Apple Execs Talk Pricing, Touch Bar, And More In New Interview

Following the unveiling of the new MacBook Pros to the public, Apple execs Phil Schiller, Craig Federighi, and Jony Ive sat down with CNET for an in-depth interview discussing the company’s new MacBook Pros.

Jony Ive starts off by explaining the idea of the Touch Bar, noting that it creates a “very interesting direction” for the laptop, and presumably the rest of Apple’s Mac line.

“We unanimously were very compelled by [the Touch Bar] as a direction, based on, one, using it, and also having the sense this is the beginning of a very interesting direction,” Ive said. “But [it] still just marks a beginning.

It’s difficult to talk without going into a lot of details… about things that we are working on. I don’t really want to talk much more about it.”

Phil Schiller than noted that the Touch bar in many ways is bringing aspects of the iPhone to the Mac. Apple has long been vocal about touch screen Macs and making macOS touch compatible is a dream that’ll never happen. But the Touch Bar, however, is the company’s first step in bringing the best parts of the iPhone to the Mac without fundamentally changing either product.

“We did spend a great deal of time looking at this a number of years ago and came to the conclusion that to make the best personal computer, you can’t try to turn MacOS into an iPhone,” Schiller says. “Conversely, you can’t turn iOS into a Mac…. So each one is best at what they’re meant to be — and we take what makes sense to add from each, but without fundamentally changing them so they’re compromised.”

One of the biggest complaints customers have said surrounding the new MacBook Pros is the price hike. The newer models are more expensive than the previous generation. Schiller, however, explains that the company didn’t start out with the intention of hiking the prices. Instead, he says that Apple doesn’t design for price, rather design for “the experience.”

“But we don’t design for price, we design for the experience and the quality people expect from Mac. Sometimes that means we end up at the higher end of the range, but not on purpose, just because that’s what it costs.”

You can read the entire interview on CNET here.