Apple in 2018
In 2018, I want to see a new Mac Pro. But more than that, I want to see it really live up to Apple’s statements that it will be modular and expandable.
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2018 is the year for the Mac mini revival. The Mac mini is never going to be a major part of Apple’s Mac product line, but it adds a huge amount of versatility to the platform, and that’s reason enough to keep it around.
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But for the third straight year, I’m also hoping that we’ll see a proper MacBook update, one that does more than just speed up the internals.
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I think it’s time for Apple to backtrack on a design misstep and change the keyboard on the MacBook Pro. A pro laptop deserves a great keyboard, not one that was built as a compromise in exchange for the ultra-thinness of the MacBook.
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If Apple’s truly committed to the Touch Bar for the long term, it’s time to see some progress.
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The most important thing to do is keep the platform stable. Reduce bugs, remove security flaws, and keep everything running smoothly.
Apple gets told it’s wrong so goddamn always the company can no longer tell when it’s really wrong. At least not in a way that prevents it from happening or course-corrects it quickly.
Hopefully, iMac Pro and the upcoming new Mac Pro are signs Apple recognizes this danger. Not just at the highest end of the lineups and not just after the fact — but across all of its products and well in advance of what’s going into production next.
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These products have not been significantly updated in years yet they’re still being sold. Apple hasn’t discontinued any of them but it also hasn’t shown any sign of them being continued.
Apple typically doesn’t talk about future products. It leaves the old product up, unchanged, until a new product comes along to replace it. And that works, when we’re talking a year, maybe two at the outside. When we’re talking multiple products over multiple years, it stops working.
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These are all growing pains. The problems that come with a company based on focus having to focus on multiple things at the same time. They’re problems of scale.
But unless Apple wants to go back to only making one or two products, its the core problem Apple absolutely has to solve in 2018.
Yes it’s hard to slot new people into existing extremely difficult programming like the kernel.
It is NOT hard to hire merely competent people to fix the on-going bugs in apps like Finder or iTunes, or to write tests, or to deal with BugReporter reports.
Let us know what you want to see in the comments, and make sure to check out our What to Expect post to get a glimpse at the current rumors.
[…] Previously: Six Colors’ 2016 Apple Report Card, Apple in 2018. […]