Apple 'Questioning' the Future of its Mac Pro Line?

[MovieCutter]

Originally Posted by HiRez

Well sure, you could technically, but that's awkward.

Because Apple has always been sooooo convenient.

[HiRez]

Originally Posted by Henriok

As one who's doing a lot of video and 3D rendering professionally, I'd be happy with a an iMac and some thunderbolt based solution where I could hook up GPUs for additional monitors and as rendering engines.

A Promise RAID hooked up via Thunderbolt is a pretty badass solution, and is easily upgradeable (and easily movable to, unlike internal drives). Not sure if there is a way to hook up an Xsan (or other san) via Thunderbolt yet, but I assume that's something that will need to happen.

[IceMacMac]

Originally Posted by Rocketman

The Intel chips were just announced and will be shipping in volume in a matter of weeks. Apple will release another round of Mac Pros. These rumors are always a year or two down the pipeline, so third parties should hurry up and make external Thunderbolt expansion boxes right now...

I still think we might see one more MacPro. But if so it will certainly be the last of it's species.

[OddyOh]

Can't really replace our Pro Tools rig (2 gfx cards to 4 monitors, 2 internal audio processing cards, 4 hard drives) with an iMac. This is ****** news.

On the other hand, if they're not making money off it, then why should they keep it around. And, they want us to switch to Logic anyway, why should they care if I can't use my audio cards anymore?

Sounds like the Hackintosh market is about to get a huge boost.

[aarond12]

Hopefully Apple is just going to scale down the tower. Today, we have SSDs and hard drives in 2.5" form factors to keep the size down to a minimum, but stick with the ability to use 4 of those devices. Keep the double-wide graphics card slot with one of the ATI video cards that can run 4 or 8 monitors simultaneously, scale back to Core i7 processors (extreme editions?), add Thunderbolt for further expansion, and we're done.

The only reason I made my Core i7 hackintosh was because I couldn't afford a Mac Pro and wanted more internal expansion capability than an iMac had.

[tigres]

Originally Posted by *LTD*

Welcome to Current Market Realities 101.

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.

Hardly surprising.

Massive workstations are a little redundant in today's market, which is being driven increasingly by the growing population of Pro-sumers.

In a market where smaller and more efficient can outperform massive and high-powered, we're seeing the inevitable results

If put a stamp on poop, you'd back em' up here.

[HiRez]

Originally Posted by iBug2

iMacs monitor is as good as Apple Cinema Displays, which are pro quality.

That's just plain wrong, sorry. iMac displays are NOT the same as Thunderbolt (formerly Cinema) displays. For web surfing, yes. For professional print, photography, or video production, not even close.

[alent1234]

Originally Posted by rellimie

Back in the day the main benefits to the MacPro were the expansion slots, dual processor, extra hard drives, and dual processors.

Now days with iMacs coming with quad cores, 16 GB of ram, and terrabytes of hard drive space, and thunderbolts ability to add external storage, and an expansion slot chassis; I think this is an obvious move. Add a duel processor option to the iMac and there you go. The only people this will hurt is the people that use Mac OSX Server as the MacPro and MacMini is the only server hardware they currently offer.

only xeon CPU's can be used in dual processor configs

[Concorde Rules]

No Mac Pro means me moving to Windows/hackintosh.

It's as simple as that unfortunately.

[farmermac]

i think some of their high end software sales will suffer as well if they drop the mac pro. Im not sure many studios will want to do their movie edits on an imac.

[cube]

Xeon is the problem.

[Chupa Chupa]

Originally Posted by OddyOh

Can't really replace our Pro Tools rig (2 gfx cards to 4 monitors, 2 internal audio processing cards, 4 hard drives) with an iMac. This is ****** news.

Here is some real news... it's just a baseless rumor, not news. News is based in fact. How many rumors were there that the Mac Mini was DOA before Apple refreshed it and made it somewhat relevant?

[MovieCutter]

Originally Posted by Concorde Rules

No Mac Pro means me moving to Windows/hackintosh.

It's as simple as that unfortunately.

You and 100 other customers...

[GenesisST]

I there was a chance of this being true, I'm sure Pixar would have a chat with Apple...

[iBug2]

Originally Posted by HiRez

That's just plain wrong, sorry. iMac displays are NOT the same as Thunderbolt (formerly Cinema) displays. For web surfing, yes. For professional print, photography, or video production, not even close.

Well the current iMac 27" and the Apple Cinema Display 27" use the exact same IPS panel from LG.

[*LTD*]

Originally Posted by tigres

If put a stamp on poop, you'd back em' up here.

It's about profitability. Maintaining unprofitable product lines long-term is simply antithetical to business. Shareholders, Apple's board, and investors will be wondering what the hell is wrong.

Guess what *did not* drive record Mac sales this quarter?

Big-a.ss honking aluminum boxes.

The niche that will possibly leave Apple because of this will have little to no impact.

Welcome to the Rise of the Prosumer.

[kiljoy616]

Originally Posted by Erwin-Br

Without a Mac Pro I would have to return to Windows. I might even decide to switch to an Android or Windows Phone, for the sake of having a consistent ecosystem and user experience.

It would make me sad.

Good for you, have a good time.

[Concorde Rules]

Originally Posted by MovieCutter

You and 100 other customers...

And what happens when you come to replace that 2010 MP of yours?

[biggreydog]

I have several G5's in the similar aluminum tower case. I only wished Apple would have designed the shell to accept new and different motherboards and connections. The shell design works well for me. Invariably, the technology inside becomes obsolete in a matter of months.

[HelveticaRoman]

Their next Mac Pro will be 12 iPhones taped together, all very elegantly of course. Then they'll wonder where an entire market went.

[Glideslope]

Originally Posted by ombrenelcielo

Possibly the worst news after Steve's death.

...and perhaps the 1st because of his passing.

[PracticalMac]

Originally Posted by Chupa Chupa

I would not care if the Mac Pro died IF Apple would put a decent chip in the Mini and make it more user upgradable. In fact I'd prefer a modular type computer where I could stack my HDs on top of the head unit. It would save a lot of floor space.

I'm not a pro though -- I just don't like how the iMac is completely non-user serviceable, save a RAM upgrade. The MP is the ultimate "truck," and Jobs was getting more negative towards them, so if Apple does phase the MP out it's no surprise.

Please though, give us a decent headless box if you are going to take our MPs away.

Agree, a big segment of population love to do home upgrades, and Apple/Jobs no service designs do P/O people, enough it could be a sizable market.

I myself do a lot of Mac upgrades or repairs, and these new ones are PITA to work on.

[Umbongo]

Originally Posted by OddyOh

Can't really replace our Pro Tools rig (2 gfx cards to 4 monitors, 2 internal audio processing cards, 4 hard drives) with an iMac. This is ****** news.

On the other hand, if they're not making money off it, then why should they keep it around. And, they want us to switch to Logic anyway, why should they card if I can't use my audio cards anymore?

Sounds like the Hackintosh market is about to get a huge boost.

They will be making money, the issue is they won't be making the sort of money the other computer sections make. The margins on Mac Pros are huge, but the sales are poor, but probably not much different than the percentage Dell, HP and Lenovo see on workstations compared to their other systems.

[BornAgainMac]

Good. Beef up Mini for the mid range. I want the Mini to at least have the same specs as the high end iMac.

The traditional Macbook Pro is the next to be axed.

[TEG]

The Pro is a great machine, and until there are server class processors for laptops, it is going to be the machine of choice for professionals.

If Apple were smart, they would make a version that fits between the iMac and MacPro, for those who want the flexibility a desktop gives you without the screen of an iMac or the cost of the MacPro.