Well, having followed this thread since the beginning, I today encountered a harbinger of things to come. I am running a Late 2011 Macbook Pro, with the AMD Radeon HD 6750M GPU chip. I had logged into console, running non volitile, user space commands from the the shell, just perusing my directory. I went upstairs, came down 10 minutes later, hit the space button to wake the machine up, and saw this:
The machine completely froze up and I had to perform a hard reboot. I noted the timestamp, and immediately checked my console when the machine powered up again. I found an interesting concerning line of output that I had never seen up to this point:
Whether this implies looming failure, or not, I have learned a great deal over the past year (thanks, in large part, to the senior members of Apple Support Communities) and have a drawn a few conclusions from it:
1) Since 2010, major replacements programs have been issued for different components of Apple notebooks. The most prominent of which is: the Macbook Pro 15'' (6,2) mid-2010 Logic Board Replacement program, due to the defective NVIDEA GPU. The most recent, issued less than a month ago, is the Macbook Air, Mid 2012, failed SSD Replacement program. Insert the 2011 MBP issue, pending Apple's decision on offering a replacement program, this would be three consecutive years of widespread, costly, and catastrophic failures of the Macbook lineup.
2) Given (1), combined with the $ Apple customers pay for Apple machines, AppleCare is a MUST. I cannot stress this enough. I will never again buy an Apple product without Applecare. Paying $150-250 for three year coverage for all hardware failures (with the caveat that Apple determines they are in no way user induced), is quite reasonable, especially considering you have a one year window from the purchase date to opt in for AppleCare.
3) Apple does stand by its products, but this isn't an excuse for their failure. This is not a case of user negligence. The extensive QT testing which all machines undergo may need to be more extensive. Not only that, but more stringent requirements regarding the use of third party hardware, period, in Apple branded machines, should be taken into consideration. Companies such as Toshiba, Samsung, NVIDEA, AMD, and, most prominently, Intel*, produce the majority of components in Apple machines. The hardware is a prerequisite for Apple to work it's 'magic,' which boils down to maximizing the raw capabilities of these components in an aesthetically pleasing way (both in software development and device design).
*Intel has been the most reputable of these companies, to date, by far. The PPC to Intel switch revolutionized Apple Computers and OSX.
4) The discrete GPU is becoming increasingly unneccessary in Apple notebooks. Intels' new haswell (dual core/quad core) integrated chips, which offer Iris/Iris Pro graphics on the same die as the CPU, easily outperform the discrete GPUs in 2011 MBPs. Moreover, battery performance drastically increases with processor integration (obviously we need to take into account 2 years of technologically development, shout out to Moore). The new 'top of the line' 15'' rMBP's (with, undoubtly, an amazing discrete GPU > 2 GB vRAM I believe) offer 7 hours of battery life, one hour more than Late 2011'' 15'' specifications (6 hrs). 13'' rMBP model (integrated only and dual core) offers 9 hours. And, well, the Macbook Air is a thing a beauty. At this point in time, if you are using your machine for heavy graphics rendering (not talking world of warcraft and CS6, which the new line of integrated chips can run with easily), you should be using a desktop.
5) It bugs me when user's 'complain' about Apple's constant rollout of new products, but I can see why they would. On one end: It is not Apple's fault that every year its' lineup of products is a vast improvement (for the most part) from the previous year's lineup. Apple's progressive and directed philosophy is a catalyst for this.
By the same token, many users seem to conflate moving forward with being left in the dust. A 2011 MBP is not 'obsolete' and 'outdated' in any way. The 2011 MBP is still a great machine.
So, what now? After 8 million ( if I remember correctly) iPhone 5S sales in the opening weekend (all time high iOS device opening sale mark), the drastic rise in the company's market value (thanks, in part to Mr. iCahn, who, the ********* he is, managed to raise Apple's stock by 5% with two tweets), and the looming new rollout of Holiday products, it would be in the best interest of Apple, and its customers, to clarify this dissonance, reaffirm the integrity of its products, and offer a replacement program for the defective GPU. Otherwise, Apple would merely be undermining its' own philosophy and neglecting an opportunity for a mutual beneficial solution.
Apologies for the length of this comment. These are my opinions, and I merely wished to share them.
Regards,
NB
