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New Macbook Pros to be “thin” ?
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[Robert Brown] “I’m not exactly sure what you meant when you mentioned Adobe though. Did you see something to suggest they were moving into a different direction?”
Yeah, sorry. I guess I was a little vague. I added the part about Adobe when asking how this affects the future of pro apps on Macs, because I wondered how an Apple transition to lighter, one-size-fits-all hardware would affect other companies who develop software that runs on Macs.
Adobe has done an amazing job of harnessing processing power with their Mercury Playback Engine, allowing some impressive hardware acceleration. To date, there is not a single Mac portable that is capable of utilizing this feature, because it requires a CUDA-enabled Nvidia card of at least 1 GB. No such card has been offered in any Mac portable.
If Apple continues making more “gadgety” hardware that only works well with Apple software, how long will it be before media/graphics power users stop buying MAcs, and start buying PCs? I am probably a good example of this. I reluctantly bought my first PC in over a decade last week, to run the Adobe CS5.5 on, and to start learning how to survive in a Windows world, in case the trend continues as I predict it may. Today, I am less reluctant about Windows, because Premiere is running many more layers in RT on my laptop PC, than it can on my QuadCore iMac.
I really don’t want to see the industry shift away from the Mac, but have a feeling that it will.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
[Chris Jacek] “Also, there is nothing “futile” about conjecture in this field. Conjecture is often what helps someone make a decision to stay ahead of the market trend.”
Only accurate conjecture.
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“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
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[Chris Jacek] “Adobe has done an amazing job of harnessing processing power with their Mercury Playback Engine, allowing some impressive hardware acceleration.”
I just edited two high-definition documentaries on my Macbook Pro without a skipped frame, and with completely smooth playback. More is always better, but I don’t miss a dedicated video card.
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“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”
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[Gary Pollard] “Only accurate conjecture.”
Of course. But that’s the tricky thing about conjecture, isn’t it? We won’t know which conjecture will be accurate until after the fact. If you’re accurate, you get a jump on the industry. If you aren’t accurate, it may or may not, come back to bite you. If you don’t participate in conjecture at all, well, then you might end up like those post-house owners in the late 90s who were stuck with million-dollar CMX suites.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
[Chris Jacek] “Of course there is. There is absolutely no way an additional dedicated graphics card can fit into that form factor.”
The current MacBook Airs are also limited to dual-core i7s and 4GB of RAM; the current MBP 17″ can go to a quad-core i7 and 8GB of RAM.
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
[Gary Pollard] “I just edited two high-definition documentaries on my Macbook Pro without a skipped frame, and with completely smooth playback. More is always better, but I don’t miss a dedicated video card.
“Good point. It all depends on the kind of work you do. Docs aren’t usually going to demand a bunch of layers of compositing. With corporate videos and commercials on the other hand, you might benefit from being able to play 5 simultaneous streams of 1080p native DSLR footage.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee -
Honestly, I know some people are now absolutely determined to view everything Apple does through the lens of “Apple doesn’t care about pro users”, but I’m not sure how standardizing on SSDs 3-4x as fast as typical notebook HDDs, and (probably) dropping ExpressCard now that we’ve got Thunderbolt (which is 4x as fast) is supposed to represent Apple somehow shifting things toward “consumers”.
If Apple drops serious dedicated graphics options or quad core processor options from MBPs maybe I’ll buy this interpretation, but there is not the slightest indication this will occur.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but trying to force a long-running technology trend like increasing miniaturization to become evidence for the theory that Apple is abandoning pro users is a flawless example of just how weak the actual evidence that supports such an interpretation really is.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.
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[Chris Jacek] “Of course there is. There is absolutely no way an additional dedicated graphics card can fit into that form factor.”
Err… huh? You realize laptops with dedicated graphics don’t typically have separate “cards”, right? It’s just an extra chip on the motherboard. Take a look at the internal layout of a current 15″ MBP.
Look at the silly amount of space occupied by the HDD and, especially, the optical drive. Eliminating the optical drive, and moving to an Air-style SSD module, would easily let you rearrange the battery layout to maintain the same battery life, without shrinking the motherboard at all.
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Digital Workflow/Colorist, Nice Dissolve.You should follow me on Twitter here. Or read our blog.
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[Chris Jacek] “There is absolutely no way an additional dedicated graphics card can fit into that form factor.”
I disagree. A thinner MBP in no way precludes the possibility of a dedicated GPU. Remember, the GPU in MBPs is on the board, not a separate card. It only requires some additional cooling considerations and slightly more horizontal real estate, which is available in the 15″ and 17″ MBP.
The things making the MBP “thick” are the optical drive, the 2.5″ form factor HDD/SSD, ports like the RJ45 and FW800, and last but not least the battery.
The optical drive is a goner. The storage could then be placed where the optical drive used to be and maintain the 2.5″ form factor. The battery will be thiner and wider like the MBA and live under palm rest and bottom half of the keyboard. Thunderbolt obsoletes the ExpressCard slot.
A thinner MBP won’t be as thin as the MBA, but there is room to trim if you redo the battery in the vein of the MBA, remove the optical drive, and reposition the 2.5″ HDD/SSD toward the hinge where the optical drive used to live.
I got froggy and did a mockup:
Not a huge difference, but as a happy MBA 13″ owner, I can tell you the slanted surface of the tapered chassis is much more comfortable to use.
Then again, they could go even thinner and taper at an angle closer to that of the MBA if they dropped the Gig-E and FW800 ports from the chassis and sold Thunderbolt adapters for them. I wouldn’t put it past them. Those ports are duplicated after all on the new Thunderbolt Display.
Best,
Andy -
[Chris Kenny] “Not to put too fine a point on it, but trying to force a long-running technology trend like increasing miniaturization to become evidence for the theory that Apple is abandoning pro users is a flawless example of just how weak the actual evidence that supports such an interpretation really is.
“What exactly would you have said if you WERE putting too fine a point on it?
To continually attack predictions of future trends as “flawless examples of just how weak the actual evidence is” is insulting and vitriolic. If you cannot look at evidence and trends, and at least entertain the possibility of the potential effects of such trends, then you are either being naive or willfully ignorant.
You keep using the “this doesn’t prove anything” argument, as if I we are offering any of this evidence or conjecture as proof. We are not. We are, however, building a hypothesis from the evidence given. Just because something is not 100% proven, does not mean that it isn’t plausible, or even likely.
I invite you to apply Occum’s Razor (given what we can observe the most logical explanation is usually correct) to the question of whether Apple has shifted their focus away from the professional market.
I believe there is compelling evidence to support this notion.Over recent years, Apple has EOLed several professional applications. In that same time, their hardware offerings (not even counting iPads and iPhones) steadily trended toward smaller, with fewer expansion options. They have had slower cycles on their most powerful machines. In addition, Apple’s major profit centers have shifted from computers to mobile devices, which speaks to motivation.
Given these, and several other factors, which is the more logical explanation:
1. Apple is shifting its focus toward its most profitable products and philosophies
or
2. Apple plans to reverse its recent trend of slimming down its professional offerings, and is dedicated to committing extensive resources to a much smaller, and frankly more “high maintenance” segment of its customer base.
I think is time for all the people who believe that Apple ISN’T shifting its focus away from the professional market to offer compelling evidence to support their side of the argument. Calling us a bunch of whiners does not count.
Professor, Producer, Editor
and former Apple Employee
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