<story><title>Mac sales declined nearly 10% last year as Lenovo, Dell and others gained ground</title><url>https://9to5mac.com/2017/01/23/mac-sales-declined-nearly-10-last-year-as-lenovo-dell-and-others-gained-ground/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CoolGuySteve</author><text>Back when I worked at Apple the dirty secret was that the cheapest models, despite all the marketing of the MacBook Pro, made up the majority of sales.&lt;p&gt;Back then it was the white plastic MacBook but now it&amp;#x27;s the 11&amp;quot; MacBook Air that occupies that slot.&lt;p&gt;That model and its crappy TN screen is vastly inferior and more expensive than similarly-sized ultrabooks.  The only redeeming feature it has is MacOS.&lt;p&gt;Instead of replacing the Air, Apple introduced the MacBook at a premium price point.  It seems like a marketing failure to me that a lower spec MacBook (1080p, slower SSD) wasn&amp;#x27;t released and the Air discontinued.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>freehunter</author><text>Quite a few years ago I saw someone at college using a white plastic laptop and man I thought that looked sharp. I glanced at the top of it and saw it was a Mac. At the time I didn&amp;#x27;t own a Mac and I didn&amp;#x27;t follow their product lines, but that was a hell of a good looking laptop, I thought. That was actually the first time I&amp;#x27;d ever seen a Macbook, I don&amp;#x27;t come from a very well-off or tech-forward area. Everyone at the time owned a Dell Inspiron 150x. When I looked it up I was really disappointed to see that it had been discontinued.&lt;p&gt;I have an aluminum Macbook and sure it&amp;#x27;s nice... but when I think about Macbooks, I think about that white plastic machine. Shiny, almost see-through. It really stood out to me in a world of dull metal and chunky black plastic and laser-etched designs on laptops. My 2015 looks nice, I guess, but in my mind it doesn&amp;#x27;t look &lt;i&gt;nearly&lt;/i&gt; as nice as that shiny, translucent white Macbook I saw years ago.&lt;p&gt;Now, I never used one and I&amp;#x27;m sure a lot of people here have, and I&amp;#x27;m sure there are a lot of negative stories about them cracking or discoloring or being squeaky or something. But I still remember the first time I saw one, and it stuck with me. That was the same when I saw an aluminum Macbook, it was nice. They don&amp;#x27;t look all that special these days, the design is getting stale. Everyone has a Macbook-looking laptop, from a distance I can&amp;#x27;t tell the difference between a Samsung Chromebook and an 11&amp;quot; Macbook Air.&lt;p&gt;I hope they can wow us with a new design again in the future.</text></comment>
<story><title>Mac sales declined nearly 10% last year as Lenovo, Dell and others gained ground</title><url>https://9to5mac.com/2017/01/23/mac-sales-declined-nearly-10-last-year-as-lenovo-dell-and-others-gained-ground/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>CoolGuySteve</author><text>Back when I worked at Apple the dirty secret was that the cheapest models, despite all the marketing of the MacBook Pro, made up the majority of sales.&lt;p&gt;Back then it was the white plastic MacBook but now it&amp;#x27;s the 11&amp;quot; MacBook Air that occupies that slot.&lt;p&gt;That model and its crappy TN screen is vastly inferior and more expensive than similarly-sized ultrabooks.  The only redeeming feature it has is MacOS.&lt;p&gt;Instead of replacing the Air, Apple introduced the MacBook at a premium price point.  It seems like a marketing failure to me that a lower spec MacBook (1080p, slower SSD) wasn&amp;#x27;t released and the Air discontinued.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mhurron</author><text>&amp;gt; Back when I worked at Apple the dirty secret was that the cheapest models, despite all the marketing of the MacBook Pro, made up the majority of sales.&lt;p&gt;Isn&amp;#x27;t that normal for almost every product though? You advertise the top of the line knowing that most will come in and look for something similar that fits their budget.</text></comment>