I posted on Apple Feedback Page, I hope others do too.
http://www.apple.com/feedback
Hi Apple,
Congratulations on the new 15” Retina MacBook Pro, it’s very innovative. I enjoyed the WWDC presentation and really appreciate the attention to detail you have given to the machine. I love that it’s thinner, the retina display will make it easier on the eye when reading text and viewing images. The asymmetric fans are a great idea! I for one will appreciate the difference when my CPU is taxed. I look forward to seeing the next generation MacBook Pro in my local Apple store soon. However I am very disappointed that there wasn't a 17” version of the Retina MacBook Pro announced.
While I know apple will not design products for specific individuals and you have greater considerations when designing your product portfolio, I still think there should be a 17” version of the Retina MacBook pro for the reasons I am about to illustrate below. While the reasons below are purely personal, hopefully most of these views are echoed by your customers that have chosen to purchase a 17” MacBook Pro in the past.
I moved up to 17” MacBook Pro from a 15”. While I loved the 15” Unibody MacBook Pro I chose to move up to the 17” for the following reasons:
- More desktop estate: while the performance of the 15” was excellent for the time I used it I found myself becoming frustrated with the desktop space and having to constantly switch between windows.
- Greater connectivity: the 17” version of the MacBook pro being physically bigger enabled it to have an extra USB port and to connect an extra iPhone, iPad or external drive, on the 15” model I found on a lot of occasions I had no USB ports free.
- Better battery life:, being physically bigger meant it had a bigger battery enabling me to work untethered for longer if required.
Below are my justifications for a 17” Retina MacBook Pro:
Portability was not a problem with the 17” as it’s only a fraction wider and deeper than the 15” but no thicker than the 15”. Fair enough that it was slightly heavier but not something I really noticed while travelling.
Some may argue that you can just connect an external monitor if you need desktop space but this is not practical. Especially when travelling between multiple sites.
I need extra desktop space not just finer resolution detail. For my line of work I’d rarely utilise the technical benefit of a retina display. I’d imagine some customers would have a need for a 3840 x 2400 panel up from 1920 x 1200 such as a photographer or video producer. However I would appreciate the sharper text sitting at the screen for several hours a day. A 17” Retina panel would enable me to visualise retina quality content for iPhone and iPad in development tools like Xcode with less panning around than on the upgraded 15.4” 2880 x 1800 panel which offers the same usable desktop estate as the 1440 x 900 panel it replaces.
It would be frustrating for me in the future to have to use an iMac / Mac Pro just for the extra desktop estate when doing development and engineering work and then having to transfer data over to a smaller screen MacBook Pro when on client sites.
Extra cost is not an issue I’d be happy to pay £800 – £2000 more for a 17” unit over the cost of an equivalent 15” model. With my current 17” MacBook pro I bought a CTO model for around £2,600 and spent a further £1200 upgrading immediately after my purchase installing 16GB Ram and a 500Gb SSD drive.
Congratulations on the rise in people purchasing mac products. I’m glad the user base is growing as well as the ecosystem for developers like myself. However I would guess a majority of mac customers are consumers of content, gaming, home and office suite users rather than scientists, engineers, and developers. While the latter are the smaller demographic in your customer base they use your products to the fullest and have their place driving innovation and creating professional grade tools and apps using your machines.
The 17” MacBook Pro may not have been the best selling laptop but it’s the flagship unit. I would imagine that is down to the type of user rather than any issue with the machine itself. If it’s profitable it should still be sold? There is a niche market for a Retina 17” MacBook Pro. I would imagine this market as being similar to the car market. BMW will sell less 7 series cars than 3 series but the 7 series has a higher spec and are targeted towards a different consumer with different needs.
Please don’t be blinded by the sales figures the finer details sometimes count.
Thanks for taking the time to read my email and I hope it may influence your decision to produce a 17” Retina MacBook Pro. I’ll be one of the first in line if you do.
Thanks again for all the great products and innovations!
Kind Regards
Gavin Olukoju