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Macbook Pro and life cycles of Mac products
Crayon
Sleeps in the wrong bed.TejasRegistered User regular
Sleeps in the wrong bed.TejasRegistered User regular
So I'm in the market and the Macbook Pro caught my fancy and I've been toying with the idea of jumping ship as a lifelong user of Windows and Windows based desktops and laptops.
My question is that during a product life cycle for basically all Apple products why do they never adjust the price accordingly as the hardware inside becomes cheaper and dated. I mean I was looking at the base Macbook Pro and the cpu and other things are a little dated (lots of entry level Windows laptops are base i3 it seems) but yet they're still the same price as they were months ago when they upgraded the hardware.
Is it ultimately a bad idea to enter into the Apple arena during the tail end of their product life cycles? How upgradeable are their laptops to move with the times, or are they at all? is it really just a product of WYSIWYG? And when is the best time to enter into the Apple product sphere? Beginning of the life cycle, middle?
And is there any reason as to why they basically keep the same price through the life cycle of their products (iOS and OS devices)?
My question is that during a product life cycle for basically all Apple products why do they never adjust the price accordingly as the hardware inside becomes cheaper and dated. I mean I was looking at the base Macbook Pro and the cpu and other things are a little dated (lots of entry level Windows laptops are base i3 it seems) but yet they're still the same price as they were months ago when they upgraded the hardware.
Is it ultimately a bad idea to enter into the Apple arena during the tail end of their product life cycles? How upgradeable are their laptops to move with the times, or are they at all? is it really just a product of WYSIWYG? And when is the best time to enter into the Apple product sphere? Beginning of the life cycle, middle?
And is there any reason as to why they basically keep the same price through the life cycle of their products (iOS and OS devices)?
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And no, the prices generally don't drop mid-cycle, another reason to get them as they're released.
I just did this two months ago. Typing this on my new MBP 13", in fact. Feel free to ask me any questions you might have.
Oh, they do. The only thing is, they're much more expensive to begin with than regular PCs. You'll see Macs drop about a hundred bucks over the course of the year -- sometimes get minor upgrades. But they're just ridiculously expensive compared to PCs to begin with.
I mean, even when they upgraded the hardware several months ago, they were already behind in terms of price to their PC counterparts. It's just that they can get away with it.
This isn't quite an answer to your question, but it will help: http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
As I said, quite simply: Because they can.
I'M A TWITTER SHITTER
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
{EDIT} Beat by a split second.
On a related note, I just picked up the low end 13" MacBook Pro, slapped a 500gb 7200rpm HD, and 8gb of RAM (overkill) into it and it runs like a dream. Honestly, I don't know how much of an improvement an i3 would be.
What exactly is that you plan on doing with said computer?
Oh, and Apples keep their value MUCH longer than PCs. Even if in a year they do some crazy upgrade to them, you can expect to resell your MacBook Pro for not much less than what you paid for it.
EDIT: Oh, and they keep the pace very well. New Apple OSs don't bog down older machines like Windows based PCs do.
I can really second this. I bought my Macbook Pro about 3 years ago or so, and it still runs fast and smooth. Honestly I rarely ever even think of upgrading anything and I certainly don't think of it as old because of any performance issues. Only thing I want to change on it is the HDD. That feels painfully small (I do graphic design and my stuff can get kind of big, and sure I have a few externals I use, but I'd like to keep all my graphic stuff right on my computer).
Speaking of that, anyone know how to change a harddrive on a Macbook Pro? Is it easy to do? Do I have to get apple to do it? Do I have to buy their (probably) high priced harddrive?
The harddrives are standard laptop harddrives. I don't know if on your model it will void the warranty. Best to call them.
Oh, and Apple has instructions for replacing the HDD at http://support.apple.com/manuals/#portablecomputers
I'm pretty sure mine isn't under any sort of warranty anymore anyway. I bought it over 3 years, and isn't the max applecare like 3 anyway? I didn't buy that either way.
Anyway, that's better for this topic if they do have user replaceable drives now. As I said the only thing I've wanted to replace really was that, and if that process is really easy now then you can rest assured your MBP will last for quite a while.
I'm sure it's doable. Just figure out the model and Google it up. The newer ones are ridiculously easy to do it on.
iMacs? Don't even bother... It's a major pain in the ass.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
I recently ordered a base 15" MBP with the glossy hi-res upgrade myself. In fact it just got built a few hours ago. Can't wait to get rid of my white macbook, I've had the thing for three years and it was far from cutting edge even when I got it. The MBP should hopefully last me a similar timeframe, if not longer.
