There is the Air line for light weight laptops for normal people. I would think that the word Pro signals that this computer is for people who want to do stuff with it beyond what is provided up front.
This is the crux of the entire issue, crystalized perfectly.
If you are going to carry multiple product lines, then why would their features converge? I see no reason to get into the closed vs open debate - this is Apple we're talking about.
But why would they turn the Mac Book pro into a MacBook Air with higher specs? Why not get rid of all the branding distinctions and let the consumer spec out the machine, with a few default configurations for those who don't want to think about specs?
> "But why would they turn the Mac Book pro into a MacBook Air with higher specs?"
They didn't. You can still get an old-style macbook pro with updated internals. They're offering a new option that looks a lot like a MBP-Air. Doing essentially what you seem to suggest: giving people a choice of a new thing and not taking any old things away.
And if/when most pros demonstrate that they don't care about the modicum of hardware-accessibility in the old-style pro design, Apple will simply be dropping the product that its customers do not prefer. As it always does. As it did with the 17" MBP. A beast that increasingly few Apple customers had any interest in.
Doing essentially what you seem to suggest: giving people a choice of a new thing and not taking any old things away.
You really think Apple will be selling old-style MBPs indefinitely? It seems like the product line is going through a transition, and the old-style MBPs will be the end of the line.
If the old style sells enough, I think they'll absolutely keep it around. In fact, I'd expect them to back off on the 'transition' and rename the new-style MBP an Air.
After all -- despite the mini, nano and shuffle -- the iPod classic stubbornly remains. Even after all these years. Not to mention the 13" MBP which seems (without the benefit of sales data) to be fairly pointless.
Apple won't hesitate to risk cannibalizing itself with new products. But they don't have any history of forcing the issue, if the old products still sell.
I think that if they can, they will. "Can" being dictated by the market of course. Look at the Mac Pro - arguably the most ignored product line Apple sells, yet it still sells. If people continue buying the non-Retina MBPs, I have no doubt Apple will continue updating it, even if slowly.
What you are talking about makes absolutely no sense.
There are completely different chipsets, ports, batteries etc in a MacBook Air versus a MacBook Pro. Most of which have dependencies on each other. So a user can't just spec out a machine with the exception of very specific components.
Apple's supply chains operate on a 6-day turnaround. That means that a MBP that just arrived in the warehouse today will be shipped to a customer no later than a week from today.
That is one of Apple's greatest strengths, and having that strength absolutely allows them to offer configurability.
Actually, what I think the word Pro means is a contraction of professional, i.e. you're using the computer as part of your work. In that case you probably want something that's very powerful right out of the box, and you're willing to pay for it (or at least get your boss to pay for it. Or write it off as a business expense). Also, Pro probably also means that you don't have a lot of time to spend diagnosing issues with bad memory sticks or fiddling around with hard drive upgrades.
Do you think "pro" signals anything? I always assumed it was like "sport" in a car - i.e., meaningless. (I have a "sport" car. And... it has 4 doors. And a diesel engine.)
Well, it might. I guess it depends on your profession. If your profession is hardware hacking, IT, or maybe RAM disk upgrading, it seems like that would be included. So I suppose the "Pro" in "Macbook Pro" implicitly excludes those professions.
If that's your profession yes, but I don't know a single person who upgrades RAM for fun. If the system runs comfortably on 8 gig, upgrading it is silly.
