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What the new Mac Pro means for those evaluating FCP X
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[Phil Hoppes] ” A bend shim and mutilate and there is no reason, in 6 months time, with a minimal staff of people that they could not spin a new version.”
Apple may not want that kind of “compromise” although it would be a “temp” fix. I think they’ll head for a new case design on the MacPro.
I don’t get the iMac though. It would have been nothing to update CPU and add USB3 and maybe consider GPU as well. Those aren’t fundamental changes as they would do in replacing the MacPro.
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[Craig Seeman] “Apple may not want that kind of “compromise” although it would be a “temp” fix. I think they’ll head for a new case design on the MacPro.”
Yes, the company that gave us the iPhone 4 antenna and the yellowing iMac displays won’t want to “compromise” on hardware…
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[Brett Sherman] “fter all the man hours that went into FCP X, they’re going to kill it because they can’t be bothered to spend a much smaller amount of man hours updating the Mac Pro.”
They are not going to kill it. They are going to slowly, but surely, move it towards iOS.
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[Craig Seeman] “I can understand that the MacPro would be a major ordeal given Thunderbolt and GPU integration and case redesign but that wouldn’t have the case for iMac with Ivy Bridge and USB3.”
Maybe designing all the new laptops (especially the next gen MBP) took the lion’s share of their hardware guys so even an ‘easier’ upgrade like the iMac just wasn’t in the cards. Plus w/the rumors of a redesigned iPhone 5 out there that’s even more hardware guys potentially tied up. I think Apple’s priorities are iDevices, laptops, iMacs, towers and w/a fixed workforce that means the lower tier stuff just gets ignored.
[Brett Sherman] “It just makes me wonder why they even bothered with FCP X to begin with. I would say this raises the question of whether they will kill it eventually. One might suspect that there is a strategy at Apple. However, my suspicion is that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing and there actually is no cohesive strategy for the pro market.”
I think it’s much simpler than that. Apple just isn’t targeting the higher end/bigger budget (whatever you want to call it) customer like they have in the past. Apple is making what they want to make, selling a ton of it, and if they aren’t making what you need then go someplace else. I think that’s Apple’s mindset, I think it has been for decades, and it’s working out really well for them. The big difference now is that what Apple wants to make, and what you want Apple to make, aren’t overlapping as much anymore.
I don’t see them killing FCPX because there are a millions of people that find it much more approachable than other NLEs and those people are the primary audience for FCPX. Trust, Apple doesn’t need to sell FCPX higher-end pros for it to be a success in Apple’s eyes. Higher end pros would be mashed potatoes, not the main course (hell, we might only be the gravy…).
-Andrew
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Apple also rolled out intel in the portable line first (January-February of 06) and didn’t get the MacPro shipping until August 06 (~6 months later).
Not that an exact comparison can be made here, but I think that it shouldn’t be overlooked. The new direction is retina oriented. The other product lines will follow in the next 6 mos or so (2013).
It is strange to see that people who know computers so well get so upset about this. The kind of processing available on the new laptop is astounding. The software just started to catch up to the hardware that is available, anyway. Take the development that is apparent in the retina mbp as an indicator of what you’ll see in the next imac and macpro.
Keith Koby
Sr. Director Post-Production Engineering
iNDEMAND NETWORKS
Howard TV!/Movies On Demand/iNDEMAND Pay-Per-View/iNDEMAND 3D -
[Keith Koby] ” Take the development that is apparent in the retina mbp as an indicator of what you’ll see in the next imac and macpro.”
Besides the ‘new’ ports (USB 3, HDMI, ThB) nothing about the retina MBP would translate well into a MP, IMO. Retina display? Obviously N/A to a headless tower. 758gig of non-upgradeable Flash memory as the boot drive on a MP? Not really appealing. Non-upgradable RAM? Not really appealing. No Ethernet port? Again, not really appealing.
The retina MBP certain packs a lot into a very small space but the concessions made to do so don’t belong in a desktop workstation.
-Andrew
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[Andrew Kimery] “Retina display? Obviously N/A to a headless tower.”
Why do you say that? I tend to think that everything they make is headed that way. It’s just not possible with today’s thunderbolt connection and today’s production technologies for displays nor for graphics cards to power.
I’m just trying to read between the lines. “Later in 2013” starts making sense for that kind of transition, no?
Keith Koby
Sr. Director Post-Production Engineering
iNDEMAND NETWORKS
Howard TV!/Movies On Demand/iNDEMAND Pay-Per-View/iNDEMAND 3D -
My bad, I misread what you were saying. Yeah, I agree that retina will eventually be across all their product lines.
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[Craig Seeman] “I can understand that the MacPro would be a major ordeal given Thunderbolt and GPU integration and case redesign”
OF course they’v already had over a year to develop it. This major ordeal hasn’t been too much for HP or Dell to overcome. This is further proof that dealing with a company that treats it’s prop app’s customers like an afterthought is not a wise decision.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Herb Sevush] “This major ordeal hasn’t been too much for HP or Dell to overcome.”
They haven’t overcome. They haven’t even addressed it. They don’t support Thunderbolt at this point.
[Herb Sevush] “This is further proof that dealing with a company that treats it’s prop app’s customers like an afterthought is not a wise decision.”
The MBP Retina is decidedly a PRO laptop. I don’t think a typical “consumer” will spend between $2200 and $2800 (and more with BTO) for a laptop. Nor would consumers care about two Thunderbolt ports given what current Thunderbolt peripherals do and cost. Apple is decidedly support Pros. This is superb for “mobile” Pros in both Photography and Video.
This has nothing to do with desktops though. Pros will have to wait for 2013 without an viable interim update for either desktop. So much for the iMac being an interim “Pro” alternative.
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