As upset as I was/am about this move, the more I think about it, the more certain things make sense in the grand scheme of things. Originally, I was upset about not being able to upgrade the RAM. My thought was, "hey.. if I want 16 gigs of RAM, I'd rather pay less for 4 gigs and upgrade it myself".
But it seems as though Apple has reduced their RAM pricing scheme in order to fit in with the rest of the crowd where competitive structures are concerned with similarly spec'd laptops. That's just one thing. Second thing is pretty obvious: You can't have the MacBook Pro being as thin as it is with the current architecture of the other MBP's. They wanted a radical change and they got one... this is part of the sacrifice.
Third: I was really upset with the thought of "so what happens when my Apple Care expires, and then soon after a memory module malfunctions?" I mean hey.. it can happen! Currently, replacing an MacBook Air logicboard is about $800-$850 and I can't imagine that it would be any cheaper with the new MBP layout.
BUT... then another thought had occured to me (technically I'm lying.. a buddy and I were ruminating upon this subject, credit goes to him mostly) and we figured that a likely conclusion to all of this is that by the time the 3 year warranty is up, SSD's, the RAM and other chips used in the current configuration should drop in price considerably, making the cost of repairing or replacing it easier to handle. I'm sure other factors are involved but IMHO a very possible scenario.
Fourth: Who is the retina display version aimed at? Think really hard about this question please! My initial response to this query was typical, coming from the same user base as many of you who like the flexibility options where upgradeability is concerned. But Apple is moving and shaking right now, and their entire user base is shifting as well.
This can go in a few directions, so I don't really have an answer per sé, but I'm sure we can use the current business model, pricing structure and new hardware to extrapolate a few suggestions.
As a photographer, you'd think I'd be interested in the retina display right? Well sure, it's gorgeous and I'd not mind having one, but.. is it the be all end all for editing? No! I'm doing absolutely great with my current MBP whether using its display or an external one. It really won't do much to change my output, ultimately. So long as what I see on screen is what comes out in print, I and many others are happy! The same goes for video editing I would assume.
Interestingly enough, the dumbest thing I can possibly say as to why I don't want the new retina version, is that I don't want to deal with another battery that can die. A battery that I have to worry about in terms of maintenance yada yada.. I want my next computer to be able to plug in to a wall and not have to worry about the burning heat generated by the power cells in a battery. I also want an all in one solution the next time around, but that's another story.
Doug
