Reader Comment: Apple Pro Division?

2016-11-02 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: Don H, laptop, MacBook, MacBook Pro, reader comment

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Don H writes:

As long as Apple is marching to one master (high-margin consumer sales) the idea of ‘professional’ products doesn’t stand a chance. It’s just too much in conflict with the end-game of a consumer product company, even one as capable as Apple.

I’m now wondering if a possible way out would be for Apple to create a ‘Professional Division’ (don’t even use the word ‘Pro’ which has lost all meaning, not only within Apple’s products but in just about every other industry). Set it up as a separate profit center, and incorporate not just hardware but also software (Final Cut, developer tools, even the not-talked-about stepchild that is Filemaker), and most important - a ‘professional’ version of Mac OS. Strip out all the consumer gewgaws that are always in a half-assed developmental state and just provide a bulletproof base of operations for people who actually use their computers for their livelihood. Don’t let Eddy Cue anywhere near the premises.

This would free up the professional hardware and software to include more ‘legacy’ interfaces or other functionality that has been stripped out over the years, and if it ends up costing more then that’s the price we’ll have to pay. (Either that, or people will end up switching platforms, which is happening anyway.) Apple can still leverage their economies of scale for most components, but the professional product lines wouldn’t have all the utility squeezed out of them for the sake of mass consumer appeal.

I know this is most likely a pipe dream, and the logistics of maintaining separate product lines while keeping key technologies in sync is hardly a trivial task. But many auto manufacturers have been doing this for at least a century with their truck and heavy equipment divisions. And the question I’d like to see asked of Tim Cook, point-blank in front of reporters, is “What do your own internal developers use to get their jobs done?”

I don’t think an Apple Car can be designed using iPads and a touch-based drawing program downloaded from the App Store...

MPG: pipe dream. And I agree that the Apple Car should be designed on an iPad, as per Tim Cook’s assertion that there is no reason to buy a computer.