Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Apologizes About Mac Pro's Lack of Upgradability, Ensures It's Still Committed to Pros
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Knowing Apple, "modular" probably means three sealed boxes containing processor, GPU and storage, connected by Thunderbolt 3.1 or a proprietary connector.
...because otherwise, if they wanted a modular, upgradeable and configurable Mac, rather than spend a year or two designing something "amazing" they could have just gone to one of the many Hackintosh sites and followed the instructions...
So unnecessary to update with such a small bump. And then apologize about upgrading them and tell a story makes the update weirder. They dont have anything and are stalling.
When did they surprise and delight you? With the iPod? Here are people bemoaning about that https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apples-new-thing-ipod.500/
And the same has been true for everything they release. So I take your saying "the magic is gone" with a pinch of salt because it has been said so many times...
Step 2: Upgrade the PSU to meet new requirements and Ooommpppphhhh to drive dual Nvidia top of the line graphics cards
Step 3: Design a Motherboard that is not constrained with PCI-E Lanes. Needs to take Dual NVidia cards + 2TB of M2 storage
and at least 64Gb of RAM
I suspect the main reason they are talking about a future product at least 9 months out is that they are doing a minor spec bump of the mac pro, probably without thunderbolt 3. Apple is probably concerned about further alienating pros by releasing a pure spec update after all this time without any further information.
The trash can pro was an innovative design, but that doesn't mean it was a successful one. It targeted what perhaps should have been the way the industry went, rather than the way it did. While Apple has pushed parallel software supporting multiple CPU cores and openCL via multiple GPU as a way to scale out for years now, the software industry has been very slow to adopt these more difficult development techniques - instead, the industry has focused on optimizing their CPU bound code (since CPUs are no longer doubling in performance every other year) and offloading logic onto a single GPU (which are still gaining performance by leaps and bounds).
Apple presumably saw that most customers never upgraded the Pro models, which lets it a much larger (hollow) machine that had to have its power requirements and cooling built to adapt either being empty or fully loaded. They built the machine solely around its own power and cooling needs - but this wound up being a limitation when the market showed that people wanted more speed and less cores/GPU, hence them painting themselves into a "thermal" corner.
The idea was that since thunderbolt is basically external PCI-express, any accessory that could go inside the machine could be added as an external accessory. However, thunderbolt isn't a standard but an Intel product, and accessories have generally been limited. The market for an external mac-compatible graphics card/GPU for example never materialized.
I suspect the pro development team has been working on trying to shoehorn more traditional workstation architecture into the form factor for a while, and the spec upgrade this week is most likely the result of an internal decision (probably sometime last year) that the machine just needs to be redesigned.
The trash can pro was an innovative design, but that doesn't mean it was a successful one. It targeted what perhaps should have been the way the industry went, rather than the way it did. While Apple has pushed parallel software supporting multiple CPU cores and openCL via multiple GPU as a way to scale out for years now, the software industry has been very slow to adopt these more difficult development techniques - instead, the industry has focused on optimizing their CPU bound code (since CPUs are no longer doubling in performance every other year) and offloading logic onto a single GPU (which are still gaining performance by leaps and bounds).
Apple presumably saw that most customers never upgraded the Pro models, which lets it a much larger (hollow) machine that had to have its power requirements and cooling built to adapt either being empty or fully loaded. They built the machine solely around its own power and cooling needs - but this wound up being a limitation when the market showed that people wanted more speed and less cores/GPU, hence them painting themselves into a "thermal" corner.
The idea was that since thunderbolt is basically external PCI-express, any accessory that could go inside the machine could be added as an external accessory. However, thunderbolt isn't a standard but an Intel product, and accessories have generally been limited. The market for an external mac-compatible graphics card/GPU for example never materialized.
I suspect the pro development team has been working on trying to shoehorn more traditional workstation architecture into the form factor for a while, and the spec upgrade this week is most likely the result of an internal decision (probably sometime last year) that the machine just needs to be redesigned.
The days of the G4 Powermac were awesome. It's beyond frustrating that we no longer have an Apple desktop (not iMac) that starts at around $1500.
Please undo the 'reset' of the Buyer's guide, this isn't an update, it's basically just removing the lower end model and dropping the price. This shouldn't count as 'updated' products.
I would guess it actually means a tiny little box with just a processor and RAM soldered on because they're going to make parallel processing happen over ThunderBolt 3 (maybe an optical TB3 connector will be there for max throughput, or maybe you have to use two cables). So then you just buy a couple (or more) Mac Pro boxes and tie em' together, and hook up the TB3 graphics box (no more of this PCI card in a TB enclosure business) of your choice and rock on. That's what "modular" sets my mind to seeing anyhow. We'll see.
Apple has redefined "Pro" and "important" so it's time to redefine "modular".
this is beyond ridiculous. Apple needs to do yearly refreshes and stop with all this bull$hit.
