Mac Pro 2 Concept — (if only Apple cared about the Pro market)

[John Rofrano]

[Shane Ross] “If they can remove a pro feature to make it smaller, they will. They aren’t aiming at high end video production anymore. They only care about their ecosystem.”

That’s what boggles my mind. I mean no one is complaining that their MacBook Pro isn’t thin enough and everyone complains about having to cary around dongles and yet they continue to remove important ports like USB and camera cards to make it thinner which no one wants. Who are they designing for? Clearly not the Pro market. 🙁

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[Herb Sevush]

[John Rofrano] “Who are they designing for?”

Apple’s design ideal is a 14 year old – committed consumers driven by the need to be cool and who seek approval from those around them. Obsessively slim and sleek their products are as androgynous, if not anorexic, as their target user. For Apple, if a 14 yer old can’t figure out how to use it, it’s too complicated, if they can’t put it in their pocket, it’s too large. Emoticons are better than words and legacy ports are so yesterday for someone who was literally born yesterday. It is not surprising that the circular mac pro went for cool over competence even though they dressed it all in black — I assume they thought they were making something for their ideal customer’s older sister.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
—————————
nothin\’ attached to nothin\’
\”Deciding the spine is the process of editing\” F. Bieberkopf

[Jeremy Garchow]

[John Rofrano] ” Who are they designing for? “

Courage.

[Andrew Kimery]

[John Rofrano] “Who are they designing for? Clearly not the Pro market. :(“

They are designing it around their vision of what the pro market needs, and it’s what they’ve always done. They make something they want to make and customers can take it or leave it. Usually it’s a hit (iMac, iPod, etc.,) but sometimes it’s not (G4 Cube, Ping, etc.,). When it jives with what a user wants they mistakenly think “Cool, Apple made this for me” and when it doesn’t they go “Man, why did Apple abandon me?” when Apple didn’t target that user or abandon that user. Apple just made what they made and it happened to mesh with what that user wanted at the time.

For example, Apple never made I/O hardware like Avid or Media100 which is why it was seen as poor man’s, non-pro NLE. Yet many of us were the ‘poor man’ back in the day and loved the fact that Apple made a solution that was accessible to us. Fast forward nearly two decades and many of us are more like The Man instead of the Poor Man and we are lamenting why Apple is making these non-pro things. Apple is largely targeting the same demo, but over time we have drifted out of that demo.

It’s like hitch hiking. The driver and the passenger aren’t necessary going to the same final destination, but for a time they are coincidentally headed in the same direction.

[Bob Zelin]

Herb is of course, absolutely correct –

“For Apple, if a 14 yer old can’t figure out how to use it, it’s too complicated”

So, Professional users – please explain to me what is wrong with Apple’s business model. Let me give you a little
“tech talk” to relate. Cisco is the “industry standard” for the switch business, and their products are complicated and expensive. They still use command line interface (CLI) to setup their switches. But today “any idiot” (like me) can go out and get a Netgear 10G switch, and without being “Cisco Certified”, I can setup a 10G network for folks, just like you, at a fraction of the price of a Cisco network, with the same performance, and Mr. Big Shot IT Manager who has 25 years of Cisco experience is no longer needed. And of course, Mr Cisco Certified hates Netgear switches, but almost 300 installs later, Netgear 10G switches are super fast, reliable, easy to configure, cheap, and MOST IMPORTANT – don’t need Mr. Cisco Certified.

Now, lets look at FCP-X and the whole Apple line of products. Got a nice DSLR camera, but have no idea of how to really use it ? Just plug it into a Mac, and VOILA ! – your pictures are downloading to your computer, and you never even read the manual – WOW – and they look “pretty damn good”.

That’s the market. I have said this over and over again. They do not want a market of 50,000 – 100,000 professionals, when they can get MILLIONS to do “our job” (just like Mr. Cisco), and they make billions of dollars while the 50,000 professional editors cry “boo hoo”. It’s not personal – it’s just business.

