Some people have feared that Apple ’s focal point on peregrine equipment would pull up stakes the Mac gathering junk in a dark corner of 1 Infinite Loop , but 2012 has demonstrated that Apple ’s longest - die hard ware channel is n’t out of steam yet . With some impressive product refreshes , a brand - new operating system for the 2d time in as many long time , and the promise of more innovation to come , there has never been a near time to be a Mac drug user .
Mountain Lion roars onto the scene
Even for a party that prides itself on secrecy , Mountain Lionwas an telling coup : Nobody , not even the most consecrate Apple watchers , expected the ship’s company to harbinger a major system of rules update less than a year after the last one . The step of Mac OS X exploitation has slow up in recent years as the software has matured , but Mountain Lion show thatOS X was live and well , and was not just about move Io features to the Mac but intertwining the futurity of Apple ’s two software platforms .
Plenty of Apple ’s iOS apps — Reminders , Notes , Game Center , and so on — made their manner to OS X with Mountain Lion , but some feature amount to both the Mac o and iOS at roughly the same time , includingMail VIPs , Do Not Disturb , and ( eventually)Facebook integration , to name a few.iCloudalso became an more and more important part of Apple ’s strategy , as the company enhance the lackluster consolidation with its online divine service that had debut in Lion , add the ability to put in documents in the cloud .
Though Apple allow the CT out of the bagful in February , Mountain Lion officially get in July , becoming available via the Mac App Store just as Lion had been . While it had some bugs — especially withthe new iMessage — the overall packagegot a positive review from our editorial director , Jason Snell . user seemed to agree , too : The update racked up3 million downloads in its first four day of availability , and as of September that numberhad more than doubled to 7 million , which Apple CEO Tim Cook said made Mountain Lion the quickest - deal OS of all time .
Softwhere?
Although we did n’t see much formally announced apparent motion on the Mac App Store front in 2012 , things keep chugging along , with more and more apps lend and downloaded . Apple did n’t dish on figure , either for Mac apps useable or exactly how many had been download since the company recordedthe 100 millionth downloadlastDecember .
Midyear , however , one fussy modification — the founding of sandboxing to the Mac App Store — reared its read/write head . Even though Apple primitively announce that it would force Mac apps in the depot to abide by with the sandboxing security system requirement as of November 2011 , that date was push back twice , first to March 2012 and then to its last June 1 date . While the sandboxing principle was contact with some concern by many developer , its eventual reaching seemed to come with more of a whimper than a bang . ( By the metre you ’re reading this , we ’ll see whether a exchangeable sentiment can be verbalise about the supposed apocalypse . )
One other noteworthy deletion in 2012 was the appearance of any substantial update to iWork , Apple ’s productiveness rooms , a major unexampled version of which last come on in 2009 . Cupertino didrelease a patch to convey bread and butter for documents stored in iCloudalongside Mountain Lion ’s debut , but new features for Pages , Numbers , and Keynote have been a long clock time coming . Perhaps 2013 will be the year .
MacBook ’em, Danno
What the first half of the year lack in Mac hardware announcements , the 2nd one-half more than made up for . To kick them off , Apple aged vice president Phil Schillertook the stage at Apple ’s Worldwide Developer Conference in Juneto announce a rescript toApple ’s entire portable family .
The existing MacBook line — the 11 - in and 13 - inch MacBook Air and the 13 - inch and 15 - inch MacBook Pro — induce third - generation Core central processor , good art , and USB 3.0 , without any increased striking to the pocketbook . And the 17 - column inch MacBook Pro quietlyslipped away into the swarthiness , never to be mention again .
But all middle were really on Schiller ’s next annunciation : a brand - new , completely redesigned 15 - in MacBook Pro , highlight by an tremendous 2880 - by-1800 - pixel Retina display that Schiller pointed out was adult enough to carry a 1080p HDTV image with room to dispense with . Despite our getting used to Retina exhibit on the iPhone and iPad , the MacBook Pro was a whole new story — and needless to say , it blew us away .
With the new Pro melding the pattern of a MacBook Air with the glasses of a MacBook Pro , it seemed clean-cut that this was the future of Apple ’s portable production line .
If there was any doubt about that , it was slake a few months by and by at Apple ’s October media consequence , when Schiller pluck outthe 13 - inch Retina MacBook Pro . Like its full-grown sib , the 13 - inch mannequin featured an solely redesigned inclosure , complete with all the latest technologies . Though its 2560 - by-1600 - pixel CRT screen is smaller than the 15 - column inch model ’s , it still has almost twice as many pixels as a 1080p HDTV does .
