Anyone doing professional audio or video should not touch Apple hardware (without being paid to), because you cannot depend on Apple to stick to anything other than satisfying the teen crowd. Mac Pro 3 years old no upgrade/update. No hardware between Mini and Mac Pro. No top end laptops. I could go on. When these people move away from Apple, it no longer makes sense to stay in the Apple ecosystem, except of course for the phone, which is now a commodity with limited growth. I am one of the few professionals that I know in my profession that still uses Apple hardware, the others have moved to windows.
The margins aren't high enough in the market pros and semi-pros are in.
They are the ones who buy based on cold hard facts. They see HP make a desktop that makes their workflow faster for the same money, they shop HP.
Apple doesn't want anything to do with them, because they simply aren't thrilled by Apple's ever growing need of maximizing margins.
If I were you I'd quickly find an exit strategy shouldn't you already have one.
The writing is on the wall:
Mac Pro - 2 years no update. (before that they didn't even bother to adapt the old Mac Pro to EU standards and actually halted sales for the time being until the new Mac Pro launched many months later - that's unacceptable in the professional market)
Aperture - Use Apple Photos! Yeah right...
Garage Band getting Logic Pro features and loops - Hey, I remember that... Shared libraries between Aperture and iPhoto anyone?
Well, the list goes on... Long story short: I'm amazed by your loyalty, I truly am.
Apple got through its toughest times only because of professionals who back then at least still could get top-notch gear buying from Apple.
I'm sure a mass exodus would have spurred innovation on the PC side to mature at a faster rate, too, but yes indeed, the fashion crowd is where it's at today.
The casual home user who benchmarks their new machine by how amazing the holiday pictures on Facebook look.
Now I'm not one to sneeze at less demanding users, but what I find irritating is how they get absolutely screwed these days price-wise.
Apple's long left the territory of reasonable surcharge for superior experience, especially when you have to deal with the hardware outside of Apple's warranty.
Another day, another rant about Apple's downfall from me (QUALITY-wise, not MARKETSHARE or financial performance-wise, many people seem to only see Apple's financial health as a parameter for Apple's well-being, trusty sheeple they are!)
Glassed Silver:mac
