Apple brings touch to its top- of- the- range MacBook Pros
The long wait for Apple’s laptop upgrade has delivered some worthwhile gains, discovers
Apple has unveiled new Mac computers as it seeks to revitalise a product line that co- founder Steve Jobs once said would be rendered redundant by the iPad.
Overhauled MacBook Pro laptops and a new computer monitor were presented yesterday in a media conference at Apple’s Cupertino, California, headquarters.
While laptops are traditionally more profitable for Apple than the iPad, customers often spend more on films, music and apps with the iPad, making it a long- term moneymaker.
The new MacBook Pro has a Touch ID fingerprint scanner which makes it easier to buy online using the Apple Pay payments system.
Jobs heralded tablets as laptop replacements by calling the iPad a “post- PC” device after it launched in 2010. But products such as the MacBook Pro have shown surprising resilience. While Mac revenue has fallen from its 2015 peak, the decline in iPad sales has been more precipitous and the laptop now outsells the tablet.
Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook has meanwhile sought to expand services revenue from the App Store, iTunes and iCloud to offset slowing hardware sales.
The new version of the MacBook Pro comes with either a 13- inch or 15- inch display. The new laptops are lighter, thinner and narrower than their predecessors, and include larger trackpads and faster chips.
The highlight was a new digital function display at the top of the keyboard called the Touch Bar, replacing physical buttons. The thin organic light- emitting diode screen allows functions to change based on the application currently in use.
“While we don’t expect the updates to meaningfully move the needle, we believe this should return the Mac segment to growth in the near term,” Minneapolis- based Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said.
Apple also announced a 5K monitor developed with LG Electronics that connects to the new MacBook Pro, and a new TV app.
Apple last released new laptop computers in the middle of last year, and has gradually lost customers in the intervening period. The iPhone maker’s personal computing market share fell to 7.4 per cent in the three months through September, down from 8.1 per cent a year earlier, researcher IDC said this month.
“Apple is going to be able to regain some of the market share that they’ve lost in the higher end notebook mar- ket because so many of their products have got so long in the tooth,” said Shannon Cross, an analyst at Cross Research.
If Apple i s able to sell more services through Macs, it can become far more profitable than iPads, Needham & Co analyst Laura Martin said. “Then you really do want to sell more Macs, because it’s not only a higher upfront fee but then if you can get the same services revenue that’s a more powerful growth engine.”
The Mac’s average selling price is almost US$ 800 ($ 1122) more than the iPad, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and Apple got 11 per cent of its US$ 216 billion annual revenue from the computer, with the iPhone accounting for most of the rest.
Siri, introduced to the Mac operating system in September, could also help guarantee a cut of revenue from taxis, meals and other services ordered with the virtual assistant via computers.
— Bloomberg Apple arguably took way too long to come out with new MacBook Pros, its flagship laptops, but the wait produced some innovative features as the company works on its “less is more” design.
Three new MacBook Pros were launched yesterday: the two top models no longer have the physical Function or F keys on top of the keyboard. Instead, you get the Touch Bar strip, which changes according to which application is active, and can do much more than the F- keys ever could.
Add to that the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, and you now have a touch screen on Apple Macs — just not the almost 45 years, but with the Touch Bar, you’re not going to miss them.
Before the launch, there was plenty of speculation that Apple would rip out the input/ output ports on the new MacBook Pros like the company did with the slimline and lightweight MacBook, replacing them with USB- C.
Apple did that, but put four superfast Thunderbolt 3/ USB- C ports on the two top of the range MacBook Pros, and two on the entry- level model. Each port can be used to charge devices, connect to displays and external storage — you can even plug in ye olde VGA monitors to those ports but, yes, dongles are required.
Add to that much faster local solid state storage ( Apple says 3.1 gigabytes per second), quick 2133MHz system memory and highres Retina displays ( 2560x1600 pixel in the 13- inch models, 2880x1800 in the 15- incher), and you probably start thinking the top of the range MacBook Pro would be the one to go for.
It is, if you have the money: the 15- inch MacBook Pro starts at $ 3999 in New Zealand, with a quad- core Intel Core i7 processor that runs at 2.6GHz ( 3.5GHz burst) speeds, 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
In comparison, the 13- inch midrange MacBook Pro costs a grand less — you get a lesser Core i5 processor with just two cores, 8GB of RAM and lower screen resolution and of course, a slightly smaller package. Depending on your budget, the additional $ 1000 for the 15- incher buys a fair bit more hardware than you get with the 13- inch MacBook Pro.
While Apple removed the function keys, much to everyone’s surprise, Jony Ive and the company’s engineers kept the 3.5mm headphone jack that was deemed obsolete with the iPhone 7.
Apple chief executive Tim Cook also showed off an updated Apple TV, saying it will provide a unified, err, TV experience. For that you need the free TV app, and the whole thing looks Apple- slick with integration of multiple video content providers, live TV, social media and more.
Unfortunately, Apple TV is United States only for now, with no date for when it might become available for us. Knowing how difficult it is to get US content catalogues in New Zealand currently, I’d say it’ll be a long wait. Juha Saarinen attended the San Francisco launch event as a guest of Apple.