It’s not a good time to buy a MacBook Pro. The normally dependable and relatable Apple has thrown professional macOS laptops into disarray, disrupting its own market. What happened to Tim Cook’s flagship product line?
“According to an anonymous source, the briefings will take place this week on Wednesday and Thursday, with an embargo set for Monday, January 23. This pattern makes sense and is consistent with previous experiences: an announcement on Tuesday, briefings and review unit distribution on Wednesday and Thursday, and a review embargo lift the following Monday.”
With the expectation that the transition to the M2 Pro chipset will provide a similar small bump to the M1 to M2 transition in the MacBook Air, this potential update is welcome but far from exciting.
“…it mocked companies like Microsoft Corp. for combining laptops and tablets, debuted flops like the Touch Bar, insisted that macOS wouldn’t provide a good touch experience, and decried the approach as “ergonomically terrible.”
As Apple brings apps from its various operating systems closer together, particularly iPadOS apps to macOS, that stubborn approach must change, not least because using touch-based apps on any of the current macOS machines is uncomfortable at best and painful in many cases.
However, this isn’t the only issue causing the Macs to be delayed.
Where are the MacBook Pro laptops of the next generation? The community was anticipating the arrival of M2 Pro and M2 Max-powered laptops in the fourth quarter of 2022. Apple did not release any new Macs in the fourth quarter of the year, the first time in more than two decades.
As previously stated, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is little more than a MacBook Air with an entry-level processor supported by an active cooling fan to provide a bit more performance. This is not what many people, including myself, would expect from a professional-level MacBook Pro.
The lack of arrival in 2022 is exacerbated by reports of even more delays in 2023, with the laptops not expected to be announced until the summer, with a further delay before they go on sale.
Is it likely that there will be a significant improvement in performance? The switch from Intel to Apple Silicon resulted in an immediate increase in power and potential, but the transition from Apple Silicon’s M1 to M2 chipsets has been less spectacular on the MacBook Air refresh. The M2 Pro’s performance gains over the M1 Pro are described as “marginal”. There are rumours that Apple will stick with the 5nm process for its silicon rather than moving to 3nm and reaping all of the benefits that would come with it.
Finally, Apple is planning to include a touchscreen in future MacBooks, fourteen years after Microsoft first supported it in mainstream Windows devices. This would represent a significant shift in Apple’s approach to portable computing, but it appears to be unavoidable as Tim Cook and his team work to bring the Mac and iPad platforms closer together in both software and hardware. Those MacBooks would become the go-to laptops in the lineup, and while they would not completely Osbourne the rest of the lineup, they would lessen the impact of the vanilla-screened laptops.
Those expecting the new MacBook Pro laptops to arrive on a schedule acceptable to Apple’s community have been disappointed. Those looking to upgrade, whether to new hardware or to finally join the Apple Silicon platform, will have to wait for the professional laptops. And anyone looking for the utility and ease of use that a touchscreen provides will be hesitant to invest in any new Apple laptop until the long-established technology is finally available on the platform.
Tim Cook and his team built on the successful Apple Silicon launch with the launch of the M2 family at the 2022 Worldwide Developer Conference. Delays, poor communication, and leaked features have occurred since then, potentially harming short-term sales.
Going into 2023, the MacBook Pro platform is neither stable nor certain.