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Mac Pro 2 Concept — (if only Apple cared about the Pro market)
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The flip side is would Apple sell more of these machines if they updated them regularly? For example, between upgrading laptops and desktops I’ve bought a new machine from Apple every 2-3 years for the past 15 years or so (this includes home and work machines). That’s a not too shabby customer, IMO. If Apple had released a nMP this year I would’ve bought one. If they release one this year I might still buy one, though I’m coming to terms with either attempting a Hack or switching to Windows (not sure which one will be less annoying).
Shane recently built a Hack because he needed a new machine and Apple’s offering’s didn’t meet his needs. I’ve got another editor friend who loves to use Mac Mini’s in his home studio for side projects, yet the Mini hasn’t been updated in ages (and the last ‘update’ was a downgrade in some respects), so who knows what his next purchase will be. Even on the Mac-centric forums I go to there is a growing chorus of complaints about Apple’s non-mobile product line up. Tim Cook said desktop things were coming this year, but he only name checked the iMac (not the Mac Pro) so we’ll see what happens.
To you point though, when the iPhone makes up like 60%-70% of your revenue then of course that market gets catered to first. That wild money river won’t flow fiercely forever though and iPhone sales are already flattening out as the smart phone market matures.
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The flip side is would Apple sell more of these machines if they updated them regularly? For example, between upgrading laptops and desktops I’ve bought a new machine from Apple every 2-3 years for the past 15 years or so (this includes home and work machines). That’s a not too bad a customer, IMO. If Apple had released a nMP this year I would’ve bought one. If they release one this year I might still buy one, though I’m coming to terms with either attempting a Hack or switching to Windows (not sure which one will be less annoying).
Shane recently built a Hack because he needed a new machine and Apple’s offering’s didn’t meet his needs. I’ve got another editor friend who loves to use Mac Mini’s in his home studio for side projects, yet the Mini hasn’t been updated in ages (and the last ‘update’ was a downgrade in some respects), so who knows what his next purchase will be. Even on the Mac-centric forums I go to there is a growing chorus of complaints about Apple’s non-mobile product line up. Tim Cook said desktop things were coming this year, but he only name checked the iMac (not the Mac Pro) so we’ll see what happens.
To you point though, when the iPhone makes up like 60%-70% of your revenue then of course that market gets catered to first. That wild money river won’t flow fiercely forever though and iPhone sales are already flattening out as the smart phone market matures.
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Pro Market VS Consumer Market?
There is no such thing at Apple and never will be. There is only marketing hype along with smoke and mirrors. 95% of the Apple users drink the Kool-Aid. The other 5% do not matter. It is all about money. Apple knows there are users (5%) that would welcome a generic mATX computer system for $900.00 but Apple also knows the majority of the Apple user base will stay loyal no matter what Apple releases. If Apple used a generic Asus mATX mobo with a core i7 and a GTX 1070 Apple could not claim superior build quality if the exact same components were in a $1200.00 Dell or HP. Buy not offering generic ATX computer (that are much less expensive for the consumer but at the same time not as lucrative for the company) 95% of Apple users will think they have a superior product. As I stated the 5% that know the truth do not matter. That is why Apple has their funky proprietary forum factors. They use smoke and mirrors to give the illusion that the Apple products are better than a Dell or HP Computer. In the end they all use parts from Nvidia, ATI, Intel, Seagate, Crucial, Samsung, Foxconn, LG etc.
If Apple used generic ATX parts that are found in $900.00 Dell or $900.00 HP systems Apple would be hard pressed to charge $1,500.00 for the exact same thing. If you want a generic ATX computer there is Windows or Hackintosh. Apple will not sell generic ATX computers because they couldn’t get a big 30% markup using generic ATX parts even though some user (5%) would welcome a generic ATX Apple computer. 5% of the user base is so small and there would be so little profit for Apple. If you are one of the 5% you have to accept the truth of reality.
If Apple sold a generic mATX computer with a GTX 1080 and a 4.2 GHZ Core i7 Kaby Lake CPU with 32 GB of RAM for $1400.00 how many of you would buy it?
