Are Apple moving away from making good computers in favour of iPods and iPhones?

Posted by: 12frets56 on 01 May 2007

I have two Macs in the house, a G4 iMac and a new Macbook. The iMac has been used almost every day since I bought it, runs Panther with all the updates, and has tons of third party software, applications etc, and has never gone wrong. It is quiet, cool and is as reliable as the day it was new. My Macbook on the other hand, 11 months old, has had to go in for repairs to the keyboard, mousepad, and now a new logic board to remedy the Sudden Random Shutdown fault which many seem to have suffered from. The plastic on the top is coming loose and it gets so hot that it feels like it will melt the plastic. To be honest I am pretty disappointed with it, especially as one of the reasons for using Mac was the, up until now, superior hardware. I have read that the Macbook Pro's have also been less than reliable and there seem to be some quality control issues. I feel that Apple (now "Inc" and no longer "Computers"!) have gone off the trail a bit and are now putting too much effort into being the market leaders in small consumer products like iPods and iPhones, and have forgotten what they should be doing which is making first class computers and software. I am not confident that my Macbook will last even to the end of the 3 year warranty and I am now reluctant to consider buying another Apple computer until they improve on the current build quality of the new models. In fact, I was looking at my friends Sony Viao and it was notable how much more solidly built this was than my Apple laptop.
If it all goes horribly wrong for them when the iPhone is released and they don't sell zillions of the things, and people get fed up with the horrible sound of mp3 music and stop buying iPods, then they do not need to lose their loyal Mac computer buyers ..!
Any other Mac users feel the same?
Posted on: 02 May 2007 by kuma
Jim,

I would have been perfectly happy with the G4 if they still made it. Alas, all i could get was much touted MacPro Book.

I need a laptop for portability. This is non-negotiable and one would never expect the newer machine would perform this poorly.

And it's very naive of you to think an Apple demo would prove its real life functionality.

I realise most of you do not share my frustration yet in past 20 years,i have never faced this much trouble with a new Apple machine.

This is as if I have inherited all the PC nightmare.
I knew that the platform change would screw up something, but I suppose I was also naive enough to think that problems do no occur to me.
Posted on: 03 May 2007 by Chris Kelly
Kuma
I feel for you. It's no good everyone else telling you you're wrong - the Mac isn't doing what you need it to do.
My history with Apple goes back to an Apple11GS in the early 80's, so I am in no way a johhny-come-lately. I have had several macs and I currently run a dual 1.42Ghz G4 mac, with 2GB DDR SDRAM, with a 20' Apple Cinema display (original type).. Beside all this internet stuff, my main applications are photo related. I use Capture1 as a RAW converter at the moment. I was very interested in Aperture but it doesn't run on machines of my vintage. Now looking at Lightroom as am alternative. Also, the fan is intrusively noisy, which was a known issue on this design, but I'd really like a quieter machine!
I am wrestling with all the usual upgrade questions. Should I get a MacPro,a 24"iMac or even a MacBookPro? Tales like yours and the general unease is making the decision really quite tricky, although going back to a Wintel alternative is not a very wholesome idea!
Posted on: 03 May 2007 by Derek Wright
An interesting and relevant Apple laptop story in el reg
Posted on: 03 May 2007 by garyi
Chris you should have a go at aperture on a 24 inch imac its something else.

I run aperture on my 20 inch iMac intel and its very nice indeed. Probably a bit too powerfull for what I need but iPhoto was not powerful enough.

I have also played with lightroom up until the final release. A good program, but not in the same ball park as aperture. However this is also true for the requirements which you have already discovered.

iMacs are near silent as well. I heard the fans once on mine when I was playing Half LIfe 2.
Posted on: 04 May 2007 by Chris Kelly
Thanks Gary. One major gripe with Aperture, and I don't want to get you going again, is that it won't recognise Leica RAW files, and as my DMR/R9 is my preferred platform that is a bit of a bugger. Even more so if I sell my film M7s and get a M8. Apple, based on the gripes in the DP review forum, for example, are very slow at incorporating support for new cameras into Aperture. Fine if you are Canikon user but tough on us minorities! I have been using a test copy of Capture 1 for RAW conversion and that seems to do a good job. That bundled with iView is a serious alternative to Aperture/iPhoto for me.
Posted on: 04 May 2007 by Chris Kelly
But on a 24"iMac of course!
Posted on: 04 May 2007 by garyi
Ah yes without the raw compatibility that would indeed be a deal breaker.

I could not get my head round iView but then I am a muppet.

I think that Aperture/lightroom has become a bit of a thing to fight about on line.
Posted on: 04 May 2007 by Chris Kelly
Heaven forbid that any of us should fight!
Posted on: 04 May 2007 by Guido Fawkes
quote:
Originally posted by Chris Kelly:
My history with Apple goes back to an Apple11GS


Ye olde Granny Smith computer - and it was truly wonderful, I remember it well.
Posted on: 04 May 2007 by garyi
My earliest proper mac for doing stuff (college work) was a 512ke.

512k of rip roaring ram, and two floppy drives. Lovely. Those were the days a whole operating system in one 400k folder haha.
Posted on: 04 May 2007 by Chris Kelly
The 11GS was a colour "mac" in all but name. We loved it. Only finally got rid of it last year when emptying the loft at the former marital home. When we first got back from the US in '89 I ran it on a chunky step down transformer, replacing with a Mac11 (I forget all these damned names!) when that finally became available with colour.
Posted on: 04 May 2007 by garyi
colour? Pah! What use colour when you only had a dot matrix printer?

Seriously I miss the simplicity of Mac Paint, Mac Draw and Mac Write. Remember the extensions that loaded under the happy mac sign as it booted up? Simple times good stuff.

I finally got Suitcase as well so I could I have more than 4 fonts on the go. Ah but I digress.

Then I powered my way through to a an SE then an LC with the wondrous new world of system 7, with the Multi Finder! Its hard to remember back to a system that only ran one programme at a time haha.
Posted on: 04 May 2007 by Chris Kelly
Happy days eh!