Ok, so wow... I'm stupefied that they coming with a new Mac Pro, yay... in the future. but in the meantime, they need to do refreshes yearly.
That Phil comes out and offers a model with only a new CPU and not have updated the ports and more... not cool.
makes me happy I just bought an HP Omen for my son. And... really starting to question my loyalty to an OS which is tied to lack of hardware updates.
Ok, so wow... I'm stupefied that they coming with a new Mac Pro, yay... in the future. but in the meantime, they need to do refreshes yearly.
That Phil comes out and offers a model with only a new CPU and not have updated the ports and more... not cool.
makes me happy I just bought an HP Omen for my son. And... really starting to question my loyalty to an OS which is tied to lack of hardware updates.
[doublepost=1491327560][/doublepost]Jony Ives in charge of design or pro hardware = No Hope.
Apple recently invited a small group of reporters to Cupertino for a roundtable discussion about the future of the Mac.
Apple revealed to them a relatively minor spec bump to its current Mac Pro lineup, but the bigger news was that it's working on a "completely rethought" Mac Pro that will feature a modular design. The all-new Mac Pro, which won't launch until at least next year, will be Apple's highest-end, highest-throughput system.
Apple said the new Mac Pro will be accompanied by an Apple-branded external display geared towards pro users. Apple appears to be reversing course after discontinuing the Thunderbolt Display, and reportedly exiting the display business. It most recently partnered with LG on the UltraFine 4K and 5K displays.
Apple also said that it's working on new iMac models that will be unveiled later this year, but it remained tight-lipped about what to expect. Meanwhile, Apple said the Mac mini remains an "important" product in its lineup, and one that it will continue to sell, but it did not reveal any plans for future updates.
It isn't often that Apple pre-announces new products in its pipeline, but there were growing concerns that Apple no longer cared about professional users, and this is Apple's way of proving otherwise. Apple stressed that it remains committed to the Mac and pro users throughout its entire media briefing.
Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller apologized about the "pause in upgrades and updates" to the Mac Pro, and promised that Apple will have "something great" to replace it, according to TechCrunch. The Mac Pro went 1,202 days without an update prior to today's spec bump, per the MacRumors Buyer's Guide.Schiller also apologized about the current Mac Pro's lack of upgradability and expandability, per Daring Fireball:Schiller said Apple chose to be more transparent with today's news because it "cares deeply" about pro users that "invest so much" in the Mac:The overall tone was that Apple is committed to the Mac, even if the iPhone accounts for some two-thirds of Apple's revenue.In the end, the comparatively small but vocal community of pro users was loud enough that Apple likely felt it needed to respond now, rather than keep its plans for new products under wraps until later. It's exciting news for Apple's pro customers, even if some patience is still required until Apple's roadmap materializes.
Article Link: Apple Apologizes About Mac Pro's Lack of Upgradability, Ensures It's Still Committed to Pros
well at the end of the day, what matters
is the 'magic' and quality that they put into their products. Products that we use almost EVERY day for years. I think thats way more important than excitement over a two hour 'reveal' event.
And ... I think thats a fact, not an opinion.
What, and then they will go under their cone of silence for another 4 years? No thanks. 30 years with Mac now 5 months with Windows--virtually no difference and no reason to go back to a company that banked on, took advantage of, and forgot customer loyalty.
Lol you actually believe Apple. That's funny! Tim Cook has been saying that great, new, magical, and innovative products are in the pipeline since he took over. This is just more lip service and they managed to fool even you!They're going to. They're working on it. It's in the "pipeline". You just have to wait more
In all seriousness: at least they actually admitted they're working on it. Until today I considered that they might not be working on a new desktop at all.
Fake News.
The Apple Watch is the future of computing and its upgradable Watch Bands are the pinnacle of Apple Pro Innovation.
The Apple Watch is the future of computing and its upgradable Watch Bands are the pinnacle of Apple Pro Innovation.
Not so much hate, but doesnt it make you wonder what the hell they were doing when they 'designed themselves into a corner'?
You mean to tell me the bright minds at the worlds most valuable tech company didnt forsee that? And its not as if the design was fine for a few updates of internals - it essentially was no good when it came time to upgrade any of it (by apples own admission).
So to look at this as kind of comical blunder - (then adding Schillers arrogant boast to the mix) -
How can you knock on anyone for having fun at apples expense based on all that?
Even then, it's a half-hearted apology full of weasel words.
[doublepost=1491329286][/doublepost]"Can't innovate anymore, my ass!" -> "Can't innovate anymore. My ass!"
Lol. MR denizens howl forever about no love for Mac and Pro lines. Then Apple announces Big Mac Developments to assuage fears and MR denizens whine that Apple has ruined surprise. You guys are awesome.