It’s kind of amazing how much Apple got right yesterday—and what they got wrong: Their product lines are completely scrambled. The Pro designation has become meaningless and $US99 iPhones look just like $US499 iPhones.
It’s possible that when the subsidised iPhone 3G dropped last year for $US199, a new Apple was born. We just didn’t see it clearly until today, with the announcement of the iPhone 3GS and new MacBook Pro line.
“Pro” used to be a real designation: A Pro machine was designed and built for working professionals. It had more power, better build quality and “top 10 percent” features for the users who needed it—or at least wanted to pay a lot more for it. Now, it’s just a brand.
It’s true that the unibody MacBooks were more like their brawnier “Pro” siblings than ever before—it was even the rationale behind our dual review. But there were still very real dividing lines between them: Most importantly, Pro machines had dedicated graphics cards. As of yesterday, that’s not true. The $US1700 15-inch Pro doesn’t have one, and none of 13-inch newly designated Pro models have them either. Also, what kind of professional machine lacks a removable battery, anyway? (Swapping out batteries is how we got through the back-to-back Nintendo and Sony keynotes at E3 this year, though admittedly, the significantly improved battery life might be part of the answer.)
Don’t get us wrong, we love that Apple brought many of the Pro hallmarks down to their consumer machines, like the aluminium chassis, and that now high-end Apple laptops are more affordable than ever. But now real pros probably won’t even look at most of the Pro line.
The new products also don’t show how special you are for paying the most to buy the best. The cheap models and the pricey ones are identical. Your crazy high-end 32GB iPhone 3GS looks just like that other guy’s $US99 iPhone 3G. Every unibody MacBook is now a Pro—whether you spend $US1200 or twice as much. The old distinctions have been erased.
A leveling of class distinctions in Apple products is going to sting people who valued the affectation of elitism that came with using Apple’s top-of-the-line products. Even subtle differences—like the premium paid for the matte black MacBook over the otherwise identical shiny white one, were signals, beamed out to the others in the coffee shop, declaring who was “da boss.” You know, the guys who wore the white earbuds with pride five years ago. Admittedly, sometimes those guys need a left hook to the kidneys (and sometimes, we are those guys). Maybe it’s good to make the best technology accessible to everybody, with no indicators of who paid more for what.
Now, the question remains: Does this make rich people look like poor people, or poor people look like rich people? The privileged must know.
Aaron Divitini
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 10:24 AMThis is where apple is making smart decisions, thay want everyone to have a apple product, by having the same “look” as the pros but having it cheaper for the people who cant afford it means it all looks the same and they have the product.
Looks can be deciving.
Stew
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 12:51 PMWow I hope readers understand the tongue-in-cheek joke when they say “The new products also don’t show how special you are for paying the most to buy the best”… I’m sure there’s a lot of w*nkers out there who’ll take that literally.
glennc
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 1:34 PMof course they will take it literally. Half the article was about it. This is Apple we are talking about. People buy iPhones before they even know the specs because it is an iPhone and they need to have the latest accepted gadget by their peers.
If somebody will not buy a MacBook Pro because the everyman has one then it is their loss and they are buying it for the wrong reason anyway.
This ‘affectation of elitism’ is what is wrong with the world.
i say smart move Apple. They lost their edge when they moved to intel and they know it. they now want a bigger chunk of the PC pie.
Marty Zablocki
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 1:03 PMThe fact that Apple have brought the MacBook up to a “Pro” status is great. It keeps that line of products tight and less confused.
Yes, I agree that it’s a clever marketing move. But I don’t think that Professionals are going to shun Apple products because Joe Average has one too. In fact, some business owners I know would relish the fact that they can buy cheaper Macbook Pros that have specs relative to the tasks the staff member will perform. Everyone’s happy and they avoid the elitism that came with the “Pro” name.
Apple also tend to consolidate products when they’re making room for something… cough*Tablet*cough
rc
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 1:46 PMIt does both. (poor saps looking like rich pricks and rick pricks like poor saps).
It looks like a mess but there’s a glint of reason. The multiple CPU stuff in Snow Leopard. No doubt they’ll turn on the second unused GPU to allow things like encoding or physics (bleh who needs that last one??) with no slowdown in foreground tasks.
But no, this doesn’t help the elitist (Raven from Penny-Arcade) who feels cheated, but remember these people probably were already pissed off when Apple started gunning for mainstream.
…I’d pay for the backing on the lid to not have a glowing Apple logo on it, if only to be different…