It's been a while since Apple upgraded its MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro models.
Four years, one month, and twenty-four days, to be exact, in case of the MacBook Pro.
Apple is inexplicably still selling the exact same models for its Mac line that it introduced in 2012.
Pretty much every Windows OEM has had an Intel Skylake-powered processor in its laptops for more than a year now, but Apple's computing lineup is still shipping with the three-to-four years old processor, and graphics card.
Things have gotten so bad, that MacRumors' Buying Guide, which is considered to be an "online institution" among Apple nerds, has flagged all of Apple laptops as "Don't Buy"
In a column, The Verge's Sam Byford says that Apple should stop selling the old laptops.
He writes:
Apple iterates quickly and consistently in mobile because the rate of technological progress is so much more dramatic in that arena.
The company does amazing work to keep its iPhones and iPads ahead of competitors, performance-wise.
Simple Intel processor upgrades are less important to laptops these days, however, and I'm finding this 2012 MacBook Pro fine to work from right now -- faster than my 2015 MacBook, at least, which is enough for my needs.
But that doesn't mean it isn't unconscionable for Apple to continue to sell outdated products to people who may not know any better.
Is the company really saving that much money by using 2012 processors and 4GB of RAM as standard?
Even an update to Intel's Haswell chips from 2013 would have brought huge battery life improvements.
Apple is bound by the whims of its suppliers to a certain extent, and it may not always make sense for the company to upgrade its products with every single new chip or GPU that comes out.
But there's a certain point at which it just starts to look like absent-mindedness, and many Mac computers are well past that point now. [...]
If Apple doesn't want to keep its products reasonably current, that's its prerogative.
But if that truly is the case, maybe it shouldn't sell them at all.It's also ironic, coming from a company whose executive not long ago made fun of people who had five years old computer.
Folks at Accidental Tech Podcast also discussed the same recently.
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