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[Bob Zelin] “OMG !!! What does the back of your 6,1 Mac Pro look like ? Everyone’s looks like a spaghetti pile, with all the USB and Thunderbolt 2 ports coming off of it. Everyones computer faces out to them (back facing you) with the spaghetti of
monitors, drives, USB hubs, Blackmagic and AJA cards, flash drives, external drives piled up, thunderbolt to 10G adaptors. If that’s not a spaghetti mess, then what do you call it ?”My last Mac Pro was a 2009 cheese grater. My home built PCs are rack mounted in a machine room with beautifully loomed labeled inputs/outputs cables. From the back they go to my patch bays which are 99% normaled for most work so barely any patch cables required. I visit the back of the rack occassionally to plug in hard drives where I have a dedicated shelf to hold them and the racks have power boards built in. It is neat, organised and rarely needs any adjustment.
Changing GPUs is done by simply disconnecting the looms, sliding the PC out and dropping in the new card. Slide home and replug the loom. All 6 computers and three NAS units are networked so file transfers do not require plugging and unplugging from a spaghetti mess. I even have an old DVI switcher for monitor swapping between two computers in one control room.
So yes I do this as a business. I don’t have time for shoddy spaghetti junction computers without sufficient onboard processing. I think you would appreciate the back of my three rack units more than anyone else here Bob.
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[Andrew Kimery] “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.”
I agree with everything except the first sentence. I don’t think there is a pro market or consumer market. There is just Apple’s way of thinking. Profits are more important than the customers needs.
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[andy patterson] “Profits are more important than the customers needs.”
Any company that doesn’t actually believe this is lying to you. I don’t think Apple is any different in that regard. You don’t stay in business very long if there are no profits, regardless of how happy the customers are. Unless of course, you’re Avid.
☺– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
[Shane Ross] “Electric windows break? Dude…”
I had to laugh at this.
Three weeks ago – we decided to replace one of our two Honda Elements we’ve been using for 10 years plus for run and gun shoots. But just as we took it out of service to sell, the passenger side electric window failed.
The mechanic looked up the part and labor and quoted $300-400 for the fix.
Out of curiosity, I checked YouTube. Sure enough there were no less than 3 videos on how to pull and replace the window regulator. Got the part on eBay for $47 Those ugly, slow and totally less-than-professional “how to” videos were PERFECT. I has SEEN the repair step-by-step and knew all the traps and tips before we took out the first screw.
My son and I spent about 2 hours on Friday collaborating, (occasionally bitching at each other), and laughing as we took our sweet time replacing it.
The green Element is now ready to sell.
And I suspect I’m going to remember those two hours fixing it – with my son – for a long time.
FWIW.
.
Creator of XinTwo – https://www.xintwo.com
The shortest path to FCP X mastery. -
[Oliver Peters] “[andy patterson] “Profits are more important than the customers needs.”
Any company that doesn’t actually believe this is lying to you. I don’t think Apple is any different in that regard. You don’t stay in business very long if there are no profits, regardless of how happy the customers are. Unless of course, you’re Avid.
☺”All businesses want to make money but there is usually a little consideration for what would be good for the customer even if it is not top priority. Apple has no consideration for it’s customer. I feel the same way about Adobe’s CC paradigm. Apple and Adobe care about profits only. They do not care about making the best products possible for the end user.
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[andy patterson] “Apple has no consideration for it’s customer. I feel the same way about Adobe’s CC paradigm. Apple and Adobe care about profits only.”
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree. I have dealt directly with people in both companies and simply don’t get that vibe.
– Oliver
Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com -
Too bad this would still require bespoke GPUs, even if the form factor is standard length PCIe. Otherwise you have to resort to something like this:
“One of the main advantages of Thunderbolt™ 3 is its ability to carry a video signal, but as X99 platforms don’t have a GPU integrated in the CPU, the Thunderbolt controller needs to link with a discrete graphics card. In order to solve this conundrum, GIGABYTE designed the GA-X99P-SLI with a DisplayPort input on the back I/O allowing users to pair their system to a monitor with a Type-C connector (the required cables to connect the graphics card to Thunderbolt controller are bundled with the board).”
Best,
Andy
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