Email From Tim Cook

[shastapete]

This was posted on the Facebook "We Want a New Macpro" Page, obviously in response to an email sent by a guy named Franz.

Franz,

Thanks for your email. Our Pro customers like you are really important to us. Although we didn't have a chance to talk about a new Mac Pro at today's event, don't worry as we're working on something really great for later next year. We also updated the current model today.

We've been continuing to update Final Cut Pro X with revolutionary pro features like industry leading multi-cam support and we just updated Aperture with incredible new image adjustment features.

We also announced a MacBook Pro with a Retina Display that is a great solution for many pros.

Tim

----------

Start your Mac Pro 2013 Speculations now.

[Spacedust]

Good to know

[G4DP]

"Later NEXT year" so it's 12 months away at least.

They are ***** joking. 3 years with the same tech? No chance, they won't have a pro base left.

[Nostromo]

Probably the copy on an email from early 2011.

[Wardenski]

I say BS.

Tim Cook says they are more secret than usual, this would contradict that.

[DeeEss]

can you please show us the link?

I'm calling fake.

It's too frustrating and all to annoying. There are many many many people waiting for this new machine. It's inexcusable to not have mentioned this during the keynote.

[theSeb]

If this is true, then it suggests that they didn't feel like messing around with Sandy Bridge Xeons, USB 3 and Thunderbolt and are instead waiting for Ivy Bridge Xeons, which will make USB 3 integration very simple. I am not sure whether it makes TB integration any simpler though. I am not going to speculate any more. It's far too frustrating.

----------

Originally Posted by Nostromo

Probably the copy on an email from early 2011.

That made me laugh.

[MacVidCards]

so in the midst of WWDC he checked his email and answered this?

It's 2:21 PM here in California, why would he do this in middle of first day?

Doesn't sound likely.

[shastapete]

On this page: https://www.facebook.com/MacProsPlease

It is a comment to this post:
"New Mac Pros are on the store?!?
(Yes that's a question mark)

Looks like a ******** update.
Now I'm really confused.

I need some time to digest all this.
I'll post later.
No one is allowed to to jump off the ledge yet!!!"

Look for a post from a guy named Frans-Jozef, you'll have to load previous comments to see it

[Cindori]

It does say "Sent from my iPad" in the original email quote (aka the Facebook post).

Meaning Apple is skipping Sandy Bridge-E and waiting for Ivy Xeons?

But as someone said in the comments, "that's bull-shi-t, they won't have a pro base left"...

[theSeb]

Originally Posted by Cindori

It does say "Sent from my iPad" in the original email quote (aka the Facebook post).

Meaning Apple is skipping Sandy Bridge-E and waiting for Ivy Xeons?

But as someone said in the comments, "that's bull-shi-t, they won't have a pro base left"...

Didn't we recently hear something about longer refresh cycles for some products?

[necromorph]

I'm sick off this type of speculation

[d-m-a-x]

Originally Posted by G4DP

"Later NEXT year" so it's 12 months away at least.

They are ***** joking. 3 years with the same tech? No chance, they won't have a pro base left.

another year? FUBAR

[deconstruct60]

Originally Posted by theSeb

If this is true, then it suggests that they didn't feel like messing around with Sandy Bridge Xeons, USB 3 and Thunderbolt and are instead waiting for Ivy Bridge Xeons, which will make USB 3 integration very simple.

Ivy Bridge Xeon E5 will do absolutely nothing to make USB 3.0 integration simpler. Nothing. The Ivy Bridge Xeons will very likely use the same C600 series chipsets that are out now. It is a firmware + drop in new CPU package update.

Ivy Bridge is suppose to generally bridge just more cores on some models ( top end 10 cores in the upper end of the 2600 series) and some GHz bumps. There is no major updates. They can't be adding iGPU to the Ivy Bridge updates because the socket is the same.

So I'm really not sure what exactly is "Ivy Bridge" version is really bringing to the table that Apple needs to wait on.


