WWDC 2018 seems like the ideal time to unveil it, although I bet it wouldn't be available until Fall 2018 at earliest, or mid-late December 2018 at latest. Similar to iMac Pro unveil.
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Apple Continues to Work on All-New Mac Pro With Upgradeable Design
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I agree.
I ended up buying this year a 2012 Mac Pro to replace my 2009 Mac Pro that died.
I have no interest in an iMac.
I haven't. But logic says that mass outrage for a niche product means most people aren't in the market for what they are complaining about. And it's pretty easy to see on here when people complaining have "consumer" spec machines in their signatures.
Considering they've not updated the Mini and the Mac Pro, my hope is that they actually have a single modular machine that will replace both that can be configured in as many ways as you want. So the same box could be a Mac Mini replacement for £500 with an i5 Dual Core Processor, 8GB RAM and shared graphics, or it can be an 18 core Xeon monster with 2x uber graphics card of your choice for £10,000. That would be an easy way for them to make EVERYONE happy! It is possible!
They really need to pick up the low end desktop with the Mini.
I've got two young kids and there is no way in hell I let them within an arm's reach of my rMBP. I would get them a mini if the specs didn't completely suck at this point. I don't mind that the design hasn't changed, but that there hasn't been even the slightest followup with the specs is problematic.
I am not one of those all-in-one people. A really good display can last for a decade or more. The Thunderbolt Display I bought in 2012 has been going strong for more than 5 years, and I expect it to go for at least another 5, if not 10.
I've got two young kids and there is no way in hell I let them within an arm's reach of my rMBP. I would get them a mini if the specs didn't completely suck at this point. I don't mind that the design hasn't changed, but that there hasn't been even the slightest followup with the specs is problematic.
I am not one of those all-in-one people. A really good display can last for a decade or more. The Thunderbolt Display I bought in 2012 has been going strong for more than 5 years, and I expect it to go for at least another 5, if not 10.
Can you seriously imagine spending that much money on the iMac Pro that you can't even add more RAM to yourself? I know it is a great machine, but I would never dream of buying it; I would wait for something that I could upgrade.
They need a pro machine that the user can upgrade.
This is a thought I had as well, though I doubt it will be quite as configurable as that. I think the new Mac Pro and "mini" will be announced at the same time, and they will be called the Mac and Mac Pro.
I think they will be two different chassis/forms that look nearly identical, but the pro will be taller/wider/bigger in some way that allows for expansion.
Either that, or there will be one configurable core computer, that on its own with lower end configs would be the headless consumer Mac, or you could config the processor/RAM higher end and connect a Pro breakout expansion module where you could extend the core with extra capacity and GPUs.
You assume, of course, he was a professional and bought it for a reason and not just to have the most expensive iMac ever sold on his desk as a status symbol. I would say a fairly decent number of buyers of these will be trust fund kids wanting the most expensive one in their dorm rooms.
Oh, the 2013 Mac Pro was INNOVATIVE, all right!
It only had two problems:
1. Industry adoption of Thunderbolt did not go as planned. One of the biggest reasons for this was Intel's insistence on being the gatekeeper for TB, and their greediness in licensing, which they have FINALLY relented-about.
2. As Craig said, the design had some thermal limitations that made it less than ideal for certain applications.
But as far as "innovative" for innovative's sake, I'd give it a "10"...
We all know that it will be mind-bogglingly expensive and Apple's idea of what modular means is most definitely very different from the rest of the Universe. I just want a middle spec machine in a nice tower that I can reasonably upgrade for the next 6-8 years. I don't need 24 cores, just a nice tower that I am willing to pay approx £2000 for.
Go on Apple you can do it, this might be your last chance!!
Go on Apple you can do it, this might be your last chance!!
Just give me a small upgradable mini-like box I can modify. It doesn't have to be a work of art. Yes, relatively few Mac users upgrade their systems but the ones that do are the most hard core and vocal.
Chill out dude, I'm just saying that these are definitely geared more to enterprise and niche markets.