And as I have observed over and over and over and over – Many “professional” older editors still are using their old Mac Pro’s – still are running FCP 7, or AVID Media Composer V7.0. How do you get these professionals to go out and spend a few thousand on new hardware in 2017, or 2018 ? Simple – you can’t – because their gear works JUST FINE, and they are making tons of money, and winning awards, with the current equipment that they have.
This translates to “this is not the market we want to appeal to anymore, because they won’t go out and spend
$8000 for a new top of the line Mac Pro 2017 with Thunderbolt 3, Nvidia GPU and 128 Gig of RAM”. Because Mr. 45 – 55 year old editor is more than happy with his current setup – it works just fine.
So they are just trying to stay in business (just like us), and appealing to a crowd that will hand over some money.

It ain’t rocket science – just business.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Shane Ross]

[Bob Zelin] “This translates to “this is not the market we want to appeal to anymore, because they won’t go out and spend
$8000 for a new top of the line Mac Pro 2017 with Thunderbolt 3, Nvidia GPU and 128 Gig of RAM”. Because Mr. 45 – 55 year old editor is more than happy with his current setup – it works just fine. “

As someone who is just in that key demo…I recently needed a new machine. Because I’m dealing with new technology and needing to work with and deliver 4K…I get a new machine because camera tech and deliverables are changing fast. Then again, I’m dealing with the delivery part, so I need to be up on the tech. Old school editors can convert things to proxy and still use the old hardware.

Yup, there was a time when people would use the Avid they bought for 7-10 years. They had good reason to…it cost $80,000!

But seriously…the adage is true…why upgrade when what you have works? If it works…use it. I only upgraded my computer when my 2010 MacBook Pro no longer cut it.

So yes…I guess I am one of those guys! But I always have been…

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Shane Ross]

I’ve always been the type that wouldn’t just upgrade because something new and better came out. Upgrading for the sake of upgrading. It takes the thing I have no longer working, or being able to do what I need before I stop using it. iPhone 6 came out….I was still using my 4s. Until it died. I don’t lease cars, I buy them, and drive them until they die. 69′ VW bus had to go up in flames on the freeway before I stopped using it. And now I drive a 2001 Honda.

Just because it’s new, doesn’t mean it’s better. Heck, I still like the older cars because they have manual window rollers. If they broke, it was an easy, cheap fix. Electric windows break? Dude….

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Bob Zelin]

Hi Shane –
so with you in mind, why would I build a new car for you with the features that you want. So that maybe in 5 years, when your Honda blows up, you will think about me ?

You see the “Apple Nuts” on line at the mall, waiting on line for days to get the latest iPhone, iPad, whatever Apple comes out with – need it or not – they want it. Now THAT’s who I want for a customer. And here on Creative Cow, where I am always yelling at people to throw out their old Fiber Channel cards, and AVID Unity’s and buy new modern equipment – well, I get to install this new equipment, so those new customers will generate income for me. But for me personally – I am embarrassed to admit that my Mac’s are a White MacBook, a 2009 Mac Pro and a 2012 Mac Mini. (I’ve got some HP Z series workstations too).
I had every intention of buying a new MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt 3, but after all the nightmare reviews so far, I will at least wait until NAB to see what options for expansion are out there. But there are those that say “I don’t care, I want one of those new fangled thunderbolt 3 Mac Book Pros !”. Well, that’s the customer I would want – not me, and not you.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Shane Ross]

True…you only make money on those who buy things. Like how mattress stores are trying to say that mattresses have expiration dates now. “If it’s 8 years old, it’s time to replace it!” Because once you sell a $900 mattress, you won’t see that repeat customer for 15-20 years…if then.

But yes, you make money with repeat customers who upgrade their stuff…I get that. And there will always be a need to do that….and tech progresses faster than mattresses.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Shane Ross]

[Bob Zelin] “so with you in mind, why would I build a new car for you with the features that you want. So that maybe in 5 years, when your Honda blows up, you will think about me ? “

Issue is that Apple isn’t building a computer with features that I want….or need. And leaving out all sorts of things I do need. BUT…good thing is that there are other cars being made that suit my needs. And I can build my own if needed…which I did.

Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def