Macworld Forums: Apple discontinues 17-inch MacBook Pro - Macworld Forums

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Verne Troyer may be disappointed, but Yao Ming is probably happy about the 11.6" MacBook Air.

Your argument is absurd. You are comparing the latest Apple laptop with a machine whose display has not been updated in years! Had apple released a 17" MBP with a retina display, it would have put the 15" retina display to shame! Imagine all that glorious pixel density over a 17" display! Now THAT would be the target for what a powerhouse portable should be!

Did Apple say it's never coming back? They always stagger the 15" and 17" introductions. Unless you have confirmation from Apple, you may be eating crow six months from now.

 leicaman, on 12 June 2012 - 02:34 PM, said:

Well it is no longer for sale. If they were just waiting to upgrade it I don't think they would completely remove it from the store (just like they haven't removed the Mac Pro from the store).

Could it be that this is only temporary until the 17 inch retina displays are able to be built in the future?

Otherwise, after using Macs for over 20 years, I'm going to be looking into getting a 17 inch laptop from someone else besides Apple if they make it higher resolution/faster, etc. and I will either convert it into a hackintosh or ditch Apple entirely and switch to Ubuntu Linux.

This is coming from someone who HAS used an external 15 inch display at retina-like resolutions and found it to be quite an eye strain after a few hours because if you keep open lots of windows filled with text as I do, the text is too small. On the other hand, a 17 inch laptop with a retina-like resolution would be fantastic with sharper text but not as small and all the real estate you could almost ever need to keep multiple windows open at the same time without overlap. And, yes, I understand pixel-doubling, etc. and it does me no good when I want lots of windows with text open and not overlapping, so please spare me.

If I can't do this with Apple, I'll do this with their competitors and Ubuntu. And, from what I understand, Adobe has Creative Suite in the works for Linux to boot. I really don't want to leave OS X for a host of reasons, but I'm not going to have Apple stunt my workflow with their own regressions and 15 inch compromises. Plus, as a professional, I'm now finding that Apple is becoming an unstable platform because they are too secretive with their roadmap and ripped out the 17 inch without warning and without any official statements on whether or not it will return. I can't gamble my business like that where I just "hope" that Apple does one thing or another in the future. This is getting really, really flakey. The least Tim Cook could do with such a drastic change is give us a roadmap of some sort. Quit hiding in the dark like cowards and come out and tell us... is the 17 inch dead? And, if so, is it gone for good?

Bad business, Apple. You'll pay for this in the future with ill will. I can no longer in good faith recommend Apple products to other people. I simply don't trust what the company will do anymore and they have themselves to blame for that.

 Stewsburntmonkey, on 12 June 2012 - 02:39 PM, said:

I think it's atrocious that Apple has its customers in the dark on this and many of us relying on conjecture instead of issuing a !@##$%ing official statement. Very unprofessional. Apple is becoming an unstable platform for professionals. Others have been saying this a lot in the past year escpecially, but I didn't want to believe it. Now, very regretfully, I am starting to agree.

This is low, Apple. Show some courage and respect for your customers and release an official statement.

This post has been edited by Cowicidexr58: 12 June 2012 - 02:57 PM

 Cowicidexr58, on 12 June 2012 - 02:48 PM, said:

Apple doesn't make these kinds of decisions unless it makes sense for the company. In all likelihood Apple looked at the number of 17" models it was selling versus the smaller sized MacBooks (including the MacBook Airs), saw where the money and desire was, and decided that there wasn't enough business there to justify continuing the line. This sounds like good business to me, though it's sure to irk some people to the point where they engage in a little nose snipping to accomplish an equal amount of face spiting.

Apple have finally dumbed down to PC level. I know, we can stick more pixels into a smaller screen area! How about the small fact that consumers are buying 50inch HD TV's that have a lower resolution than the 17" MacBook Pro I got on Saturday? And every non-apple app I own will only run at less resolution than I have already on a physically smaller screen.

I am entitled to swap my 17" for the new model, but it won't be the screen that makes me choose the retina display model. Lower weight (I so seldom use the optical drive that I will not miss it), clever sleep, two thunderbolt ports, USB 3.0 (overpriced, under-performing Expresscard 34 for my current MacBook). But no firewire 800 or insanely gigabit ethernet (I'm dropping the optical drive so have to carry around two adapters instead!) A max hard drive of 512GB compared to the 750GB I have already that has more than 512GB used.

I am going to my local Apple Store in the morning to compare and decide. As I have 16GB of ram waiting to be dropped into my new MacBook Pro 17", which has the 2.5GHz processor and the anti-glare display, and am thoroughly enjoying using it, I may well come home without swapping.

This post has been edited by offcs: 12 June 2012 - 03:17 PM

The 17" is not a behemoth, it's one of the lightest, slimmest 17" laptops on the market. Some of us power users need the screen real estate for reading text, the retina MacBook is NOT a viable replacement.

Your article starts off way too flippant, it read as if my needs are invalid.

 Chris Breen, on 12 June 2012 - 02:57 PM, said:

I wonder if someone in the Movie Industry might not weigh in on this...??? I know in the past the 17" was convenient for them, but to be honest any serious work is done with a serious display (even onsite). So I am curious if (considering how the retina display functions) the Movie Industry will care all that much and be happy enough with the 15". Does the impending use of 4K in cinema make the screen size of a laptop inconsequential?

I personally would hate to move to a 13", and have the 1680x1050 Hi-Res screen on my 15". I also use an extra monitor at work and at home, the extra space is handy for spreading things out while doing design layouts.

This decision really bums me out. I've always bought the largest laptop screen available (yes even back in the days of windows machines I had 17 inchers but moved to mac before the few 19" ones hit the market).

I can't believe they would just quit making this great product and not give any explanation whatsoever. As I get older and my eyes get worse, the size becomes even more important. I travel enough that I need a big screen with me -- how much photoshop work would you like to do on a 15" screen???

It seems that Apple is abandoning the high end of the market - I just don't see why.

Tom

 Sausalito, on 12 June 2012 - 04:03 PM, said:

Yes, They did. the reason is "poor sales". Apple concluded "poor sales" only because there are more dumb users buying Macs than there are Pros. So now Apple is busy converting the Mac platform into consumers' PC and even more busy waiving middle fingers towards Pros.

Let's hope they reinstate the 17" model when a Retina display update is available. I'm currently enjoying my second 17" MacBook Pro, and hope it isn't my last.