Well, that didn’t take long. Apple unveiled its new 2016 MacBook Pro lineup just last week, and the company is already boasting about record numbers. Apple wouldn’t say exactly how many new MacBook Pros the company has sold so far, of course. But the response has apparently been phenomenal, in spite of the many quirks of the new machine that have received plenty of negative coverage around the web.
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“There has certainly been a lot of passionate dialogue and debate about the new MacBook Pro! Many things have impressed people about it, and some have caused some controversy,” Apple’s Phil Schiller told The Independent in an interview. “I hope everyone gets a chance to try it for themselves and see how great the MacBook Pro is. It is a really big step forward and an example of how much we continue to invest in the Mac. We love the Mac and are as committed to it, in both desktops and notebooks, as we ever have been.”
Schiller continued, “And we are proud to tell you that so far our online store has had more orders for the new MacBook Pro than any other pro notebook before. So there certainly are a lot of people as excited as we are about it.”
The top Apple exec also explained some of Apple’s more controversial decisions surrounding the design of the new MacBook Pro.
On the removal of the SD slot
There’s no SD slot on the MacBook Pro “because of a couple of things.”
“One, it’s a bit of a cumbersome slot. You’ve got this thing sticking halfway out. Then there are very fine and fast USB card readers, and then you can use CompactFlash as well as SD. So we could never really resolve this – we picked SD because more consumer cameras have SD, but you can only pick one,” Schiller said. “So, that was a bit of a trade-off. And then more and more cameras are starting to build wireless transfer into the camera. That’s proving very useful. So we think there’s a path forward where you can use a physical adapter if you want, or do wireless transfer.”
On keeping the standard 3.5mm audio jack
When asked whether it’s inconsistent for Apple to keep the 3.5mm headphone jack on the MacBook Pro but remove it from the latest iPhone, Schiller said it makes perfect sense.
“These are pro machines,” he said. “If it was just about headphones then it doesn’t need to be there, we believe that wireless is a great solution for headphones. But many users have setups with studio monitors, amps, and other pro audio gear that do not have wireless solutions and need the 3.5mm jack.”
There you have it. This is Apple’s logic, straight from the horse’s mouth, behind killing one feature many people use while keeping another feature that even more people need. Schiller’s full interview is available right here.