What makes no sense is the ban on post purchase upgrading? That was one of the problems with the trash can, and the fact the trash can was a cylinder, this was a terrible idea from a industrial design concept, it was a problem mounting, cables had to bend in an unnatural way, it could have worked had they applied their minds, it had loads of scope for improvement, but Apple chose to end development, which is sad.
The thermal aspects is a lie, that was not the reason it was a failure, it failed for other reasons, a simple redesign would have solved the thermal issues, and retained the overall cylinder shape, look Apple are going ahead with a cylinder for the speaker thing..with Siri...
I cannot understand how dense Apple was, that no one could see the solutions to the problem, the cheesegrater is not the answer, that was way too big, and of poor design. There are better ways to design, yet there is no clear option ahead.
What is needed in a professional desktop Mac Pro? Apple is working on external GPU breakout boxes, so it cannot be that, we don't use dvd's anymore, cannot be that..The imac is a screen with a hidden computer, so it cannot be that...then what??
We have the mac mini..a modular mac mini maybe? But something like the cheesegrater?? Not sure, I suspect something a bit bigger than the mini, maybe the same foot size as a macbook pro, that can be rack mounted, maybe 1U or 2U high, basically a box for GPU, RAM, and some sort of hard drive!! Big no...
The thermal aspects is a lie, that was not the reason it was a failure, it failed for other reasons, a simple redesign would have solved the thermal issues, and retained the overall cylinder shape, look Apple are going ahead with a cylinder for the speaker thing..with Siri...
I cannot understand how dense Apple was, that no one could see the solutions to the problem, the cheesegrater is not the answer, that was way too big, and of poor design. There are better ways to design, yet there is no clear option ahead.
What is needed in a professional desktop Mac Pro? Apple is working on external GPU breakout boxes, so it cannot be that, we don't use dvd's anymore, cannot be that..The imac is a screen with a hidden computer, so it cannot be that...then what??
We have the mac mini..a modular mac mini maybe? But something like the cheesegrater?? Not sure, I suspect something a bit bigger than the mini, maybe the same foot size as a macbook pro, that can be rack mounted, maybe 1U or 2U high, basically a box for GPU, RAM, and some sort of hard drive!! Big no...
Many products have fallen for the "chimney" design over the years. It's one of those things that resonates with engineer's brains in a very seductive way, promising massive cooling in a very small space.
And too a large extent, it works. Just look at the size of the Mac Pro, and think of all the compute and graphics power that is packed into that extremely small cylinder. It's really quite incredible!
But, they didn't allow enough "thermal headroom" to take the design ANY further than it already was as time went on, and that meant that, especially when it came to graphics, it started to fall behind the times... Badly.
How hard can this be to design? Fitting everything into the iMac, Mac Mini, or Apple TV chassis I can see as being hard. But by the very nature of the use of this device I don’t see that as being as big an issue. I would think users would rather have an upgradable, easily repaired device over cramming everything into the smallest form factor.
Yeah... now Apple is talking about updating the Mac Pro... but only after radio-silence for 3 years.
That's not how you treat "pro" customers.
Can you imagine if Dell or HP didn't say a word about their workstation computers for a year... let alone 3 years?
You're right... the next Mac Pro is coming. But before the infamous Mac Pro "apology" meeting back in April... nobody even knew if there would be another Mac Pro ever again. And people haven't forgotten that feeling of being abandoned.
So naturally people are approaching this with cautious optimism.
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It has nothing to do with laziness, but rather the idea of having to move your desktop machine just for the simple act of plugging in something like a digital camera or thumb drive. It’s just not an elegant solution to have to move your machine around to use ports that were designed with the idea of quickly and easily plugging and unplugging your portable devices. It may not be a challenge for you in your desktop situation, but I hope you can see how not everyone finds hard to access multipurpose ports as an ideal design choice. My point is that with easy access, it’s far easier to unplug your devices when finished, as opposed to leaving the cords dangling. I’m not saying they should remove the rear ports, but having a couple on the front would sure be nice, like they did on the cMP (which I own).
i agree that maybe engineers were seduced by the chimney concept, and it could and would have worked, it just needed a minor modification, a tweak in design, and it would have been solved, it seems Apple simply signed off design at a point, and did not spend $1.00 more...
