OT: Apple to drop Mac Pro?

[Craig Seeman]

[Neil Goodman] “he quad i7 imacs are screaming fast.
Faster than the 8 core MacPro im typing this on.”

Of course there are those who need to scream louder but that doesn’t require PCIe slots or internal hard drives. Add a couple of more Thunderbolt ports and the ability to have two or three matched monitors and you have lots of power and customization.

[Darren Kelly]

“But despite the new processors now being in sight, AppleInsider reports that Apple is reportedly “questioning” the future of the Mac Pro line and whether it will even release updated models.
Although the Mac maker has reportedly developed a revision to the existing Mac Pro that may or may not see the light of day, people familiar with the matter said management as far back as May of 2011 were in limbo over whether to pour any additional resources into the product line.

According to these people, the consensus among sales executives for the Cupertino-based company was that the Mac Pro’s days — at least in its current form — were inevitably numbered. In particular, internal discussions were said to focus around the fact that sales of the high-end workstations to both consumers and enterprises have dropped off so considerably that the Mac Pro is no longer a particularly profitable operation for Apple.”

Getting the point yet Craig?

APPLE doesn’t want to support pro users. They are a consumer electronics company now, not a computer maker, and not a maker of Pro Applications

Keep drinking the Kool-Aid

DBK

[Craig Seeman]

Sorry but there’s nothing in the above statement that indicates they don’t want to support pro users. There’s nothing that indicates that Pro users only use towers. Pro users need CPU/GPU, high speed data throughput and all that can be delivered without a tower with PCIe slots and internal hard drives.

MacPro sales are DECLINING so either you think there are fewer Pros or maybe Pros aren’t wedded to towers.

Of course you could look at Avid as the business model who just laid off another 10% of their workforce following several previously years of also laying off similar percentages of their workforces. Their profits are on a steady decline. Does this say something about the Pro market?

The business model for supporting Pros has changed and the businesses that support them have to stay in business.

[Bobby Mosca]

I hate to do it, but I have to agree with Darren. It isn’t just the writing on the wall, it’s the trend. For the past couple years, Apple has headed down one path, and there is scant evidence they are changing direction or intend to. I think some, such as Craig, have done their level best to hold out hope and demonstrate how our worst fears are not, in fact, coming true.

Some have offered some great scenarios of how Apple is changing the game, but those scenarios aren’t panning out. They’re leaving the game. Dance with the gal that brung ya, they say, but for Apple, the better business decision may be to change partners.

That’s fine, I guess. It’s just too bad.

[Michael Gissing]

There is a sense of self fulfilling prophecy here by Apple. I am waiting to see if the next upgrade path for me involves Mac hardware at all. I have a MacPro because pros chose FCS. The pro app sold the hardware. The lack of a pro app makes the hardware options open again.

My MacPro is only two years old so still plenty of grunt. But the need to embrace pro apps that prefer a Decklink card and an NVidia cards means that I would be better off using non mac hardware as the graphics cards are much cheaper on non Mac OS intel hardware. So a smarter move is to sell the MacPro with FCP7 & Kona3, build my own Win 7 box and start again with Decklink, NVidia and CS6 or MC6. Probably can come out cheaper than modding the MacPro. da Vinci for Windows is happening so there is almost nothing tying me to Mac hardware anymore. So Apple shouldn’t be surprised at falling sales for MacPros. It is the logical consequence of dropping the ball with pro apps.

[Craig Seeman]

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/19363

So you think Avid has the better business model? They’re certainly the favorite of Hollywood and much of Broadcast and they’re sinking. Laying 10% of their workforce after the “big cross grade” which is already following several years of laying off significant portion of their workforce.

When Pros used to spend $100,000 for an NLE it was a market with deep pockets but now that NLEs have prices in the $2500 range (Media Composer) and computers they use are the same computers others use at the same price, they become a very small, not very financially viable market on their own.

An NLE sale to Murch doesn’t bring in any more than an NLE sale to me although obviously there’s a bit more PR value in the sale to Murch. That wasn’t the case when a “Pro” spend 100K and I spent $5K but those days are long gone.

Basic business sense says selling the same system at the same price to a 1,000,000 people is a better business target than selling it to 1000 people.

[Gary Huff]

What if I want the workstation without having to invest in rack space and have 2-3 external peripherals scattered about on my desktop?

[Craig Seeman]

[Michael Gissing] “But the need to embrace pro apps that prefer a Decklink card”

So the Blackmagic UltraStudio 3D Thunderbolt box isn’t Pro? Would you run that on the HPZ series that won’t support Thunderbolt? The point is PCIe slots aren’t needed for professional Video I/O.

Do you think the Promise Pegasus RAID is slower than a RAID on a PCIe card on a Windows box?

That you can also run the above on a MacBookAir or even a MacMini offers major flexibility when you need portability over CPU/GPU power

And whatever replaces the MacPro will likely be quite professional on the CPU/GPU front.

Do you see something faster than Thunderbolt on Windows?

You could say that all the Macs now hit some level of Pro.

[Craig Seeman]

[Gary Huff] “What if I want the workstation without having to invest in rack space and have 2-3 external peripherals scattered about on my desktop?”

Then you can get an HP Z400 of course. What if the market shows that there’s declining demand for such towers?

What if developers follow Apple’s lead and make rack mountable or stackable devices?

What if all that goes under my desk anyway since I wouldn’t have a tower on top of my desk to begin with either?

What if a smaller flatter box gives me greater flexibility for placement in my workspace?

What if I do want some things on my desk for easy access?

You may want a tower with PCIe slots but I don’t think the market does . . . at least not in a way that’s profitable.

Even HP was considering selling off their PC division although they’ve decided against it a few days ago.

[Michael Gissing]

[Craig Seeman] “So the Blackmagic UltraStudio 3D Thunderbolt box isn’t Pro? Would you run that on the HPZ series that won’t support Thunderbolt? The point is PCIe slots aren’t needed for professional Video I/O.”

So I junk all my 2 year old PCI based cards, and buy a whole new set of Mac hardware and 3rd party cards. Why should I buy Mac hardware? That is the point. Not whether I can do it the Mac way. Why should I pay Mac premium prices for hardware with limited choices.

It was the software that drove the hardware choice in the first place. It really is silly to say here is a way to do it so I should stick to a narrow expensive hardware platform when the software no longer compels me.