Apple’s “Behind the Mac” Ad Campaign

Being point blank blunt on this.  It ticks me off.  Every single Mac in that ad were MacBook’s.  Oh, and look at the dongles used by one of the creative artists (Grimes); that’s the exact thing I want to avoid with Apple’s recent approach to “modular” and what I am afraid the 2019 Mac Pro may end up being.

MacBook’s are great and all but this ad campaign ignores the desktop segment completely which is par for the course considering the short shrift has been given to that line by comparison.  The iMac sees a bit more updates unlike Mac mini and the now moribund Mac Pro line that Apple has been trying to salvage after screwing up with the trash can form factor.

Everytime an Apple executive crows “we love the Mac”, the picture that comes to my mind is just how patronizing it comes across when their upgrade cycles get longer and longer.  The entry level Mac mini hasn’t been meaningfully updated in over 4 years now and it is still sold at the same price point when it was new.  This looks more like a case of willful neglect.

I mentioned it before about corporate inertia (Apple’s is with regards to its form over function obsession with making some products thinner each year and putting most of its resources into the yearly iPhone upgrade cycle at the expense of the Mac) where I now firmly believe that a large number of Apple’s executives have forgotten and taken for granted the Mac-using creative, education, and professional base that existed pre-iPod/iPhone.  Many of us used to spend a lot on high margin Mac’s and also became part of the iOS using crowd (and recommended Apple products to others in the process).  In recent years though, they are no longer giving portions of this demographic the correct tool for the job where many of us are moving to other platforms/have already done so.  It is why I am already prepared to transition completely away from the Mac if there is no suitable replacement for the Mac Pro (all in one’s like an iMac are not a solution for me).

I’ve mentioned it before that my last high margin desktop was my 2010 Mac Pro.  My last new Mac period was my 2013 MacBook Air.  My current iPhone is a 6 plus.  Apple is losing this core foundation of customers who were once easy to sell their high margin products to because executives dropped the ball with continuing to make compelling products the meet the diverse needs of these folks.  The real impact of this won’t be felt for at several years though (latent effects).

Bean counters seemed to have looked at the decreasing sales of PC’s (in general) and decided that the Mac (all form factors) upgrade cycle should be extended.  Intel isn’t always the hold up either (for lack of appropriate chips) because the entire form over function design obsession has often times put Apple into a thermal dead end resulting in compromises when it comes to ports, parts (processor family plus namely reduction in discrete GPU’s that can be used), and going back to soldering components like RAM just to achieve that 1 or 2mm reduction in thinness.  Like everything else, there are diminishing returns to the point where functionality is going to come at the expense of form.

I had one of those “unibody” styled Mac mini’s from 2009 that ended up overheating resulting in disk failure.  I have a unibody 13″ MacBook Pro with the bulging battery (common issue) that has warped the casing to where the screen lid cannot be closed.  My 2013 11″ MacBook Air had a bulging battery develop 3 years in (also causing the case to bulge where the screen no longer closed flush) but I quickly bought an original replacement off of eBay and replaced it.  That is part of the “price” for thinness and the tight tolerances involved.  Fortunately, my iPhones have all been issue free along with my Mac Pro (which has the airflow needed where its design did not back it into a thermal dead end like the 2013 model).

As a shareholder, I am not ignorant to the fact that the growth of the company came about from gadgets like the iPod and then the iPhone.  So it’s not surprising that is where the focus has been given that is where the money is year after year.  So I cannot complain when it comes to the return on investment.  But it also shouldn’t come at the expense of putting the Mac on the backburner the way they have been doing.  As a customer, this neglect of the Mac platform is reaching a point where ad campaigns like this come across as patronizing and downright insulting.  Actions speak louder than words and right now, Apple has shown a lack of action when it comes to the Mac platform across ALL of its form factors.  As someone who used to work at Apple, it’s a reminder how certain values can change as more time passes.

Disclosure: I’ve sold a small portion (~1%) of my AAPL shares (between $189-192 per share) as part of my exit strategy in order to lock in some profits.  Corporate inertia will keep this thing going for awhile though which means it might be several more years before I feel the need to reduce my AAPL holdings by 25-50% before the questionable decisions made beginning from 5 years ago start being felt.