Honestly, I just use my laptop for a media hub to play movies, television and music through my hdtv mostly. Other than that I just use it for web browsing and don't really tend to play games through my pc. Given this info is there any reason to go either Mac or Windows laptop? Furthermore, is there a real reason to go with the macbook pro over the regular macbook?
More RAM, an SD Card slot, and it's just a much more solid machine. On the MacBook Pro over the MacBook.
Lenovo Thinkpads are generally considered to be the kings of PC laptop durability. Now compare their prices to the Macbook Pro lineup. Pretty similar, no?
As to your original question. I'd base your purchase on MacRumors, which has already been posted. If the Macbook Pros are approaching the end of a cycle, wait. It's always best to buy when they've just been refreshed. So, consider when a refresh will happen, and decide if you can wait that long.
Macs do seem to last pretty damn long. I know loads of people at school who still use old Powerbooks or iBooks, both of which were discontinued in 2006. Part of that is down to the build quality. Part of that is courtesy of the OS, which is quite a lot less hardware intensive than Windows. To prove that, all you need to do is run XP or Windows 7 in bootcamp on a Mac, and compare the general performance to OSX. Except for gaming, which OSX is definitely not as well optimized for, OSX runs much faster on the same hardware. And OSX requires a lot less maintenance. No defragging, virus scanning, spyware scanning, or periodic reformatting is necessary. Windows 7 is vastly improved in this respect, but it still can't touch OSX.
For what you're doing, I'd grab a base model Macbook Pro 13". If the hard drive space isn't enough, buy a 2.5" drive from Newegg and pop that in (and you might as well pick up an external enclosure for the stock drive). My late 2008 aluminum Macbook came with a 160gb 5400 rpm drive. It currently has a 500gb 7200 rpm drive. RAM is also user upgradable.
Also: If you're going to be plugging it into your TV, you'll need a display port to DVI and a DVI to HDMI adapter... unless a displayport to HDMI adapter exists by now. It would be nice if they'd just use HDMI... it's basically the standard now.
Not all adapters work with audio though, but that one does for sure.
I'm disappointed that I really really like it.
Quick question from the other Mac users here, can you give me a list of software that's nifty and necessary? Just things that aren't necessarily mainstream that really enhance the experience or are really cool to show off to friends.
PSN: Beltaine-77 | Steam: beltane77 | Battle.net BadHaggis#1433
i can tell you what i always use
adium
transmission
tweetie
netnewswire
boxee
dropbox
skitch
cloudapp
bowtie
cinch
daisydisk
candybar (for customizing)
the unarchiver
Does Unarchiver ever lock up on you?
Nope. It used to have problems with large files and multipart files but not anymore. It actually gets updated fairly often, make sure you've got the latest version. http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html
Why would I use bowtie over Remote, which is free and does not require additional software on my Mac? Don't mean to sound rude, just there site is sparse to say the least.
Oh wait, its the opposite of remote, that makes sense, excuse my ignorance
Since buying it, I have made only 3 hardware modifications to it: Upgraded the RAM to 4GB, got a free new battery when the old one died prematurely... and replaced the hard drive with an Intel SSD.
If nothing else breaks in the coming year or two, I doubt I'll ever even think about replacing it. Thanks to the SSD, it's lightning fast (faster than any new macbook pro I've seen in stores in any case), and it's in general the sturdiest machine I have ever had the pleasure of owning.
So... yeah, mine was also a bit "dated" when I got it, and it definitely wasn't cheap, but it's been worth every single euro. 4 years is a very respectable age for a laptop to be performing flawlessly.
Yeah, macs last forever. There was a big thing about flash/youtube being too crappy to decode video on old models (slow g4 and below), but then someone came out with a program to rip the video and give it to a competent media player. We find ways.
And as I said, not even close to considering buying a new one. We'll see how long it lasts.
Wouldn't trade it for anything else though. This keyboard is seeeeeeeex. So much that I streched that word out just to enjoy typing some more.
1.6 GHZ, 1GB RAM, Geforce 8400M,120GB HD,Windows XP. Cost? $690 It lasted me until March 23,2011 when I bough an Inspiron 15R with core i3, intel hd3000, 640GB HD, 4 GB ram, windows 7. Cost? About $700 again.
And the specs of my $700 laptop are basically the same as a $1200 macbook pro. Your money though.