The question is what is going to replace it? AND will this be subject to post purchase upgrading ban?
The question is what is going to replace it? AND will this be subject to post purchase upgrading ban?
At the same time that Apple talks about the thermal limitations of the R2D2 Mac Pro, it doesn't make sense to introduce a pro machine with even worse thermal limitations (the iMac Pro), with fans that are necessarily 30cm from your head, where you will hear them, if they are needed. At least with the R2D2 Mac Pro, it had a better thermal design, and the machine can sit away from your head/ears (and is pretty quiet!)
Apple really, really messed up with the Trashcan. It boggles the mind how they could've been so sure that that design was where the puck was going when the public outcry from professionals was so loud, clear and sustained. They thought they knew better. Maybe in the iToy market they do, but the same rules don't apply in the workstation market.
So I was glad to hear they admitted failure and announced they were going to try again. However I'm very worried that they will miss the mark again, making different but fundamentally the same mistakes again. The iMac Pro hasn't exactly assuaged those fears (quite the contrary actually). Apple has for a long time now shown sign after sign that it does not know/care what is important in the high end workstation market. Removing of ports, dongle-fication of hardware, inconsistencies across their own product lines (no SD card slot anymore on the MBP, but by all means lets still include it on the iMac Pro!!?), refusal to support industry standards (like OpenGL or CUDA), lack of hardware options (seriously, where are the nVidia options?), abandonment of crucial parts of the OS (like Apple script, Automater, etc.), glue instead of screws, solder instead of sockets (read: gradual phasing out of user accessibility to the hardware) and above all, their obsession with diminishing the importance of the workstation/computer in the classical sense. Marketing a laptop as a serious workstation replacement in a professional editing suite, or their outrageous 'What is a computer?' tagline.
I fear the ranks of the professionals buying workstations have been weeded out by Apple's negligence (and arrogance) so severely that the undoubtedly stupendously priced modular Mac Pro won't do much in the way of resowing that decimated, barren field.
So I was glad to hear they admitted failure and announced they were going to try again. However I'm very worried that they will miss the mark again, making different but fundamentally the same mistakes again. The iMac Pro hasn't exactly assuaged those fears (quite the contrary actually). Apple has for a long time now shown sign after sign that it does not know/care what is important in the high end workstation market. Removing of ports, dongle-fication of hardware, inconsistencies across their own product lines (no SD card slot anymore on the MBP, but by all means lets still include it on the iMac Pro!!?), refusal to support industry standards (like OpenGL or CUDA), lack of hardware options (seriously, where are the nVidia options?), abandonment of crucial parts of the OS (like Apple script, Automater, etc.), glue instead of screws, solder instead of sockets (read: gradual phasing out of user accessibility to the hardware) and above all, their obsession with diminishing the importance of the workstation/computer in the classical sense. Marketing a laptop as a serious workstation replacement in a professional editing suite, or their outrageous 'What is a computer?' tagline.
I fear the ranks of the professionals buying workstations have been weeded out by Apple's negligence (and arrogance) so severely that the undoubtedly stupendously priced modular Mac Pro won't do much in the way of resowing that decimated, barren field.
The fact that they announced it let me know it's going to be quite a ways out. My guess is WWDC 2018, available immediately.
This is what I am looking for. MP and 5k displays.
I just hope but I know deep down will not happen that we will still be able to use third part hardware to upgrade this computer. Apple for sure will lock us into buy their modules at exorbitant prices.
This could be the time I might finally drop the Mac Pro for good after more than 15 years buying it. We’ll see.
I just hope but I know deep down will not happen that we will still be able to use third part hardware to upgrade this computer. Apple for sure will lock us into buy their modules at exorbitant prices.
This could be the time I might finally drop the Mac Pro for good after more than 15 years buying it. We’ll see.
Somehow, I don’t think Apple’s definition of “modular” is going to mean what people here think it means.