New MacBook Pro: Apple has lost its way, says geotechnologist

From Uses This‘ interview with Gary Gale, a scientist who depends on Apple laptops to do maps and stuff.

I’m going to pause here for a moment and reflect on the new MacBook Pro. I know it’s easy to say things aren’t built like they used to be but with the fourth generation model, Apple seem to have lost their way. It’s not clear to me what’s Pro about this model apart from a few more USB-C ports. I get that USB-C is possibly the future but the rest of the world hasn’t caught up yet. I don’t get that I can’t upgradethe SSD or RAM once I’ve bought a new MacBook Pro. This model seems to be more about taking away rather than improving on previous models.

All my previous MacBook Pros have been reliable, rock solid and I’ve had one disk failure in all of that time, which I could and did swap out myself. I’ve even had one machine that survived around a meter and a half fall out of a rucksack onto a volcano in Iceland (it’s a long story); granted, it had a few cracks and some interesting curves in the unibody, but it continued to be used day in, day out, for a further two years after that.

Maybe it’s just bad luck but maybe it’s telling that as I write this my fourth generation work horse is with my local Apple store having the keyboard, SSD and logic board replaced.

My take: I’m in the market for a new laptop, and I’m not feeling good about my choices. Who at Apple is responsible for this?