few Mac products that are not. Look at the Mac lineup. Are there a few models that Apple could throw to the curb and no one would notice?
Yes.
Here’s my look at what Apple could do to the Mac that may seem drastic but probably means little to the company’s revenue and profits. Sooner or later we’ll say goodbye to these Macs.
MacBook Air – This is a no brainer. The MBA is aging fast, replaced in everything but price by the new thinner, lighter, sexier, and almost faster MacBook line. Retina is the new standard among displays, but the lower priced MBA means it will stick around as long as it sells, just the like non-Retina unibody MacBook Pro (now available only online). Goodbye.
Mac mini – What? Is it possible Apple will ditch the mini entirely? I think so. The mini has two customer groups. Those on a budget who need the cheapest Mac they can get (or an even cheaper second Mac), and those among the geeky elite who use it as a server. Only Apple knows how well the Mac mini sells, but it definitely does not get much love from Apple’s engineering teams. Who would miss not having a Mac mini in the lineup? Goodbye.
Mac Pro – ‘Say it ain’t so, Kate.’ Again, no love from Apple for more than two years. By my estimate, the sales numbers just are not there to justify a made-in-USA device which remains an engineering marvel but is way overpriced to similarly equipped Windows or Linux PCs. Sure, the Mac Pro bristles with connectivity and connectors, but the advertising of a desktop cylinder belies what actually takes place– a trash can with a dozen cables and cords hanging out of it. Steve Jobs– who loved cubes, by the way– would be appalled. Goodbye.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that Apple has little desire to sell products that compete in price with competitor products. Across the board– MacBook Air, Mac mini, Mac Pro– there are Windows PC, Linux, and Chromebook alternatives that are priced far less but have greater performance. Apple just doesn’t sell enough of these models to justify their existence other than as placeholders so it doesn’t appear to the Mac-loving public that Apple is abandoning the Mac.
That reason alone may be exactly why such models exist at all.
Rich says
I disagree about the discontinued use of the Mac mini. Other people who work for printers, publishers, office people alike use the man mini as there computer. They use it for database work or web design especially considering options for monitor preferences. Not every company can afford to buy iMacs considering there price point over a Mac mini with an inexpensive display. The print shops or graphic art people can barely charge customers a price for a product and get any labor for there time creating the art work already alone as a separate price. I just hope that apple will create like they did in the past a true expandable boxes so the printing industry can survive in the future not using the Mac Pro today.
The last thing I will say there of builders also offer smaller boxes like the mini and they are better than the huge desktop cases of yesterday that would be less noticeable and easier to setup and use now in today’s office space.
cal worthington says
Apple seems to be a very pragmatic and disciplined company, but not willing to get rid of older technology as quickly as it once did. The MacBook Air should have been gone a year ago. It’s still there and still sells. That’s in contrast to the Mac Pro which truly needs a matching display and a price cut. It’s been pushing three years and no upgrade. I expect Apple to drop the Mac Pro and introduce an iMac Pro with extra capabilities– and a Retina display. Mac mini? Meh. Who cares?
Chris says
The Mac Pro doesn’t sell because it is junk. If they made a good one it would sell some units. Frankly, they could sell more Mac Minis if they gave it more love.
jScottK says
I would expect at least some change to the Mac mini and Pro lines for a very obvious reason: Neither has a microphone! In fact, the Pro doesn’t even have a microphone port and must rely on a cheap, USB mic. Oddly, the mini has the opposite problem as its mic port uses expensive, line-level mics.
It’s gong to be a little weird if the biggest selling point of macOS Sierra, Siri, can’t be used by either out of the box.
The Pool Man says
Have you seen Mini PCs these days? The Mac Mini isn’t ‘mini’ by any stretch of the imagination. It’s more the Mac Christie.
If Mac design is so amazing they could release a Mac Mini roughly the shape of the Apple TV 3. The Mac —
— for the rest of us.
Ahem.