We got let in on a piddling mystic , too : Apple does n’t usually split out sales information about individual models , but at this event Schiller aver that the 13 - column inch MacBook Pro was its bestselling Mac .
Both the15 - inchand13 - column inch MacBook Prosgarnered positive reviews for their mix of portability and power . And , in traditional Apple mode , they made the current MacBook Pro line — still being trade alongside them — expect as antediluvian as a vacuity - tube amp for an 8 - trail histrion .
(Desk)top of the pops
Apple ’s MacBook line is undeniably more democratic than its background these mean solar day , but that does n’t stand for that the caller ’s other Macs did n’t earn some making love this year .
In the same October outcome that saw Apple drift out the 13 - column inch Retina MacBook Pro , the company also announced that it wouldupdate the Mac mini . While it sports the same aluminum unibody enclosure introduce in 2010 , the 2012 model has a beefed - up Core processor , better computer graphic , and USB 3.0 , putting it on a equality with the update MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lines .
It also introduce a new character of computer storage offering , the Fusion Drive , which blend upstanding - state memory and hard effort into one fast , capacious organization . The result for the mini was , as our lab director James Galbraith wrote , “ attractive bang for the dollar ” . The Fusion Drive alsogot some praise of its own , as it registered performance go up that of a consummate SSD .
However , as with Apple ’s laptop rollout , the Mac miniskirt was merely the opening act . In October it was Apple ’s flagship desktop , the iMac , that took midway stage , with a entirely redesign and imposingly thin ( at the edge , anyway ) enclosure . In addition to update CPU and nontextual matter , USB 3.0 , and an improved FaceTime camera , the new all - in - one also offer the same Fusion Drive uncommitted in the Mac mini as a build up - to - order option — which , of trend , our top - nick research laboratory teamduly tested , along with in high spirits - close processor form .
Like the Retina - display MacBook Pro , the iMac marked Apple ’s goal of redefine what it means to be a reckoner : The company plane an impressive 8 pounds off the weight of the desktop , yet packedan telling amount of power into what for many multitude is a workhorse motorcar . As of this penning , though , the 27 - in manikin are just starting to transport out , withlater orders schedule to be render in January .
As with rest of Apple ’s rethought lineup , the iMac lacks an optical cause , allow legacy machines such as the old MacBook Pro and the Mac Pro the only bearer of that increasingly antiquated measure . However , the background does n’t yet have the Retina video display that has been the hallmark of the company ’s laptop computer refresh — not too surprising , grant the expense Apple will probably incur for produce high - resolving power versions of those 21.5 - column inch and 27 - column inch displays . But if you opine that a Retina display wo n’t make it to the iMac eventually , well , we ’d be more than felicitous to take that bet .
And though you might be tempted to trust that the Mac Pro has fleet into reconditeness as the 17 - column inch MacBook Pro has , Apple ’s tower screen background actuallydid get an upgrade in 2012 — if you could call it that . The revamped Mac Pros appeared at WWDC , though nary a word was said about them on stage ; no surprise , that , given that the only melioration were processor bulge , admit the insertion of a 12 - core model . No new case enclosure , graphics wit improvements , USB 3.0 , or even Thunderbolt reenforcement here .
But all hope is not lose . Not long after WWDC , a concerned Apple customer emailed CEO Tim Cook to ask what had fall out to the professional - level background . A response from Cook aimed to reassure , saying that Apple is “ working on something really majuscule for later on next year . ” And a liar Apple ’s chief executive officer is n’t , so we ’d abide tuned .
Sales of the century
Put all of the above together , and there ’s a lot of steam behind the Mac going into 2013 . The company moved more than 18 million Macs in 2012 , setting Mac sales agreement phonograph recording for each respective quarter throughout the year .
More to the point , Apple continues to outpace its rivals in the computer marketplace by memorialise yr - over - class growth in all four quarters as well . As Tim Cook is lovesome of pointing out , Apple has outgrown the PC industry every quarter for the past six years . And although the margin for growth have begun to slim in the past few quarters , the party ’s late refreshes are indisputable to aid bolster up that going forward .
All in all , for a product that is quickly approaching 30 years on the marketplace , the Mac is still go strong , and 2013 promises to be no exception .
