But the extra profit margins fuel Apple’s future projects. That’s the point. If they lose their entry level price points and can’t lower prices to compensate, then they BOTH lose market share and compete ends while also losing money to pour into new ideas.

I don’t think the laptop lineup is confusing at all. The MacBook is fanless, and probably won’t have specs equivalent to the Air’s for years because of cooling concerns.

Geekbench scores the newest models as follows…

13" MBA (Early 2015) 2.2 GHz — Single Core 3359, Multi Core 6567

11" MBA (Early 2015) 2.2 GHz — Single Core 3343, Multi Core 6320

MacBook (Early 2016) 1.3 GHz — Single Core 3087, Multi Core 6287

13" MBA (Early 2015) 1.6 GHz — Songle Core 2940, Multi Core 5425

11" MBA (Early 2015) 1.6 GHz — Single Core 2919, Multi Core 5366

MacBook (Early 2016) 1.1 GHz — Single Core 2658, Multi Core 5083

The one year older $899 11" MacBook Air base model boasts 6–10% better performance than the $1299 MacBook base model.

A $1349 13" MBA with a processor upgrade has 5–9% better performance than the $1599 MacBook.

(Now imagine if they had given the Airs a speed bump in 2016 to keep pace, they’d be even further ahead.)

Some people want the newer, shinier, more colorful ones, and others want the cheaper, more powerful ones. Some people want the older one because it has ports for peripherals that might be necessary to some (SD Card, Thunderbolt). Or maybe the 2 extra hours of battery life the 13" MBA offers is the deciding factor.

It’s a matter of choice. I don’t think choice is confusing. They are different models with different feature sets. Should Chevy revamp their lineup down to one car, one SUV, and one pickup truck for the sake of the “user”?

Now, in time, yes, the Air’s will go away, and the new MacBook design will see more configurations covering more and lower price points to fill the void… But not until the MacBook shows it can pay for itself. Your idea of spec-bumping the Air’s instead of releasing the new model misses the point that with a newer fancier model at the top of the range, the Air’s can be priced even lower (without sacrificing margins) and lure in new users, even if it’s just through cut-rate education sales.

The Air’s probably won’t ever get a redesign, and may or may not get improved processors/internals but they’ll probably remain available for several more years. And that’s because it is well beyond break-even and has very high profit margins at this point.

I wouldn’t be opposed to your idea of rearranging the way products are featured on Apple’s website, except for the fact that they just did a redesign which saw the “info pages” and the “store pages” merge together more than they used to. It’s not a bad idea, but I don’t see it happening.

The other thing to consider is the fact that Apple has access to all their sales figures and we don’t. The Air line might be selling well enough, despite a year of neglect, that there’s no reason to take it out of the spotlight. Maybe the next MacBook spec bump will change that… or maybe they’ll tweak the chassis to add more ports to it in a year or two (drop analog audio for Lightning, add second USB-C, for example) and that will be the “death” of the Air. I just don’t think it’s there yet. Mainly because I don’t know exactly what the sales numbers are.

To your point, they offer the old-style MacBook Pro, but they don’t really spotlight it, it’s just there on the page of configurations.

And they need to spotlight the iPhone SE because it’s a product made for a certain demographic (people that don’t want bigger phones and emerging markets) so it deserves a push. It’s not a step-child or anything, they loaded it up with all the latest features (touch ID, 3D Touch, secure element, Apple Pay, etc.) for parity with the flagships.

I just don’t see what you mean about them losing focus. When they released the new MacBook they stopped working on (but kept selling) the MacBook Airs. It’s not taking any resources away from other projects. It’s not why you’ve perceived a drop in quality. (Ive used the Sierra beta for months on my 2010 iMac (oldest supported, I think, my 2009 MBP missed the cutoff) and I reported 1 bug in all that time. It’s been great for me, rock solid.)

Your opinions and concerns are valid, and I hear you. I’m not making the kind of money I’d need to always upgrade when I want to so I’m rocking two old Macs, and iPad Air 2 and an iPhone 6. Need a newer laptop before shelling out for luxuries like a Watch or newer phone…

But I hear you. There’s some frustrations, sure, but I don’t think it’s a matter of Apple losing focus. I think Apple is under siege by competition. That’s an issue. Microsoft is hammering them with Surface products, Samsung attacks the iPhone, Google goes after all web services, Spotify, Roku, etc. Not to mention all the other cheaper pcs, tablets, laptops, phones, etc. that only beat them on price.

I think that’s the problem. Apple has broadened it’s portfolio, that’s undeniable, but it’s because of the competition that has impacted markets. iTunes was once a behemoth. Now, Amazon and Google both have highly competitive equivalents favored by people using those other devices plus Spotify’s effect on streaming subscriptions rather than music purchases. If iTunes revenue declines, they have to make it up elsewhere while working to have the best ecosystem to lock people in… Because Android people can get locked into Google’s ecosystem and still shop around for different phones and tablets.

You make it seem like a conscious choice, or bad leadership, or whatever, but I see it all asa result of the climate surrounding the entire tech industry. It’s not Apple v Microsoft anymore, it’s Apple v the world. That’s going to have an impact on things.

(I don’t know if it’s a way of thinking thing or what, but the messages update hasn’t given me much trouble at all. Ive heard all the complaints… but I just can’t relate. I will say I’ve seen a few bugs in iOS 10 though, one involving Notification Center, the other involving messages appearance and functionality when changing orientation. hope they get fixed in 10.1.)