The GPUs being frozen in time suggests that Apple really, really, really wasn't doing anything for a long time here. This is almost the minimal work necessary to declare "new" but have done almost nothing. It would be almost criminal if they gave have a MacPro6,1 machine model bump. These are MacPro5,1's . They are not a new machine model. Very similar to how the early and late 2011 MBP's shared the same machine model number.

By "next year" they would have shrunk the Mac Pro base pretty small. A good fraction of folks who are "due" for upgrades now are going to bolt over next 4-6 months until Apple gets its act together. What they are going to have left is largely going to be folks who were on 2008-2009 models and some very early 2010 buyers. It think they are hoping that some of the folks retiring 2006-2007 models will judge this bump as "much better than what I had" and move up. Those looking for hackintosh options will pass. Those open to jumping to Windows/Linux will exit stage right.

I am not sure whether it makes TB integration any simpler though.

Nope no changes. Unless they are going to switch to E3's which is more so reclassifying what a Mac Pro is.

[theSeb]

Well, I was hoping that there may be changes in the pipeline that would make this non-update more sensible in my own mind, but it does not look like it. I did not realise there were no plans to update the chipset.

[deconstruct60]

Originally Posted by theSeb

Didn't we recently hear something about longer refresh cycles for some products?

Longer refresh cycles on core components mean they would have to move to be more likely to pick up new component updates because they would arrive less frequently.

Even if Intel slid out the Ivy Bridge and Haswell E5 updates it is coming up on 2 years and 3 years on the arch updates on the dual and single package versions respectively. They have already put a gap between between a architecture versions.

Even with the 2 core bump on the new entry model the upcoming iMac top end CTO configuration will likely outperform on any workload that can't be farmed out evenly and often to all 6 cores. If they manage to jam a GT680M into those ..... they will mop the floor on grahics and OpenCL oriented workloads. It runs about 100W but if Apple downclocks it a bit, I wouldn't be surprised if it shows up there. It might still outshine the 5770 downclocked .

[Buffsteria]

Like someone just said on FB, "if you want a picture of the future, imagine Apple slapping a Mac fan in the face, forever."

[theSeb]

Originally Posted by deconstruct60

Even with the 2 core bump on the new entry model the upcoming iMac top end CTO configuration will likely outperform on any workload that can't be farmed out evenly and often to all 6 cores.

Sorry, I didn't follow what you meant about the 2 core bump on the new entry model? Are you referring to the dual core MP here?

[peabo]

Another apparent e-mail from Tim:

Stephen,

Pro customers like you are very important to Apple.

As you probably know, we've been continuing to update Final Cut Pro X with revolutionary pro features like industry leading multi-cam support and we just updated Aperture with incredible new image adjustment features.

Although the Mac Pro has been selling to a smaller audience (as you noted) , financial projections have never been the filter for determining our product pipeline. So stay tuned. We are planning a new Mac Pro for later next year.

I'd recommend you also give the new MacBook Pro a look. It is truly jaw dropping.

Best,

Tim

Sent from my iPad

[Wardenski]

LOL at "Tim Cooks" response.

[DeeEss]

More like...

Stephen,

blah blah blah

Best,

Tim

Sent from someone else's iPad

[Buffsteria]

Originally Posted by DeeEss

Stephen,

blah blah blah

Best,

Tim

Sent from someone else's iPad

Prob sent from a Dell server with "sent from my iPad" as part of the text.

[goMac]

Originally Posted by peabo

Another apparent e-mail from Tim:

Well at least he specifically said "Mac Pro" and not "Super iMac."

[skitzodancer]

is it just me that feels even if its a genuine email its just a case of tagging us along ?

[goMac]

Originally Posted by skitzodancer

is it just me that feels even if its a genuine email its just a case of tagging us along ?

Certainly. But being tagged along is better than a giant FU.

My guess is they're working on a major redo. Tim Cook has basically flat out said it. I'm not going to worry about the Mac Pro any more this year. I'll order a MBP, and see what Apple has going for desktops next year.

The current Mac Pro, GPU aside, is a good machine. I doubt that many pro customers, again, GPU aside, are going to totally flip out.