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Why do you think a new Mac Pro ISN’T coming?
I’m on the record as not being an Apple fan anymore, but I’m also on the record as firmly believing that a new Mac Pro is coming. It never occurred to me for a minute that it wouldn’t. The more I think about it, the less reason I can imagine for Apple not doing it.
I’m amazed that the people who are most sure it’s NOT coming are some of Apple’s biggest fans. So I have to ask: why? Why are you Apple fans trying to convince me that Apple has given up on Mac Pros? I mean, we all know that its specs will be inferior to HP, ProMAX, et al LOL — but not happening at all? Really?
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134 Replies
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I think a lot of it is because Apple is always so damned tight-lipped about such things. Another reason people fear that the Mac Pro may not be coming is a perception (right or wrong) that idevices are sooo profitable and high-end boxes are not, that Apple is going to dump the line because it doesn’t satisfy their bottom line requirements.
When a company is as secretive as Apple, rumors are naturally going to spread.
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Reasons why I firmly believe it isn’t coming. Besides the fact that reputable people at reputable companies that deal directly with Apple directly told me to my face:
– Hasn’t seen ANY update in over 18 months. Approaching 2 years. Apple has never gone that long without updating hardware.
– Apple stopped making the X-Serve
– Apple stopped making the X-Serve RAIDTwo very high end things that only a small few (compared to the iphone/ipad users) used. Profit margin is small.
– Discontinued SHAKE
– Discontinued COLOR
– Discontinued Final Cut ServerAll high end apps for high end users. Gone.
– FCP Legacy scrapped in favor of FCX
Let’s face it…FCX doesn’t do what us high end “Hollywood professionals” need. They now cater to a different professional crowd. One that doesn’t need MacPros. They work with iMacs and laptops fine.
– The only reason the MacPro exists is for the PCIe slots. And the only people who use those are video professionals and VFX professionals. And we all know what a small market they are, and given the history of the other things Apple discontinued that catered only to us…why keep this? Print professionals don’t need towers, iMacs work fine, as do laptops, and Minis.
– Thunderbolt. Apple seems to think that EXTERNAL PCIe…THUNDERBOLT…is the future. Forget that it’s only 4 lane and that us video professionals need 16 lane for many things like graphics cards and certain IO devices. Again, only video professionals in certain areas need that…and as we see Apple is moving away from catering to that market.
Because the MacPro only caters to a “very small niche” market (as Philip Hodgetts often calls us)…even though we represent about, say, 20,000 people…isn’t only 2% of Apple’s user base, so it only stands to reason that they no longer make very expensive machines to cater to the 2%. Especially since they no longer make an NLE for that 2%. FCX doesn’t need a MacPro to run. They cater to a new video professional…so why keep the MacPro?
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Hm. Don’t forget the audio professionals. Audio professionals (or, at least a lot of them) crave PCIe-slots. A whole bunch of them.
Erik Lundberg
Technical Director, Media Technology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
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[Shane Ross] “Hasn’t seen ANY update in over 18 months. Approaching 2 years. Apple has never gone that long without updating hardware.”
Actually, the gap between the first two models of the Mac Pro was nearly two years: April/Aug (depending on model) of 2006 to January 2008. Admittedly some more data points since then, but nobody was talking about Apple abandoning the Mac Pro in 2006.
I’m not going to let you people trick me into saying anything nice about Apple LOL, but, I’m just sayin.
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[Shane Ross] “reputable people at reputable companies that deal directly with Apple directly told me to my face”
Did you ever ask them why it’s still around?
Why haven’t they killed it?
The current (fastest) iMac seems to work just fine with FCPX as well as other apps. At least based on my NAB experience. So, what are they waiting for?
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[Shane Ross] “Reasons why I firmly believe it isn’t coming…”
What he said, plus I can’t imagine what they would be waiting for, all the new chips have been released, all the major workstation vendors have previewed their upgrades — are they waiting for the transit of Venus? If so, then that means they will announce by next Tuesday. Otherwise I figure the MacPro sleeps with the fishes.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
[Kevin Patrick] “Did you ever ask them why it’s still around?”
Clearing out stock and building materials they still have is the best guess we have.
[Kevin Patrick] “Why haven’t they killed it?”
They will. When they run out of materials. It isn’t selling much, so they aren’t flying off the shelves. Although a few people said ones they have ordered haven’t arrived…a month after the initial order.
They will be gone by the end of the year.
Shane
Little Frog Post
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
[Tim Wilson] “Why are you Apple fans trying to convince me that Apple has given up on Mac Pros? I mean, we all know that its specs will be inferior to HP, ProMAX, et al LOL”
And this is one reason I think we are waiting with baited breath. When I purchased my imac 27 inch (moving from a G5 MacPro) it was fine for my needs. Every since I started delving into After Effects, I have been craving not only more power –even though I have the beefiest i7 imac with 16 gigs of ram — but the abilty to upgrade my graphics card to a higher-end Nvidia that takes advantage of CUDA and the mercury engine.
All-in-ones as they now stand will take you only so far. So I am hoping for an upgraded Mac Pro or something comparable with some real juice. If not, I will do the unthinkable and purchase a non-mac for my next computer. I have waited to see how Apple is jumping on this Mac Pro thing, but I can only wait so long (it seems like forever).
That is why Apple’s secretive ways are so maddening at times. I’m not really sure how to proceed.
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[Shane Ross] “They will be gone by the end of the year.
“If Dairymple says no way then I’m convinced.
Steve Connor
“The ripple command is just a workaround for not having a magnetic timelinel”
Adrenalin Television -
[Steve Connor] “If Dairymple says no way then I’m convinced.”
If it were any other company I wouldn’t need convincing. 14,000 signed the Facebook thingy – what manufacturer wouldn’t want to come out with a product that could generate that many advance sales, I don’t care how small the margin – and I don’t think MacPros are a small margin item. But as many have said here, Apple is not any other company. What other company would have tossed a market leading product in a ditch?
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf
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