Why is the new Macbook Pro so ugly?
For many people, the new Macbook Pro seems to be exactly what users are looking for: a monster of power, coupled with the return of ports. But now let’s take a step back and really look at the design of this laptop.
Visually, this new laptop looks to be a modern evolution of the first Macbook Pro designed in 2006. So we can think that Apple designed it to pay homage to the first laptop that gave birth to the first MagSafe.
However, in 2016, Apple promised us a future more and more simplified around the single port to charge and transfer data. If the SD card reader is essential to “professional” use, the return of the new ports and the MagSafe seems to be a sad step backward to the many cables.
But the most striking thing about this new Macbook is that it is big thick. Too thick.
Let’s take a look back at the Macbook Pro 2016…
In 2016, Jony Ive, who was still Apple’s Chief Design Offer, designed a revolutionary Macbook with only one type of port, incredible thinness, and unexpected Touch-bar.
If you simply compare the 2 last generations of Macbook Pro (2016 vs 2021), the new one is not much bigger but it looks much bigger. Indeed, the previous generation had a bevel to deceive the eye and give the impression that it was thinner than it is. Thin to the point that many issues related to it like ventilation, keyboard issues….
Although the touch bar represents a design failure, it was a feature that matched with Apple’s philosophy of constantly trying to improve the user experience by proposing radically different ways to use a device.
Of course, this model was not perfect, but it had a certain quality: the one of wanting to make things progress. It was probably too ambitious for its time and in relation to the technological evolutions.
So, What happened? Has Apple lost its creativity in the face of user pressure?
Historically, and unlike many modern companies, Apple never based the design of its products on user expectations. Their ambition was different: to dictate tomorrow’s trends, through a deep knowledge of what users need and what they will need in the future.
“We don’t do focus groups — that is the job of the designer. It’s unfair to ask people who don’t have a sense of the opportunities of tomorrow from the context of today to design.” — Jonathan Ive
For a product to be revolutionary, it must not meet a need that everyone expects, but surprise us by projecting innovations that will meet our future needs.
This was the case for the 2016 MacBook pro and it is not for this new one. It is the one everyone has been waiting for. No more.
It’s easy to make a connection between product evolution and human resources changes at Apple. Indeed, the 2016 MacBook Pro was the last laptop under the influence of Jony Ive who left the company on 27 June 2019 after 27 years. Jony was one of Apple’s key figures, almost as influential as Steve Jobs, who dictates the design of products and the way humans interact with them. His undisguised inspiration for Dieter Rams (Braun iconic designer) shows his avant-garde spirit which is based on user needs.
So it’s interesting to see the direction Apple is taking with the release of the new MacBook Pro without the influence of Jony Ives. Because Apple has always tried to find the right balance between design and power. But with this new overpowered model, the balance is lost at the expense of design.
Is it bad? Maybe not, because this new Macbook is still great, but it doesn’t take a risk by playing on the nostalgia of the users. So let’s wait and see what direction the company takes in the future.
If Apple really changes its way of thinking about its products, closer to user expectations, let’s just hope that the company will not lose its creativity.
