Anirudh Regidi

Apple wasn’t always a phone company. Today, their claim to fame is the iPod and iPhone, but they started with the Mac and Mac OS. Sadly, the Mac is so neglected today that even Microsoft is calling them out for the “disservice” they’re doing their customers.

Microsoft’s Brian Hall, General Manager for Microsoft’s Surface line recently tweeted the following:

I compete with Apple and respect them. but they ARE doing their customers a disservice at times with old tech... https://t.co/PR2pC6TsJh — Brian Hall (@IsForAt) August 5, 2016



As we’ve pointed out in the past, Apple’s Macs are aging. The original Mac Pro is still running on 2013 hardware and many devices, including the Mac Mini and certain MacBook models are still running on 2014 hardware.

One might argue that MacOS doesn’t need the latest generation hardware, but regardless of the fact that this is the same argument used by Steve Jobs when he told people they were holding their phones wrong, you’re on the wrong track entirely.

While the improvements in terms of pure CPU power are not that significant, vast strides have been made concerning efficiency, graphics and security since 2013 and for a mobile device, these changes are very significant. There’s a very good reason why the Retina MacBook Pro gets by with Iris Pro graphics. Bear in mind that while a 2014 CPU is fine for light use, for a professional, the performance lag is very noticeable.

The neglect of Apple’s Mac Pro is even more puzzling. It’s the only device that Apple offers serious professionals and that’s the one device that has been utterly neglected since launch. With the original PowerPC-based iMacs, a delayed upgrade cycle is understandable. With the shift to x86 (Intel), the delay makes no sense.

Apple does heavily customise its motherboard design, but so does HP and Lenovo and just about everyone else. It’s not that hard and it shouldn’t be that hard for a $700 billion company.

Disservice sounds just about right.