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Apple Begins Shipping LG UltraFine 4K Displays
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I'm hoping that Apple are willing to help other manufacturers add that functionality to their displays, that would be a really great move on their part.
Have you ever used macOS since HiDPI was introduced? Take the rMBP resolution of 2880x1800. This is in effect 1440x900 as everything is scaled up x2. Fonts being vector based do so nicely. However any part of the screen that wants the non scaled resolution, i.e. images, video etc. can do so without the x2 scale up. If Apple were to support an 8k monitor somehow the exact same thing would happen. Everything would be scaled up. The resolution would be used.
So why not just reduce the price of an Apple-branded and designed monitor produced by LG instead of trying to wallet rape the consumer? Oh, you think this can't/won't work? Apple pays third parties to produce the iPhone and other devices and marks them up accordingly. The historical prices of Apple's displays were all way out of whack from what the market would bear. They could still have a very competitive display product line if they priced it competitively. On average Apple users like to keep everything "Apple".
Don't mind the design at all. The monitor should just be black with no logo.
Why can't the richest company in the world not update their existing beautiful designs? Sad day. As these separate screens work perfectly with the Mac Mini and Mac Pro I'm afraid they're next on the chopping block.
If that was their reasoning, they wouldn't have collaborated with LG at all.
Apple outsources production of the iPhone but they control the design. My guess is that they decided the effort needed to design the display wasn't worth it based on limited sales potential.
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But that's why this isn't an Apple-branded monitor. It's an LG monitor that happens to work with Macs. Apple does pay close attention to detail with their own products. However, the Thunderbolt Display apparently didn't sell in well enough numbers when it was current for Apple to justify the expense of designing a new one. Apple culled product lines all the time under Steve Jobs.
Notice there was no cornball video of Jonny Ive, waxing philosophical about how this design is a thing of elegant simplicity and how the materials are all allowed to be true to themselves, etc. 
You do realize Apple itself doesn't manufacture the actual panel-they source them from LG, Samsung, and others...
In fact the LG quality control was the issue with so many 2012 retina MacBook Pros having ghosting issues. The Samsung panels didn't exhibit the issue.
Of course the old Thunderbolt Display isn't selling well. It only has USB2 ports for drives etc. and still priced the same as when it came out! Thing is, these new monitors do represent the current management of Apple. Monitors are commodity devices, so just get someone else to make it.
One of the things the old Apple did so very well was the wonderful integration between software and its hardware. From its peripherals and software to the digital hub, just connect and things worked. And it all looked wonderfully consistent and coherent. Beautiful. These monitors may work, but they sure don't look wonderfully coherent and consistent. These guys have form though. Why isn't a USB C cable included in the iPhone box alongside the USB2 one? Why do beats devices still use micro USB? The various product designers in Apple are no longer working together. The siloing, savings and margin protection don't outweigh the angst of Apple's longest supporters, or the ridicule.
These new monitors do not have that Apple look. Their design does not match these wonderful new MBPs, or any Apple product for that matter. The only way they could would be an Apple design.
The first justification I have seen on this thread is the commodity nature of monitors. I would say Apple has never made a commodity monitor. It is able to charge a premium for the look and feel, and people for which such things are important would buy them. I know I would. As it is, I might as well use my current monitor with a dongle and wait for other commodity monitor producers to produce a similar spec monitor at at a much lower price, because this casing looks just like every other commodity monitor, so why pay a premium?
The second justification in reply to "Steve would never have done this" trope is to cite the Motorola Rokr 1. Leaving aside that the comparison with the old Motorola phone reveals exactly why Apple appears to have not learned the rokr lesson and should not have done this, I actually hope this is a Rokr 1 analogue. It was made because Apple wasn't ready to release the iPhone. It could mean that Apple isn't ready with its new monitor, and these are a stop gap. Maybe the real Apple designed monitor will be released alongside the new Mac Pro.
Or maybe there won't be a new Mac Pro or a new Apple designed monitor. The old Apple that inspired loyalty not seen elsewhere in the IT industry with its excellence and coherence in design and performance philosophy has been taken over by puppet masters.
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If Apple continues making the iMac, then WHY can't Apple release an 'iMac style' 27" 5K Retina display? They already have one!
I wonder if this might be an indication of dropping the iMac altogether?
I wonder if this might be an indication of dropping the iMac altogether?
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I guess I really hadn't paid attention to how it looks until a number of people complained on this post, but it does look rather plain. I don't really care who makes it, but Apple has been more stylish, sometimes to a ridiculous extreme, for most of their products.
Your response makes utterly no sense. How is Apple trying to "grow an even larger base of people who pay $1700 for a display"? The display isn't costing that much from what I see. And this is simply an optional accessory to round out their new MacBook purchases. Apple likely gets only a very small cut from the monitors sold from their online store in this way.
From what I see, Apple is what Apple has always been - a design led company. Yes, it is changing (but in good ways, such as being more open to the press and social media to weave a narrative), but I feel that Apple continues to place the product ahead of everything else.
This will continue to be Apple's key competitive advantage because the sorry fact is that no other company today has Apple's design-led culture. We see this in their different approaches to technology. Other companies simply invest in a particular technology and throw it out there. Apple actually bothers to rethink how the technology can be made more personal and improve the end user experience.
And I still see that in their products, and that has been all the more evident with the touchbar in their new laptops.
You are asking the wrong question and looking at the wrong areas. The key question is not whether Apple will adopt a particular technology but how. Look at this through this lens and suddenly Apple's strategy makes sense. It's not about being first to a particular market but about doing it right.
Just wanted to say, I have zero interest in using an external 21" monitor.
Matter of fact, after getting a curved 34" I don't see myself going back to a 27" either.
Though I can see a 4K 27" being more interesting to many people than a regular 34"
Matter of fact, after getting a curved 34" I don't see myself going back to a 27" either.
Though I can see a 4K 27" being more interesting to many people than a regular 34"
I've been using apple products since 1981 and this Apple is NOT what it used to be. Not at all, one disappointment after another. Your link proves nothing, first off he sounds very much pro Apple, secondly he's a video editor, as he says Apple sw integrates so well with hw: "If you’re running software with old code which doesn’t utilise the hardware well, you’re not going to get great performance". Ahah, what a joke, so it's either Apple software or you're wrong? And this proves what, excuse me? How many people actually use that kind of environment? Your link is so wrong it almost hurts.
I'm sad to see the biggest tech company on the planet no longer makes their own monitors. It wouldn't even surprise me if all of their keyboards were made by logitech now.
Apple makes its own accessories - people complain that it is losing focus.
Apple outsources to other companies - people complain that Apple is losing focus.
It's almost like you're comparing two different people with different needs.
Regardless, Apple is not void of criticism. I don't even think Apple knows its niche anymore. They seem to be all over the place.
There are many other 4K screens to choose from.
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I think Apple should have rebranded and sold their own display.